Audio Editing in Teleseminars: Putting the Finishing Touches on Your Product

It's quite common for teleseminar hosts to repackage their teleseminars as audio files. This is often done to allow attendees a means to review the seminar on their own or as a means to earn an income from a finished product. However, teleseminar sessions – particularly those which are interactive – are very rarely perfect. Audio quality, for one, isn't always ideal. So how do you perform audio editing in teleseminars in order to produce a good recording? Here are ways how:

Use a reliable recording device or application

Even if you will be doing the teleseminar by your lonesome, it is still quite possible for you to perform the editing afterward, provided you have a recording of the presentation.

There are plenty of excellent recording devices and applications you can use. The simplest is probably by recording yourself using a microphone and your computer. This is if you intend to package the teleseminar with only your voice appearing on it. Simply save the audio file on your computer and edit it from there using a media player application.

You can also use software that is capable of recording the teleconferencing session in full. This means that you will have a record of the whole discussion, with your voice and those of your participants in it.

Some examples of application you can use for audio editing are Audacity, AudioAcrobat and Wimpy MP3 Player. These applications allow you to record your teleseminar and then make finishing touches later. Some may even offer a podcasting feature, so check if this option is available.

Use a third party service

If you want all the trouble off your hands, hire a professional third party service to do all the work for you. Other than the company servicing your teleconference bridge line, you might also find other providers that not only record your teleseminar but will also edit the audio.

The advantage here is that you get professional-level service for your needs so you can be confident that your teleseminar content is in good hands. Furthermore, many of these providers even offer extras such as producing your edited teleseminar audio as CDs or DVDs, in formats of your choice. If you prefer, you can also take advantage of their transcription service, often inclusive of their fees.

What part of the audio do you edit?

There are plenty of stuff in the master recording of your teleseminar that you might want to edit out of the finished copy. Some of these include:

- Background noise. Static and ambient noise is often present in teleseminars. The location from which you speak, for example, may contribute to the noise particularly if the location is not private enough or doesn’t afford sufficient protection from external noise. Noise coming from the environment of your callers will also affect the quality of the audio of your teleseminar.

- Irrelevant talk. Some parts of the discussion that occur during a teleseminar may not be necessary for the final recording. Chit chats, a few seconds of gossip, an inappropriate remark, etc. will have to be edited out.

- Pauses from the host or callers. Longer-than-usual pauses, 'uhs' and 'ums' have to be edited out of your teleseminar audio. If you stuttered, coughed or paused too many times, the final effect if the audio is unedited will be far from flattering, so you will have to tweak the audio to produce a recording of the session that has a better quality.