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Information Technologies

Recording and Editing Audio in Adobe Presenter 6 & 7


Audio can be a very powerful tool in your PowerPoint presentation. It can also be a very valuable asset to your presentation for those who may be using assistive technology. Since audio can reiterate the text of the notes for each slide, it can accommodate users who may not be sighted. In addition, the audio can supplement or compliment the content of your slides.

 

When adding audio using Adobe Presenter, you should consider using the slide notes from your base PowerPoint presentation as the script for your recording.

Importing Slide Notes
Recording Audio
Editing Audio

Importing Slide Notes
  1. Open your PowerPoint presentation
  2. Click the Record Audio button on the Ribbon
  3. Calibrate your microphone by following the instructions in the Set Microphone Recording Level dialog box that appears
  4. Click OK
  5. Select the View Script option
  6. Click the Import Notes button (the script you wrote in the notes section will be imported here)
    • Select Slide Range:
      i. Current Slide: Imports notes from the current slide only
      ii. All Slides: Imports notes from all slides in the presentation
      iii. Slides: Allows you to select specific slides in the presentation
    • Select Import Options:
      i. Append Imported Notes to Current Scripts will add any imported notes to the end of the existing scripts
      ii. Replace Current Scripts with Imported Notes removes any existing scripts before importing the notes selected

 

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Recording Audio

 

After you have imported your slide notes, you are ready to begin recording. We recommend that if you will be doing the audio recording in your office or other environment, that you consider the following:

  • Make the environment as quiet as possible. Disable cell phone ringers, phone ringers and any other devices that may unexpectedly make sound during the recording process.
  • Close out of email and your Instant Messenger software.
  • Use a good quality headset. While desktop microphones are tempting, they also pick up a great deal of ambient and background noise.

Record your Script

  1. Select the Record Audio button from the Ribbon
  2. Calibrate your microphone by following the instructions in the Set Microphone Recording Level dialog box
  3. Click OK
  4. You are now presented with the Record Audio dialog box. Pay attention to the Record, Play, Pause, and Stop buttons along with the Previous, Next, and Next Slide buttons.
  5. There are several different ways to record your audio for your presentation – record the entire presentation at one time, record with animations, and record each slide individually.
    • If you want to read/record the entire script for your presentation without stopping and starting each slide:
      a. Click the Record button (red circle)
      b. Speak into the microphone
      c. Click the large Next Slide button to move to the next slide
      d. When you are finished, click the Stop Recording button (black square)
    • If your presentation has animations:
      a. Click the Record button (red circle)
      b. Speak into the microphone
      c. Click the large Next Animation on a slide with animations set
      d. When you get to the end of the animations for that slide, the button will automatically change to Next Slide
    • If you like to record one slide at a time::
      a. Check the box Record/Play this slide only
      b. Click the Record button (red circle)
      c. Speak into the microphone
      d. When you are done recording this slide, click the Stop Recording button
      e. Click Next
      f. Repeat these steps until all your slides have been recorded
  6. Click the Play button to listen to the recording.
  7. If the audio is acceptable, go to step 8 BUT if you need to re-record, go back to step 5 and re-record
  8. When you have recorded audio for all of the slides, click OK

 

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Editing Audio

 

Even under the best conditions, and with the best preparation, you can have less-than optimal audio recording. Adobe Presenter allows you to edit your audio recordings so that any flaws or "hiccoughs” can be eliminated. Or you can re-record the audio for each slide. You can also use the Audio Editor to edit your audio, add silence or adjust the volume.

 

Using Silence

 

There may be times when you need to add a period of silence to an audio file. Such as:

  • If you import an audio file and need to synchronize the audio with slides
  • If you have inserted a Flash file with audio, such as a “talking head” video of a speaker, into a presentation and you want to synchronize the Flash file audio with slides.

Adding Silence

  1. Click the Audio Editor button from the Ribbon
  2. Insert your cursor at the exact point on the audio file where you want to start the silent period
  3. Select the Silence option from the Insert menu
  4. In the Insert Silence box, enter a number to specify the length of silence (in seconds)
  5. In the Seconds at drop-down list choose Cursor Position
  6. Click OK

Adjusting Volume

  1. Select the portion of audio to adjust, by clicking and highlighting it
  2. Select the Volume option from the Tools menu
  3. Uncheck the Normalize and Dynamics check boxes
  4. Click the volume slider on the left side and drag it up or down to increase or decrease the volume
  5. Optionally, you can change the audio processing options
    • Normalize – allows Adobe Presenter to adjust the sound volume automatically
    • Dynamics – amplifies quiet sections of the audio to help compensate for variations in audio volume
  6. Optionally, click Advanced Controls for advanced editing audio volume options
    • Ratio- specifies the maximum amplification that Adobe Presenter will use. The default setting of 2.0 sets the quietest sections of the audio to be amplified by a factor of 2. A higher setting can improve a project that has large disparities between quiet and loud sections, but can also amplify background noises.
    • Noise Threshold – controls the amplification of background noise. Adobe Presenter doesn’t amplify any sound below the threshold. If background noise is amplified too much, it may help to set a higher noise threshold. (Note that the Dynamics option does not work well with high noise levels.)
  7. Click OK
  8. When finished editing the track, click the Close button AND SAVE.

 

At this time you need to SAVE your PowerPoint presentation. A .ppc file will be created which contains all of your audio. Do NOT delete this file or move it to another location or the audio will NOT work for your presentation.

 

NOTE: Make sure you save to the 97-2003 format. The file extension is .ppt.

 

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