I’d like to introduce you to Christine Fish- one of my LearnCamtasia.com course students and a professional Instructional Designer who will be using Camtasia Studio to produce E-learning. She and I started a conversation in our Camtasia Training Private Forum about how inexpensive it can be to use a professional recording studio, as long as you are completely prepared going in, and how much better your sound quality will be. I asked her to share her thoughts and experiences here.

We know that the quality of the audio is at the top of the list of things that make or break a screencast. But what if your home or office studio or the client’s site just can’t be tweaked enough to produce the quality of audio that the customer is expecting and willing to pay for? Enter the professional recording studio. But wait, isn’t that expensive, especially if you need to make changes later? Not necessarily.

First, do your homework. If you know or can connect to people who are professional voice talents in your community, ask them which studios they prefer and why. My voice instructor, an experienced voice talent, referred me to the studio that I use. It’s not the least expensive studio, but the owner is a professional voice talent and sound engineer with many years experience. And the facilities and equipment are superb.

Your homework should also include visiting studios, talking to the owners and sound engineers and asking lots of questions about their services to determine, for example, what is included in the price, how files will be delivered to you, how far in advance you must schedule and the minimum and maximum time allowed, and what discounts may be available.

My strategy for using a professional studio cost-effectively is to record in batches. This works when I have a client that needs a series of screencast tutorials or a few clients that need a simple screencast within the same time frame. To minimize changes that can result in another trip to the studio, I complete the audio scripts with storyboards and get my clients to sign off on both before I schedule studio time. I also record each script at least twice to have more options when I edit the raw audio files.

Do you use professional recording studios? If so, what other tips would you share?

Christine Fish is an experienced technical communicator, instructional designer, screencaster, artist, and President at Fishco Studios, LLC, in Austin, Texas. She can be reached on LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/fishco ) or on Twitter (@Fishco_Studios).

Related Posts:

• Shrink Down Those Giant Video Files
• Profile
• Thanks – ClickBank

You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.