I wrote about a problem of poor audio quality a few weeks ago. Whether it’s a webinar, a hangout or a corporate video too many videos suffer from poor audio – and it’s killing the value they have as a way to increase inbound leads. It’s never made sense that companies make huge time and effort and, often financial, investments in online videos [both live and recorded] and then fail to make sure the audio quality matches that of the pictures.
I was listening to a few YouTube videos online this week and a couple illustrate the problem perfectly. The performers, in my opinion, are equally talented – but the difference in the audio quality is night and day.
First, an example of a produced cover of the latest Bond theme, ‘SkyFall’. The audio and video have been recorded separately and mixed in post production.
Then there’s this version produced in, what looks like, a lounge or bedroom. I don’t know whether the tracks were recorded on separate channels and then edited together [pretty easy to do], but it’s clear that both were recorded at the same time.
Then there’s a version of the same song that’s recorded ‘as live’ with a bit of production. You can’t see a mic in this version and, even if you weren’t watching the video, you would know that the main track was recorded on a mic some distance away from the singer.
And, finally, there’s this version that – I suspect – was recorded using the built-in microphone of the PC or Mac the video is being recorded on. Either that, or it’s on a stereo microphone – perhaps the onboard mic of a camcorder. You can hear some white noise at the start of the recording and the richness of the audio is not the same as the first two you heard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ib55PR6wIQ
If the albums released by your favourite bands sounded like the last example, would you buy it?
Oh, and then there’s 95% of podcasts, webinars, hangouts and corporate videos. If they were as good – or even close – to the final of these examples then they’d likely be far more effective than they are. So, next time you are putting together a webinar, webcast, hangout or online video remember which version[s] of the covers you most enjoyed listening to – and make sure your audio rocks. Your listeners will thank you for it.