I recorded on a high quality microphone in a small closest with a foam mattress pad and blankets surrounding me. It was pretty soundproof. Upon re-listening to the audio, it does sound a little tinny, which likely has to do with the microphone settings.

I think the issue with the monotone is that my reading voice is different from my talking voice. When I'm freely talking, I'm more dramatic. When I'm reading, I'm less so because the only time I read out loud nowadays is to children before bedtime.

I do plan to resubmit the training script with a different style, but recording the full audio was admittedly tiring so I haven't sent that in yet. I'm sure with some experiment I could get it closer to reality.

I did get some helpful advice from someone on the Descript team on how to use punctuation and misspellings to fix some of the intonation. Overall, it's really impressive technology and I can think of a few different uses for my business for my own voice.