Turn off fans, fridges nearby, fluorescent lights, notifications, and anything that hums. Record a ten-second silence test and listen on headphones. If you hear traffic, dogs, room ring, or computer fan noise, move before you process. A quiet untreated room beats a noisy room with plugins.
Narrator auditions
Use what you have well
A MacBook, iPhone, or decent Android phone can produce a usable audition when the room is quiet, the surfaces are soft, and the levels are controlled.
Room
Quiet first
Choose the quietest room or outside space before buying anything.
Treatment
Soft close surfaces
Heavy curtains, blankets, wardrobes, rugs, and cushions reduce early reflections.
Technique
Consistent distance
Keep the mic stable, speak past it slightly, and avoid clipping.
Delivery
Clean sample
Submit raw voice plus a lightly cleaned version so the press can judge both.
Start with the room
Make a small dead zone
Hang heavy curtains or blankets behind and beside the narrator, put a rug underfoot, and face into clothes or soft furniture rather than a bare wall. The goal is not a perfect studio. It is fewer early reflections, less flutter echo, and less standing-wave build-up. "Square wave blocking" is not the room problem; in rooms, the practical target is reflection and standing-wave control.
Phone and laptop technique
Put the device on a stable surface, not in your hand. Keep a steady distance of roughly a handspan to two handspans, speak slightly across the mic instead of directly into it, and do one full-volume test line before the real take. If loud words distort, move back or lower input gain. Record WAV or the highest-quality format your app allows; avoid aggressive noise suppression while recording.
Audition file
Read sixty to ninety seconds from a clean excerpt. Send one raw file, one lightly cleaned file, and one note describing the room and device. Do not over-process: no heavy reverb, fake radio voice, music bed, or extreme noise reduction. A truthful clean voice is easier to cast than a polished lie.