I'd Rather Be Writing » voice

Screencasting Tip: Self-Dub the Audio

Tom Johnson — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 17:41:29 +0000

One of the most difficult elements of screencasting is getting good audio. I implemented a technique in my last video that I thought worked quite well. I’m calling this the Self-Dub technique. Here’s what you do. Whether you write out a script beforehand or not, it doesn’t really matter. Just record the screencast while simultaneously narrating. After the screencast, proceed through each of the sentences and dub over them.

For example, listen to about 10 seconds of audio, then silence the selection. Re-record that sentence with a new voice narration and add insert it there. It sounds tedious, but you can make your way through a three-minute screencast in about 30 minutes. You can voice-dub everything, even the parts that sound good. This may allow for a more seamless replacement. (If the audio you’re dubbing sounds seamless with the existing audio, then you can only dub the parts you want.)

When you’re done, you’ll have a bunch of little 10 second audio clips strung together. In Camtasia Studio, go to File > Produce Special and export the audio. Then clean up the audio a bit and reimport it back into the screencast, deleting all the little 10 second audio clips. The result is a clean audio script that perfectly fits the timing of the screen actions.

The seamless match with the timing is main advantage of using this method. If you weren’t recording a screencast, this technique probably wouldn’t make much sense. But screencasts, at least the software tutorial kind, have intricate timing between the mouse actions and the voice. The voice has to describe exactly what you’re doing on the screen in the moment you’re doing it. This Voice-Dub technique allows you to preserve the timing while simultaneously cleaning up the audio.

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Podcast: Developing a Personal Voice in Audio (Intermountain-STC event)

Tom Johnson — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 14:15:38 +0000

Download MP3
Download the PowerPoint
PowerPoint in Zip file (in case you have trouble with the above)
Length: 60 min.

A while ago, our chapter held a half-day eLearning event, and I presented a version of my Developing a Personal Voice in Audio presentation (similar to what I presented at the STC Summit in Dallas). The recording has been sitting on my hard drive for a while, and I thought I’d finally release it. I’ve also included the rather large PowerPoint file that accompanies the presentation.

Note: If you like podcasts, check out the latest podcast from IT Author, which he recorded while walking his dog.

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My STC Summit Proceedings Paper on Voiceover Techniques

Tom Johnson — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 13:52:06 +0000

When you present at the STC Summit, you’re supposed to submit a proceedings paper describing your presentation. Given that only a fraction of my followers are members of the STC, and an even smaller fraction are attending the Summit, I’m providing my proceedings paper here: “Developing a Personal Voiceover in Audio” (PDF). (It’s allowed under the STC copyright agreement.)

As you know, I wrote about this topic at length on my blog through a series of posts on voiceover techniques. I had about 10,000 words overall throughout the posts. In this proceedings paper, I mostly used the material from these blog posts, but I reduced the length in half. I also implemented some of the feedback from the comments (thank you, by the way).

It turns out that consolidating individual blog posts into a longer essay works well, as I was able to condense it all in just a few hours. Based on this experience, I’m going to write more series posts. Look for an announcement about my upcoming series tomorrow.

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2. Sounding Natural

Tom Johnson — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:00:37 +0000

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.

Not long ago, I decided to ramp up on PowerPoint through the video tutorials on Lynda.com. As I listened to the tutorials, the narrator’s voice epitomized the natural, personable voice I’d been trying to develop. He didn’t seem to be acting, nor was he a seasoned voiceover pro performing a pre-written script. He didn’t seem to have a script at all. He was just explaining, like a mentor, how various parts of the application worked. But it was perfect, and I quickly learned the more advanced parts of PowerPoint.

I was curious whether he even had a script, so I contacted him to find out. No, he said, he doesn’t record a pre-written narration script first. And neither do any of the Lynda.com trainers, he explained. He records the screen at the same time as he narrates. He did rehearse what he was going to do beforehand.

If all the Lynda.com trainers record this way, and I enjoy these tutorials, I realized that I should probably do the same. So I started to record the screen at the same time as I narrate. I still wrote out a general script beforehand, but I didn’t read it or follow it verbatim. I used my script more like an outline, glancing at it every so often to remember where I was going and what to include.

At times when I needed to explain a concept, I read a few sentences, because articulating complicated concepts in real-time can be tough to pull off with exactness (at least for me). But because the sentences that I read were mixed in with the unscripted narration, they blended well.

My opinion after recording and narrating at the same time? It works. And it has helped me achieve more of a natural voice—something I could never quite do reading scripts. The method isn’t perfect, but it’s better than before.

