March 28, 2024 • 58 mins
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I completely gutted and rebuilt my studio for the first time in 6 years and would you believe it– some valuable lessons were learned along the way!
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•The NT1SS was running through the Rodecaster Duo on the NT1 preset.
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S12E4 | Series Episode 168
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Podcast Artwork by Kevin Ramirez
Original theme music written by Patrick Boberg and performed by Mike Alvarez
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Thank you, hello and welcome.
(00:34):
My name is Tom.
This is the Enthusiasm Project,season 12, episode 4.
And it is four days late ifyou're listening to this, pretty
much when it came out is fourdays late if you're listening to
this, pretty much when it cameout, and that's a thing we're
gonna be talking about.
Why?
Because, basically, my wholestudio slash office has been
torn apart for a long time andit was hard to record during
(00:59):
that time.
But everything's back now, andso this is this episode, but it
ties into what I want to talkabout anyway.
Initially, I wanted to focus on,kind of the concept of cheap
versus expensive gear, which issomething we've talked about a
little bit, but, you know, maybewith a little bit different
insight, and then revamping mystudio for the first time in six
(01:20):
years definitely taught me alot.
So, figured, those are.
Those are cool, interestingthings to talk about, and that's
going to be the main focus oftoday.
Before we do that, though, wedo have some gear to talk about
and a message, a listenermessage, to go through as well,
so let's dive into those things.
Gear rundown, for today I amtalking about this.
(01:44):
I have a little different setup,I mean in terms of equipment
it's sort of similar, but I amphysically in a different area,
as I have taken my main desk, mymain workspace for so many
years, which has been where I doa lot of work and make videos,
and I have taken those twothings work and videos and I
(02:04):
have separated them, so it's notthe same space for both things
anymore, which is huge.
So I have a little a nice, likeactual work desk setup that
does not need to function as aprimary shooting space either,
and that is incredibly helpful.
(02:25):
So what I'm on right now is theRode NT1 Signature Series
microphone, the beautiful blueversion of the Signature Series,
which I it's quite blutiful, Ilike it a lot and I'm using this
is sort of funny.
I'm using a newer low profilemic arm that also has a
pneumatic thing.
I'm working on a video that'scomparing different low-profile
(02:46):
mic arms, which is where mycheap versus expensive gear idea
came from, and this was one ofthem.
It's about $72, and it's kindof nifty.
You'll sort of see in the videowhich should come out next week.
You'll see sort of mediscovering how kind of cool
this arm is.
So I've been using it right nowbecause I like it quite a bit
(03:07):
and this microphone is runninginto the Rodecaster Duo on the
NT1 preset.
So that's what we are recordingwith.
I'm still getting used tohaving the Duo.
I put the Duo on my VESA arm onmy desk.
I still have my desk with thearm which had the Rodecaster Pro
2 on it and now it has the Duo,which at first looked
hilariously tiny compared to theRodecaster Pro, and now I'm a
(03:29):
little more used to it.
And even though the Duo and thePro are very similar, there's
still a few things like just nowI was in the mic settings to
look up some of the things and Iforgot.
One of my big complaints withthe Duo is unless you're on the
home screen you can't tell ifit's recording.
So right now I'm on the homescreen because there's no
physical record button Like onthe Pro.
I press record and the bigbutton glows bright red.
(03:50):
On this one it's all on thescreen.
I can see the red record button, but as soon as I go into a
menu like right now I'm in somesettings menus I can't see that
it's recording, which alwaysgives me like a little bit of a
panic attack.
Really wish there was a wayaround that somehow.
But anyway, let me turn the micso I'm a little more on axis
there.
There we go, we'll get there.
(04:12):
The Duo is cool and the reason Iwant to make that switch which
is something we'll kind of, youknow, touch on more a little bit
later is when I'm at my desk Ireally never need more than two
XLR inputs.
You know for the most part, andso the Duo is fine.
But when I make videos,especially mic comparisons, I
often need four because I'mswitching, sometimes even more
(04:34):
than four because I'm switchingbetween microphones all the time
.
So it's like, okay, if this isdesk workspace, for me the Duo
is more than enough, and thenthe Pro can be talk about this
later in a different area forbigger videos and things like
that.
So that is, that's what you'relistening to me on today.
That's what I'm running throughand still, you know, this is
the first thing I've reallyreally recorded in a slightly
(04:57):
new setup, so hopefully,hopefully, it's still listenable
.
That being said, let's jump intolistener messages.
I have one.
This is from Homesick Mac.
So if you've listened to thepodcast, you know Mac has been
around a lot.
He has his own channel whichhas a lot of like blues, guitar
instrumentation, musicianfocused stuff.
(05:17):
He's been in live streams.
Couples he's been around.
He's like a pillar of thecommunity for both Heather and I
and our combined things.
Mac sent me a message and saidhe tried his absolute.
Actually maybe I could evenread it.
He said he tried his absolutebest to get it.
Oh, I don't have that page upanymore.
Apologies To get it as short aspossible, but he really
(05:38):
couldn't keep it under threeminutes.
So we're going to listen to Macexplain stuff.
Fortunately he's an awesomeexplainer, so I get to sit back
and listen and you get to sitback and listen to Mac.
So let's see what he has to say.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
And I wrote the script myself.
I am, however, reading from itto save time, and I'm also
practicing until my Elgatoprompter arrives later during
the spring.
So anyway, ai is just starting.
No matter what we see today, itwill be a children's game
compared to what it's going tobe in a year or two.
I also see a bigger risk,without trying to put out some
(06:20):
conspiracy theory here, butwhatever we're seeing within AI
could have been triggered fromabove, and I don't mean God.
I've read discussions claimingthat they are letting us play
with the good parts of AI whilethey are running the game with
whatever that same AI technologycan do for them.
Well, okay, back to what I cancomprehend.
(06:44):
You mentioned some AI Photoshopstuff, and I've been using
Luminar Neo before.
It was Neo Graphic Editor andthey were the first, to my
knowledge, to include AI.
Then Exposure Software followedand some other editors.
But just following thedevelopment of Luminar's tools
was Carrier Times.
(07:04):
Their noiseless plugin isamazing, cleaning up high ISO
images.
Their skin AI tools, face AI.
The masking is so much easiercompared to Lightroom or
Photoshop, and it's much easier.
So when it comes to YouTube, Isee a development.
When it comes to AI, or howeverwe can call that development or
(07:28):
not.
I see creators openly making AIassembled video, maybe even
marking the video on a thumbnailmade with AI, for the sake of
being efficient in the wholeprocess.
Whole process Like here's somestuff that's of value to you as
(07:48):
a viewer, but I let the AIassemble it to save time and
then I can invest more of mytime and effort to create videos
that are 100% me, and then thethumbnail could also indicate
that, maybe About the order onthe desk and a neat working
space, as Gil was commenting aswell.
So I don't need the ordernecessarily to be creative, but
(08:13):
it's important for me that I'mnot distracted by other stuff on
the table while I'm doingsomething.
So in that regard, it's greatto have order.
I can get some great ideas aboutsomething while in the middle
of creating a totally differentproject, and then I always have
a notebook on a dedicated placeon the desk, no matter how messy
(08:36):
it can get sometimes, but it'salways there so I can write down
something.
So let's say, I'm playingguitar.
I pull out one instrument afteranother it's a mess in about 20
minutes, and then I'm doingthat you know several songs at
the same time or whatever, andthen I get in this idea.
So the notebook is my saviorthere.
(08:57):
Right well, this is what itcould be an ideal world.
I'm suspectedly ADHD, so ithappens very often that I mess
up the clean space and do fiveor six things at the same time,
but then I try to get back onthe wagon and do only one thing
(09:18):
at the time, which is always thebest, of course.
Tom, thank you for a greatpodcast, and I love everything
else you do.
Of course you know that, socheers.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Alrighty, thanks, mac , for that message and apologies
that I cut off the beginning ofit because I had the USB
channel muted on the Duo.
Oops, in the beginning he justsaid that he was not using an AI
voice, which was in referenceto Bailey's AI generated message
from the last episode, whichwas pretty fun.
So there's kind of two thingshere to talk about.
(09:46):
This message.
We're talking about you knowstuff with AI that we talked
about last episode, and also Gilhad a message about you know
creativity and his teacher, missOrlando, from Florida, which I
still think is hilarious.
And talking about creativitylike needing order to you know,
not coming from chaos in somecases, and so let's kind of
(10:09):
break down my thoughts on bothof those.
I appreciate you sharing those,mac, and I do just want to plug
Mac's channel because he'srecently celebrated his 100th
live stream.
If you just go to YouTube andsearch up Homesick Mac, you'll
find it there.
Awesome channel, awesomechannel in general, but
especially if you're a musicianand into guitar or into the
blues, then you really, reallywill enjoy it.
(10:31):
Talking about ai, though, Ithink you're I think you're
you're totally correct like itis just child's play compared to
where things will be in the nottoo distant future, probably
for better and worse sort of wetalked about last episode.
These things can be usedAnytime a new technology is
available.
If it can be used for bad itwill be, but that doesn't mean
(10:53):
it's inherently bad.
And with AI it is very scary ina lot of ways because it's so
new and so different.
