Audio Recording Blues

Sitting down to record episode 2 of Battlehymn, I’m thinking about my audio recording fidelity. My main concern is that I want this to sound as good as possible, but the available locations for recording are severely limited.

Option 1: The Mac. My Mac Mini and the mixing board and microphone are all set up, unfortunately, about three feet from the intake for the house’s HVAC system. So it often sounds like I’m in the middle of a wind tunnel. The best vocal quality, I think, but unavoidable background noise.

Option 2: The PC. My Windows 7 PC is set up in a room with another PC. On the opposite side of the wall is the family TV. This TV is ALWAYS ON. And is often loud, as Reeta’s grandparents are getting on quite a bit. SO MUCH LIFETIME MOVIE CHANNEL. Also, there’s really no place to put the recording equipment. The desk is already occupied.

Option 3: The Shed. I can take my iPhone and headset out to the shed. No more worry about background noise out there, by gum, but the vocal quality is questionable at best. But then I can take the audio, import it to the Mac and play around with it in Garageband.

Sigh. First world problems, I know.