Recording your answering machine greeting
The leading cause of unnecessary answering machine returns is customer disappointment with the sound quality of the greeting. In many cases, this problem can be solved by varying how you record your greeting. Below, I give step-by-step instructions for recording the best-sounding greeting. Then, for the those of you who are interested, some of the engineering background behind the recording process.
How to produce a clear recording
- First, write down what you want to say; that way, you can concentrate on your voice quality, not on trying to remember what you meant to say.
- Second, plan on using a clear, precise speaking voice (what actors use on stage). This voice should be somewhat louder than most people's normal speaking voice. If you are a naturally quiet talker, you may have to really work to speak this loudly. If you have a naturally room-dominating voice, you may need to tone it down a bit.
- Third, make the recording in a quiet room - no one else taking, no radio/TV/stereo in the background, no fans running, etc.
- Fourth, place the machine on a hard surface (table, countertop), sit squarely in front of it, lean your elbows on the table on either side of it, and you'll be about the right distance from the microphone.
- Fifth, familiarize yourself with which buttons to press to start and stop recording, so you don't panic while making your recordings.
- Sixth, don't hesitate to record and re-record until you are satisfied with the result. If the recording doesn't sound good, try varying the hardness of the surface (you can place the machine on a pillow for a softer sound), the volume of your voice, and the distance from the machine.
- Last, call the machine from another phone line to determine how your greeting will sound to actual callers.
How it all works
Signal to Noise Ratio: This is a measurement of the amount of useful information a signal contains versus the amount of non-useable noise. This concept is critical to understanding the limits of your answering machine with respect to recording a clear-sounding greeting.
AVC - Automatic Volume Control: Your answering machine's greeting record function uses an automatic volume control (AVC) to regulate the sensitivity of the recording process to try to compensate for variations in the volume of your voice as you do the recording. Unfortunately, the AVC's limitations are easily exceeded if your voice is too loud or too close to the microphone or too soft or too far away from the microphone.
The microphone: Inside each answering machine is a tiny crystal microphone (usually concealed behind a small hole near the front edge of the machine). This crystal employs a property known as piezoelectricity to produce an electric current whenever the crystal vibrates. When sound strikes this microphone, the crystal vibrates in a fashion that varies as the sound varies and it produces a tiny electrical current that also varies with the sound. But, like the AVC circuit discussed above, the crystal has limits on its ability to faithfully reproduce sounds that are either too quiet or too loud.
Too close/too loud: If you are too close or speak too loudly, the sound waves from your voice overwhelm the microphone and/or the AVC, producing a sound that is fuzzy and garbled because the crystal is vibrating too hard and producing electrical currents that are not in perfect alignment with your voice; signal to noise ration drops quickly in this situation, due to noise being added by the crystal itself.
Too far/too quiet: If you are too far away or speak too softly, the sound waves from your voice may be inadequate to vibrate the crystal consistently and may also cause the AVC to "strain" to hear you. This results in a recording that sounds faint, uneven, and with background noise picked up by the AVC; signal to noise ratio increases because of noises picked up from the room and also because noise always present in the electrical circuit itself becomes significant if the voice is too quiet.