But it is like we talked aboutone of those things like the
genie's not going to go back inthe lamp, the toothpaste isn't
going back in the tube.
So finding ways to understandit, embrace it, figure out how
to incorporate it, I think isvery important, and I did notice
(11:15):
recently YouTube did add whenyou upload a video now,
similarly to how you have tocheck a box if you have
sponsored content or you receivesomething for free in the video
, there's now a box to checkwhether or not you are using AI
altered content.
So I forget exactly what theirdescription is, but it's
essentially if you're using AImaterial or making something
(11:37):
look like something happenedthat didn't happen, or making it
look like someone saidsomething they didn't say or
whatever it might be happen, ormaking it look like someone said
something they didn't say orwhatever it might be, which I
was kind of wondering.
Does that dip into like specialeffects in a certain way?
You know, like if you'rewatching the old film right
YouTube channel, they're makingit look like someone teleported,
when the person probably didnot teleport, even though that
was not done with artificialintelligence.
(11:57):
I don't know.
I feel like it's YouTube'sfirst step in trying to.
I feel like it's YouTube'sfirst step in trying to regulate
how people are sharing AIcontent.
I don't know what it looks like, though, actually, if you click
the box and I don't know whatmessage pops up for the viewer,
but that could be.
That's an interesting thing.
(12:20):
I guess it's definitely aninteresting thing, and the
creativity coming from order andall that kind of stuff, I think
is definitely a little bittricky, because so much of it
really does depend on theindividual.
Like you know, some of us, somepeople, need perfect, like
blank slate in order to work,and other people kind of work in
(12:40):
chaos, kind of work in chaos.
But a thing that I was thinkingas I was listening to the
message was I remember when Iwas teaching and I was in my
classroom and it really, if youjust kind of walked in, it would
.
There's so much going on.
You know, like there's not onlythe space is sort of big and
varied.
There's a broadcast studio,there's a computer lab, there's
a production studio, there'sstudents coming in and out with
(13:02):
all kinds of equipment, there'san equipment locker, there's a
podcast studio and there's stuffhappening in all these places
that it could seem absolutelyinsane.
I, as the teacher, knew whatwas happening in all the things,
not just because that's likesome superpower, but because
that was what was built.
You know it started.
You got the first day of school,first day of the program.
Nobody's touching anything ordoing anything, and slowly
(13:24):
you're building in these systemsand you're building in these
skills.
And then by you know, februaryor March, the middle of the
school year, it looks if astranger walks in, it's just
going to look insane, buteverything's actually running
smoothly.
And I think when it comes tolike a creative space, that can
also be the case, and I thinkthat's kind of the case for my
space is that it looks.
(13:44):
It can look chaotic and andwild, but when you're the one
who has built it up and it kindof suits you perfectly, it makes
perfect sense to you and thenyou're able to be creative.
But if another person, like Iknow, if heather has to come
into my studio and try to makesomething, it's nothing but like
pain point after pain pointafter pain point, because it's
(14:06):
like where, where is this button?
Where is this?
How does this thing work?
It's just a nightmare.
And it's not too dissimilar forme if I have to go into her
studio to do something.
She has it set up to be alittle more user friendly in
general, though, but it's stilllike you know, pain point after
pain point after pain point, andbut when we're each in our own
spaces, it's.
(14:26):
You know, we can get things upand running in no time and
figure out what we're doing inno time, and so it is really
hard to like.
You know, you hear all thesedifferent things, there's all
these different approaches, butso much of it does come down to
specifically what works best foryou and what you need.
And then the next oh sorry,that was organized chaos.
Then we talked about AI,unrelated to the message.
(14:49):
So thank you again for thismessage.
I always appreciate it, mac.
Before we dive in, I forgot, Ido have some exciting news NAB,
the National Association ofBroadcasters Convention in Las
Vegas, is coming up in April andI've always wanted to go to
this for I don't know since like2010 or something was kind of
the first time I wanted to go.
I've never been able to go.
(15:10):
Heather and I are both able togo, which is very cool.
B&h is helping to cover ourtravel expenses, which is
fantastic, because that was kindof a barrier.
But also NAB was really awesomeand they gave us promo code.
So if you are thinking of goingto NAB, it can get very
(15:31):
expensive to sign up fordifferent things.
If you want to just sort ofexperience like the core of the
event, that would be theexhibition hall, the exhibition
pass where it's a Las Vegasconvention center, pass where
it's a Las Vegas conventioncenter, and you have like every
broadcasting audio video company.
Nab is really geared moretowards industry broadcast and
(15:52):
that kind of thing.
It's never really been like acontent creator or an online
creator event until this year.
They're starting to fold in alot more of that.
So I think that's interestingand exciting, but I am.
So I think that's interestingand exciting, but I am even as
(16:27):
an online content is $169.
But if you use promo code TOM24, it is $0.
You get totally free exhibitionpass, which is awesome, and
then you can go.
It is I forget the exact date,it's April 13th through 17th
2024 in Las Vegas.
Go to nabshowcom and you canfind all the info and sign up.
This is just the exhibit passyou can add on.
(16:48):
If you want to go to workshops,if you want to go to other
special events, you can kind ofadd those on to your ticket.
But if you just want to getinto the exhibit hall and you
don't want to have to pay the$160, $170 price to do that, you
can use promo code TOM24 and itwill be totally free, which is
a really great price.
So definitely, definitely, dothat.
All right, let's jump into.
(17:09):
Let's start, simple, right.
Okay, so gear, cheap versusexpensive gear.
A couple seasons ago I did anepisode called like it's Just
for YouTube, where I talkedabout using equipment.
One criticism I will often getand I've seen other people often
get is like why do you needthat camera?
Why do you need that microphone?
Why do you need that?
Whatever?
It's just for YouTube.
(17:29):
And to me that's just such a Ithink Heather would call it a
self-owned.
It's just such a like anignorant comment that the person
said.
It proves that you don't knowwhat you're talking about, just
by saying it.
And you know, I tried tojustify all the different
reasons why, even thoughsomething is quote unquote just
for YouTube, it might make senseto invest in higher end stuff
or more professional things.
(17:49):
And then I also made sure toend that episode by saying also,
if you're able to do so without, you know, causing financial
harm to yourself, you're able tobe financially responsible and
you want to buy good gear.
You don't need any otherjustification.
You have a one subscriberchannel, doesn't matter.
Like you know, live your life,it's your life.
(18:10):
But there is always that balanceof cheap versus expensive gear,
and you know it can be.
It's funny because sometimesthe expensive gear ends up being
more of a pain.
You know, like if you think,okay, I want to get a new camera
, I could get something like theSony ZV-E10, which is a cool
little 4K mirrorless camera, orsay you have crazy budget, you
(18:34):
get something like the SonyBurano, which is like their new
cinema camera.
You know, amazing, I don't knowif it's 8K, it's like Sony's
top of the line cinema camerathat just came out.
I think the base price is like$25,000 or something.
Okay, that's going to be abetter camera, but in a lot of
(18:54):
cases it'd probably be a waybigger nightmare to work with.
Like the infrastructure youneed to work with, that camera
is very different than the $700,$800 CVE-10.
And you know there's those kindsof balances that you're sort of
always finding.
More expensive, moreprofessional isn't necessarily
always better, especially ifyou're a solo or an independent
creator.
But at the same time, you know,if you're spending $3,800 on a
(19:19):
Sony FX3 and you buy thisawesome camera but then you put
it on a $20 plastic tripod thatis unreliable, now not only are
you going to have a hard timegetting smooth pans and tilts
and nice shots, but also yourcamera could just tip over and
break.
So, like, maybe it's worthinvesting a little more in a
nice tripod.
And it's sort of thisinteresting thing where, like
(19:43):
there is no, there is no clearanswer.
Usually, depending on yourworkflow and your needs, there
is no clear answer.
Usually, depending on yourworkflow and your needs, there
are certain things where you canuse the cheap piece of gear and
it's going to be totally fineand other things where you need
to invest in the good thing.
But those situations are notthe same for everybody.
For example, the cheap tripod Iknow Heather is using like a
(20:04):
relatively affordable, like anAmazon Basics tripod that she's
been using for years and yearsand years and it's fine because
it literally got taken out ofthe box, set up and it's kind of
just stayed in one place forlike three or four years now.
So it doesn't.
She doesn't need smooth panningand tilting, it's not getting
open and closed constantly overand over, which is where some of
(20:24):
those less expensive, lesspremium parts would start to
wear out.
So it's not really getting anywear and tear, it's just
existing and it's totally finefor that.
Whereas for me, anytime I'veused those tripods in the past,
because I move them and use themand I need smooth pans and
tilts a lot and I break thingsdown and set them up over and
over again that kind of stuffjust wears out so quickly that
(20:45):
it doesn't make sense to use it.
But those are just twodifferent people and two
different workflows.
And a thing that was interestingto me was a couple of years ago
I made a video about microphoneboom arms and it was cheap
versus expensive boom arms and Iwas talking about tall like
traditional scissor stylemicrophone arms and in that
video it's like I was trying tocompare the Rode PSA1, which was
(21:10):
$100.
