Most people can get by with soundproofing treatment, and not a total soundproof makeover. I want to emphasize, this is probably not the correct solution for you. It’d be far more economical to rent out an existing recording studio. If you want to record one or two books or projects, this is not going to be worth it. Total soundproofing is an extensive project that shouldn’t be entered into lightly. This is by far the most expensive option. heavy) doors that form strong seals, noiseless air conditioning treatments, soundproofing your outlets, foam walls, air gaps, etc.įor example, if you wanted to see what kind of modifications you can make to a room to truly make it soundproof, check out a soundproofing resource reseller here. In a recording studio, every aspect of the room is soundproofed-that means thick (i.e. If you are serious about recording voice then you need a dedicated room. Let’s go from most expensive to cheapest. Since soundproofing is a huge topic in itself-I’ll just cover some basic options, here. This is partially true, but it doesn’t necessarily have to look like how you are imagining. You may think that you need a recording studio for this to work. This isn’t true for all types of recording, sometimes you want to record some of those echos of the room, but for recording talking (audiobooks in particular), the generally preferred style right now is to have the sound as “dead” as possible, meaning no background noise whatsoever. The key is to record in an environment that deadens the sound-that means eliminates echos or external noise from seeping into the recording. In other words, you don’t want to record the dog barking, the cars driving, or the AC running in the background, you only want to record the voice! One of the difficulties around recording any type of audio is that you only want to capture the audio of the thing you’re trying to record. Noise-Free Environment: Finding Or Creating Don’t worry, I’ll give you some options if you want to make this cheaper. There are wonderful resources out there, but you might want to bookmark this one-it’s going to have absolutely everything you need to get started.Īs a fun note, if you didn’t have any of the above and you decided to purchase everything, you could spend easily spend over $1000 on all the equipment. I’m here to help! I am also not going to hold back, there really is a lot of information to know about each piece of equipment/software. That already seems like an intimidating list. In brief, I’ve listed what you absolutely need and what is optional for recording an audiobook. I wanted to compile basically the one-stop guide for figuring out your equipment needs for recording your own audiobook. So, you want to record your own audiobook? It may feel like you just opened a whole new universe of information-there is a lot to know. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. We earn commissions if you purchase products from retailers after clicking on a link from our site. Use your MacBook Pro's Sound settings to turn your audio output into an input.This post contains affiliate links. You'll get instant access to your audio port settings. At the bottom of the window, you'll see a drop-down menu for "Use audio port for." Switch it up, adjust the input level slider above it, and you're all set.Īnother quick way to set this is to hold down the Option key while clicking on the volume slider on the desktop's menu bar. To make the switch happen, go into your system preferences and select the control panel for Sound. Most people (myself included) see the headphone logo on the side and assume the audio spits out in just one direction.
Well, in the case of the 13-inch MacBook Pro (old and new), Apple includes the option of a switchable audio port than can be used as either an input or an output. So what's an audio geek to do (aside from invest in a decent USB sound card)?
The iMac includes one, as well as the 15-inch MacBook Pro and the Mac Pro desktop, but you won't find one on the MacBook Air, Retina MacBook Pro, or the 13-inch MacBook Pro. All of Apple's computers feature a headphone jack or sound output of some kind, but only a few of them offer a recording input.