Where should I put the microphone when recording my voice?

Where a microphone sits does more to the sound of a voice than any equipment choice or any amount of processing. It is free, it is immediate, and almost nobody adjusts it.

Step by step

1. Set the distance first.Roughly a hand's span — fifteen to twenty centimetres — for a large-diaphragm condenser, and closer, five to ten centimetres, for a dynamic. Close means more of your voice and less of the room, which is nearly always what you want.
2. Get off the direct axis.Point the microphone at your mouth but offset it slightly — above and angled down, or to one side. The blast of air from a plosive travels straight forward from the lips; moving the capsule out of that path removes most of the problem before any filter is involved.
3. Choose the height deliberately.Level with the mouth is the most direct and the most plosive-prone. Slightly above, angled down, gives a brighter, clearer sound. Slightly below, angled up, gives a fuller, chestier sound. Move it and listen — this is how you tune a voice.
4. Use the proximity effect deliberately.Directional microphones become noticeably bassier as the source gets closer. That is why radio voices sound so full. If your voice sounds thin, move closer; if it sounds boomy and muddy, move back a few centimetres.
5. Keep the distance constant.Moving towards and away from the microphone while speaking changes both level and tone continuously, which is very audible and hard to fix. Set a position, mark it if necessary, and hold it.
6. Check what the back of the microphone is facing.A cardioid rejects what is behind it, so point its rear at the noisiest, hardest surface in the room — a window, a bare wall, a computer. That free rejection is worth more than most treatment.
7. Get it off the desk.A desk reflects your voice back into the microphone a fraction of a second later, which makes it sound hollow. It also carries every keystroke and knock. A boom arm or a shock-mounted stand behind the desk solves both.
8. Fit a pop filter and know what it does.A mesh or foam screen a few centimetres in front of the capsule breaks up the air blast. It helps with plosives and does nothing for sibilance or for room reflections, which are separate problems.
9. Test with real speech.Record thirty seconds of yourself talking normally, at the level and energy you will actually use, and listen on headphones. Testing with a quiet count to ten tells you almost nothing about how the setup handles a real performance.

Tips

• Do not speak into the end of a large-diaphragm condenser — most of them pick up from the side, so the front is the face of the body with the badge on it.
• If the recording sounds boxy, move the microphone and yourself away from the nearest wall and away from the corner of the room.
• For two people, one microphone each is dramatically better than one shared between them, even if the shared one is a better microphone.

Common mistakes

• Sitting too far back — Every centimetre of extra distance increases the proportion of room reflection to direct voice. At arm's length in an ordinary room, the recording is already noticeably hollow.
• Speaking straight into the capsule — It puts your mouth directly in line with the diaphragm, so every P and B delivers a blast of air that overloads it. Angling across it costs nothing and fixes it.
• Standing the microphone on the desk you type on — It couples every keystroke, mouse click and knock straight into the microphone through the desk. A shock mount or a boom arm off the desk removes it.

If it doesn't work

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