And people a lot of times incomments will say oh, that's way
too expensive for a boom armwhich I get if you've never even
bought a microphone and theidea of spending $50 to $100 on
a microphone seems a littleabsurd.
Because you're new to the worldof audio production, spending
$100 on just the arm, the standfor the microphone, maybe it's
hard to understand why that'ssomething you would want to do.
So in the video I, you know, Ihad sort of like different tier
(21:32):
levels of stands, one of thembeing the newer, like the $17,
you know, super cheap option,which literally I'm not gonna
lie just ended up in the garbageafterwards because it didn't
even last enough to like reallysurvive a review, like it was
already.
The springs were popping offand it was like not working well
(21:52):
and it's not something that'seven worth fixing.
So I felt bad because it's justlike this is just garbage,
literally.
I know not everyone who hasthose arms has had that
experience.
If you're using an inexpensivearm and it's working for you,
that's great.
In this case, this one was justso low quality, and I thought
that was kind of interestingthough, because it really showed
if I had spent the 20 bucks onthe cheap boom arm and $100 on
(22:16):
the more expensive one and therewas no difference between them.
That would be interesting, butto me this really showed why it
was worth investing the extramoney in the better gear.
And so recently I wanted to dothe same thing with low profile
arms because I've been.
You know, I did like a rereview of the Elgato low profile
because they've modified it.
It's not like a version two oranything, they've just been
(22:37):
updating it and sort of fixingit over the years based on
customer feedback and it's.
There's a lot of changes fromthe original one that I had
several years ago and I reallyliked that arm.
And in the comments of thatre-review video a lot of people
were telling me about differentyou know, cheaper arms.
So, I got a Fafine arm, thenewer arm, an InnoGear arm
(22:58):
Delgado I think, maybe thosewere it and I was trying to go
like here's a whole bunch of$100 and under low profile boom
arms.
I know you can go up to likethe $300, $400 price range, but
that's not who this video isgeared towards.
It's sort of like the sameaudience as the other video I
worked on, but the results weretotally different.
Pretty much every boom arm thatI tried was great in its own
(23:21):
way, and I was so surprised bythis.
The cheapest one was $30.
It was this InnoGear arm.
You'll see the video next week,so I don't need to spoil the
whole thing.
It was, you know, inexpensive,lightweight, and it was, you
know.
But if you're not trying to,you know, get the biggest
longest boom arm in the worldand you're not trying to put the
heaviest microphones on it,totally, totally like a usable
(23:45):
boom arm, there's a Fafine onethat's in the middle.
That was like really a closeduplicate of the Elgato.
That was also totally Fafine,but that was kind of the one
that I didn't like as much.
It just had some frustratingpain points to use, but it's
also, in terms of quality, notbad at all really.
And then there's the one I'musing right now, the newer one,
(24:06):
which was $70, but does someweird stuff.
It really isn't trying to bethe Elgato arm.
It seems like it's taking cuesmore from the higher end ones,
which I thought was interesting,because last time I did this
cheap arm comparison, the newerone literally ended up in the
garbage and this time I was like, oh, let's keep using this one
for a while because it's so cool.
(24:26):
So you know, to me that'sinteresting.
And the thing that had beenpopping up was, as I've been
remodeling my studio, which I'mfinally, like you could say, I'm
finished there's still somestuff that needs to be fine
tuned, figuring out what kind ofgear to to include to move
(24:47):
around.
Fortunately, I actually wasable to do this without spending
very much money.
I bought a new desk and Ibought a new.
I think I had to buy like a newcamera.
I think I had to buy like a newcamera AC adapter.
So pretty minimal expenses,because fortunately it sort of
had like this gear collection,which was kind of part of the
problem.
(25:11):
A thing that I was realizing wasas wonderful as my studio space
is, as fortunate as I am tohave it.
I noticed I was not coming inhere at all.
I would come in here, film avideo, do what I need to do and
leave.
It's not a place I would hangout, it's not a place I would
work.
I just like didn't like beingin here and I was trying to
figure out why.
And I was realizing as soon asI walked in I kind of was
feeling I don't know if stressedout is the right word, but
maybe pressure there was just itfelt like overwhelming.
(25:42):
There was a lot of stuff.
It was feeling very cramped.
It also just felt like, youknow, I just sort of felt buried
by work, buried by things Idon't know.
There's a video Gerald Undonedid several years ago where he
was giving like kind of a tourof his old studio or talking
about YouTube a little bit, andhe sort of showed one area.
His old studio, I think was anapartment like.
It was a separate apartmentthat, not where he was living or
(26:04):
anything, but it was just usedas a studio and in one corner of
it he had all of the like apile of boxes that were just all
brand new gear like high endwonderful camera gear, photo
gear, all that kind of stuff andit was just like you could tell
photo gear, all that kind ofstuff, and it was just like you
could tell in the video it wascausing him stress because each
(26:24):
one of those things in his caseI think a lot of them were like
sponsorship things andobligations and commitments, but
each thing you know representedlike a very time consuming and
exhausting obligation and therewas just literally a mountain of
them.
I didn't quite have thatfeeling, especially because I
don't have like the obligation,sponsorship, commitment part,
but I definitely had the thingof like, oh, there's like
(26:46):
there's so much that I want tochange in here because it's not
working, but I'll never havetime to do it because there's so
much other stuff I need to workon.
And eventually I don't reallyknow what the catalyst was that
made me do it.
Oh no, I do know what thecatalyst was.
I'm going to blame PeterLindgren, my buddy Peter from
Sweden.
If you follow Peter onInstagram, which is just at
(27:10):
Peter Lindgren1, he has been.
He and his family are buildinga new house.
So they've he's been workingfor like years now.
They've been in a.
They've been in like a tinyapartment in Sweden.
Last year he finally hit thepoint where they were able to
buy a house and it's a newlyconstructed house and it's
almost finished.
Right now, part of the houseincludes a garage, like a
detached garage, which is reallycool, and he's gonna use that
(27:33):
not for cars, but solely as hisnew YouTube studio.
So he has, he has like a hisown at home YouTube studio.
He won't have to go 30 or 45minutes away from home anymore.
You know, 30 or 45 feet awayfrom home at this point and it's
a big one, I don't know.
You know he's in Europe theyuse meters and I can't tell the
(27:54):
difference.
But basically the the garage isgarage is almost the same size
as their current apartment is.
So it's a really nice, goodsize garage and he's just
building it out of their YouTubestudio and he's been sharing it
on Instagram and it's kind ofsending me pictures and stuff
too, and it's so cool to see itbuild from scratch and it's like
(28:15):
the thing that that pointed outto me was not only like he has
a wonderful working studiothat's amazing and it's huge,
like it's current.
It's multi rooms and multiareas, but he still wants to
make something that suits himeven better, but also, he's not
cutting any corners when itcomes to making it work for him.
You know a lot of stuff.
He's getting high qualitythings, but you know when
(28:35):
possible he's not cutting anycorners when it comes to making
it work for him.
You know a lot of stuff.
He's getting high qualitythings, but you know when
possible he's using an Ikeacabinet or you know something
that you can just get from thelocal store Like it doesn't all
have to be the most premiumstuff in the world, but he's not
cutting any corners.
And what I was feeling like was,with my studio being set up,
how it was for so long, I feltalmost like it was six years of
(29:00):
like I don't know if cornersbeing cut is the right word, but
of like you know, patches andfixes.
It's like a softwareapplication that just was
patched and bug fixed so manytimes that now it's like now
it's just Adobe Premiere.
Sorry, that's a bit of a dig,but it was kind of like that
(29:21):
thing versus like let's justblow it up and rewrite the code
from scratch is kind of like.
Okay, that's something I wantto do.
When am I going to have thetime to do this?
Because my feeling was I havevideos, I need to make podcasts,
I need to do client stuff, Ineed to do video calls.
Like I need this space, I needto work in this space, this is
where I work.
I can't just take it offlinefor undetermined amount of time.
(29:44):
Maybe you felt that way too.
If you, you know, when do youhave the time to stop doing
something or change up yourworkflow, and that also talking
about gear and expensive gear.
There's a reason why sometimesyou will find professionals in
any industry who aren't usingthe latest and greatest because
they don't have the time to, youknow, learn the new equipment,
(30:04):
the new software, the newworkflow, then all that kind of
stuff.
Like they just need to stickwith what works for them, even
learning to play hockey.
Over the past year, I've seenthat a lot of pro hockey players
who have access to the bestequipment they don't have to pay
for anything.
They have all you know, all theresources and accessibility
that they have.
They still use, like you know,old, rusty, beat up skates,
(30:27):
because those are the skatesthat work and are comfortable
and they don't have the time andaren't willing to adapt to
something new because they, like, essentially, can't suffer the
performance hit that it wouldbring and that's kind of how I
felt in my studio is like, yeah,I could tear everything down,
but then like what am I going todo?
How am I going to get stuffdone?
And that's very, very stressful.
(30:47):
Obviously, there's the answerof like well, you could create
even more stuff ahead of timeand schedule things out, but
that just puts more, that's justcreating more work.
Finally, I had the realizationit was really a bit of like
self-confidence that I needed tohave boosted In my mind.
