Why sound matters more than picture

Think about how you watch videos yourself. Slightly soft picture, weak light, an old phone: tolerable, you'll finish it. Echo, a humming fridge, a voice that sounds like it's coming from inside a barrel: your thumb is already swiping to the next one. People forgive bad picture. They don't forgive bad sound. That's why the first lesson is about the room, not the microphone.

The three enemies

A home recording has three enemies, and not one of them is fixed by buying a microphone.

The first is echo. Your voice bounces off bare walls, the ceiling and the window, and the mic picks up the voice plus ten delayed copies of it. That's what an empty room with laminate flooring sounds like, and that's what a kitchen sounds like.

The second is noise. The fridge, the air conditioner, a computer fan, the street outside, the washing machine through the wall. You don't hear them because you're used to them. The microphone hears everything.

The third is distance. The further the mic is from your mouth, the more room and noise end up in the recording and the less voice. Half a metre is already a lot. At a metre, the voice gets lost.

Clap your hands

The fastest room test there is. Stand where you plan to record and clap once, loudly. Listen to what happens after the clap. If the sound stops dead, the room is good. If you hear a ring, a tail, a "ting" after it, that's echo, and it'll be on every word you say.

Try this in a few spots around your home. The quietest, deadest room is often the bedroom or a walk-in wardrobe, not the room with the nice background.

Soft things everywhere

Soft things kill echo. They absorb sound instead of bouncing it back. You don't need studio panels; your home already has what you need.

Curtains on the window, heavy ones if you have them. A rug on the floor. A bed and a sofa, which are enormous absorbers. An open wardrobe full of clothes: a rail of coats works better than many acoustic panels. Bookshelves with books of different sizes. Put a blanket or a towel on the desk under the phone: a bare desktop bounces your voice straight into the mic. And don't record facing a window or a mirror, since glass rings worse than any wall.

Here's the order for the duvet. First cover the wall you're speaking towards: it's behind the phone, and that's where the main reflection comes from. Hang the duvet on a chair or on that wall behind the phone. If you have duvets to spare, cover the wall behind you as well: the mic is pointed at you, so that wall is in the recording zone too.

If the room rings and you can't move anything, record sitting next to the bed, facing the wardrobe, with a duvet on a chair behind the phone. It looks ridiculous and sounds much closer to a studio.

Tip. Late at night or early in the morning is the quietest the building gets: neighbours asleep, empty street, no lift running. If you can choose when to record, choose those hours.

Switch off whatever hums

Before recording, walk around and switch off anything that hums. Unplug the fridge for half an hour, nothing will melt, just remember to plug it back in. The air conditioner and any fans. The computer, if it's nearby. Close the window, even if it seems quiet outside. Put the phone you're recording on into Do Not Disturb, or straight into flight mode if your mic is wired (it can cut Bluetooth for a wireless one).

Also: dishes, a ticking clock, an aquarium pump, a dog's claws on the floor. All of it sounds louder in a recording than in real life.

Then put headphones on, hit record and listen to ten seconds of silence. If there's a steady hum, keep hunting for the source. If it's quiet, you're ready.

Mistake. Counting on noise reduction to remove everything later. Noise reduction removes steady hum, but it bites off the top of your voice with it, and you end up sounding like you're talking through a tube. Unplugging the fridge is easier.

Bring the mic closer

The third enemy is the easiest to fix. Move the microphone closer. The built-in phone mic records perfectly well if the phone is 20–30 centimetres from your mouth. That means a close shot: face and shoulders. If you want a medium shot with the phone a metre and a half away, the phone's own sound won't do, and you'll need a separate microphone. That's the next lesson.

Do this now

• Clap your hands in three different spots around your home and find the room where the sound dies fastest.
• Hang a duvet on a chair behind the phone, record ten seconds of speech with it and without it. Compare on headphones.
• Switch off the fridge and the air conditioner, record ten seconds of silence and listen to what's left.