Well, I was kind of distracted by my shiny new toy today, and I recorded the first chapter of Trang instead of writing Trials. (Yeah, fine, beta tasks are supposed to be done only when alpha tasks cannot be performed. But it's a shiny new toy!)
Anyway, the recording went fine--my neighborhood is usually pretty quiet, and the cats didn't decide to freak out, so ambient noise wasn't an issue. Adjusting the input volume was easy to do, and I think I'm at a good sound range. When I flubbed a line, I just went back and re-read the paragraph. If I didn't like the way a paragraph sounded when I listened to the chapter, I recorded it again. I think the main issue in my delivery is that there are a number of breath noises.
So, I'll have to figure out how to edit all that together, and take out the breath noises. I get the feeling that's going to be the less-fun part, so maybe that will motivate me to, you know, actually write Trials.
Well, I went poking around, and it turns out that 1. you can reduce breath noises by moving the microphone, and 2. you can reduce the loud noise caused by p and t, as well as the sibilance of s, by getting something called a pop filter. It's inexpensive (under $20), so I ordered one. My voice is pretty quiet, and in order to get it to record well, I have to crank up the input volume, which means that the ps and ts really explode. So having something that will even it all out I think will be useful. (And yes, I'll have to record chapter 1 again, but it was a short chapter.)