Tuning in to Sound Quality is a free tutorial that will help you improve the quality of your recordings and give you the confidence to produce your own recordings without the help of a professional studio. It features a series of example voice recordings that exhibit various quality problems. By watching this video you will improve your ability to recognize the most common errors that spoil good quality meditation and hypnosis recordings. 

 

 

 

Tutorial Solutions Below 
(No peeking until you've watched the video above)

 

2:08.  Listening Test 1: The voice sounds dull and boomy with far too much bass. This may have been caused by getting too close to the microphone, or by the improper use of eq to add too much bass.  

2:24. Listening Test 2
Problem: There is nothing wrong with this recording. Did you get this one right? 

2:48.  Listening Test 3
Problem: A car can be heard passing in the background. 

3:10.  Listening Test 4
Problem: The music is too loud (or the voice is too quiet). While this is not a terrible problem, you may notice that the voice is starting to get overwhelmed by the music, making the words less audible. This is especially evident at low listening volumes, which are common for people listening to meditation and hypnosis recordings.   

3:44.  Listening Test 5
Problem: The sound of the voice is distorted. 

4:06  Listening Test 6
Problem: There is a humming sound in the background. It’s actually the sound of a computer fan whirring. 

4:25.  Listening Test 7
Problem: There are some rumbling sounds in this recording. This was caused by rough handling of the microphone stand, which causes vibrations to travel into the microphone 

4:46.  Listening Test 8
Problem: There is far too much room reverberation on the voice. This is what it can sound like if you record in a mostly empty room. 

5:22.  Listening Test 9
Problem: There is nothing wrong with this recording. Did you get this one right? 

5:42  Listening Test 10.
A dog barks in the background at one point. Did you hear it? 

6:12.  Listening Test 11. 
There are “plosives” in this voice recording. Some of the “P’s” and “F’s” cause a bump in the sound of the voice. This is most evident in the word “Oppose” where the “P” is too strong. 

6:45.  Listening Test 12.
The voice sounds very thin. This could be the result of using a poor quality microphone (such as your phone microphone) or by standing too far away from you microphone. 

7:22.  Listening Test 13.
A chair is creaking in the background. Lesson - don’t sit on a creaky chair while recording! 

7:49.  Listening Test 14.
Poor editing has clipped the end of the word “grievances” in this voice recording. 

8:16.  Listening Test 15.
The music is too quiet in this recording. However, you may note that this is not a major problem. Technically speaking the music should be little louder, but it’s not awful. Recordings with music that is too loud are much more unpleasant to listen to than those with music that is too quiet. 

8:44.  Listening Test 16.
The volume of the voice varies at times, caused by the narrator moving his head too much during recording.