# Audio quality checklist
- [ ] Confirm the expected microphone is selected.
- [ ] Keep the microphone position stable and avoid contact with clothing.
- [ ] Stop avoidable fan, appliance and keyboard noise.
- [ ] Record normal speech, a loud sentence and a quiet sentence.
- [ ] Listen for clipping, room echo, hum, plosives and dropouts.
- [ ] Move closer to the microphone if room sound overwhelms the voice.
- [ ] Reduce gain if loud syllables distort.
- [ ] Compare any noise-reduced version with the original on headphones.
- [ ] Compare loudness across speakers and between beginning and ending.
- [ ] Check intelligibility on a small speaker as well as headphones.
- [ ] Keep the untreated original; processing may remove useful speech detail.
Problems heard and changes made: