Narration During a Video Tutorial

[JamesMPhotos]

Hello,

As a minor edition to my photography website, I want to add a tutorial section where I will conduct various
"How-To's", regarding the use of "Photoshop" and "Lightroom".

I have everything I need to make this happen (software, apps etc), but I have always encountered a pet peeve, when I view other people's tutorials. The thing that irks me most is when you either do not like the voice and/or accent of the person narrating the video tutorial.

Do any of you have an idea on how to get around this, and not have the user hear a [possibly] irritating voice?

Thank-You for reading (and hopefully commenting) on this.

(P.S, my current plan is to utilize my iMac's "Text to Speech" feature; I have the idea of typing up what I want to say, into various sections of a word document, then record what the system would say. If I were to take this route, I would NOT use one of the novelty voices, most likely I would use the "Alex" voice.)

[DavidTO]

I would prefer a real person with an "irritating" voice over text to speech, myself. I would recommend getting a decent mic, there are some good, inexpensive USB options. A good recording with minimal room tone is key. Also, read the narration wild, then cut it in. This way you can read and re-read the text till you think you got it right, and when you're cutting it in you can choose between takes. Your own voice adds personality and allows the viewer to connect to you. I would think this would be valuable.

Whatever mic you get, you could also build yourself and inexpensive portable sound studio (http://voiceoveressentials.com/PortaBooth-Portable-Sound-Studio/M/B00151YP18.htm).

[JamesMPhotos]

That is great input. You are right, it would definitely add a "personal touch" to it, and the user would feel like he/she is actually with someone, instead of a machine. I have a pretty good mic, and for a while I did theatre so the speech thing should work out, one I get back into the swing of things.

Your help is really appreciated! :clap:thumb

[BradfordBenn]

The challenge with text to speech is making sure that it can actually convert the text to speech, especially technical terms. Unless you are planning on using a speech engine with rules to know whether to pronounce the number 1024 as "ten twenty four" or "one thousand and twenty four" or "one zero two four" the text to speech can be more distracting. It will also result in things not timing out correctly between the narration and the action. Think about something not having any emphasis at all and everything being monotone, it will be worse than an accent.

I recommend having a look over at TechSmith and their Camtasia software for training ideas. I have found their ideas and comments greatly improved my tutorials.

[angevin1]

Narrative speech in tutorials has never bothered me. Broken accents, etc. As long as I can get the gist of the tute, the tute is pri-1~

[DavidTO]

And? How's it going?