Get Shift Done: Tips and Tricks
How to Narrate Your Adobe Spark Video
Adobe Spark Video makes it easy to create compelling slideshow videos to share on the Web. But to make them really memorable, why not engage another of your viewer’s senses: hearing? Adding a recorded narration to a presentation reinforces your message, increasing the likelihood that your audience pays close attention to the lessons you need them to take away from the slideshow.
Here’s how to add good-quality audio to your Spark Video slideshow.
First of all, you need a microphone attached to your device. Most laptops, tablets, and all cell phones have built-in mics, so no problem there. However, if you’re using a desktop computer, depending on the model, you may need to connect an add-on mic. (Most simply connect to your computer’s USB port.) Be sure to speak into the microphone, and remember that narration should be significantly slower than your usual conversational voice.
Okay now, let’s create our narration.
After you log into Adobe Spark, the first screen you see is My Projects, which is your personal library of anything you created with Spark. Click on the thumbnail of the video you want to narrate.
In the workspace that opens, notice the microphone icon at the bottom of the current slide.
If this is the first time you’ve used your mic with Adobe Spark, when you click on the microphone icon, your web browser pops up a window asking if you want to give this website permission to access your microphone. Click on Okay or Yes. Now things should work seamlessly.
To narrate that slide, press and hold the microphone icon, and whatever you say is recorded and added to the slide.
To help get your narration right, Spark Video provides two visual clues. Above the mic icon is a timer, indicating how long your narration is running. (In the screen capture below, the timer is at 3 seconds.) When you run over 9 seconds, a reminder to “Keep it short” pops up under the timer.
A less useful visual is the animated sound track symbol; it looks like it should be providing feedback on the volume of your narration, but all it does is remind you that you are recording.
To stop recording, release your hold on the microphone icon. However, don’t stop recording immediately after you finish speaking. That’s because Spark Video automatically times the slide display to the length of your video. And you don’t want an abrupt slide transition to chop the end of your audio. A half-second to a full second delay before releasing the mic icon works nicely.
To listen to your narration for this one slide Click on the Play icon in the lower left corner of the slide.
Don’t quite like the narration? Simply repeat the process above until you are pleased with the way you sound.
Now, click on the thumbnail of the next slide, and narrate it. Follow through with each slide until the entire show is narrated. To preview the full slideshow with narration, in the middle of the top ribbon on the screen, click on Preview.
Now you have a fully narrated slideshow video that people will enjoy hearing as well as seeing. Please click on the thumbnail below to view the narrated video.
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