Searching the Web for ways to make myself sound better when recording I ran into a lot of voice training tips for speaking and singing. Funny enough, some of the singing ones work too to help you sound better when recording a podcast (such as the Web Hosting Show).

Here are a few of my favorites:

Yawn three times before you start talking. Now I am sure there is some science behind this I don’t understand. I do have to say though it helps a lot, especially if you think you sound a ‘bit nasally when you record your voice (think Fran Drescher).

Hum to yourself for a few minutes, without having your top teeth touching your bottom teeth. Try going up and down in pitch and see if you can find the right tone for your voice that way. Try to stay natural though, or you’ll sound like your doing a bad Barry White impression.

Last voice training tip that I think a lot of people would get use out of would be to practice. Record yourself talking and see what you like or don’t like. Maybe you need to speak a little lower? Maybe you need to speak a little louder? Maybe you need to speak a little slower? Any long time listeners to my podcast can tell you I can get easily excitable – but I have been trying to do a better job at telling myself inside my head to sloow dooowwwn.

Try moving the mic around!

That is the number one audio recording tip I would give anybody. You would be amazed how differently you can sound depending on where the mic is. Most will tell you to put it under your chin so you don’t “pop your p’s” but for me, I like to keep it at a distracting eye level (that is with a headset mic).

Move in a little closer…

You don’t want to sound like you are in an empty room, echoing around – unless you are pretending to be the booming voice of god in your audio podcast. Make sure your close enough to the mic to where you don’t sound too loud but your not sounding too far into the background either. This will take some time to find the exact spot that is right for you.

Try to speak from the heart!

Having a guide or show notes is good for a base, but don’t be afraid to go off on your own. Often times I’ll pre-write my show notes and as I record get off when I had wrote down. Why? Well after hearing it out loud I think to myself, “Well it would be better if I go off in this direction instead”. Then I’ll update my notes later to reflect that.

Stick yourself in the Cone of Silence?

Try your best to eliminate any and all background noises. That means if you have a loud heater in the winter months, turn it off to record. If your air conditioner’s buzz is being caught by your mic, turn it off in the summer months. Suffer for your art so your listeners aren’t left wondering – what was that noise I just heard?

The last ‘bit of advice I would have for you is have fun! Don’t think of your show, audio recording or any other side project like this as a job. Treat it like a hobby. Audio podcasting might not be for everybody, but there is no way to find out if you like it unless you try. As long as you try to have fun with it, your listeners will pick up on that positive energy and will tune in again to hear more.

I have looked everywhere at every single product. For the best tools for the cheapest price my personal best find award would go to CamStudio. It is free and gets the job done.

The interface is simple enough for you to master within a few minutes and the number of different projects you could do with this are almost endless.

Personally, I wanted something to do a few quick captures so I could do a few more video tutorials – showing things from my desktop.

Here are a few more details from the developer:

CamStudio is able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files and using its built-in SWF Producer can turn those AVIs into lean, mean, bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash videos (SWFs)

CamStudio did not let me down. There are a handful of advanced features too – but they really were not needed for what I wanted to do. As long as I can send that avi into a video editing program or upload it to a place like YouTube I am good to go.

When recording, if you think you sound a little funny – put the microphone above your nose or near your eye. You might have to turn up the mic sensitivity a little ‘bit but it will sound better. This is for people who think they sound too nasally or who might have a problem popping their p’s.

Also if you are a heavy mouth breather (no – I mean that in a good way) this could keep you from sounding like you just ran a three mile race before recording.