I felt like this is a thingthat I have to start and then
(31:10):
finish Like I will start tearingstuff down.
I kind of knew some of thestuff I wanted to work on and
like the main pain points Iwanted to fix, and then I will
do that until it is done.
That is what was keeping mefrom doing it, because I don't
know how long that was going totake.
There's like a bunch ofdifferent problems to solve and
(31:34):
I didn't really know.
You know, I didn't really knowhow long it would take, and so I
never did it.
Finally, I realized this was theself-confidence part was, guess
what?
I have an okay skill set whenit comes to audio and video
production and I have enoughequipment.
I have lights and cameras andmicrophones, even if my studio
(31:55):
is like quote unquote, tornapart.
But I needed to make something.
I could probably do, set upsomething that looks fine it
doesn't have to be perfect andexactly.
You know everything where, inits exact right place, from one
video to the next.
I could set up a temporary set,I could figure something out
(32:18):
temporarily and continue to makestuff, and that was sort of a
relief.
And I know that sounds obvious,but I've never approached it
that way.
I've always this has to beperfect, not temporary.
And so once I realized, okay, Ican do that.
That means I can take as muchtime as I need to rebuild stuff,
because who cares if it's awork in process, that made me
(32:40):
feel just so much better.
And it turns out that wasn'tthat hard to do, like you know,
do a couple little seamlessthings where you can't even tell
that anything is happening,even though it's all in disarray
.
And it was nice because then,working on something, it wasn't
like I was trying to do this inone day or two days.
It was like I would do as muchas I could do.
You know, if there was amorning that I didn't have
(33:02):
anything scheduled, I couldspend that morning working on
stuff and then stop and go workon other things.
You know, if it got to the endof the day, I could just stop
for the day, everything inshambles, if you're.
I was posting some Instagramstories where it's like it looks
like something exploded in here.
It was like crazy, and justleave it like that till the next
day or even the day after,until I could, like, work
(33:23):
through it at a more reasonablepace, which made it so much more
manageable to me and also, Ithink, helped the result to be
better, because I got to makebetter decisions.
I wasn't trying to rushanything and like, oh, this is
fine for now, or, you know, like, I'll fix that later, which
turns out to be never, and it'slike here's the thing I really
(33:44):
need to figure out and solve.
Okay, I can spend the whole daytrying to figure out that
solution.
Cool, next time we'll move onto the next thing, to the next
thing, to the next thing.
Or if you need to ordersomething, then wait a couple
days for it to come.
You know all that kind of stuffthat happens.
So ultimately it ended up in agood result.
But it was me realizing I couldtear everything down without
shutting down my ability to makeand create stuff and I know,
(34:07):
you know I didn't do a podcastin that time, but that was also
a lot of.
That was also just exhaustion,because even though computer and
a microphone aren't that hardto set up, it was just sort of
exhausting and chaos.
And you know, it was kind oflike well, instead of taking a
couple of hours out of the dayto like totally shift my gears
into this, let me just focus onthis thing over here.
(34:29):
I'll get back to the podcastonce everything is set up and
nice and ready to go.
So I did post a video aboutthis on Patreon.
I'm trying not to repeat myselftoo much for Patreon and
YouTube channel supporters.
As soon as I finished everything, I kind of like I was just so
excited I did this like manicvideo, showing everything and
trying all the different cameraangles and stuff, which is
(34:51):
pretty cool.
I'll do my best to describethat in this audio only format
that we're dealing with rightnow, because a thing for me was
I got so much inspiration fromyou know, like Peter's office
was a big one, but even like Gilwho sends in a lot of stuff to
the podcast.
Gil always shares his studiostuff and he's been so good at
(35:12):
figuring out how to be soefficient with a smaller space
or even with portable setupsthat like there's just really
good advice there.
And I've just been watchingother people's studio tours and
podcast studio tours and youknow kind of cherry picking
stuff that I thought would becool and then trying to
incorporate that stuff thatwould work for me into my setup.
So I'm going to share that withyou.
(35:33):
I will do a studio tour video,probably in a couple of months,
once things are really dialed in, so that way it's not just like
that way everything doesn'tchange.
As soon as I make the studiotour video I'll do my best to
paint a picture for you verbally.
That makes sense, becausethere's a lot of lessons I
(35:53):
learned which I think could behelpful.
And the big one is that evenjust looking at my studio, I
really like it.
It's a cool looking place.
It looks good on camera.
I think you know people arenice enough and leave comments
all the time that it felt sillyto want to want to change
anything.
You know like, yeah, if this isworking, why?
(36:15):
Why change it?
And also, you know that's kindof how things have been as my
channel has grown, as I've beenable to do this full time.
I'm kind of scared to mess withthat formula, because is that
connected to the success ofeverything?
You know like that's a little,a little scary to if something
seems like it's working, eventhough it wasn't working for me
(36:38):
on a day-to-day off-camerasituation when it came to the
stuff I was making, it wasworking really well.
Very scared to mess with that,but it's just something that
just had to be done, and so whatI ended up doing.
The big thing is that thephysical space that I'm in this
room used to just be a homeoffice, like prior to YouTube,
(37:02):
when I was teaching.
It's just my home office, mymusic room.
You know I had the blue wallpainted.
I had my desk up against theblue wall so that when I was
working at the desk I could lookat all the artwork and stuff.
And then I started making someYouTube videos in here and I
didn't have, you know, my firstYouTube video light was the
window, just window light, andit was sort of a thing where it
(37:27):
was like, well, if I set acamera on my desk and film me,
the background doesn't reallylook that good.
But if I put the camera facingthe desk then you get this blue
wall.
The blue wall looks kind ofcool.
And so I spent a couple monthsif you watch the first, you know
, especially the first likechunk of vlogs on my channel,
you'll kind of see how I'm likefiguring out how to use this
space that was not originallyintended to be a video space as
(37:50):
a video space.
And eventually I sort offigured it out and what I did
was pretty almost a year maybeinto my channel.
I remember coming in here oneSaturday and I just took my
camera and I just startedsetting my camera in every
different area to try to figureout, like, what looks good on
camera and I sort of found onecorner that I really liked.
(38:10):
If the camera is here facingthis direction, there's a lot of
depth, the background looksreally cool.
I think I want my camera to gothere and the camera kind of got
planted there for the most part, and a big thing that I had.
I was doing a lot of videoswhere it was just me standing
and talking or even just sitting, but it was just me a thing,
(38:38):
and it's nice to be able to likeset the thing on the table Very
basic, right Like super simple.
So it's like okay, I'm going tomove my desk kind of in this
front middle area so I can sitat the desk and talk to the
camera.
And a version of that has beenhow it's been since 2018, which
was six years ago, and in thattime the channel has grown, my
focus has shifted, the projectsI work on have changed.
(38:59):
Also, in that time, there was apandemic.
Don't know if you heard aboutthat or not.
It was crazy.
I ended up then working fromhome full time as a teacher, so
it became not just my YouTubestudio podcast studio workspace
for YouTube, but also my actualworkspace.
Then I left my teaching job todo this full time.
So it's like it was very it wastrying to serve a lot of
(39:22):
purposes which were verydifferent from what it was
originally set up for, and a big, a big thing was kind of what I
said at the beginning of thisepisode was I sort of had my
main area needed to be aworkspace and a video production
space.
I mean, I literally mean mydesk, like it needed to have my
computer on it.
I literally mean my desk, likeit needed to have my computer on
it so I could work on stuff.
But it also needed to be clearenough and visible enough to use
(39:45):
with a camera and ultimatelythat was causing so much
friction because it's just itends up literally with me just
bumping into things, slamminginto things, dropping stuff,
breaking stuff, like there's notenough room for things, running
cables everywhere is anabsolute nightmare.
And I forget whose video it was.
There was somebody's studio tourvideo where they had like three
(40:06):
desk setups in their space andit was like one of them was
their filming desk setup, one ofthem was a streaming desk setup
, one of them was an editingdesk setup and I was like, oh my
God, like that's, that's crazy.
But then I was thinking kind ofmakes sense actually, like
maybe I don't need threeseparate setups, but sort of
breaking things apart based onpurpose sort of made sense, and
(40:29):
that was something I wanted todo is take my main desk and make
it a work desk.
That's where I'm sitting rightnow.
It's like, okay, this doesn'tneed to be floating in the
middle of the room, which thenalso makes it immobile because
it's all wired in and you know,there's like there's no way I
can physically move this, soit's just dominating everything.
It can go where, like kind of inthe old days how I just had a
(40:52):
desk that was a workspace and itdoesn't need to have every
piece of gear on it because it'sgoing to be used for every
video and thing I just need.
In my case I've seen amicrophone, a monitor, an audio
mixer, a little speaker, basicdesk things, keyboard, mouse,
you know, like all that kind ofstuff and that works.
Okay, cool.
And also, which is kind of neat, because now it doesn't have to
(41:15):
be a video thing my desk wasalways weirdly high high because
it needed to be to sort of likeframe stuff in the video in a
certain way.
So I was like I can actuallylower it.
It's not a nice fancy heightadjustable desk.
You have to like turn it upsidedown and crank all these screws
and stuff.
