How to Record Clear Voice Audio at Home

Small changes to your room, mic and settings make a bigger difference than new gear.

Room and position

Pick a soft room. Bedrooms with curtains, a sofa or a wardrobe full of clothes have far less echo than kitchens and bathrooms.
Get closer. About a hand-width to 20 cm (8 in) from the mic gives a full, clear voice and drowns out the room.
Speak slightly across the mic, not straight into it, to avoid “p” and “b” pops.
Kill the background noise: fans, fridges, open windows and laptop fans all end up in the recording.

Watch the meter. Aim for green while you talk normally. Brief orange peaks are fine, and red means distortion.
Do a 5-second test and play it back before the real take. The mic test is made for this.
Use the noise filter for speech in a noisy room, and turn it off for singing or music.
Use headphones if anything is playing while you record, so the mic doesn’t pick it up.

Pause instead of stopping between sections. You get one tidy file, and you can trim the silence at the ends afterwards.
Save WAV for editing, MP3 for sharing. See MP3 vs WAV vs WebM.

Problem	Fix
Echo or “bathroom” sound	Softer room, get closer to the mic, turn on echo cancel
Hiss or hum	Move away from chargers and fans, turn on the noise filter
Distorted or crackly	Back off from the mic, lower the input volume
Too quiet	Get closer, raise the system input level, turn on auto gain

For most mics, about 10–20 cm (4–8 inches). Closer gives a warmer, louder voice with less room sound.

For speech in a noisy place, yes. For music, singing or natural ambience, turn it off because it can remove quiet details.

Record your voice in the browser, trim it and download MP3, WAV or WebM. Nothing is uploaded.

Check that your microphone works and hear exactly how you sound before a call.

Which format to download: file sizes, quality and where each one plays.