Had to do a lot of retakes but thanks for the tips. I won’t be able to invest in a mic yet but I’m okay using my apple headphones once I gain some traction I’ll be buying a new mic
I just posted my first video
Let me know how you guys feel about it https://youtu.be/PU75M0QkwTQ
You don’t have to spend hundreds on a mic. Even a $50 mic with a pop screen will help a lot (I got a $70 one with a boom arm from Amazon and it sounds amazing compared to standard headphone/laptop mics).
If you have a bit more budget, the Shure MV7 seems like a great option. One of my friends is an audio engineer, uses one of those and, at least, sounds pretty great over Discord :P.
It also has an XLR output that provides an upgrade path for a better audio interface.
You can also monitor with headphones directly on the mic through the 3.5mm input.
I personally recommend getting something with a boom arm. You can put the mic right up in front of your mouth and move it to sit comfortably. And it takes it off the table so it doesn’t pick up as much table noise.
Someday I might invest in a more expensive option but this was a huge upgrade for me in terms of quality. Beyond this it’s diminishing returns in terms of improvements vs cost. I think something like this is a good starter option.
A headset could probably work but I don’t have any experience with them.
I’ll definitely invest in mic and make the sound quality much better
Audio is 80% of video.
People will watch potato-quality video; no one will listen to garbage audio.
A mediocre mic placed 3-6" from the mouth is going to almost always sound better than any price of mic placed 5' away, except in sound treated studios with excellent technique and strong post-processing.
Have you seen the movie This Is Spinal Tap? Good scene on this "common knowledge":
i'm not an audiophile either, but some videos really had audio that was terrible enough to make me quit that.
examples: some buzzing in the background, high-pitched noise in one of the channels, or audio in mono (you only hear the person talking from the right ear, for example).
This one has a good example of bad vocal audio (at 1:00): https://youtu.be/-PLMiA18tBc?t=60
Bad video as long as you can read everything on the screen is okay.
But poor audio is an absolute bummer. Cannot tolerate this at all.
This doesn't make rational sense to me. I think it is probably because people have access to decent audio for much longer time than they have had good video.
It's 100%. Even god himself needs thunder during a storm that has lightning.
(Or that's what I was told when I did some TV shows and how important the audio engineer on set was.)
This is good advice for most people in general. Speaking slower gives more time to think about what you're going to say, which means you say better things. It's shocking how slowly you can get away with speaking.
Incidentally, slowing down is also good advice for improving your handwriting.
Importantly, for topics that I don't understand (learning a new language - Dutch), I often don't speed up those videos because my brain is working a helluva lot harder to keep up. This changed last week however, when I was watching some very basic A1 content and found myself wanting to speed it up just a little bit. Did it help that the presenter was speaking slow and enunciating? Yes, but it's nowhere near the most important deciding factor (imo).
You'd probably miss out on quite a lot more if you played a Platonic dialogue back at 2x speed.
javascript: (() => { document.getElementsByTagName('video')[0].playbackRate = prompt("Set video speed multiplier:", "3"); })();If anyone is interested, I run a PeerTube instance and am looking to add more people aside from just myself creating content on it.
Obviously the reach is not good currently because there is only myself on my instance but imagine what we could do together if a handful or a dozen or so people regularly crate content about tech, programming and/or music on this PeerTube instance. We could grow a nice community together I think.
This echoes to basically anything creative in nature. Always consider the average situation of your customers when making your product.
As a programmer, consider whether your program runs properly on a $300 dollar potato from Walmart rather than your $8000 dollar development workstation. As a videographer (aka Youtuber), consider whether your video looks nice on a $300 dollar potato from Walmart rather than your $8000 dollar 8K 60" monitor.
How do you find subreddits you can self promote on without getting a ban?
I was making computer security videos for people, real basics for programming, networking, web interactions, number bases, bit math - stuff that you need to learn as a base to get into hacking. Grew my channel pretty quickly to 1k subscribers just by sharing them to reddit. I deleted it because I got annoyed that I was making content for YT for free (the videos are still archived on Odysee). It really didn't seem that difficult to grow though when you're giving it away.
For pure dev things, cover different algorithms or data structures. Mobile, gaming, and web will have large audiences but already some established channels.
Other tips -
- Get a good mic, mic stand, shock mount.
- Downsize your screen to 720p when you record so it is large enough for the average laptop screen to read. It is absolutely ridiculous when someone is recording a tutorial on a 4k monitor and the text is microscopic.
- I was less concerned about video but repurposing a DSLR as a webcam is a good move. Pay attention to lighting and your background. Some people like full bright lights, color LEDs are a good vibe too.
- Practice speaking. Slow down.
- Learn to edit so you don't worry about redoing your whole video in a single take. I didn't like editing so I would redo 20 minute videos a few times until I got it right.