Toolkit for Facilitators
How to plan, create and share digital hero books
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Audio
Setting up
Connect your microphone to the computer. Go to the Preferences (on Macs) or Control Panel (on Windows PCs) to make sure that that the computer is recording your voice through the external microphone you have just plugged in rather than the internal microphone.
You do this by going to the Sounds and/or Audio option in the Preferences or Control Panel. There you will find a place to select the external microphone you are using. You may have to look through different tabs on this window to find the pull down menus or check boxes that control the microphone through which the voiceover is recorded.
Recording a voiceover
You are now ready to record the voiceover. We recommend using Audacity, which is free software, following the tutorial from the Center for Digital Storytelling. The tutorial is for using Audacity on Windows but can easily be followed by Linux and Mac users.
Make the room as quiet as possible. We record in a room different to the computer lab, where it is quieter. Being away from everyone else also helps the learners to relax.
You should remind your learners of how important it is for other people to really hear their story. The instructions below help to encourage a natural sounding voiceover.
INSTRUCTION: Tell the learners
Most people are nervous when being recorded. Here are some helpful tips:
- Don't put your mouth too close to the microphone.
- Speak slowly. When you are nervous you often speak too fast.
- Take a few deep breaths before recording. This helps to relax.
- When recording the story it is helpful to sit up straight and keep your shoulders back to make sure that there is good airflow into your diaphragm.
- Remember to vary your voice volume and speaking pace. Practice this first.
- Finally, one good voiceover recording trick is to imagine that you are telling the story to a particular person you know and care about. Create an image of that person in your mind as you start the recording and pretend you are talking to them from across the kitchen table.
First we're going to record the first sentence of your script and play it back to make sure you are happy with the volume and so that you can hear your voice. Then we'll record the whole piece as you read your script. Afterwards we'll listen to it together. If you are not happy with it then we'll record it again. We'll record as many “takes” as necessary until you are satisfied.
Adding sound effects or a soundtrack
If your learners want to use sounds in their voiceovers, e.g. waves crashing down or a cock crowing, they can mix these with their voiceovers using Audacity. For Soundslides it is important to produce one single audio file (voice + cock crowing) when doing this.
INSTRUCTION: Tell the learners
You do not need a soundtrack, but if you want to add one then it must be appropriate to your story. First think about these points when choosing your music:
- Do the lyrics of your chosen song match the message of the story? Is the song happy while the story is sad, or the other way around?
- Do the words of the song overpower or interfere with the voiceover of the story? Remember, the voiceover narration is the most important piece of audio. The soundtrack needs to support it.
- Think about using instrumental music, without words.
In the Resources section there is a list of audio websites where you can find music and sounds.
Licensing of content
Your learners should always try to use copyright-friendly images or sounds in their digital hero stories. Learn more about this in Images.
Credits | Except where otherwise noted, contents on this site is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License
