I honestly didn't notice much difference. I made one with a piece of cardboard and some old batting for my first book, but didn't use one for my second. Something you can plug into the audio jack on your microphone or computer so you can listen to what the microphone is picking up while you're recording is a good idea. My co-narrator for King's Table used a Yeti Pro with a mic boom and a shock mount (he got the whole setup off of ebay) and had very good results with it as well. I'm sure it would be fine, but I can't personally attest to it. Blue also makes a cheaper Snowball microphone that I've heard of people using. A quality USB microphone (a Blue Yeti is a very nice choice, one of the most popular microphones, and will only run you $130 on Amazon.A laptop would be nice (they're quieter), but I just used an old desktop. So here it is: the minimalist setup guide. My audio passed Audible's recording standards with flying colors and was well-received by listeners.

I decided to make an attempt with the absolute minimum in equipment and setup using one of my short stories as a test case. This can be intimidating, especially if you're not confident in your ability to judge 'good' audio from 'bad'. Just like your bike-fanatic friend who recommends a $3000 bike to get you to and from work, Audiophiles will often insist that you'll never produce good audio without a $1000+ home studio system (or better yet, rental time in a professional studio). Written with wit, grace, passion, and an unflinching candor, Permanent Record is a crucial memoir of our digital age and destined to be a classic.Enthusiasts always recommend the very best equipment, and they tend to think all of it is indispensable. Six years later, Snowden reveals for the very first time how he helped to build this system and why he was moved to expose it.Spanning the bucolic Beltway suburbs of his childhood and the clandestine CIA and NSA postings of his adulthood, Permanent Record is the extraordinary account of a bright young man who grew up online-a man who became a spy, a whistleblower, and, in exile, the Internet’s conscience. The result would be an unprecedented system of mass surveillance with the ability to pry into the private lives of every person on earth. In 2013, twenty-nine-year-old Edward Snowden shocked the world when he broke with the American intelligence establishment and revealed that the United States government was secretly pursuing the means to collect every single phone call, text message, and email. Edward Snowden, the man who risked everything to expose the US government’s system of mass surveillance, reveals for the first time the story of his life, including how he helped to build that system and what motivated him to try to bring it down.

Permanent record audio book