It's not an easy thing to raiseand lower, but I can lower it
to regular desk height where Ican sit at it with my feet like
(41:36):
flat on the ground for longperiods of time and be
comfortable.
Wow, imagine that like anergonomic workstation.
Crazy, right, I could just dothat if I wanted to do that and
that was like once I realizedthat was working.
And then it was crazy too,because this wasn't serving so
many production purposes.
The pile of AC adapters and USBcables and other cords that I
(42:01):
like just took out was insane.
Like the cable management wasso much easier because there
didn't need to be as much.
It was really nice and so andthen I had had two big, long
desks, kind of in an L shape,and the thing that bothered me
about the one that was on theside was that it was kind of
(42:21):
useless.
It sort of just had like my oldcamera collection.
On some lights it looked coolin the background, but in a
relatively small space that wasa lot of unused space, you know,
it's like kind of a waste.
And one thing I was learning asI was trying to redo everything
was there is kind of a likemurder, your darling situation.
(42:41):
One thing that was on that sidetable where I have amassed
quite a collection of retrocameras, and three of my
favorites were always there theXL1, the Sony broadcast TV
camera that I have and the RED1cinema camera.
They're such cool cameras.
They're really big and they'rereally heavy and they look cool
(43:03):
on display, but it's likenothing else can be there.
And so this was where I waslike, okay, this is something.
We're not going to get rid ofthose, of course, but I don't
think there's a way I can justhave them on display.
So instead I found a nice placeto safely store them in a
closet, which makes me sad,because it makes me sad when
(43:25):
gear lives in closets like that,but they're safe, they're
stored, I don't have to havethem anywhere.
And then, as I'm making videos,if I'm making a video where it
makes sense to talk about youknow these old cameras or
whatever, I'm making a videowhere it makes sense to talk
about you know these old camerasor whatever I can, then, you
know, dress the setup how I want.
(43:45):
I can put cameras in thebackground or on a tripod as a
prop or whatever it might be.
They don't have to just betaking up space totally.
And so I actually got rid ofall that stuff, took that entire
desk, put it in our garage andended up like doubling the size
of my workbench out there, whichis awesome, because I didn't
realize how inefficient thatarea was.
So now the garage is liketotally cool.
Just a side benefit to thiswhole situation.
(44:08):
And then I had more space inhere and so I bought.
I solved the problem by buyinganother desk.
I bought a slightly smallerdesk.
I like these husky work benchesfrom Home Depot, that's just
what I've always used and Ibought a slightly smaller one.
Instead of a six foot one Ibought a four foot one that's on
wheels and is height adjustable.
And I was going through thiswhole thing of like, oh, I can
(44:30):
get one of those really cool sitstand desks and they're
electric and you pre-program allthe things.
And then I was like, wait aminute, I could even take this a
step further, because you canbuy just the legs of a sit-stand
desk and then you can go findlike a really cool top, a piece
of wood, a countertop, whatever,and you can do like this
totally custom thing.
But then I thought, wait aminute, it's an electric desk.
(44:52):
You know what that needsElectricity and you know what I
don't want Is a desk that needsan umbilical cord of power
running to it all the time.
So the Husky workbench not onlywas less expensive it's like 250
bucks but it just has a handcrank like an old car window,
and that's what raises andlowers it, which is totally fine
.
It's pretty decent, like.
(45:13):
Even when there's stuff on thedesk.
It's not hard to raise or lowerit, it just takes a while.
So even if you had like a fullsetup and it was kind of heavy,
it wouldn't be that difficult.
But in this case this is not awork desk, this is a video like
presentation desk, a set desk,so for the most part there's
nothing on it, which means it'svery easy to raise and lower and
(45:33):
it's on wheels so I can move itaround and basically I tried to
put everything on wheels.
So I have my main desk that I'msitting at right now.
That's the only thing in thisspace that's not on wheels.
My camera is on wheels on animpact, like rolling C-stand
essentially, so it's actuallyvery easy to raise and lower the
camera.
It's not like raising andlowering a tripod where you're
(45:54):
trying to get all three legseven and stuff.
It's just one center column.
My light, my main key light, ison a C-stand.
My fill lights and my likeaccent lights are off the floor.
They're mounted either to theceiling or on an auto pole
that's running from floor toceiling.
That's kind of been that wayfor a while.
Other, like you know,workbenches and chest of drawers
and things are all on wheels.
(46:16):
Basically, if I wanted to, Icould take everything but my
main desk out of this room inlike a couple of minutes max and
then it would just be a totallyempty space.
I don't need to do that.
But that flexibility is crazy,like being able to.
I've everything has been so setin stone for so many years and
now I can do so much more withthe space it's I have.
(46:36):
You know, you've maybe seen howI've done like product B-roll,
where I sort of had, like this,these colored paper backdrops
and this like corner of my deskthat I could kind of set things
on and film stuff, and it looksreally good, but it's an
absolute pain to film it.
Now I have a Florida ceilingcolored backdrop and I can just
easily move things in front ofit and use film bigger things.
(46:59):
I can even put myself in frontof it if I want to.
The cool part with this is athing that I figured out,
because I now have the sit standdesk with my normal camera on
wheels, so that right there Ican basically recreate the same
shot that you've seen for a longtime it hardly looks any
different, and that's what Iwanted, because I don't I didn't
(47:20):
want to, you know, make it seemlike I totally changed
everything.
So I can still go with what Ilike and what works and what's
been there and it's great.
But I can also just move thingsaround so that, like I guess it
would be like that main shotwhere my blue wall is the
background I can get sixdistinctly different versions,
because not only can I place thecamera in you know there's two
(47:44):
corners or dead on, so that'sthree right there but now
everything can either be asitting or a standing shot,
which looks and feels totallydifferent.
I can even then wheel out thedesk entirely and have nothing,
have just me in frame, which Ihaven't been able to do before.
So there's like every shotbecause of the sit-stand desk is
(48:06):
now two shots or even three, ifyou consider the fact that
there is no desk there, andthat's just from, kind of where
I've always filmed stuff.
Now it's almost 360 degrees,like I can put the camera in any
direction and film stuff.
And even though my work deskthat I'm at right now is not
intended to be a filming setup,there is the fact that like
sometimes I kind of need to beat my computer while I'm
(48:27):
recording something or filmingsomething or doing a video call.
So I just have a little stand,a little iFootage well a very
sturdy stand here where I cantake I don't have to do anything
other than literally likeunclip the Manfrotto plate for
my FX3 with the Elgato prompteron it and move it over here and
snap it in here.
It takes the same mount, Idon't have to change anything.
(48:47):
And now I can have my camerawith the prompter right here,
you know, next to my display,and I can use it for video calls
or even videos, and it's likethe Patreon video kind of shows
this.
It works great.
I was doing that a lot while Iwas reconfiguring the studio,
because everything still lookedpretty cool behind me even
though the rest was a total mess.
And that's kind of cool becausethat's also that lets me not
(49:12):
only do video calls or streamingeasily, but also then I can
even move the camera slightlyfurther away where you can see
the whole desk and you can seethe RODECaster.
And that's kind of cool if I'mdoing like a, say, like a
software processing tutorial orsomething where I kind of want
the whole desk set up here.
Basically a lot of versatility.
What I added it up to wasthere's at least 12 visually
(49:37):
distinct and unique shots that Ican get in here now easily like
and probably more that I justhaven't discovered yet but at
least 12 that look totallydifferent.
That's crazy In this space.
That, like space didn't get anybigger.
You know that that kind ofversatility has just blown my.
I've never had that freedombefore.
(49:59):
And the the other inspiration Ihad was a thing that I do miss
in my classroom was I had twostudio spaces.
One of them was a broadcaststudio that I had built a set in
, so that was kind of like fixed, you know, like we.
The set was a little bitmodular and we can move things
around, but for the most part itdidn't really change.
It was kind of always used forsome version of a broadcast.
(50:21):
The other space was the samesize but had nothing set in it,
and so we could build sets andbuild different kinds of setups
and different shoots and things,and it was always really fun to
walk in and just have that bigopen space and be like, okay, we
need to put like three lightshere, let's put a couch here.
Let's build out this backdrop.
Let's do this.
You know, whatever you can justsort of set things up like in
(50:49):
that space.
I can't recreate that amount ofspace in here, but that a
version of that versatility,which I really, really miss, I
have been able to recreate inhere, which is crazy.
I've never been able to do thatbefore and it's just it really
like I can't even tell you theweight that it feels like was
lifted because of finally, likere-evaluating the space, because
essentially, what happened wasnot only has it just been a
(51:12):
number of years and it was likethe software patches over and
over again, but also the needsthat I was trying to meet in
2018, when my channel had 700subscribers and was just
something I did on weekends.
Those are very different needsthat I'm trying to meet in 2024,
when this has been my full timejob for three years.
Like it's just different and Idon't want to do the thing where
(51:34):
you scale up and get a bigseparate studio and hire a team
and all that Like I don't wantthat.
I want to work with what I'vegot, because I like being an
independent solo creator.
I genuinely love that.
I don't really want to gobeyond that, whether or not that
sounds like it lacks ambitionor anything, and I like having a
home studio.
