Audio Standards and Choosing a Microphone

What are ART’s minimum standards regarding audio?

In order to publish your course, each of your course videos must contain an audio track that plays from both speakers (left and right channels). Additionally, ART requires that the quality of audio is not distracting students. Text to speech software is not allowed; students want to hear directly from you as an instructor to build trust.

You can read more about our requirements and recommendations for good audio in our ART Course Quality Checklist. For additional tips from ART about recording great audio for your course please check out this resource.

What microphone should I use to record my course?

Most microphones are capable of producing audio that meets ART’s minimum standards. Listed below are some common microphones that ART instructors have used to produce their courses:

1) Blue Yeti
2) Blue Snowball
3) Samson Go Mic
4) SONY ECM CS3

Please note that it’s not required that you use these microphones. There are many other options that will produce audio that’s acceptable for your ART course. If you have any question about whether your equipment will suffice, ART is happy to review a Test Video from you, which you can submit before you start filming the content of your course (read more here)

What are ART’s recommended audio settings when recording/exporting files?

When exporting video files in your video editing software, ART recommends that you select MP3 or AAC as your audio codec. Our video upload process supports many audio codecs, but selecting MP3 or AAC provides the most seamless upload experience.