The downside with unscripted narration, unsurprisingly, is that I make mistakes. Listen to any real speech and you hear a smattering of slurs, missteps, poorly pronounced words, and other fumbles.

But I’ve found that I can re-record these problem patches and splice in my fixes somewhat seamlessly. A half a sentence here, a full sentence there. Sometimes it’s tricky to match the sound, but if I listen to 10 seconds before and repeat it a couple of times before rerecording the fixed sentence, it usually blends in indistinguishably.

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Trying to Find a Theater Stage/Voice for an Impossible Situation

Tom Johnson — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:54:01 +0000

In a recent design review meeting, I showed some of my screencasts to our team for feedback. We also reviewed some screencasts created by voiceover talents in our audiovisual department and screencasts created by trainers. In listening to my voice in the screencasts, it’s clear that I still have a lot to learn. I’m not even close to the personal, conversational-sounding audio voice that I want to achieve. It sounds like I’m reading a script. It’s slow and dull.

My teammates recommended that I read a little faster, that I add more inflection and maybe even switch to an outline rather than read a script.

I agree, but it’s hard to do that. It’s hard to develop that personal voice. It’s not a technical problem to simply figure out. It’s a theater art, and I have no background in theater. (Okay, in 8th grade I had a one-line role in Oliver Twist.)

As I’ve been reading voiceover books on Google, clearly the consensus is that you need to implement some acting. You have to imagine a situation, what character you are, who the audience is, and the situation you’re in. This theatrical situation is exactly what a local voiceover coach said the very first day of a workshop I attended.

Voiceover pro James R. Alburger also emphasizes the role of acting in voiceovers:

Remember, voice acting is theater of the mind, and you are the actor. When you become the character in the copy, you will be believable to the audience, and a suspension of disbelief will be created. When the audience suspends their disbelief in what they hear, they become more open to the message. This all starts when you discover the character in the copy. (The art of voice acting: the craft and business of performing for voice-over)

Voiceover professional Bob Bergen gives similar advice:

“Acting, acting, acting!!! No matter what kind of VO [voiceover] work you are trying to break into, it’s all about the acting. . . . The obvious trait that animation voice actors have is the ability to change their voice to match characters . . . you have to be believable. There is no such thing as a good voice! Everyone has a good voice! If you listen to radio and TV you hear very real, non-announcer-y, guy/gal next door reads. It’s oh so much harder to be real than it is to be announcer-y!” (quoted in Voiceovers: Techniques and Tactics for Success, by Janet Wilcox)

In other words, good voiceover involves acting. The problem is that in commercial voiceovers, the situations are more story-driven. Sure, they could take place on a stage in a situation with characters. But in instructional writing, you’re saying mundane sentences like click this, select that. Do this to create a new widget, and then save it, etc. I’m practically falling asleep writing this sentence.

Inflect your instructional script with some interesting pitch and emotion, add some drama and soul to it, twist a word here and there, and you end up converting the instructional script into a ridiculous soap opera. Click this. Now SELECT this button …. and when you’re ALL finished, go ahead and save the information.

On what kind of stage could an instructional script like that take place? I’ve said in past posts that you can imagine yourself sitting in a cafe explaining to a friend how to use a software application. But somehow that isn’t enough. You’re still yourself, the user is too ordinary, and the setting is mundane.

But perhaps it isn’t. The real problem in this situation is that a click-this, select-that script WOULD NEVER BE AN ACTUAL CONVERSATION THAT YOU HAVE IN A CAFE WITH A FRIEND. Can you really imagine yourself sitting across from Jim, a technical novice, saying Now Jim, in order to create a new group on your dashboard [sip your Coca Cola], you first click the Settings menu, then select New, choose the Group type, add the people you want to the group [take a bit of a Cuban sandwich]. Configure the attributes of the group you want by selecting the check boxes. [Chew food.] Then click Save. [ Wipe corners of mouth with napkin.] Refresh your page and you will see the new group …

No. In a cafe, you would give a conceptual overview of the application, briefly describing the basic idea of a group and how it functions on the dashboard and within the larger purposes of the application.

Doc Guy explained this same idea in our review. He said,

When I choose to watch a video about software, I expect it to be a general overview, not full of specific steps to take to walk through an entire procedure. If I want the specific steps, I’ll go to the written help material.

During our discussion, I showed a sample video from my favorite screencaster, Michael Pick of WordPress.tv. Here’s his screencast on Carmen, the latest WordPress version released.

Don’t focus on the pace (which is much faster than my screencasts). Don’t listen to the Jazz music, which always add to the voice’s appeal. Instead, listen to the script itself: it’s general. It’s an overview. It’s conceptual. Specific, granular steps are not narrated in painstaking detail. It really is something you might hear a friend explaining in a cafe.

