Working Video & audio skill
Record clean audio
Get clean voice audio from the gear they already own.
Help someone record voice audio that sounds clean, using what they already own — a phone, earbuds with a mic, or a laptop. No purchase is required for a usable result. The session ends with a real recording made, cleaned, and exported, so run a genuine take of whatever they actually need the audio for.
The room beats the mic
Most bad recordings are bad rooms, not bad mics. Before touching settings:
- Pick the deadest room they have: closet full of clothes, carpeted bedroom, car parked with the engine off. Avoid kitchens, bathrooms, and any room that echoes when they clap once. Do the clap test together.
- Turn off noise sources: fans, AC, open windows, notifications on every device in the room. Record 10 seconds of "silence" and listen back loud — whatever you hear now will be in every take.
- Soft stuff absorbs: a duvet over a chair behind the laptop, facing a wardrobe, or recording under a blanket. Judge the setup by the test audio.
Mic and levels
- Distance: a hand-span from mouth to mic (15–20 cm). Phone mic works fine at this range; the bottom mic of the phone is the good one. Wired earbuds with an inline mic are also solid — clip or hold the mic near the collar.
- Slightly off-axis: talk past the mic, not straight into it, to dodge plosives (the "p" pops). No pop filter needed at an angle.
- Set levels with a real test: have them read their actual first lines at performance volume. Peaks should sit around -12 to -6 dB in the meter — loud but never touching the top. On a phone, use a free recorder app that shows a meter (or record a test and check it in Audacity).
- Record a room-tone clip: 10 seconds of silence in position. The cleanup pass needs it.
Cleanup in Audacity
Audacity is free on every platform. Import the recording, then in this order:
- Noise Reduction: select the room-tone section, Get Noise Profile, then apply to the whole track with gentle settings (around 12 dB reduction). Aggressive settings sound underwater — listen and back off if voices go metallic.
- Cut the mistakes: false starts, long gaps, mouth noises. Keep natural pauses.
- Normalize or Loudness Normalization to about -16 LUFS for spoken word — a standard level that sounds right on phones.
- Export WAV for anything they will edit further, MP3 (192 kbps+) for anything going straight out.
--- name: record-clean-audio category: media description: Get clean voice audio from the gear they already own. Room, mic distance, levels, and a cleanup pass in Audacity. Use when they say "my audio sounds bad", "how do I record my voice", or before any recording session. --- # record-clean-audio Help someone record voice audio that sounds clean, using what they already own — a phone, earbuds with a mic, or a laptop. No purchase is required for a usable result. The session ends with a real recording made, cleaned, and exported, so run a genuine take of whatever they actually need the audio for. ## The room beats the mic Most bad recordings are bad rooms, not bad mics. Before touching settings: - Pick the deadest room they have: closet full of clothes, carpeted bedroom, car parked with the engine off. Avoid kitchens, bathrooms, and any room that echoes when they clap once. Do the clap test together. - Turn off noise sources: fans, AC, open windows, notifications on every device in the room. Record 10 seconds of "silence" and listen back loud — whatever you hear now will be in every take. - Soft stuff absorbs: a duvet over a chair behind the laptop, facing a wardrobe, or recording under a blanket. Judge the setup by the test audio. ## Mic and levels - Distance: a hand-span from mouth to mic (15–20 cm). Phone mic works fine at this range; the bottom mic of the phone is the good one. Wired earbuds with an inline mic are also solid — clip or hold the mic near the collar. - Slightly off-axis: talk past the mic, not straight into it, to dodge plosives (the "p" pops). No pop filter needed at an angle. - Set levels with a real test: have them read their actual first lines at performance volume. Peaks should sit around -12 to -6 dB in the meter — loud but never touching the top. On a phone, use a free recorder app that shows a meter (or record a test and check it in Audacity). - Record a room-tone clip: 10 seconds of silence in position. The cleanup pass needs it. ## Cleanup in Audacity Audacity is free on every platform. Import the recording, then in this order: 1. Noise Reduction: select the room-tone section, Get Noise Profile, then apply to the whole track with gentle settings (around 12 dB reduction). Aggressive settings sound underwater — listen and back off if voices go metallic. 2. Cut the mistakes: false starts, long gaps, mouth noises. Keep natural pauses. 3. Normalize or Loudness Normalization to about -16 LUFS for spoken word — a standard level that sounds right on phones. 4. Export WAV for anything they will edit further, MP3 (192 kbps+) for anything going straight out. ## Done - A real take of their actual content, recorded in the treated spot - Before/after comparison played back — they hear what the room and the cleanup each did - Exported file saved somewhere they can find it, plus the Audacity project if more editing is coming This skill feeds podcast-episode, video-resume, and screen-recording-tutorial — the audio bar is the same everywhere.