Camtasia Audio Tip – Record in 3’s
by Lon Naylor
Filed under Audio, Blog, Recording
There are LOTS of times when I record the audio track for my Camtasia videos first.
Why?
Several reasons:
- Trying to record a vocal narration and record video footage at the same time leads to mistakes and extra editing.
- I can take a recorded audio source file and drop it into Audacity to remove noise, equalize, fix volume levels, etc. to end up with a clean audio track.
- It’s easy to snip out big mistakes OR take advantage of the subject of this QuickTip which is:
Record Vocal Takes in 3’s
There are times when creating and using a script are a really good idea.
For example, when crafting an important sales message you want to treat your video script like “sales copy” and using a script let’s you craft that message as such.
But what you DON’T want is to sound like you’re reading from a script!
Solution?
As you record your audio, try doing multiple “takes” one right after the other and what you’ll probably find is that the second or third time you say a written passage out loud, it sounds more “natural”.
Watch this short clip of how the pros do a voice-over of a script and you’ll see what I mean:
Did you notice how several of the voice actors would pause…and then pull another shot at the line…and maybe even another try?
Did you also notice a difference in the dynamic of what each take sounded like? A different inflection leading to a different emotion, a subtle change that changes the feeling, etc.?
Why do them one right after another?
Because when you do…it’s stupid simple to listen to each one…pick the best – and snip the rest!
Now, you obviously don’t need to do this ALL the time. But I find it really helps especially when recording from a script where you can easily come off sounding like you’re reading…
To find out more and the step-by-step tutorials on exactly how to do this, check out the full Learn Camtasia 7 Course
HERE.
Thanks, this is a great tip. I would have never thought of it. I will try it next time.
Hey Lon,
Thanks for this and all else you do. One suggestion I would like to make to you is when I want to share a piece of your content (such as the above), I want to share it on Facebook with a picture of something exciting (not the product cover of Camtasia). See if there is a way to save the video clip from above so that I may share it with my people and get some traffic for you.
.-= Frank Dobner´s last blog ..How You Can Lose Weight By Eating Out =-.
Hmmm…thanks for the idea. I’ll check it out. And the kind words! Appreciate it. Oh…and don’t forget you can create your own affiliate link for any post on LearnCamtasia and snag $100 if someone buys! I’ll make a video on how to do that in the near future.
That’s a great Family Guy clip, but very instructive. I like the “3 take” tip, it’s a good discipline for lazy people like me! Goes for writing copy, too, if you force yourself to do some more versions even though you think the first one was great, it’s surprising how your opinion can change…
Tony
Hi Lon,
I have 2 problems with camtasia 7…
Redirects do NOT work…
Youtube loading does NOT work either…
Do you think you could do a video on these
two subjects?
Redirects being more important to my marketing
efforts…
I can load em to youtube with tubemogul.com
Thanks
Jeff Davis
Hi Jeff,
I did a test of the CS 7 redirects: http://screencaststudios.s3.amazonaws.com/test/testredirect/testredirect.html
Seems to work fine.
I have had some issues with the YouTube upload however. I’m researching that now and will hopefully have an answer when the Producing Module for the LearnCamtasia 7 product is ready late next week…
Hi Jeff,
On the YouTube problem…from Dave O’Rourke, Lead Camtasia developer:
” We have several reports of this error, but we do not yet know the root cause. Thus far, we’ve been unable to reproduce the error. Some customers report that they get this error consistently. We’ve tried many times to reproduce the problem on our side, even to the point of uploading the exact same video. One customer was even kind enough to share his YouTube username and password with us. We uploaded the exact same video file, using the exact same user account and password, and it worked for us, but not for the user. Ugh.
Soooo… we’re still trying to find a root cause, but this particular error has been pretty elusive. It would help if you could provide additional details about these errors. For example:
1. Does the error always occur or only sometimes?
2. Do you notice any patterns to the error (e.g. only with longer videos, or larger dimesnion videos, etc.)?
3. Is there anything odd about your network connection?
If you’re willing to work with us to troubleshoot this problem, please contact our TechSupport staff at the top of the page. Or post additional info to this thread. Thanks in advance for any info you can provide.”
