A Tricky React “useEffect” Question From My Meesho Frontend Interview, by @moderndev.bsky.social:

https://medium.com/interview-series/a-tricky-react-useeffect-question-from-my-meesho-frontend-interview-2ca8a8d88b3d

#react #hooks #interviewing

New on The Progressive CIO: One Question That Can Tell You a Lot About a Leader

https://theprogressivecio.com/one-question-that-can-tell-you-a-lot-about-a-leader/

#Leadership #Interviewing #SoftwareEngineering

Are you prepping for interviews that you just have to CRUSH? ⚡️ Look no further than my Interview Cheatsheet and Prep Worksheet…

👉 https://lttr.ai/AmBKp

#Interviewing #CareerCoaching

Here we look at some of the important issues journalists face when interviewing sources in another location via electronic media rather than face-to-face and in real time. #journalism #interviewing #reporting

https://mediahelpingmedia.org/basics/how-to-carry-out-an-interview-remotely/

AI Broke Interviews, by (not on Mastodon or Bluesky):

https://yusufaytas.com/ai-broke-interviews/

#ai #interviewing #hiring

Comparing Interviews at 8 Large Tech Companies, by @gergelyorosz:

https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/comparing-interviews-at-8-large-tech-companies/

#interviewing #google #atlassian #comparisons

Big news in the AI-powered career prep world:

LinkedIn Interview Prep is DEAD. 💀

Which means it's time to move on to another tool...

...Here's the one I recommend! ⚡️

👉 https://lttr.ai/AlLCC

#Interviewing #CareerCoaching

Big news in the AI-powered career prep world:

LinkedIn Interview Prep is DEAD. 💀

Which means it's time to move on to another tool...

...Here's the one I recommend! ⚡️

👉 https://lttr.ai/AkTYy

#Interviewing #CareerCoaching

Avoid These Common Voice Recording Mistakes: Things You Didn’t Realize Your Microphone Heard

Well, this certainly takes the cake for one of the longest possible article titles, doesn’t it? Nonetheless, as someone who has recorded lots of people (including myself) and interacted with several folks who are recording themselves, I’ve definitely seen (or heard) many interesting things.

This article is mostly focused on what you should watch out for while recording your own voice. Maybe you’re laying down some narration for a cool video. Maybe you’re recording a podcast. Or maybe you’re a guest on someone else’s podcast. Either way, there are things you need to be aware of.

The most optimal situation, of course, is that you record all of your audio in a designated area that has been sound-treated and is acoustically solid…. but not all of us have a studio, a soundproof area, or even a single room without an echo.

Regardless of how well your environment is set up, however, there are several things that you might be doing to ruin an otherwise decent recording. And these things just apply basically any time you’re using a microphone.

1. Mouth Noises

One of my favorite memories of recording a singer was the sheer look of horror and disgust on this guy’s face (we’ll call him Bob) when he heard his raw vocal track being played back without any of the accompanying instrumentation. Bob recoiled and said “What is that? Are those noises coming from my mouth?”

What can I say? The dude had a noisy mouth and it really came out in the recording.

It might sound gross, but it’s actually fairly common. The simple act of licking your lips or even swallowing will be picked up by a microphone and potentially amplified by other devices in the signal chain.

For best practice, keep some water around while recording in case your throat gets dry, but try not to have any food nearby. In fact, you probably want to stop eating around 20-30 minutes before because eating increases your salivation and thus, your mouth noises will increase. And definitely, definitely don’t eat while recording… unless of course, your goal is to create audio for some sort of weird ASMR crunching video.

Learn from Bob: Say it, don’t spray it. And also… please don’t spit on the microphone.

2. Hand Movements

This one is especially difficult for me. Do you speak with your hands? I do. But sometimes that can cause excessive noise during an interview. If you rub your hands together, tap on a desk, or click pens, you can bet that the microphone is going to pick it up. I often don’t even realize I’ve done this until after everything is over and I hear the playback.

During one interview, I was repeatedly removing the lid from a pen every time I listened to my guest speak. With an hour’s worth of footage, it definitely made for some interesting editing.

For best practice, try to keep your hand gestures away from the microphone. And if you need to do something percussive to emphasize a point, like clapping or snapping, do it lightly.

