My recording studio

A while back, I had this idea for converting Rome's Revolution into an audio book. I found a professional recording studio in Cherry Hill and a voice artist and the estimate was for around $5000 to create the first book. I don't have that kind of spare cash so I started an Indiegogo campaign to raise the necessary funds.

The campaign was either an abysmal failure or amazing success depending upon how you look at it. I made about $700 in fund-raising. Obviously, this was woefully short of the $5000 I needed to pay the voice artist and studio to record so I had to come up with a Plan B. While considering the alternatives, I had an epiphany. If I invested in the necessary equipment and software, I could record Rome's Revolution myself! Not only that, I could do The Ark Lords and Rome's Evolution as well for no additional fees! So the first thing I did with the money was to purchase a Blue Microphones Yeti microphone. It is huge. You can click on the picture to see a larger image:
























I then had to build a "studio" but didn't really have the funds or space to dedicate an entire room to record. So I did the reverse. I put the microphone in its own studio which filters out much of the ambient noise. I made it out of a simple Styrofoam cooler:



Next I would need recording software. My brother Bruce suggested the program Audacity which is awesome and even better, free! It not only records and lets you edit but it also can create sound effects like a robot voice for OMCOM and MINIMCOM.

A few test recordings showed that the microphone is so sensitive, it picks up moving air and even the fan of my computer so I bought some acoustic foam tiles which I pack around the computer when I am recording.

Finally, after I have dampened and suppressed all the noise I can, Audacity lets you record "silence" and then electronically, it will subtract out what it hears creating an audio track that sounds like it was recorded in a fully sound-proof booth.

Audio books, here I come!