Voice recording

Hi,
I am awaiting the delivery of an iMac 27 (2016) and would like to know the best way to record voices for audio books?
What Apps are out there?
Do I need an external sound card and mic?

You do not need an external sound card and Mic as both are built into your new iMac. Your new iMac will also have the QuickTime application installed.

How to record your voice with QuickTime

Thank you

chscag said:

You do not need an external sound card and Mic as both are built into your new iMac. Your new iMac will also have the QuickTime application installed.

How to record your voice with QuickTime

Click to expand...

Thank you for the info...I'll check it out now...what I was worried about was the quality of the internal mic? My nephew and I are planning to create audio books for the public to listen to...I also plan to record my own songs and guitar and would like it to be CD quality?

Thanks again,
Chris.

The challenge for you is going to be the acoustics where you record. It's astounding how much background noise microphones pick up. CD quality recordings are done in a sound booth that has sound absorbing lining so that the ONLY sound reaching the microphone is the speaker. Using the microphone in your iMac will mean that everything you are now "deaf" to will be recorded--fans, water flowing, toilets flushing, traffic outside, airplanes overhead, wind blowing against windows, birds chirping, etc, etc, etc. You and your nephew may be much better served by looking for a recording studio in your area that you can rent to make the recording. It should come with the professional equipment to make a CD quality recording, with the outside noises suppressed.

You'd be absolutely astounded at how quiet really sounds. Every time I step into the sound booth I've used, it's almost oppressively quiet. And when I emerge, the ambient noise is almost deafening for a few minutes until my ears adjust.

MacInWin said:

The challenge for you is going to be the acoustics where you record. It's astounding how much background noise microphones pick up. CD quality recordings are done in a sound booth that has sound absorbing lining so that the ONLY sound reaching the microphone is the speaker. Using the microphone in your iMac will mean that everything you are now "deaf" to will be recorded--fans, water flowing, toilets flushing, traffic outside, airplanes overhead, wind blowing against windows, birds chirping, etc, etc, etc. You and your nephew may be much better served by looking for a recording studio in your area that you can rent to make the recording. It should come with the professional equipment to make a CD quality recording, with the outside noises suppressed.

You'd be absolutely astounded at how quiet really sounds. Every time I step into the sound booth I've used, it's almost oppressively quiet. And when I emerge, the ambient noise is almost deafening for a few minutes until my ears adjust.

Click to expand...

Thank you MacInWin for the insight....My Nephew has a serious mic set and has a spare room which he has told me he can sound proof for the job...I may not need to use my Mac?
I'll post my findings later...cheers!

OK, so when your nephew sets up the spare room, make sure he pads the floor and puts the sound deadening insulation in the ceiling. It also would help to have the microphone stand on a rubber pad so that vibrations from your footsteps don't transfer to the microphone. (Actually, a full rubber mat all the way across the floor would be better both to suppress sound and echoes and to deaden your own footsteps. And if you plan to sit, get a chair/stool that has no squeaks and put it on a rubber pad as well.) It would be good to hang heavy curtains or blankets from floor to ceiling on all walls, including over the door when it's closed, to deaden echoes. Otherwise the recording will sound "hollow." Finally, put something over every window to block out external noises. A heavy curtain or blanket might do, but the best is to remove the window and build in a wall with thick rock wool insulation designed for sound suppression. You might get away with hanging the rock wool over the window if you seal it tightly to the full frame of the window, if removing the window isn't practical. If the room sounds "normal" when you go in, it's too loud. If you've ever been in a walk-in refrigerator when it isn't running, it needs to feel that claustrophobic. Like the silence is closing in on you.

Good luck with it! I hope it all goes well for the two of you!