So, I’ve been sending out auditions for audiobooks for the last few days. So, I’ve been drinking a lot of water, because I drink while I’m recording and it cuts down on mouth noise. But the thing is, I’m still having trouble with it.
Mouth clicks are little clicks or pops that are before, during, or after speech. We all have some sort of mouth noise when we speak, caused by tongue, teeth, saliva. It’s fairly common in dehydrated folks and I have a major problem with it. Mouth clicks actually gross me out, so I’ve been trying super hard to cut down on them in recording sessions, both so I don’t have to edit as much, but also so it doesn’t make me sick to hear them.
I’ve been drinking more water outside of recording sessions. This is both to keep me hydrated and healthy, and also so I don’t have to pee because I downed a half-gallon of water before I started recording. The body needs time to distribute water through its systems (and this includes the mouth as well).
I stopped drink any diuretics before recording… This means no coffee, sodas, dairy, tea, energy drinks. All that stuff. Just water. I suffer a little when I decide to record first thing in the morning. I do miss that morning cup.
I’ve also found that projecting my voice and being just a hair louder in the recording cuts down on the mouth clicks. I mean, no matter what level I speak at, those mouth clicks and noises don’t change volume. So when the sound from my mic gets compressed and sent to my computer, they’re a lot quieter than my voice and thus, easier to edit out. So teaching myself to back off the mic and project more has been super helpful.
And I keep drinking sips of water while I record, too. We dehydrate ourselves when we speak a lot, so audiobooks are the same beast.
Hopefully, the auditions I did today will bear fruit. Auditioning is scary. No is a scary word when you really need to work. But I’m choosing to stay optimistic.
Leave a Reply