I’d Rather Be Writing – Tom Johnson

One of my first recommendations for achieving a natural, believable voice is to employ more free narration rather than always reading a script. I recommended this because all the video tutorials on Lynda.com are narrated at the same time as they are recorded, and the less you read, the more natural your voice sounds.

However, I realize that unscripted narration, even just a few sentences, can be problematic. Eddie VanArsdall commented that using this method often results in a lot of mistakes. He says,

I always scripted my narration and sometimes improvised parts of it, but I could never record it in real time. The pressure of recording and multi-tasking seemed to guarantee that I would make mistakes.

Eddie is right. Unscripted narration can result in a lot of mistakes. Even if you’re 100 percent comfortable with the app, even if you have rehearsed exactly what you’ll say, even if you’re fresh and alert and full of energy, if you’re human, you’ll make mistakes — especially when you read a script or outline and narrate and record at the same time.

Making numerous mistakes can be frustrating. And the more frustrated and tense you are, the more mistakes you’ll make. But before you smash your microphone on the floor or burst a blood vessel in your forehead, consider this comparison: when you write a help topic or article, do you write it perfect the first time? From the first word to the last, do you type out the entire concept and task details flawlessly? Of course not.

So why should we expect to do the same in speech? Speech is perhaps a trickier, more nuanced medium, since changing the tone of one word can bend the meaning in multiple ways. In addition to unintended inflections, when you string together words in real time, you’re bound to have poor constructions, fumbled words, and other errors.

You can re-record the sentences that you fumble. And as you re-record the sentences, you can splice them into your original recording, similar to the way you delete some sentences and add other words in written text. The danger here is ending up with a hodgepodge of different sounds. To avoid the hodgepodge effect, consider the following tips for fixing fumbled sentences. Read the rest of this entry »

I have a lot of events coming up, so I’ve been trying to coordinate and manage my schedule in a more efficient way. I use Google Calendar, with various calendars that I toggle on or off based on what I want to see. Lately I decided to integrate some of the event information from my Google calendar into my WordPress blog.

I have two new buttons on the top: My Calendar and Presentations. Using the ICS Calendar plugin for WordPress, I integrated the events into my blog by plugging the ICAL feeds for the calendars into the ICS plugin’s settings.

The plugin works pretty well. It automatically pulls the event information from the feed without requiring you to do anything in WordPress. You can specify the format for the event details using the tags in the plugin’s settings page. My custom format looks like this:

<h3>%event-title%</h3>
<div class="icalmeta">%date-time%<br/>
%location%</div>
<p>%description%</p>

It’s a little snazzier than the basic page I had previously used. And I only have to enter event information into one place.

When you’re recording screencasts, a lot of people think about microphones, and focus on the technical setup behind your sound. But really, your audio starts with the vocal cords in your larynx, the upper part of your throat.  Your voice is your main instrument, not the microphone. (Here’s a picture of some vocal cords.)

One of my biggest problems when narrating a screencast is that my throat gets all clogged up. I have to hit the pause and resume key every minute or so to clear my throat. Voiceover actors have learned to deal with this problem, since they often don’t have the benefits of a pause and resume key (F9 in Camtasia Studio, P in Audacity).

You can reduce the amount of phlegm that accumulates in your throat by chiefly doing these two things:

1. Hydrate. Drink lots of water, one or two hours before you start recording. Look at how wet and slimy the vocal cords look. If they’re properly hydrated, they’ll function better. Experts recommend that you drink warm water because it will loosen up your vocal cords. They also discourage caffeinated drinks.
2. Avoid dairy, such as milk and cheese. Dairy contributes to the phlegm that collects in the back of your throat.

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Voiceover professionals often recommend that you smile while you narrate. Smiling injects a touch of warmth and charisma in your voice. Just a few touches here and there can make the entire tone of your voice noticeably warmer.

I recorded three samples for comparison. In the first, I just read a paragraph in my normal reading voice. In the second, I actually scrunched my eyebrows down in anger. In the third, I smiled. Listen to the differences.

Just reading normally

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With eyebrows scrunched down in anger

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Smiling while reading

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Getting close to your microphone usually results in something called “the proximity effect.” As you get close, most microphones amplify your voice in a rich, deep way. The proximity effect can make you sound like a late-night DJ. Some microphones give you the best proximity effect when you’re practically kissing the mic.

