Technical Marketing

Audio

Go from Dull to Dramatic

As the venue of Technical Marketing shifts from physical labs, to online demos, creating dramatic demos has never been more important to a Technical Marketeer.  This means new tools have to be used.

How you sound is critical to keeping the audiences attention.  If you sound dull and boring, that can be fixed with technology.

As you create your podcasts and videos, remember to keep them exciting.  The simplest way I have found is by using some low-cost tools for audio.  It’s all about the gain.

Warmth, Clarity and Dynamic Range:

A Condenser Microphone is best:

• Microphone – Large diaphragm, FET, Cardioid, Condensor.
• Don’t forget the cable.
• Phantom Power – Preamp.
• Pop Filter. You can make one yourself.
• Mic Stand: Any will do.

The above works with Vista x32, I’ve tried it.  No extra software is needed beyond the drivers.

Basic Voice:

• Marshal Mics – I have used the USB 990. It is not that exciting, and I could never find the Marshall driver and software on the net. Tech support said not to use their own software.
• Blue Snowball – Other than having a cute name, I have not used this, and it has some good reviews.

For video content creation, I have been using uTIP, because it’s free and records in .flv and .avi format. You can record an onscreen demo, go back later and record the audio.

If you don’t have a recording studio, just search for acoustical foam, and experiment.

Beyond the requirements:

I downloaded and installed Pro Tools v7.4 Demo software for Vista. Apparently Pro Tools doesn’t want to sell very much of their software, there certainly is no “easy” button.

Live Lite at least has some built-in tutorials.

These above Mics work with Audacity, and if you are using Vista, you will need to search for and download the Audacity Windows Unicode version.