Recording Setup

How Recording Works

• A microphone turns sound waves into an electric signal.
• Analog recording stores the whole wave as a magnetic pattern or a groove.
• Digital recording uses an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to measure the wave thousands of times a second and store it as 1s and 0s. In our room, the audio interface is the ADC. That is why a digital recording can be copied forever without getting worse.
• Sampling frequency is samples per second; sampling precision is how many numbers describe each sample’s height.

What Makes a Clean Take

• Quiet room. The mic records everything, including the table next to you. Only one mic per table, and you are silent when it is not your turn.
• Distance. About six inches. Too far is thin; too close is boomy.
• Headroom. Set the gain so the meter moves but never hits red. Red is clipping, and a clipped take cannot be fixed.

Gain

How much the interface boosts the mic. The small knob on the interface.

Headroom

The space between your loudest peak and red.

Set gain for the loudest sound you plan to make, then leave it alone.

Set Up

1. Metal desktop stand flat on the table.
2. Mount the mic on the stand.
3. XLR cable from the mic to an input on the audio interface. Push until it clicks.
4. Interface USB to the computer. Gain knob all the way down.
5. In Soundtrap, open or create the project the lesson names. Add a Voice & Mic track and set its input to the interface.
6. Say “check.” Turn the gain up until the meter moves — into the yellow, never red.

Meter not moving? Check both XLR ends, that the gain is on the right input, and the Soundtrap input setting.

The Take Protocol

Every take: say “quiet, recording” → one second of silence → the sound or the line → one second of silence → stop. Listen back with headphones. Bad take? Delete it and go again.

For a script: record one section at a time, not the whole thing in one take. If you make a mistake, do not stop — be silent for three seconds, then re-read the line. The silence is where you will cut later.

Tear Down

1. Save.
2. Turn every gain knob on the interface back to zero.
3. Unplug the XLR — press the tab and pull the connector, never the cable.
4. Take the mic off the stand.
5. Coil the cable in loose loops. Everything back where it came from.

Vocabulary

See Podcast Vocabulary for microphone, audio interface, XLR, and the rest.