Unfortunately, as you get closer to a microphone, the microphone starts to pick up more sounds from your mouth. Say the word “pick” or “pull” and you unleash a gust of wind toward the mic. Really, hold your hand up two inches from your mouth and say a few P or B words. Can you feel the gust? To your microphone, the puff is like a tsunami sound wave. This burst of air is known as a plosive. Read the rest of this entry »

A while ago I was gathering feedback on different tech comm deliverables. I asked a user if she preferred videos or written material when learning software. I thought she would immediately say “videos,” but it was a toss up for her. In her mind, videos involved long stretches of narration that included sitting passively at her computer, waiting for the narrator to get to her question but never really getting there.

A lot of people feel the same way about videos. In a recent post, Kristi Leach explains an attitude she once held about instructional videos:

I rarely appreciate video instructions, either–they take too long, because I’m pausing, following the step, playing, pausing again. I was having trouble imagining how videos were going to improve our help systems or fit into our schedules.

For Kristi, prior to her turnaround screencast moment, videos seemed to take too long and were difficult to follow along with in a step-by-step way.

When you write a script for a video (or when you create a general outline), you can avoid the problem of the eternal video — which I refer to as a sense of rambling — by simply keeping the video short. Don’t try to cover too much ground. You can generally speak about 100 words a minute, so keep that in mind with your script. 200 words is a good length. Read the rest of this entry »

One of my goals in creating engaging video tutorials is to develop a warm, personable, natural voice, like the voice of an encouraging friend or mentor.

In search of this more personable voice, last year I attended a voiceover workshop in my area. The voiceover coach explained that good voiceover artists start by imagining a situation—in their minds they imagine who they are, who they’re talking to, and what kind of situation and environment they’re in.

Voiceover artists have to stick carefully with the script they’ve been given, my coach explained. But they can inflect, add emphasis to control meaning, and play with the rhythm and intonation to bring it to life.

People told me that if I want to focus on the audio like this, I would be better off narrating the audio first and then recording the screen later—in two separate steps, rather than at the same time. I recorded at least 40 different video tutorials like this, narrating first (while trying to imagine myself in a situation); after recording the narration, I listened to the narration while following along to record the screen. Syncing it up took a little practice, but not much.

No matter how hard I tried, though, the narration always sounded stiff, slow, and a little dull. If I put too much inflection and rhythm into it, the narration sounded cheesy and fake. Maybe a background in acting would make it sound as if I weren’t reading a script, but I could never figure this acting thing out. It never sounded completely natural. Read the rest of this entry »

For several months I’ve been looking for a quiet room to record screencasts at my work. Our building has four floors for more than 600 IT professionals. I investigated more than 20 conference rooms, poked my head in empty offices, walked around unfamiliar floors, inquired here and there.

When people see my looking, they don’t understand what I mean by a “quiet” room. What does quiet mean? Stop and listen to the sounds around you. The fan, a ticking clock, a rumbling from a dishwasher or dryer, the hum of the lights, the sound of non-descript white noise, voices from a neighboring office, or cars passing by outside. The sounds are subtle, but when you start recording, these noises amplify onto your audio track.

That’s why you need a quiet room. If you have your own private office, great. If you have to schedule time in a conference room, that can also work. You usually have to work with what you’ve been given.

But let’s say you want something more — your own private recording room, where you can set up your equipment, lock the door, record is perfect silence, and come and go whenever you please, without worrying about someone playing with your expensive microphone. Read the rest of this entry »

At the upcoming STC Summit, I’m presenting a session called “Developing a Personal Voice in Audio.” In this presentation, I’ll explain how to “deliver video tutorials with a friendly, personable voice by implementing several audio techniques common to professional voice talents and sound engineers.

One way I prepare for presentations is by writing a series of blog posts about the topic. So over the next two weeks, I’m going to write 10 posts about developing a personal voice in audio. The ten topics will most likely be as follows:

1. Finding an acoustic environment.
2. Sounding natural.
3. Avoiding a sense of rambling.
4. Setting up your microphone.
5. Controlling your breathing.
6. Rehearsing the script.
7. Imagining a scenario.
8. Dealing with mistakes.
9. Post-processing the audio.
10. Improving your voice.

I admit that I feel like a novice with this topic. I’m not a voiceover professional, sound engineer, or e-learning guru. I do podcasting and screencasting. But voice is a topic I’ve been enthusiastic about for a long time.

In an effort to give more visibility and exposure to the companies who advertise on my site, I’m providing a regular “Messages from the Sponsors” post. In this post, I asked my sponsors if they have any messages they would like me to share with my readers. Since it was the first time I asked this, not everyone was ready with content, but two of them (Scriptorium and Madcap Software) did provide messages, which I’ve inserted below.   Read the rest of this entry »