Unless you have specific recording capability, using Voice Memo on your phone is great.
Because of the need for a dry sound, recordings should be done in a space with no room reverberations. If you have a walk-in closet with a bunch of hanging cloths, that’s a good spot to record. If not, hang up some comforters or thick blankets to absorb the room sound.
It is best to set your phone on a pillow, sweatshirt, dish towel, or something else that is soft to reduce sound reflections.
The recording device needs to stay a constant distance from your mouth, set it down on something.
You don’t have to read or sing loudly. Use your normal voice. Read/Sing like you normally would, including at the speed you normally would.
Please record about 15 seconds of just the room ambient noise, without singing or reading. This is used by the audio software to remove ambient noise from your recording.
Please Do-Nots
Don’t record right next to a wall.
Please do not rustle paper.
Recording Yourself Singing
You will need two devices; one to playback the track into your earbuds/headphones, and one to record your voice.
There is an introduction at the beginning of each song, please come in on the first verse.
Use your normal voice. Sing like you normally would.
A click track (audio file with a metronome) may be added to help everyone stay at the same tempo.
If you are comfortable singing a harmony line please do. Send us both the melody and harmony recordings.
Recording Yourself Reading
You can read all your parts straight through without starting and stopping. This is important though! Leave a couple seconds of quiet space at the beginning and ending of each time you speak, including between paragraphs.
Recording Yourself in Video
Choose a quiet room with carpet on the floor to absorb sound, or shoot outdoors if it’s not windy.
Shoot video Landscape/Horizontal if using a Smart phone.
Use a Medium Close-Up shot, seated or standing is fine.
Situate yourself at least 6 feet from a wall, and make sure that you are well lit.
Good lighting for video has soft, diffused light on your face. Like that of an overcast day. You want to try to avoid harsh shadows on the face.
Set the camera height the same as the person’s face. Avoid pointing the camera up or down at the person being recorded.
If possible, put the camera on a stand. Even a DIY stand using a step ladder and binder clips will work fine.
If shooting the video hand-held, please keep the camera steady, keeping the person in the frame. Even leaving room around them is fine.
Give some space before recording after you hit Record. Start the recording, count in your head to 3, then begin.
At the beginning and end of your recording, look into the camera for 3 to 5 seconds and give a nice smile. This will seem like an eternity, but gives the video editors room to transition in and out of your shot. You can even do something natural, like smile, then turn your head, look at your reading material, turn the page in the bible, whatever feels natural.
If multiple people are involved, shoot a separate video for each person.
Please do not crop or compress the video. Leave it in it’s original, high resolution format to send to us. If you have settings for changing your video resolution, we preferred 1920×1080 at 29.97 frames per second. If you can’t record that high, please use the highest resolution you can.
If this is your first recording, feel free to send us a short test and we can evaluate your video and make suggestions for improving it if needed.
