Many business professionals look to enrich their customers by providing them educational tools.
Often this in the form of free or paid webinars. Here at Fake It ‘Til You Make It, I’m a huge fan of the likes of Pat Flynn (Smart Passive Income Blog), David Stone (blüStone Marketing Presents), and others.
There’s a lot of variety when it comes to Webinars. The vast majority of presenters use a computer, a Powerpoint Slidedeck, and a voice-over track. Others have expanded into a live-format in a sort of “video podcast”. For the latter, they’re using a DSLR, video camera, and/or smartphone setups.
This blog post focuses on the business professionals that are recording their screen for a presentation or using a slide-deck. If you’re using a camera to record you live, check back soon for another Fake It ‘Til You Make It blog post covering those tips.
Can I Use the Internal Mic?
Computer microphones are a great tool for a video chat, but they’re really an one-trick pony. The pickup is small and most won’t sound good.
This will have muffled audio or a hollow sound in a pair of decent speakers. As more and more people are watching this kind of media on smartphones and tablets with stereo speakers (or in increasingly sophisticated headphones), this can pose a problem for your listeners.
If your video sounds bad, chances are your listeners won’t…well…listen for long.
Another thing. The shortcomings of an internal microphone is often compounded by the computer’s software messing with the audio by default. This is especially true for Apple users. The Mac OS actively dampens the ambient sound to get you better audio, but it can cause problems.
Go to System Preferences, then Sound. From here you can increase the input volume. You may also want to turn off the “Use ambient noise reduction” option. This setting, when turned on, applies a sound filter to what comes in the microphone.
I’ve not found a similar feature on Windows. If you have, please let me know in the comments.
Using a headset or a headphone mic
Using a headset is one of your best cheap options. Be sure to test it well before you run your webinar. Do a few sound checks and play it back on a few devices to be sure it sounds ok.
A headset is almost always better than a headphone-mic, largely because the sound pickup will be consistent.
When people are using a headphone mic (like the ones that come with smartphones) they tend to hold the mic with one hand and talk into it. The problem with this is that most people can’t hold their hand in one static position for a long time, giving you peaks and valleys in the sound.
Another problem is that it’s harder to avoid getting the “p” and “s” sounds from popping when the mic gets too close to the mouth.
Avoid Keyboard and Mouse Clicks
Many people record on a laptop’s internal mic while presenting a slide-deck (i.e. a PowerPoint or screen-capture). Throughout the program you’ll hear the click of the trackpad of as you progress through slides.
For a smoother, more professional program, work on a timer in PowerPoint for each slide to switch, use the arrows, or use an external mouse.
Avoid External Noises
I once lived in a house with an office. Every day at 3 p.m. an Ice Cream Truck would drive by and park right across the street! Every phone call or audio track I was involved in had to be planned around that ice cream truck’s annoying jingles sitting on my street corner.
A multitude of sound sins can be forgiven by careful planning. If a dedicated audio system can’t be purchased, and the above technology isn’t available, do everything possible to reduce ambient sound.
We become deaf to certain sounds in our environment that will greatly decrease the quality of your audio.
- Pick a time of day that is quietest in your house or office
- Avoid rooms with high ceilings
- Avoid fans and air conditioners in the room you’re filming in
- Avoid standing next to windows (particularly those near the street)
- Pick a time of day that is quietest in your house or office
- Avoid rooms with high ceilings
- Avoid fans and air conditioners in the room you’re filming in
- Avoid standing next to windows (particularly those near the street)
- Be careful where you record from
- Use a headset instead of a headphone, if you can’t afford an external microphone or audio system.
- Adjust your input settings as much as a possible (more advanced)
Tell us about your audio set up in the comments! What works for you? What doesn’t? Have you upgraded to a straight-up microphone instead?
Be sure to catch the next blog in this series – Sound 101 – Part 3: Get the best sound quality from a smartphone for your business video.
Until then, Fake It ’Til You Make It.
Leave a Reply
Your email is safe with us.