Recording clear audio on a phone

There is an asymmetry worth knowing early: people will keep watching a slightly soft, slightly dark video if the sound is clear, and they will leave a beautiful one they cannot hear properly. Sound is where a beginner's effort pays back fastest.

Distance does almost all the work

A phone microphone picks up the room as well as you. The closer you are to it, the more of the recording is your voice and the less is everything else.

Halve the distance and the balance shifts dramatically in your favour. A phone at arm's length sounds like a person in a room. A phone at half a metre sounds like a person talking to you. No accessory changes this as much as simply getting closer.

Rooms have a sound

Hard, empty rooms — tiles, glass, bare walls, high ceilings — bounce your voice around and add an echo that no amount of editing removes cleanly. Soft, furnished rooms absorb it.

If a recording sounds hollow or distant even though you were close, the room is the cause. Move somewhere with curtains, carpet, a sofa, clothes. A room full of hanging fabric is an excellent place to record.

Listen before you record

Stand where you are going to film and stay quiet for ten seconds. You will hear things you had filtered out: a fridge, air conditioning, traffic, a fan, a distant television.

The microphone will not filter them out. Switch off what you can, wait out what you cannot, and move if neither works. Ten seconds of listening prevents a recording that has to be thrown away.

Wind is different

Wind noise is not background sound, it is the microphone being overloaded, and it cannot be repaired afterwards. Outdoors, put your body between the wind and the phone, work in a sheltered spot, or cover the microphone with something soft. Know where your phone's microphone is — people routinely cover it with a finger without noticing.

Music sits underneath, not alongside

Music should support what is being said, not compete with it. If you find yourself concentrating to follow the words, the music is too loud.

A useful test: play the video at a low volume, the way someone would in public. If the voice disappears into the music, the balance is wrong.

The only check that counts

Listen back on a phone speaker, not headphones. Headphones flatter everything. Most of your audience will hear this on a small speaker, often in a noisy place, often one-handed.

If the important sentence survives that, it will survive anywhere.