And you’re done! Your CenturyLink voicemail is now set up. Whenever you have an unheard message, you'll hear a stuttered dial tone when you pick up your home phone. Take a few minutes to gather your thoughts, even jot down a few notes, and practice before you record. Before you start recording, turn off anything in the background that might cause noise. This will ensure your voice is clear and easy to understand. While clever greetings can be fun, it's worth taking a moment to think about the range of potential callers who may be leaving you voicemail. Consider the tone and image you want to project. Don't worry! If you don't like your recording, you can erase it and re-record as many times as you'd like.
“Just turn it off and back on again.” You may have heard this as a joke, but it’s actually advantageous to regularly reboot your devices.

A digital recorder is nice and all, but if you plug a recorder directly into an iPhone using a 3.5mm audio cable, you're not going to hear the call. Using the iPhone headphone jack—assuming your iPhone is so old that it even has one—cuts off the speaker. Get the Recap-C, a $99 adapter that plugs into an older iPhone's 3.5mm jack, with output to a headset as well as to a recorder. The secondary recorder—connected via a 3.5mm male-to-male auxiliary audio cable—is up to you. It could even be another iOS device (or Android or PC, but stick with the digital recorder for simplicity).
5. Hit “Record” on Audacity. Then, on your phone, play the voicemail you’d like to record. When your message is done, stop recording. If you want to get really fancy, you can use Audacity to chop off any dead air at the start or end of your recording.