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Creating good, professional content isn't easy, that is until you get the hang of it. Once you've used these tools to create audio and/or video, you'll be amazed at how quickly you can output useful and well done content!

The content below is in two parts: Recording your voice or recording your voice but synchronized to a slide deck or other visuals.

Recording your voice is quite straight forward. Recording your voice synchronized to a slide deck or other software is challenging but can be mastered fairly quickly.

So let's get started!

1) VOICE RECORDING

Recording your voice on a Mac is quite easy:

USE A GOOD MICROPHONE
Most often I recommend the Blue Yeti microphone ($129 list price, but look online for better prices). Though it's been around a long time, it is still the #1 seller for podcasting, video voiceovers and other voice recording uses. (NOTE: I have several microphones including the Blue Raspberry which allows me to use it on my Mac, iPhone or iPad).

Here is a useful video review which also shows how it works:

RECORDING SOFTWARE

In the Mac you have multiple options from quick recording to multi-track recording to professional audio recording. We will just touch on three options you can use for voice recording.

1. QUICKTIME PLAYER

The Quicktime player is built-in to every Mac and can record your screen with a voiceover or just record your audio. The good news? It's free, easy and simple.

The bad news? When it comes to audio output, the Quicktime player exporting is in the MP4 container called "m4a" which isn't very cross-platform compatible (the MP3 format works on any device which is preferred for podcasting and other playback).

2. GARAGEBAND

Built in to the Mac is free audio recording software called Garageband. While using it takes some time to learn, it has multiple output formats that you can output if needed as well as all sorts of effects and plugins that might prove useful. Learn more here:

3. AUDACITY

Audacity is free software. You may use it for any personal, commercial, institutional or educational purpose, including installing it on as many different computers as you wish.

One of the reasons it is so widely used is due to its ability to output in about a dozen different formats. Like other recording software, it has a learning curve but there is plenty of information available online for learning it.

Here is a very quick audio snippet I recorded with the Blue Raspberry microphone and Audacity so you can hear what it sounds like and note...my environment in our new house is NOT an optimized space yet for recording!

RECORD IN A QUIET, NON-REFLECTIVE ENVIRONMENT

Comedian and podcaster Marc Maron in his garage
studio where he records his wildly successful podcast, WTF.

It's imperative that your recording space is quiet since microphones pick up any noises surrounding you. Connecting a good pair of headphones to your Mac's audio output (or the Yeti headphone jack) allows you to hear what noises might be happening around you that will end up in your recording.

Simply put, if you don’t wear headphones, you can’t hear the problems you need to prevent. Wear your headphones.

A square office with concrete walls and tile flooring — or lots of windows — is just about the worst recording environment you could pick. Why? Sound travels as waves and, as a result, they bounce off of everything they hit.

The result is called reflected sound, and avoiding it requires some forethought. Here are some basic things to consider when choosing a recording environment, with respect to limiting reflected sound:

  • Avoid rooms with parallel walls, if possible. This keeps sound waves from bouncing back and forth across your microphone.
  • Decoupled walls are the best, though uncommon.
  • Walls lined with anything from curtains to bookshelves will help absorb sound.
  • Bare windows are highly reflective of sound, but heavy drapes or curtains help dampen the reflection.
  • Do not record in a room with bare flooring. A carpeted room is the best.

2) SYNCHRONIZING YOUR VOICE WITH EXTERNAL SOFTWARE OR SLIDE DECK

When you have purchased your microphone and learned how to use it, make certain your audio input has the microphone selected in System Preferences on your Mac and the output set to your preferred output (e.g., headphones if they're plugged in to your Mac).

Once that is done you will be able to open your preferred software and, if it allows microphone voiceovers, record your voice as you present the module.

Like you would expect, there are many, many ways to accomplish this but I'll give you a couple to consider:
 
APPLE KEYNOTE
Here are two videos that demonstrate how to use Keynote to record your voice and export the result as a Quicktime movie (which you can then upload to your YouTube account:

SCREENFLOW
Often I've created tutorials, walk-throughs, proof-of-concept and other videos that required me to do voiceover videos while showing my entire computer screen.

Like every other item I've discussed on this page, there are many methods of doing this (including a screen recording with Apple's Quicktime player) but the most powerful tool on the Mac for this need is Screenflow.

Here are several videos showing its capabilities:

To learn more:

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