Any Recommendations for Audio Volume?

There are so many variables when recording audio.

Most importantly, in my opinion, are:

• a good quality mic,
• some sort of a sound booth, I made one from a cardboard box and ordered acoustic panels to line it with
• some sort of mic stand so you can keep your hands free
• some sort of holder for your scripts
• a pop filter, made mine from a coat hangar and nylon

You also need to make sure that the input/recording settings in your software are the same.

We use a string so that your mouth is always the same distance from the mic between sessions.

Windows 8 has a big issue with a USB mic and the volume being extremely low.

Try to stay as far away from your computer as possible as a fan can be picked up in the recording.

The more processing you need to do after the fact the worse it will sound, especially when it gets compressed. Try to record as clean as possible

Always wear headphones when evaluating the quality of your recording.

When I'm working with audio, I often take it over to Adobe Audition and use the various processes to clean it up as best as possible. For example, I use the Noise Reduction process to reduce the amount of background noise. This is helpful for me because I record most of my narration in my home office (not a recording studio).

Adobe Captivate - Round Tripping with Audition

My target volume is averaging somewhere around -12 dB (you can see that in the video). There might be peaks above that level and quieter passages as well, but -12 dB is a good average.