DIY Narrator: For Instructional Designers Who Narrate eLearning

It takes two to tango!

The live roleplay scenario is a staple of the in-person training world. But when it comes to eLearning, the closest you can probably get is to have two voices acting out a conversation or scenario as part of your narration.

Whenever you have multiple actors, a whole new set of issues can show up. Problems with mismatched volume, echo, and weird sounding conversations.

Next time you plan to have two or more people in a conversation for one of your eLearning modules, here are a few things to consider before you hit record.

Hopefully, they can save you some time in the recording sessions or in the editing process.

In this episode, I discuss:

* Working with two talents recording at the same time

* Working with two talents recording at different times

* The Cardioid Pickup Pattern

* A new definition for the word "distracting"

* The Sympathy Chuckle

Stuff I Talked About:

* Firewatch Voice Acting

* Joey Tribbiani

* Cardioid Patterns

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If you have any questions for me, please email them over to [email protected] or send me a message on my fancy new Questions Page.

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Say Goodbye to Mouth Clicks!!

Clicks, smacks, pops, spaghetti mouth. Doesn't matter what you call it, mouth noise is annoying for the narrator and the listener.

They can add hours to your narration and editing time, tons of frustration...

And they're one quick way to disengage your learners.

In this episode, I'm discussing all the methods I've used in the last few years to overcome mouth noise in my e-learning narrations.

These are tips I've actually tried. I discuss worked for me, what didn't work, and which I still use.

In this episode, I discuss:

* Saliva

* 3 tips to fix mouth noise

* A handful of bonus tips, because I can never stop at 3

Stuff I Talked About:

The following are affiliate links, I may earn a commission if you make a purchase through my link, without any extra cost to you. Thanks for your support!

* Halls Fruit Breezers

* Biotene Mouth Spray

* iZotope RX Elements

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Question?

If you have any questions for me, please email them over to [email protected] or send me a message on my fancy new Questions Page.

That's all for now. Be sure to subscribe in your podcatcher so you can catch the next episode.

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Use your microphone properly!

You've thought about your performance, your room is tuned up and you just pulled your brand new Yeti from its cardboard shipping vessel. Time to fire it up!

WAIT!

Sure, you can flick it on and start talking. It can be that easy. But how do you know you're doing it right?

How do you know you're using it properly?

I can hear you already, "Josh... you talk at it and it records you."

Well, yes. But if you don't think about how you use your mic, you may make a mistake that costs you extra time in editing, sounds terrible, or worse...

Annoys your learners!

In this episode, I'm talking about three mistakes that are commonly made when it comes to mic technique.

In this episode, I discuss:

* Common mistakes you might be making with your mic technique.

* Ways to fix them

* Signal to Noise ratio

I also laugh at myself way too much. But that's nothing new.

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Question?

I'd love to start incorporating a Q&A section into each podcast. If you have any questions for me, please email them over to [email protected] or send me a message on my fancy new Questions Page.

That's all for now. Be sure to subscribe in your podcatcher so you can catch the next episode.

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Time to improve your room!

Wow! Thank you to everyone who shared the last episode. Also, thank you for all the new connections and great messages on LinkedIn. It makes me amazingly happy to hear that I'm actually helping you out and maybe helping you think differently about your approach as a DIY Narrator.

This week we’re going to get into one of those areas of narration that people seem to just plain ignore.

Your room.

Fixing your room isn’t that hard and is totally not optional. At least not if you want good quality audio.

Your room is the most important part of your audio quality. Hands down, no question about it. More important than the microphone, more important than the timbre of your voice.

More important than anything else.

Think about all the effort and care you put into each element of your eLearning.

Why not give that same care to the quality of your audio?

But don't worry!

You don't have to drop thousands of dollars on acoustic panels and foam to improve the sound of your room. You can do it with some basics that you probably have around the house, or by using one special place of your house that you most likely already have…

But that’s a super secret location that I reveal in the episode.

In this episode, I discuss:

* A really great food analogy

* A quick discussion on acoustic treatment vs soundproofing

* Kiddie pools

* Three approaches to knocking down echo in your recording space

* A super secret location that you can use to record great audio

Stuff I mentioned

I mentioned a few things in this episode, here are some links so you can investigate further:

* The Porta-Booth Pro

* Vocal Booth To Go

* Roxul - The acoustic treatment in my booth

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Question?

I'd love to start incorporating a Q&A section into each podcast. If you have any questions for me, please email them over to [email protected] or send me a message on my fancy new Questions Page.

That's all for now. Be sure to subscribe in your podcatcher so you can catch the next episode.

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Performance tips for the DIY Narrator!

It's finally time for the first real episode of the DIY Narrator Podcast! If you're an Instructional Designer or eLearning Developer who narrates their own eLearning, you should make sure you tune into this one.

I'm really excited about this episode because I'm very passionate about the subject.

Every element of your eLearning project is included because it does one of two things:

* Provides essential information

* Improves the learner's engagement

Your initial thought regarding Narration might put it into category 1. But the narration isn't there only to help with providing essential information.

There's nothing special about having a narrator vs only displaying text on the screen if you give it the job of just delivering the information.

In fact, if that's your attitude about narration, don't waste your time on it or just get a robot to narrate for you. They're cheap.

The performance of the Narrator not only delivers the information but can carry the engagement.

It's so much more than just reading a script. If your listeners feel like you're in the room with them and speaking directly to them, they're going to be more engaged in the process of learning.

In this episode, I discuss:

* What I mean when I say "performance" in eLearning narration

* 5 tips for more engaging eLearning narrations

* Exercises to help you apply the tips

Question?

I'd love to start incorporating a Q&A section into each podcast. If you have any questions for me, please email them over to [email protected] or send me a message on my fancy new Questions Page.

That's all for now. Be sure to subscribe in your podcatcher so you can catch the next episode.

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Narration Foundations for DIY Narrators

Thanks for tuning into the first episode of the DIY Narrator Podcast! If you're an Instructional Designer who narrates their own eLearning, you don't want to miss out.

I know, most of the time you can just skip Episode Zero when it comes to podcasts, but be sure to catch this one!

In this episode, I discuss

* Who this podcast is for (nudge.. nudge... Instructional Designers!)

* Why I decided to do this work

* What this podcast is NOT

* The 5 elements of effective DIY Narration

* What to expect in the next episode

Links to resources mentioned:

* The Lounge Podcast

* My Episode!

* Wabi-Sabi!

* More Wabi-Sabi with Seth Godin

That's all for now. Be sure to subscribe in your podcatcher so you can catch the next episode.

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