Voice Lessons

My iPod still hasn't returned from its trip to the Apple hospital but in the meantime I've received a Macbook that I've been learning to use.

I have also been continuing my struggle with Camtasia. Who knew two minutes of video could take so many hours? I'm so sick of doing the same things over and over again I'm almost ready to just stick Power Point presentations up and hope for the best. And I won't even go into how things seem to be moving around on the time line by themselves and call outs that match the audio in the editor no longer match when the video is produced...

But I'm learning a good lesson about audio that will help when I start recording my podcasts.

First, after literally starting over again 20 times yesterday, I finally got my script out as close to perfect as I've ever come, only to find my microphone had come unplugged.

So, make sure my equipment is working.

Second, I have no idea how to speak. I've somehow managed to communicate all these years but when it comes to recording audio for instruction I'm a disaster. Sometimes I go too fast and then go too slow. Sometimes my voice goes up too high for no reason. Sometimes I lapse into some weird story telling voice and other times I run out of breath.

I feel like I need voice lessons for podcasters. I'm going to look around and see if I can find any advice on pacing, tone, and breathing.

But I might take a break to take some more weird pictures with my Macbook...