__________________
Dave O’Rourke
Camtasia Studio Lead Developer
And I like to record my video first, then lay in my audio. Or I chunk the project by dividing into 1 minute clips.
That way, there is not so much editing.
I’ll have to give your way a try.
.-= Debbie Lattuga´s last blog ..Why Buy a Digital SLR Camera? =-.
Hi, I do the same. I record the video and then add the audio. I do end up doing several takes on the audio until its perfect in my mind, and agree, the more takes I do the more natural I sound (practice makes perfect)
LOL!!!
True professionals, everyone of them.
I would be laughing my ass of before the end of every take.
Why was I watching this again…oh yea.
I agree Lon the more times you do the recording the smoother and more natural it sounds. Usually my keeper is the 3rd or 4th take.
When you hear me kinda laughing on some of my videos, it very well could be because it was the 7th or later take before I got it the way I wanted. The more I screw something up when I’m recording – the funnier I think it is.
So when you hear me laughing on my videos now you know why.
Great tip – once again – Lon.
Steve D.
.-= Steve M Dougherty´s last blog ..Internet Marketing PLR Videos =-.
Thanks Steve! Folks, Steve is known for cranking out great videos…one of my best students!
Great tip reinforced with video. This will save me time and produce a better quality product.
I’m definitely going to start doing this. I find myself dreading recording from a script because of doing it in a timely way WITH the video and sounding Natural. It is really hard to do that.
But now with reading your post here explaining the benefits of recording your script in 3′s I can visualize the benefit of not recording audio at the same time as video. Thanks for providing a real world example of how this works
Look for my “scripted” videos coming out from me in the next few weeks. Thanks much for the tip
.-= Tanya Watson´s last blog ..“Fergie Video” and Keyword Research =-.
A very useful tip Lon. I tend to fingd if I’m trying to work screen and voice at the same time, the voice becomes a depressing monotone that drives customers to a suicidal frenzy rather than a buying frenzy.
Hi,
another great webinar on May 25th 2011. Video showing inside membership area (before buying video course) is a good tip.
The video above has been removed. I guess you YouTube is following overall Google’s latest changes about respecting value of real information content instead to intentionally commercial. But what was so commercial about this video (URL caption in lower third seen full length)?
OK. It appears this audio tip has been removed, due to a YouTube violation. So how do the new purchasers learn the tips?
Hi Nate,
The actual tip is to spelled out in the text. The video was simply an illustration of the Family Guy cast using the tactic. Unfortunately, the YouTube user who uploaded it didn’t have the rights to do so and it has been removed…
Hey Lon and Michele,
The video was taken down…is there another link to it?
Hi George,
Yes, it seems the person who uploaded it to YouTube didn’t have permission to use it. I’ll see if I can find a legit version from the Family Guy folks…
Considering that it is much easier to record audio first and then record the screen over top while the audio is playing back rather than trying to record both at once, why doesn’t Camtasia make it easy (or even possible?) to record productions this way, especially since the whole screen/audio recording process is supposed to be their specialty ?
I realize that one can get a separate audio-recording utility such as Audacity or even use some apparently less capable built-in Camtasia audio utility, but this would involve getting extra speakers good enough to minimize the loss of quality resulting from second-generation sound (the quality of recording the output from built-in laptop speakers into the microphone can’t be too good).
You’d think it would be possible to have the original audio played back for reference during screen recording while also being transferred directly to the new track (since it must already exist internally) so there would not be a loss of quality.
Maybe I’m missing out on some easy technique that’s out there, but I haven’t been able to find it.
This has been Camtasia’s “specialty” for years – don’t they want to save users the extra trouble and expense ? Or is it technically an impossible feat for them ?
Thanks for the great blog post. I seriously think you just saved me hours of time editing and recording my videos. Lon and Michelle your lessons are always very helpful!