Poor sound quality in Powerpoint recordings

[Guest]

I've been trying to record a narration for a presentation. The quality of
the sound, using an appropriate microphone and sound card, is appalling --
there is all kinds of background fuzz.

This is not a hardware problem. I can use the same hardware to record a
clip using Window's sound recorder application, and then attach it to the
slide -- pristine. It's only a problem when the recording is done through a
powerpoint dialogue -- either narration, or "insert sound recording".

A recording done through "narration" would be the easiest thing for me, but
the quality of the finished product is unacceptable and unprofessional. I
will have to do individual recordings and attach separately to each slide,
which is way more work for a long presentation.

Can anyone help?

RonM

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I've been trying to record a narration for a presentation. The quality of
the sound, using an appropriate microphone and sound card, is appalling --
there is all kinds of background fuzz.

This is not a hardware problem. I can use the same hardware to record a
clip using Window's sound recorder application, and then attach it to the
slide -- pristine. It's only a problem when the recording is done through a
powerpoint dialogue -- either narration, or "insert sound recording".

When you mention recording a perfect clip ... also via the microphone, or from
some other source? I ask because I've had nothing but bad luck recording to
various laptops using anything from junkfreebie to semi-pro microphones.

Switching to a USB mic or an outboard USB soundcard made all the difference in
the world.

But re PPT, check the sound settings; the defaults, which it returns to for
each new recording, are set for small sound files but fairly bad quality.
Bumping that up before you start should help quite a bit.

 

[Guest]

I tried different quality settings, it made no difference. The problem had
to do with recording directly into PPT, through the narration function. As
noted, when I used sound recorder (same qualtiy setting) there was no
problem. It's a mystery.

With respect to microphones, a pro-quality mike didn't work -- too weak a
signal, not enough gain in the sound card. However, cheap mikes sold for
things like VOIP worked fine, although I had to select the "boost microphone"
function in the sound application. This worked for both my laptop and my
desktop, but in the desktop only after I bought a cheap soundcard to replace
the onboard sound function.

But I would like to find a way to make the record narration function work. . .

Ron

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I tried different quality settings, it made no difference. The problem had
to do with recording directly into PPT, through the narration function. As
noted, when I used sound recorder (same qualtiy setting) there was no
problem. It's a mystery.

And remains one to me, but then I don't do much of this stuff.
Here's hoping that someone who knows more can toss in $.02 or more.