February
24, 2021 | By Roger Courville
Ask
any presenter if they want their sound and voice quality to be awesome, and
they’ll say yes. Sadly, in the world of virtual meetings and
webinars, exactly how to produce that awesome sound is often
overlooked.
The
good news is that improving your sound quality isn’t hard, it just requires
intentionality.
Recently
I partnered with the GoTo team to deliver a webinar, “11.5 Tactics to Rock Your Webinars in 2021” where
I included a test to demonstrate how differently microphones can sound – and we
had way more questions than I could get to (even though we hung out for an
additional hour!). This post tackles some of the most common
questions arising from that session, including speakerphone usage,
connection troubleshooting while live, using pre-recorded sound, and
more.
So
if you’re ready to up your webinar game, look no
further. These real answers to real users’ questions are chock full
of actionable tips.
***
I use the phone and speak on speakerphone. Is that a
no no? ~ Diane B.,
Renee H., et al
It’s
not wrong, it’s just not optimum (listen to my audio test here). Here’s
why:
Speaker
phones and/or the mic in your computer are designed to pick up an area. It’ll
therefore pick up extraneous noise (paper rustling, your wrist thumping the
desk, etc) and the general reverberation of the room. And this is more important
for great sounding recordings than live events. Almost any headset, even cheap
ones, will produce a better result. The key is the proximity of the mic to the
source (your mouth).
Remember,
there’s a big difference between “able to be heard” and “sounds awesome.”
Asking your audience if you sound ok will only get you the former. In the
aforementioned test, besides listening to the quality differences of the mics,
note the huge difference in warmth in the very final test I do. ANY voice can
sound more rich and “present,” but a speakerphone will almost never get you
there.
How do I get rid of pops that happen with some words? ~Prakesh S.
Typically
those pops (called “plosives”) happen because the air released from your mouth
rushes into the mic. In other words, it’s like a momentary gust of wind.
Position
your mic slightly below and slightly to the side of
your mouth. It’s still useful to keep the mic tight to our face (the sound will
be warmer), but once it’s out of the line of fire, the plosives will go
over/past the mic, not into it.
What would you suggest to do when a connection issue
happens in a live meeting/webinar? ~Ana L.
I’ll
answer in two parts: troubleshooting and preparation.
How to troubleshoot audio: The most frequent way that presenters figure out their
audio is having an issue is someone types in a chat/question something (“Your
audio is breaking up” or “I can’t hear”). The very first thing to do is
breathe. Remember, your audience wants you to succeed (it’s to
their benefit!).
Second,
determine if everyone is having the same issue. The fastest
way is to simply pause and ask. If you get back responses that people can hear
just fine, the issue isn’t you, it’s the individual attendee’s issue (9 times
out of 8 it’s poor bandwidth over wifi).
If
it’s you, though, having a backup plan is useful. In GoToX, it’s easy to
switch from your mic/speakers audio to telephone in the Audio pane. Bonus tip:
use chat/questions to send a note to the audience that that’s what you’re
doing.
Finally,
remember that video without audio is useless, but audio without video/visual is
(oddly enough) what we did for 100 years before GoTo was
around. J Keep on keepin’ on!
How to prepare for audio issues: I mentioned during the webinar that I always
use two separate computers. To save space here, I’ll refer you to this post where I walk you through
step-by-step how I do it and why. Short version: on the second
I have my phone dialed in and muted.
When logging in as a presenter with two different email
addresses, when you set up the webinar, do you have to have the email address
from the presenter in advance and add it in the Presenters field? ~ Kelsey L.
Kelsey,
in addition to referring you to this post for exactly how to use two computers or monitors generically-speaking,
there are two GoToWebinar-specific things to know.
Yes,
if you have a second email address for the presenter in advance (and assuming
they’ll be using two computers), set both up as Panelists when you set up the
webinar. Benefit: saves you the most time, and both of their email addresses
will get the reminders. If they have a problem, it’s faster
for them to find a link to join/rejoin. And practice/rehearsal time will
be better. Keep reading.
If
that doesn’t happen in advance, it’s easy to promote an Attendee (their second
login) to being a Panelist. Be sure to use GoToWebinar’s ability to
rename them with a slight variation so you know which is which. Downside: Your
practice/rehearsal won’t be as effective.
Remember: GoToWebinar’s practice mode is awesome because you’re
practicing in the exact same “room” that you’ll be in for the live event. Only
Organizers and Panelists can get in (to a practice session), however, so the
presenter’s setup, mic, etc., won’t be tested in practice.
We have started using Kahoot in our GoToMeeting events but how
do you pull the sound from the online program into GoToWebinar? ~Bart K.
