Trouble with voice recordings

[Meowmee]

I am having trouble with my voice doing recorded lectures. My voice is so hoarse I can barely do this and I keep making mistakes and have to do it over again. I’m only recording one slide at a time also. So that should make it easier. But some of these are long lectures, one which had over 100 slides and the current one has about 35.

I tried doing some of my singing exercises that I used to do in the past when I had problems lecturing in person after a botched endoscopy which damaged my vocal cords. I have had constant nasal drip for years that comes down into the back of my throat.

I just had a terrible coughing fit while I was drinking tea and eating. Not doing any recordings. I had to take a cough drop. I don’t know what to do anymore. I can’t take the anti-histamines, I tried the steroid inhaler in my nose just to see if it would help but I think maybe it made it worse, I’m not sure.

I wonder what else to do here. I’ve done the ginger tea, I can’t take honey, sips of water, trying to rest in between. I really don’t want to have to go to the ENT and almost every time I have gone to them they were useless, except for telling me to do singing lessons a long time ago.

Someone said the worst thing you can do is clear your throat if you’re singing, the odd thing is I was able to sing pretty well right after the coughing fit and having the cough drop and drinking a little more tea. But my speaking voice still sounds hoarse and awful. It’s not like laryngitis, it just sounds gravelly and hoarse and I feel strain. I am getting so stressed out about how bad it sounds each time I have to record a slide.

[multigraincracker]

1. Try a Nettie Pot.

Just make sure you use distilled water. I use mine all of the time.

You can get them at any drug store.

https://www.riteaid.com/shop/neilmed-nasaflo-irrigation-device-1-kit-0350546?s_kwcid=AL!9320!10!77584370216410!4581183922679101&msclkid=6211c049a378189fd38fa3184702deea&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=WITHIN_4510_Evergreen_Shopping_Catchall_All_NB_Bing&utm_term=4581183922679101&utm_content=Catch%20All

[Meowmee]

2. I have tried those too

And they make me worse for some reason so I threw them away. I also tried the bottle with the saline solution. One of the ENT told me not to do that because it just introduces bacteria which I think may be true because I got an infection after doing that once. But I also got an infection, worst cold ever, when I went to ent once and they did the scope to look at my vocal cords etc.

I have a very small nose passage apparently and it’s hard sometimes. A couple of times they could not even get the tube through my sinuses to see what’s going on. They have to use the one for children and spray a numbing agent to do it. But I think they use a numbing agent for everyone.

I don’t know, I’m so desperate I think I’m gonna see if I still have that bottle and some of the saline solution left and try that again.

Thanks 😀

[Earth-shine]

3. Make your recordings, then fix them up using audio editing software.

One of my many careers was that of audio engineer.

Most people make many verbal flubs when they speak or read aloud. These can be corrected after the recording.

When you make a mistake during recording, just pause for a moment, then repeat the sentence and go on.

Later you can just identify the bad sentence and simply delete it.

If you are a musician or lecturer, learning to edit yourself digitally is very valuable.

Try this editor. It's free and good, made by the Mozilla people.

https://www.audacityteam.org/

[Meowmee]

4. Thanks

I will try it. 😀 I hope it works with powerpoint because I am doing the recording in that.

[Earth-shine]

5. Save the audio from PP as a .wav file or other uncompressed format.

Then edit in Audacity.

Export (not save) in .wav format.

Import into PP.

Good luck.

[Meowmee]

6. Thanks