(51:55):
A year or two ago, heather and Ihad talked about like well,
what if we did get like you know, there's some industrial spaces
nearby, get like a smallwarehouse kind of shop, you know
big rolling door and kind ofsome cool.
Like what if we did rent aspace?
Financially?
It's like it just kind of feltlike why add that expense to
everything?
And then the big thing for mewas like the idea that when I
(52:18):
want to work on something or getsomething or try something, I
have to drive, even if it'sclose, even if it's five minutes
away, 10 minutes away.
That's a pretty big roadblock,you know, versus like just walk
down the hallway and go, andI've noticed, I've seen, you
know Peter's a good example.
He has this beautiful studio butis willing to essentially give
(52:42):
it all up to be able to worklee,who has a huge team and a huge
studio and that's the workplace.
But even smaller independentcreators who do just buy, you
(53:03):
know, maybe they live in asmaller house or apartment or
they have kids or something andthey need their studio space to
be outside of that.
So they rent a studio space.
They build it up there.
It looks amazing.
I've seen so many of them thenbuild a second small studio
again at home because they'relike I don't want to drive to
the studio, I don't want to gowork on stuff over there, like I
want to be able to just do athing from home, and so I.
(53:26):
It's a thing that I don'treally want to give up is the
nice home studio, home officefeel, and even though I would
always love more space, I dofeel like that.
I said this in my Patreon video.
You know this is an okay sizebed.
This bedroom that's what it isoriginally is way bigger than
the bedroom I grew up in, spentmost of my life in, where I had
(53:48):
to like live.
I had to sleep and exist as aperson and smash all my hobbies
and stuff in there.
Like this doesn't need to havethe living part.
There doesn't need to be a bed.
There doesn't need to have the.
The living part there doesn'tneed to be a bed.
There doesn't need to be awardrobe or like clothes or
anything.
It can just be a workspace.
That's pretty cool.
Like that's a lot of space andthough even though it could be
(54:08):
bigger and I'd like more.
I feel like the amount of spacethat I have to dedicate
specifically to this is far morethan most people on planet
earth have to dedicate tosomething like this if they want
to.
And you know, I'd rather findways to make this work than to
to just be like oh, I got to gospend a whole bunch of money and
(54:31):
get a whole new space orsomething.
And I think you know,creatively, when we go back to
like where creativity flows, Ithink you need some constraints
for your creativity to shine itsbest, and sometimes your
physical space can be one ofyour best constraints, because
you have to figure out how tomake that, how to make that work
and how to make it do what youneed to do.
And so I'm super excited aboutthis.
(54:51):
I cannot wait to share more ofit with you through videos and
podcasts and all the cool thingslike to just read.
It really feels like Christmasit's.
I can't even tell you howexcited I am.
So I guess the moral of thestory is you know we're talking
about cheap and expensive gear.
You really have to evaluateyour needs and what works
(55:13):
specifically for you, andsometimes you might be surprised
the stuff that you don't needto spend a bunch of money on.
But also it's important toacknowledge the needs and what
works specifically for you.
And sometimes you might besurprised the stuff that you
don't need to spend a bunch ofmoney on.
But also it's important toacknowledge the areas where you
do.
And just because you look atsomeone else and see what they
choose to spend money on andwhat they choose to get the
cheap versions of, that doesn'tmean those things will work for
you.
You know, someone might be okaywith a cheap camera, but they
(55:36):
need an expensive mic, andsomeone might need an expensive
mic and it's or wait, that wasthe same thing a cheap mic and
expensive camera.
You know, whatever.
Those are just sort of someexamples there.
And when it comes to your space,I guess the lesson is don't be
afraid to try to to try to makethings work, and you probably
(55:57):
have the skills.
If you have the skills to havecreated a video or audio
production space in the firstplace, you probably have the
skills to work in it whileyou're redoing it.
So it doesn't mean you have tostop everything, do all this and
then start everything.
You can probably find a way tomake it work while you're in
that process of remodeling.
(56:18):
And the thing that you set up,even if it's awesome, even if it
seems amazing, if it's been anumber of years, it might be
worth reevaluating andreassessing.
Is it meeting your needs or not, and are there some problems
you can solve?
Because, even though it seemsintimidating or scary or
whatever, I promise you,speaking from experience, it is
(56:40):
absolutely worth it and it canmake the biggest difference.
So interested to know if anyonehas any thoughts or even tips.
You know, I know this, this issomething that probably lends
itself better to a video version, but right now that's not a
thing I have.
But if you have any thoughts ortips about studio redos,
renovations, equipment,definitely feel free to send
those.
Tom at enthusiasmprojectcom.
Next week's episode excuse me asI cough is going to be the
(57:05):
season 12 Q&A episode, which Ialways love.
I've already got a few questionsget sent in, but if you want to
send in a question for the Q&Aepisode again, you can do tom at
enthusiasmprojectcom.
Or you can go to hi, my name istomcom and scroll down to the
little thing that says leave amessage, and you can leave a
message right there on whateverdevice you happen to be using.
It doesn't have to be perfectquality or anything, don't worry
(57:28):
.
And I'll also be posting a callfor messages on youtube and
instagram and all the socialmedias and stuff.
And don't forget, if you wantto go to n 2024, you can go to
nabshowcom, sign up for theexhibition pass and if you use
promo code Tom24, it'll betotally free.
And that is.
That's pretty darn cool.
(57:48):
So, with all that in mind,thank you so much for listening.
Hope everything worked andsounded good as I'm recording
the first official thing in thisnew official setup, and I hope
you have a safe, happy, healthyrest of your day and I'll see
you next time.
Thank you, hello and welcome.
(00:34):
My name is Tom.
This is the Enthusiasm Project,season 12, episode 4.
And it is four days late ifyou're listening to this, pretty
much when it came out is fourdays late if you're listening to
this, pretty much when it cameout, and that's a thing we're
gonna be talking about.
Why?
Because, basically, my wholestudio slash office has been
torn apart for a long time andit was hard to record during
(00:59):
that time.
But everything's back now, andso this is this episode, but it
ties into what I want to talkabout anyway.
Initially, I wanted to focus on,kind of the concept of cheap
versus expensive gear, which issomething we've talked about a
little bit, but, you know, maybewith a little bit different
insight, and then revamping mystudio for the first time in six
(01:20):
years definitely taught me alot.
So, figured, those are.
Those are cool, interestingthings to talk about, and that's
going to be the main focus oftoday.
Before we do that, though, wedo have some gear to talk about
and a message, a listenermessage, to go through as well,
so let's dive into those things.
Gear rundown, for today I amtalking about this.
(01:44):
I have a little different setup,I mean in terms of equipment
it's sort of similar, but I amphysically in a different area,
as I have taken my main desk, mymain workspace for so many
years, which has been where I doa lot of work and make videos,
and I have taken those twothings work and videos and I
(02:04):
have separated them, so it's notthe same space for both things
anymore, which is huge.
So I have a little a nice, likeactual work desk setup that
does not need to function as aprimary shooting space either,
and that is incredibly helpful.
(02:25):
So what I'm on right now is theRode NT1 Signature Series
microphone, the beautiful blueversion of the Signature Series,
which I it's quite blutiful, Ilike it a lot and I'm using this
is sort of funny.
I'm using a newer low profilemic arm that also has a
pneumatic thing.
I'm working on a video that'scomparing different low-profile
(02:46):
mic arms, which is where mycheap versus expensive gear idea
came from, and this was one ofthem.
It's about $72, and it's kindof nifty.
You'll sort of see in the videowhich should come out next week.
You'll see sort of mediscovering how kind of cool
this arm is.
So I've been using it right nowbecause I like it quite a bit
(03:07):
and this microphone is runninginto the Rodecaster Duo on the
NT1 preset.
So that's what we are recordingwith.
I'm still getting used tohaving the Duo.
I put the Duo on my VESA arm onmy desk.
I still have my desk with thearm which had the Rodecaster Pro
2 on it and now it has the Duo,which at first looked
hilariously tiny compared to theRodecaster Pro, and now I'm a
(03:29):
little more used to it.
And even though the Duo and thePro are very similar, there's
still a few things like just nowI was in the mic settings to
look up some of the things and Iforgot.
One of my big complaints withthe Duo is unless you're on the
home screen you can't tell ifit's recording.
So right now I'm on the homescreen because there's no
physical record button Like onthe Pro.
I press record and the bigbutton glows bright red.
(03:50):
On this one it's all on thescreen.
I can see the red record button, but as soon as I go into a
menu like right now I'm in somesettings menus I can't see that
it's recording, which alwaysgives me like a little bit of a
panic attack.
Really wish there was a wayaround that somehow.
But anyway, let me turn the micso I'm a little more on axis
there.
There we go, we'll get there.
(04:12):
The Duo is cool and the reason Iwant to make that switch which
is something we'll kind of, youknow, touch on more a little bit
later is when I'm at my desk Ireally never need more than two
XLR inputs.
You know for the most part, andso the Duo is fine.
But when I make videos,especially mic comparisons, I
often need four because I'mswitching, sometimes even more
(04:34):
than four because I'm switchingbetween microphones all the time
.
