Professional Audio Production

My home studio turns out pristine audio.

My equipment list includes:

• AKG C214 large-diaphragm condenser mic
  
  
• Focusrite Scarlett 2I2 audio interface
  
  
• Studio One and iZotope RX software

Latest narration:
Blessing of the Dogs

View the video with audio sample.

About DAVE ARLINGTON

From his first audiobook in 2019 (a memoir), Dave has focused mainly on nonfiction, historical fiction, and mystery titles. They are a perfect fit for his clear, engaging baritone.

In 2022, Dave did his first narration for a major publisher—an audiobook of financial advice for Penguin Random House. In 2023, he narrated one of the year’s Best Indie Book Award winners for nonfiction. In 2024, Dave co-produced A Word Is Not a Sparrow, an audiobook anthology created by PANA (the Professional Audiobook Narrators Association) to benefit Ukrainian artists. He also narrated a story in the anthology, and wrote and voiced copy to introduce the various pieces narrated by other PANA professionals.

Dave’s work as a radio journalist at the Voice of America took him around the world: anchoring coverage of the 50th anniversary of D-Day from Omaha Beach in Normandy…reporting from capitals across Southeast Asia…and broadcasting live from NATO meetings. But most of his 14 years at VOA were devoted to hosting and producing feature programs specifically designed to explain American society to a worldwide audience.

Dave also had a long career in major market commercial radio. Highlights include six years waking up Washington DC as the market’s family-friendly alternative to Howard Stern…seven years keeping rock and roll alive by playing the Greatest Hits of All Time in Baltimore…and anchoring (and hosting award-winning public affairs programs) at DC’s news powerhouse, WTOP.

Because Dave’s hometown is Washington, he is undaunted by weighty topics and dense prose. DC is where national and international affairs are part of the culture--and where a voice artist learns how to make sense out of convoluted, bureaucratic writing. 

When he’s not behind the mic, Dave uses his smarts to lead his trivia team, create parody songs and videos, and complete the daily word games in the New York Times and Washington Post. He also constructs his own crossword puzzles. Some of them were created especially for the audiobook community—including one published in AudioFile Magazine and this crossword that advocates for the Human Voice over ai.

As was the case with many fellow book lovers (and Trekkers), Dave was considered rather nerdy in his youth. So he would like to state, for the record, that a geeky background can lead to a career that puts you in your high school’s official "Hall of Fame and Inspiration" (along with an astronaut, an Olympic Gold Medalist, a US Senator, a Google CEO, a group of Grammy winners, and Katie Couric). So there!