Tuesday, October 26, 2010

LTAP - How to Record your Slides/Desktop and Voice

An LTAP representative asked me how I did mine. So here it is.

Camtasia Studio 6, download Camtasia 7 here for 30 days, is what I used when we found it on one of my boxes here.

Used a simple Andrea Anti-Noise NC-61 that I use for these type of things.

I could use my Plantronics Voyager, BUT that day it didn't work, updated some software and it would not stay connected.

Camtasia has a simple wizard that you tell it to record a window, or part of one or everything. And then just press record. Simple right?

No

What I found was the sound was horrible the first time I recorded a few minutes to test it all. By the way, always test the process and sound etc. for 1-2 minutes to make sure everything looks and sounds like it should.

I set the Audio to record at PCM, 22.050 khz, 16 Bit Mono. Yes not great but it was the only option that sounded good enough to record and present with, in my case, success my vary.

Just set up your presentation to run in movie mode. If you will need other apps or screens, like a command prompt, Domino console or admin client make sure they are ready to go and able to swap back and forth.

Also when recording, DO NOT SIT DOWN. Stand, pace, walk around, you will have no energy or passion in your voice if you sit the whole time. And when presenting a webinar without audience participation it is hard to maintain momentum so you need to make it up.

If you mess anything up in recording, like I did at one point, server dropped a connection, you can edit it in Camtasia, but if you never do editing, it may take a bit of effort, so best to know how to hit pause, and continue recording, on the recorder when stuck.

Once fully complete, remember to Save As else it saves in some camtasia format, I used an avi file but the choice is yours.

Any questions you know how to find me on Bleedyellow, Lotusgreenhouse, lousLive, Skype, AOL, MSN, Yahoo from the upper right corner of my blog.

This was my first time doing it, after listening to it I would have changed some,
but most people know how to find me for questions and comments. I should be online during the session to answer any chat questions as well.

Good Luck everyone.

PS I am doing a second session but no time to record it, so will be doing it live, alert the press! "iNotes Redirector 101+"

3 comments:

  1. Keith,

    I used Camtasia 7.1 for mine. We have a Koss system for recording sound so I used that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Keith,

    Thanks for using Camtasia Studio and sharing your tips about how to use it. Much appreciated!

    We're always looking for feedback so feel free to contact me if you have any thoughts or questions.

    Betsy Weber, Chief Evangelist, TechSmith

    ReplyDelete
  3. Here's what I'd add.

    1. Check your recording before posting. Make sure mic volumes are set correctly. Check the video quality.

    2. Check the video quality, did you have Camtasia set to autozoom, so that we see the next button closeup every time you go to the next slide?

    3. If you have any kind of facial hair, stuble etc. make sure you Microphone is not rubbing against it.

    4. Make sure your mic is not too close to your mouth, you're not flying an airplane, you don't have to suck your microphone when you record.

    5. Don't follow the advice about walking around if you have a corded microphone, many microphones are sensitive enough to pick up the cord hitting cloths etc.

    6. Read step, if you follow step 1, you'll know if you broke any of the other steps.

    ReplyDelete