So it's like, okay, if this isdesk workspace, for me the Duo
is more than enough, and thenthe Pro can be talk about this
later in a different area forbigger videos and things like
that.
So that is, that's what you'relistening to me on today.
That's what I'm running throughand still, you know, this is
the first thing I've reallyreally recorded in a slightly
(04:57):
new setup, so hopefully,hopefully, it's still listenable
.
That being said, let's jump intolistener messages.
I have one.
This is from Homesick Mac.
So if you've listened to thepodcast, you know Mac has been
around a lot.
He has his own channel whichhas a lot of like blues, guitar
instrumentation, musicianfocused stuff.
(05:17):
He's been in live streams.
Couples he's been around.
He's like a pillar of thecommunity for both Heather and I
and our combined things.
Mac sent me a message and saidhe tried his absolute.
Actually maybe I could evenread it.
He said he tried his absolutebest to get it.
Oh, I don't have that page upanymore.
Apologies To get it as short aspossible, but he really
(05:38):
couldn't keep it under threeminutes.
So we're going to listen to Macexplain stuff.
Fortunately he's an awesomeexplainer, so I get to sit back
and listen and you get to sitback and listen to Mac.
So let's see what he has to say.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
And I wrote the script myself.
I am, however, reading from itto save time, and I'm also
practicing until my Elgatoprompter arrives later during
the spring.
So anyway, ai is just starting.
No matter what we see today, itwill be a children's game
compared to what it's going tobe in a year or two.
I also see a bigger risk,without trying to put out some
(06:20):
conspiracy theory here, butwhatever we're seeing within AI
could have been triggered fromabove, and I don't mean God.
I've read discussions claimingthat they are letting us play
with the good parts of AI whilethey are running the game with
whatever that same AI technologycan do for them.
Well, okay, back to what I cancomprehend.
(06:44):
You mentioned some AI Photoshopstuff, and I've been using
Luminar Neo before.
It was Neo Graphic Editor andthey were the first, to my
knowledge, to include AI.
Then Exposure Software followedand some other editors.
But just following thedevelopment of Luminar's tools
was Carrier Times.
(07:04):
Their noiseless plugin isamazing, cleaning up high ISO
images.
Their skin AI tools, face AI.
The masking is so much easiercompared to Lightroom or
Photoshop, and it's much easier.
So when it comes to YouTube, Isee a development.
When it comes to AI, or howeverwe can call that development or
(07:28):
not.
I see creators openly making AIassembled video, maybe even
marking the video on a thumbnailmade with AI, for the sake of
being efficient in the wholeprocess.
Whole process Like here's somestuff that's of value to you as
(07:48):
a viewer, but I let the AIassemble it to save time and
then I can invest more of mytime and effort to create videos
that are 100% me, and then thethumbnail could also indicate
that, maybe About the order onthe desk and a neat working
space, as Gil was commenting aswell.
So I don't need the ordernecessarily to be creative, but
(08:13):
it's important for me that I'mnot distracted by other stuff on
the table while I'm doingsomething.
So in that regard, it's greatto have order.
I can get some great ideas aboutsomething while in the middle
of creating a totally differentproject, and then I always have
a notebook on a dedicated placeon the desk, no matter how messy
(08:36):
it can get sometimes, but it'salways there so I can write down
something.
So let's say, I'm playingguitar.
I pull out one instrument afteranother it's a mess in about 20
minutes, and then I'm doingthat you know several songs at
the same time or whatever, andthen I get in this idea.
So the notebook is my saviorthere.
(08:57):
Right well, this is what itcould be an ideal world.
I'm suspectedly ADHD, so ithappens very often that I mess
up the clean space and do fiveor six things at the same time,
but then I try to get back onthe wagon and do only one thing
(09:18):
at the time, which is always thebest, of course.
Tom, thank you for a greatpodcast, and I love everything
else you do.
Of course you know that, socheers.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Alrighty, thanks, mac , for that message and apologies
that I cut off the beginning ofit because I had the USB
channel muted on the Duo.
Oops, in the beginning he justsaid that he was not using an AI
voice, which was in referenceto Bailey's AI generated message
from the last episode, whichwas pretty fun.
So there's kind of two thingshere to talk about.
(09:46):
This message.
We're talking about you knowstuff with AI that we talked
about last episode, and also Gilhad a message about you know
creativity and his teacher, missOrlando, from Florida, which I
still think is hilarious.
And talking about creativitylike needing order to you know,
not coming from chaos in somecases, and so let's kind of
(10:09):
break down my thoughts on bothof those.
I appreciate you sharing those,mac, and I do just want to plug
Mac's channel because he'srecently celebrated his 100th
live stream.
If you just go to YouTube andsearch up Homesick Mac, you'll
find it there.
Awesome channel, awesomechannel in general, but
especially if you're a musicianand into guitar or into the
blues, then you really, reallywill enjoy it.
(10:31):
Talking about ai, though, Ithink you're I think you're
you're totally correct like itis just child's play compared to
where things will be in the nottoo distant future, probably
for better and worse sort of wetalked about last episode.
These things can be usedAnytime a new technology is
available.
If it can be used for bad itwill be, but that doesn't mean
(10:53):
it's inherently bad.
And with AI it is very scary ina lot of ways because it's so
new and so different.
But it is like we talked aboutone of those things like the
genie's not going to go back inthe lamp, the toothpaste isn't
going back in the tube.
So finding ways to understandit, embrace it, figure out how
to incorporate it, I think isvery important, and I did notice
(11:15):
recently YouTube did add whenyou upload a video now,
similarly to how you have tocheck a box if you have
sponsored content or you receivesomething for free in the video
, there's now a box to checkwhether or not you are using AI
altered content.
So I forget exactly what theirdescription is, but it's
essentially if you're using AImaterial or making something
(11:37):
look like something happenedthat didn't happen, or making it
look like someone saidsomething they didn't say or
whatever it might be happen, ormaking it look like someone said
something they didn't say orwhatever it might be, which I
was kind of wondering.
Does that dip into like specialeffects in a certain way?
You know, like if you'rewatching the old film right
YouTube channel, they're makingit look like someone teleported,
when the person probably didnot teleport, even though that
was not done with artificialintelligence.
(11:57):
I don't know.
I feel like it's YouTube'sfirst step in trying to.
I feel like it's YouTube'sfirst step in trying to regulate
how people are sharing AIcontent.
I don't know what it looks like, though, actually, if you click
the box and I don't know whatmessage pops up for the viewer,
but that could be.
That's an interesting thing.
(12:20):
I guess it's definitely aninteresting thing, and the
creativity coming from order andall that kind of stuff, I think
is definitely a little bittricky, because so much of it
really does depend on theindividual.
Like you know, some of us, somepeople, need perfect, like
blank slate in order to work,and other people kind of work in
(12:40):
chaos, kind of work in chaos.
But a thing that I was thinkingas I was listening to the
message was I remember when Iwas teaching and I was in my
classroom and it really, if youjust kind of walked in, it would
.
There's so much going on.
You know, like there's not onlythe space is sort of big and
varied.
There's a broadcast studio,there's a computer lab, there's
a production studio, there'sstudents coming in and out with
(13:02):
all kinds of equipment, there'san equipment locker, there's a
podcast studio and there's stuffhappening in all these places
that it could seem absolutelyinsane.
I, as the teacher, knew whatwas happening in all the things,
not just because that's likesome superpower, but because
that was what was built.
You know it started.
You got the first day of school,first day of the program.
Nobody's touching anything ordoing anything, and slowly
(13:24):
you're building in these systemsand you're building in these
skills.
And then by you know, februaryor March, the middle of the
school year, it looks if astranger walks in, it's just
going to look insane, buteverything's actually running
smoothly.
And I think when it comes tolike a creative space, that can
also be the case, and I thinkthat's kind of the case for my
space is that it looks.
(13:44):
It can look chaotic and andwild, but when you're the one
who has built it up and it kindof suits you perfectly, it makes
perfect sense to you and thenyou're able to be creative.
But if another person, like Iknow, if heather has to come
into my studio and try to makesomething, it's nothing but like
pain point after pain pointafter pain point, because it's
(14:06):
like where, where is this button?
Where is this?
How does this thing work?
It's just a nightmare.
And it's not too dissimilar forme if I have to go into her
studio to do something.
She has it set up to be alittle more user friendly in
general, though, but it's stilllike you know, pain point after
pain point after pain point, andbut when we're each in our own
spaces, it's.
(14:26):
You know, we can get things upand running in no time and
figure out what we're doing inno time, and so it is really
hard to like.
You know, you hear all thesedifferent things, there's all
these different approaches, butso much of it does come down to
specifically what works best foryou and what you need.
And then the next oh sorry,that was organized chaos.
Then we talked about AI,unrelated to the message.
(14:49):
So thank you again for thismessage.
I always appreciate it, mac.
Before we dive in, I forgot, Ido have some exciting news NAB,
the National Association ofBroadcasters Convention in Las
Vegas, is coming up in April andI've always wanted to go to
this for I don't know since like2010 or something was kind of
the first time I wanted to go.
I've never been able to go.
(15:10):
Heather and I are both able togo, which is very cool.