Worth
noting, you can do this in GoToMeeting, but it’s not a feature
in GoToWebinar (Yet? I don’t know, I’m not employed there). If you
want to do it with GoToWebinar…
Remember,
your computer is looking for a single audio source (that’s how way they’re
made), so to use a secondary audio source to your microphone, you’re
either “switching” sources or “mixing” sources before they get to the
audio output that GoToWebinar is looking at.
Mixing could
be done external to your computer (a painful workaround I’ll not go
into), or internally using software. I use Loopback (Mac
only) and love it. Trusted associates who use PCs suggest VoiceMeeter (though
I’m sure there are others).
I have had trouble with pre-recorded sound coming through.
I can hear it on my computer but the audience was unable to hear it. Is
that just a setting I have wrong? ~Boone P
No,
it’s not a setting, but it does suggest a missed opportunity. I’m guessing that
you’re playing a video…and that’s something you can upload
in GoToWebinar before the webinar starts (like we did in the session you attended).
Then when you play it, the audio plays through GoToWebinar.
If
you don’t, what’ll happen is that the audio from your video comes out of your
computer speakers and is then getting picked up by your microphone. That’ll
mean the level will be low if it can be heard at all. The good news is
that GoToWebinar has what you need.
What are you using Roger, your sound is so clear, no room noise,
no annoying echoes. ~Susana G.
What
can I say, I was an audio engineer in a past life. The good news is that you
don’t have to be. For this webinar, I tested a Samson G-Track, but my go-to (pun fully
intended) is an Electro-Voice RE-20 (the standard
in the radio biz for a long time). BTW, something like the Logitech H390 works great and is
cheap.
I’m a pilates instructor, but I keep dealing with
echo. Is there something I can use for echo cancellation? Is there
software I can use to fix it? ~ Claudia D.
The
good news is that GoToX handles audio better than just about anyone.
The bad news is that the issue is your setup, not GoTo. Since I can’t
ask you a follow-up question (the power of a live event!), here’s a lengthier
answer that’ll help you think it through.
The
first rule of good sound is “fix it at the source.” Software-based echo
cancellation is fine, but it’s a band-aid that may not entirely solve your problem.
I’ll first describe the phenomena in terms of aural environment, then help with
solutions.
Echo
is a sound you hear at an interval…like yelling into a canyon and
hearing back a response. Reverberation (‘reverb’) is that same
reflection when you canNOT hear a distinct response.
Reverb,
described another way, is like hearing a “bright” room because of hardwood
floors or other flat, hard surfaces (that reflect the sound a
lot) versus a “dead” room that has lots of carpet, drapes over the
windows, and/or uneven surfaces like a bookshelf full of books (that
absorb or deflect higher frequencies). You or your
audience experience it as your sound source being located spatially
instead of like the sound source being isolated (like a mouth really close to a
microphone). Such a ‘spatial’ sound very frequently is harder for an audience
to hear clearly and makes poorer recordings (see my previous response
about using a speakerphone).
Echo
isn’t technically what we get when tech is involved (unless the issue isn’t
yours). Most commonly, it’s instead a feedback loop — like if a
band’s singer holds the microphone in front of a PA speaker — sound comes out
of speaker, goes into the microphone, goes through the system and back into the
speaker, round and round and round. There are softwares that
isolate and dampen this enough to stop the problem, but they’re less elegant
because they take up computer horsepower and usually require a
workaround.
Assuming
echo is, in fact, what you’re describing, the simple/fast solution of which is
to move the mic away from the speakers (or mute it altogether, which
probably isn’t an option for you) or turn down the speakers. Or…
In your special case,
I’m guessing you have the volume of the speakers turned up to hear
music, audience, or both. This is complicated by smaller speakers that have to
be turned up more, too. I’m guessing that muting your microphone isn’t an
option.
You’ve
got three variables: mic, speakers, and setup.
I’d
first consider a wireless headset microphone that enables your movement but has
the mic close(r) to your mouth. Personally, I’d consider a real wireless
mic (such as this) versus using computer Bluetooth, but
this means you’ll have to plug it into your computer.
GoToMeeting/GoToWebinar make it easy to switch mics, so you’d simply
select the right one from the Audio pane.
Less
elegant: I have and sometimes use a wired lavalier mic (Audio-Technica ATR3350xiS Omni Condenser Microphone),
and it’s wonderful for the money. I can’t imagine, though, a wired mic being
elegant for teaching Pilates.
The
benefit with either of the above is that your mic will be farther away from the
speakers (and you’ll sound waaay better when it’s closer to your
mouth).
Once
your speakers are farther away from your mic, it’d also be useful to hear them
clearly without turning up the volume as high. There are ways that “equalizers”
or sound-shapers can help with this, but it’s beyond the scope of this
response. But getting speakers that include a sub-woofer would likely make a
huge difference – you’ll more easily hear the beat and won’t have to turn up
the volume to do so.
No comments:
Post a Comment