3. Creaking Chairs

Noisy chairs are loud — sometimes louder than speech. And they’re excessively difficult to remove from dialog audio. If you’ve got a creaky chair, it’s best to sit on something quieter.

For best practice, sit on your chair before you start recording and wiggle around a bit. If there are any loud popping or creaking noises… just… just find another chair, man. Seriously.

4. Clothing and Jewelry

Have you ever seen the episode of Seinfeld where George is worried he’s going to get fired because his pants were making a loud swooshing noise when he walked?

I can’t tell you how many acoustic guitar recordings I’ve ruined by having too many bracelets on. I’ve now learned to remove most jewelry as part of my pre-recording routine.

For best practice, stand upright and move your limbs around. If you hear jingling, jangling, swishing, or swooshing, you should probably change.

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5. Cars

Cars. Delivery vans. Garbage trucks. Sirens. Honking. Engines revving. If you can hear it outside your window, so can your microphone.

If you’re near a window or door, lots of those traffic and vehicle sounds will carry through. My personal nemesis is currently a garbage truck that tends to pull around the corner every time I turn a microphone or camera on.

There’s not a whole lot you can do about this one in certain situations, unfortunately, but for best practice, you can use a unidirectional microphone that faces away from a window — that should cut down on what it hears.

6. Clearing Your Throat

If you need to clear your throat, sneeze, or cough, try to turn away from the direction of the microphone.

Just pretend the microphone is a person. You wouldn’t sneeze in someone’s direction, would you? Don’t cough at the microphone either.

7. Pets and Animals

Our cats make a lot of noise. Luckily, meowing is actually pretty easy to separate from human voice if you have the right audio editing software.

What is not easy to deal with, however, is the pitter patter of little paws or the jingle jangling of collars.

8. AC and Appliances

You might not realize how much noise your AC or even some larger electrical appliances can make, but you’ll certainly find out during audio playback. Refrigerators are especially notorious at this because they have a compressor that arbitrarily kicks on and off.

Any sort of air current or vent that is aimed toward your microphone has the potential to make gentle background noise. It’s usually pretty easy to filter out, but definitely something to be aware of.

For best practice, try to turn off HVAC systems for the duration of your interview. Also, position yourself far from large appliances. If you do have to sit near one because of space concerns, try to at least face your microphone in the other direction.

9. Other People

If your microphone can hear you, it can definitely hear the other people around you or elsewhere in your house. As a good rule of thumb, if you can hear it, so can your mic.

For best practice, hopefully you can just let the other people around you know that you’ll be recording.

10. Echoes

This one is hard, but if your room is echoey, it’ll really come out in the recording. You can do a quick little test with the voice memo app on your phone. Hold it about 3 feet away from your face, then walk around your room while walking at normal volume. When you listen to the recording, make note of any points what sound more echoey than others. Certain areas of a room will just bounce the sound back and forth strangely.

For best practice, try not to record in an empty room. A lot of people try to record in bedrooms or closets because your bedspread or clothes will dampen a lot of the reverberation. Putting a few pillows or hanging a tapestry on the wall can actually make a big difference here.

Why This Happens…

I know it’s frustrating.

Here’s what you might not know.

Most of the time, dialog is processed through a piece of hardware or software called a compressor. The compressor does exactly what it’s name implies. It squashes (compresses) the waveform a little bit. This is accomplished by:

This is done because an even volume is desired for the final product. It usually just makes everything sound better.

But since your quiet parts get turned up a little bit, the sound of you clicking your mouth or rubbing your hands together might actually be much louder than you anticipate.

Tips to Take Away…

I know, it’s annoying. Trust me, I know.

But without requiring too much effort, you can make your recording sessions go much more smoothly by applying some of the following tips:

• Try to be in a room without echoes. Pillows, blankets, and carpet are great at absorbing reflections, by the way. Hard, bare walls (including windows or large glass doors) are terrible at it — they’ll make your voice bounce around.
• Use a pop filter — they’re cheap and make a big difference
• Sit a comfortable distance from your mic. Not too far. Not too close.
• Excessive jewelry
• Don’t eat right before a recording session

I hope you find this helpful!

#audioEngineering #contentCreation #interviewing #interviews #microphone #music #noise #podcast #podcasting #recording #technique #tips