So perhaps I doom my own screencasting efforts by creating impractical scenarios and then kicking myself for my inability to make it sound conversational. I can’t simply single source my screencasting scripts with my procedural help topics. The real first step in creating an engaging script, I believe, is to be honest about exactly the type of dialogue that might take place on the stage of your cafe.

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What I’m Presenting on at the Dallas Summit

Tom Johnson — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:28:28 +0000

At the STC Summit in Dallas this year (May 2-5), I’ll be giving a presentation titled “Developing a Personal Voice in Audio.” I’m moving in the direction of screencasts, focusing on the audio component in this presentation.

2010 STC Summit in Dallas, Texas

Here’s the presentation description:

Narrated video tutorials — both scripted and spontaneous — are a powerful tool tech writers can employ to help users learn software. But the audio component of a video tutorial can be challenging. Both the audio processing and personal delivery pose challenges for tech writers, whose strength may be the written word rather than audio. Often the voice component of these video tutorials is outsourced to “voice talent.” But what do professionals with voice talent know that regular tech writers don’t? By imagining a situation, adding inflection, learning to breathe and pause, and integrating other voiceover techniques, you can develop a personable, friendly voice that engages users. You can also give your voice a deeper, richer sound by using the right microphone in the right acoustic environment and applying several post-processing techniques.

People who attend the session will learn the following:

How to choose the right microphone, set up a makeshift sound booth, record and post-process sound.
How to deliver audio for a tutorial in a way that users find personable, friendly, and engaging.
How to avoid pitfalls in audio that drag a video tutorial down, such as speaking monotonously, falling into a predictable rhythm, or popping P’s.

I’m actually working on about 25 Joomla screencasts at work right now. (Joomla is an amazing CMS, by the way.) Last month I created a guide for web administrators across the globe to build country websites, basically a simple version of LDS.org in their language. About a month after creating the guide, the PM said to me, hey, we’re wondering if you could do some videos too.

Why the videos? Wasn’t the guide enough? No, because that’s not how the majority of people learn software. A software application is a visual experience — the buttons, the layout, colors, movement, the functionality. It makes sense that a visual learning mode (e.g., screencasts) would be the most helpful in learning a visual interface. I know that when I’m looking to learn a new program from scratch (not just looking up a specific information for an application I already know), video tutorials appeal to me. When I see, I understand. And videos are exploding all over the web — because videos appeal to others as well. We are visual learners, for the most part.

There’s a lot to learn about screencasting. You could be a full-fledged sound engineer, videographer, voiceover artist, and interactive multimedia producer before you feel completely comfortable. Screencasts combine all of these elements into one experience.

For the Dallas presentation, I’ve narrowed the scope considerably to focus only on voice. Even a dull screen can come alive with an engaging, warm, interesting voice.

If you have any tips, tricks, resources, or other insight in developing a personal voice in audio, let me know.

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Quick Poll on My Podcast Topic

Tom Johnson — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 07:39:40 +0000

I’m rethinking the focus of my podcast, and I’d like to get your feedback. With each of the following poll questions, you can see the results immediately. If you have responses that don’t fit the yes or no answers, please use the comments field below the post. Thanks for the feedback.

[poll id="5"] [poll id="8"] [poll id="6"] [poll id="7"] [poll id="11"] [poll id="9"] [poll id="12"]

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Why Goog-411 Is Free Whereas Directory Assistance Costs Money

Tom Johnson — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 04:10:38 +0000

Ever wondered what the business model is behind Goog 411 (free directory service)? It’s “a test bed for a voice-driven search engine for mobile phones.”

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Blogging as an Outlet for Technical Writers

Tom Johnson — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 22:08:54 +0000

Ben Minson reflects on the value of having a blog when your day job is technical writing. Blogging can be an outlet to practice your own literary voice, rather than always be trapped in a style guide.

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Blogging, Podcasting, and Screencasting: Eight Characteristics to Attract Devoted Followers [Part 2]

Tom Johnson — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 21:52:02 +0000

Download MP3
Length: 35 min.

This is part II of the Blogging, Podcasting, and Screencasting presentation that I gave to the TransAlpine conference in Vienna in June 2009. For more details about the podcast, see the first write-up. If you haven’t listened to Part 1 yet, listen to that first (unless you prefer to arrive en media res).

Here’s the accompanying PowerPoint.

If you’re wondering why I didn’t just combine the two audio files in the same post, iTunes doesn’t read the second audio file that way. Also, most people’s attention spans tend to time out after an hour.

As always, I love to hear feedback, so if you enjoyed listening to the presentation, drop me a line or leave a comment. Thanks.