Audio quality does matter

In The Media Equation by Byron Reeves and Clifford Nass (Cambridge University Press, 1996), the authors make some profound and non-intuitive assertions about the ways in which people relate to computers and TVs. Among these are the following:

1. Audio fidelity will attract attention to media.
2. Audio fidelity will affect people's memory for audio information.
3. People will evaluate better audio fidelity differently than poorer audio fidelity.

I won't go into the experiments that they conducted here, but I'd thoroughly recommend you check the book out for yourself.

So, audio fidelity does matter. Now in an age in which it is increasingly easy to communicate using audio (podcasts, adding narration to screen capture movies, presentations, videos, etc.), and in which communication is more rapid and spontaneous, we might be tempted to put out any old thing, recorded using poor quality equipment and with little care. If Reeves and Nass are right, we'll be making a poorer impression if we do and we'll have less impact.

So, without going into studios and buying expensive kit what can you do? Well I've just purchased a high quality condenser microphone that sits on a table stand and plugs into the USB port on a desktop PC or laptop, without any software to install and the simplest of set ups (just go into Control Panel/Sounds and Audio/Audio and specify the recording device as 'USB Audio Codec'). It's a MXL-006 and it cost about £70 ($130). It works just great and obviates the need for any mic preamps or other cumbersome gear. You'll also want the pop shield (under £20), which stops those annoying peaks that you get when you say words with 'p' in.

Once you're set up, you can make high quality voice recordings without fuss, as easily as you did using a headset / built-in mic or whatever else you used before. All for under £100.