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From a presentation delivered by Matthew Ellison at Technical Communication UK 2011
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Technical Communication UK 20th – 22nd September, 2011 The Oxford Belfry, Thame
Matthew Ellison
Speak out! Narrate your way to success
Who am I?
• Technical Director of UA Europe conference
• User Assistance specialist
• Trainer/consultant in User Assistance and eLearning
• Voiceover professional
• Amateur actor
What will we cover today?
• When is voiceover narration appropriate?
• Why should you use it?
• Guidance on recording voiceover narration
• Pros and cons of simulated voiceovers (Text-To-Speech)
• Guidance on using Text-To-Speech
Sample applications
• Adobe Captivate 5.5
• SpeechOver Professional 4.0
• Recording
• Closed Captions
• Text-To-Speech (TTS)
Voice characteristics
• Expression/tone/accent/personality
Question: Is voice “better” than text?
• Fixed paced (real time experience)
When is voiceover narration appropriate?
• Information accompanies real-time media: • Video
• Animation
• Demo
• Entertainment (Performance)
• Multi-tasking
Why use voiceover narration?
• Is voiceover better than text captions? • Yes!
• Demo + audio is more effective than Demo + text
Mayer (2005c)
What about accessibility?
• User can’t hear the voiceover
• Use optional subtitles (closed captions)
What can go wrong?
• Poor recording equipment and/or environment
• Poor delivery: lack of expression, inappropriate accent, wrong pace
Choosing a microphone
• USB connection to computer
• Cardioid pick-up area
• Condenser • Better sound quality
• Less robust
Invest in a Pop Filter
• No pop filter
• With pop filter
Choosing an environment
• No background noise
• Small room or enclosed area
• “Soft” walls
Tips for making your voice more engaging
• Vary your pitch, pace, and inflexion
• Smile (but don’t sound as though you are suppressing a laugh)
• Speak to an individual
• Recording in short chunks
Recording audio in Captivate 5.5
Text-to-Speech (TTS)
• Rapid developments over last 3-4 years
• Concatenative synthesis
• Many different voices and accents now available
Text-to-Speech (TTS)
Application
TTS Engine
Quality criteria for TTS voices
• Naturalness
• Intelligibility
See what you think: • http://www.nuance.com/vocalizer5/flash/index.html
• https://acapela-box.com/AcaBox/index.php
Comparing Human Voice and TTS
• TTS lacks the subtle nuances and variety of expression used by a real human voice
Comparing Human Voice and TTS
Text on Screen No voiceover
Text-to-Speech Narration
Human Narration In-House
Human Narration Professional
Lowest Cost Fastest Easy to Change Least Hassle
Highest Cost Slowest Hard to Change Most Hassle
Tony Karrer , 2010
TTS for Adobe Captivate 5.5
• Microsoft Sam or Anna (US)
• NeoSpeech: • Paul (US)
• Kate (US)
• Loquendo • Simon (British)
• Juliette (French)
• Stefan (German)
• Additional voices can be purchases • Acapela, AT&T Natural Voices, Cepstral, Nuance, and others
Adding TTS in Captivate
Adding TTS in Captivate
Fine-tuning TTS pronunciation and prosody
• Good punctuation
• Phonetic spelling
• Mark-up languages
• Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML)
• VoiceText™ Markup Language (VTML)
Fine-tuning TTS pronunciation and prosody
• Loquendo mark-up controls http://www.loquendo.com/en/demo-center/interactive-tts-demo/
Fine-tuning TTS pronunciation and prosody
Fine-tuning TTS pronunciation and prosody
• Pronunciation Editor for Adobe Captivate 5.5 TTS (NeoSpeech voices only)
• For more information, see tinyurl.com/6397ose
Final tips for voiceover narration
• Recording demo in real time (full-motion video): • record narration as you record demo
• Recording demo as screenshots: • add narration later
• Always write a script
• Use shorter sentences and more informal language than you would for written text
• Use Text-to-Speech for first draft
• Ideally use a human voice for final version
References and further reading
• Mayer, R E (2005c). Principles for managing essential processing in multimedia learning: Segmenting, pretraining, and modality principles. In R.E. Mayer (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of multimedia learning (pp. 147-158). New York: Cambridge University Press
• e-Learning and the Science of Instruction: Proven Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning, Ruth C. Clark and Richard E. Mayer, 2nd edition (2007)
• Tony Karrer’s eLearning Technology blog: Text to Speech, http://elearningtech.blogspot.com/2009/05/text-to-speech.html
• Want to Create Engaging Screencasts? TechSmith, http://tinyurl.com/2ertj6v
• Matthew’s blog on Adobe Captivate, http://blogs.highlander.co.uk/tag/captivate/