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The best way to sound professional is to think about where you record. This is a lot more important than spending a lot of money on your gear, like your microphone or your camera.

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Many people starting podcasts or other forms of online content think that you need a really fancy setup before you can start creating audio content or video content.

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You might be researching equipment for a really long time and then buy things that you just don't need and you still sound like you're recording in a bathroom.

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I've read about this a lot on Reddit.

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Now that room that you record in is the main issue here, much more than whether or not you got, say, a Blue Yeti instead of a Shure or an AT2020 or some expensive 4K camera.

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If your office ends up sounding really echoey, it's going to remind you of amateur recordings

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that you've probably heard.

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You've probably seen them on YouTube.

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And that thing that you're hearing is really the room tone.

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Now, the fix for this is pretty low tech.

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You want to record in a small space, a space that's full of like really soft materials.

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You may have seen people set up recording booths in a closet.

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That works really well.

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Closet full of clothes is perfect.

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Or you can really cheaply fabricate a structure that you hang moving blankets on.

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I had a lot of old grid walls from when I used to sell things at a market.

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And then I hung a whole bunch of moving blankets around that.

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And it works great.

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That fabric absorbs the reflections of sound and it sort of kills that hollow echoey quality.

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Before you start recording, you definitely want to turn off fans in the room or like a really loud external hard drive.

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That's my thing. I always need to remember to turn that off.

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Then you want to get really close to the microphone.

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It might be closer than feels natural to you.

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You want to think about maybe a fist distance away.

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If you have a windscreen, that's like a big foam thing for your microphone, you can get even closer.

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And this proximity effect, what it's called, adds a real richness and warmth to your voice.

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Radio broadcasters have used this sort of technique for a very long time.

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A USB microphone in a quiet closet will do a lot better for you than really expensive gear in an empty room.

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Every time. It'll win every time.

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I'm Jen DeHaan. This is the Credibility Minute.

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Find more episodes or get in touch with me and subscribe at stereophores.com slash minute.