B&h is helping to cover ourtravel expenses, which is
fantastic, because that was kindof a barrier.
But also NAB was really awesomeand they gave us promo code.
So if you are thinking of goingto NAB, it can get very
(15:31):
expensive to sign up fordifferent things.
If you want to just sort ofexperience like the core of the
event, that would be theexhibition hall, the exhibition
pass where it's a Las Vegasconvention center, pass where
it's a Las Vegas conventioncenter, and you have like every
broadcasting audio video company.
Nab is really geared moretowards industry broadcast and
(15:52):
that kind of thing.
It's never really been like acontent creator or an online
creator event until this year.
They're starting to fold in alot more of that.
So I think that's interestingand exciting, but I am.
So I think that's interestingand exciting, but I am even as
(16:27):
an online content is $169.
But if you use promo code TOM24, it is $0.
You get totally free exhibitionpass, which is awesome, and
then you can go.
It is I forget the exact date,it's April 13th through 17th
2024 in Las Vegas.
Go to nabshowcom and you canfind all the info and sign up.
This is just the exhibit passyou can add on.
(16:48):
If you want to go to workshops,if you want to go to other
special events, you can kind ofadd those on to your ticket.
But if you just want to getinto the exhibit hall and you
don't want to have to pay the$160, $170 price to do that, you
can use promo code TOM24 and itwill be totally free, which is
a really great price.
So definitely, definitely, dothat.
All right, let's jump into.
(17:09):
Let's start, simple, right.
Okay, so gear, cheap versusexpensive gear.
A couple seasons ago I did anepisode called like it's Just
for YouTube, where I talkedabout using equipment.
One criticism I will often getand I've seen other people often
get is like why do you needthat camera?
Why do you need that microphone?
Why do you need that?
Whatever?
It's just for YouTube.
(17:29):
And to me that's just such a Ithink Heather would call it a
self-owned.
It's just such a like anignorant comment that the person
said.
It proves that you don't knowwhat you're talking about, just
by saying it.
And you know, I tried tojustify all the different
reasons why, even thoughsomething is quote unquote just
for YouTube, it might make senseto invest in higher end stuff
or more professional things.
(17:49):
And then I also made sure toend that episode by saying also,
if you're able to do so without, you know, causing financial
harm to yourself, you're able tobe financially responsible and
you want to buy good gear.
You don't need any otherjustification.
You have a one subscriberchannel, doesn't matter.
Like you know, live your life,it's your life.
(18:10):
But there is always that balanceof cheap versus expensive gear,
and you know it can be.
It's funny because sometimesthe expensive gear ends up being
more of a pain.
You know, like if you think,okay, I want to get a new camera
, I could get something like theSony ZV-E10, which is a cool
little 4K mirrorless camera, orsay you have crazy budget, you
(18:34):
get something like the SonyBurano, which is like their new
cinema camera.
You know, amazing, I don't knowif it's 8K, it's like Sony's
top of the line cinema camerathat just came out.
I think the base price is like$25,000 or something.
Okay, that's going to be abetter camera, but in a lot of
(18:54):
cases it'd probably be a waybigger nightmare to work with.
Like the infrastructure youneed to work with, that camera
is very different than the $700,$800 CVE-10.
And you know there's those kindsof balances that you're sort of
always finding.
More expensive, moreprofessional isn't necessarily
always better, especially ifyou're a solo or an independent
creator.
But at the same time, you know,if you're spending $3,800 on a
(19:19):
Sony FX3 and you buy thisawesome camera but then you put
it on a $20 plastic tripod thatis unreliable, now not only are
you going to have a hard timegetting smooth pans and tilts
and nice shots, but also yourcamera could just tip over and
break.
So, like, maybe it's worthinvesting a little more in a
nice tripod.
And it's sort of thisinteresting thing where, like
(19:43):
there is no, there is no clearanswer.
Usually, depending on yourworkflow and your needs, there
is no clear answer.
Usually, depending on yourworkflow and your needs, there
are certain things where you canuse the cheap piece of gear and
it's going to be totally fineand other things where you need
to invest in the good thing.
But those situations are notthe same for everybody.
For example, the cheap tripod Iknow Heather is using like a
(20:04):
relatively affordable, like anAmazon Basics tripod that she's
been using for years and yearsand years and it's fine because
it literally got taken out ofthe box, set up and it's kind of
just stayed in one place forlike three or four years now.
So it doesn't.
She doesn't need smooth panningand tilting, it's not getting
open and closed constantly overand over, which is where some of
(20:24):
those less expensive, lesspremium parts would start to
wear out.
So it's not really getting anywear and tear, it's just
existing and it's totally finefor that.
Whereas for me, anytime I'veused those tripods in the past,
because I move them and use themand I need smooth pans and
tilts a lot and I break thingsdown and set them up over and
over again that kind of stuffjust wears out so quickly that
(20:45):
it doesn't make sense to use it.
But those are just twodifferent people and two
different workflows.
And a thing that was interestingto me was a couple of years ago
I made a video about microphoneboom arms and it was cheap
versus expensive boom arms and Iwas talking about tall like
traditional scissor stylemicrophone arms and in that
video it's like I was trying tocompare the Rode PSA1, which was
(21:10):
$100.
And people a lot of times incomments will say oh, that's way
too expensive for a boom armwhich I get if you've never even
bought a microphone and theidea of spending $50 to $100 on
a microphone seems a littleabsurd.
Because you're new to the worldof audio production, spending
$100 on just the arm, the standfor the microphone, maybe it's
hard to understand why that'ssomething you would want to do.
So in the video I, you know, Ihad sort of like different tier
(21:32):
levels of stands, one of thembeing the newer, like the $17,
you know, super cheap option,which literally I'm not gonna
lie just ended up in the garbageafterwards because it didn't
even last enough to like reallysurvive a review, like it was
already.
The springs were popping offand it was like not working well
(21:52):
and it's not something that'seven worth fixing.
So I felt bad because it's justlike this is just garbage,
literally.
I know not everyone who hasthose arms has had that
experience.
If you're using an inexpensivearm and it's working for you,
that's great.
In this case, this one was justso low quality, and I thought
that was kind of interestingthough, because it really showed
if I had spent the 20 bucks onthe cheap boom arm and $100 on
(22:16):
the more expensive one and therewas no difference between them.
That would be interesting, butto me this really showed why it
was worth investing the extramoney in the better gear.
And so recently I wanted to dothe same thing with low profile
arms because I've been.
You know, I did like a rereview of the Elgato low profile
because they've modified it.
It's not like a version two oranything, they've just been
(22:37):
updating it and sort of fixingit over the years based on
customer feedback and it's.
There's a lot of changes fromthe original one that I had
several years ago and I reallyliked that arm.
And in the comments of thatre-review video a lot of people
were telling me about differentyou know, cheaper arms.
So, I got a Fafine arm, thenewer arm, an InnoGear arm
(22:58):
Delgado I think, maybe thosewere it and I was trying to go
like here's a whole bunch of$100 and under low profile boom
arms.
I know you can go up to likethe $300, $400 price range, but
that's not who this video isgeared towards.
It's sort of like the sameaudience as the other video I
worked on, but the results weretotally different.
Pretty much every boom arm thatI tried was great in its own
(23:21):
way, and I was so surprised bythis.
The cheapest one was $30.
It was this InnoGear arm.
You'll see the video next week,so I don't need to spoil the
whole thing.
It was, you know, inexpensive,lightweight, and it was, you
know.
But if you're not trying to,you know, get the biggest
longest boom arm in the worldand you're not trying to put the
heaviest microphones on it,totally, totally like a usable
(23:45):
boom arm, there's a Fafine onethat's in the middle.
That was like really a closeduplicate of the Elgato.
That was also totally Fafine,but that was kind of the one
that I didn't like as much.
It just had some frustratingpain points to use, but it's
also, in terms of quality, notbad at all really.
And then there's the one I'musing right now, the newer one,
(24:06):
which was $70, but does someweird stuff.
It really isn't trying to bethe Elgato arm.
It seems like it's taking cuesmore from the higher end ones,
which I thought was interesting,because last time I did this
cheap arm comparison, the newerone literally ended up in the
garbage and this time I was like, oh, let's keep using this one
for a while because it's so cool.
(24:26):
So you know, to me that'sinteresting.
And the thing that had beenpopping up was, as I've been
remodeling my studio, which I'mfinally, like you could say, I'm
finished there's still somestuff that needs to be fine
tuned, figuring out what kind ofgear to to include to move
(24:47):
around.
Fortunately, I actually wasable to do this without spending
very much money.
I bought a new desk and Ibought a new.
I think I had to buy like a newcamera.
I think I had to buy like a newcamera AC adapter.
So pretty minimal expenses,because fortunately it sort of
had like this gear collection,which was kind of part of the
problem.
(25:11):
A thing that I was realizing wasas wonderful as my studio space
is, as fortunate as I am tohave it.
I noticed I was not coming inhere at all.
I would come in here, film avideo, do what I need to do and
leave.
It's not a place I would hangout, it's not a place I would
work.
I just like didn't like beingin here and I was trying to
figure out why.
And I was realizing as soon asI walked in I kind of was
feeling I don't know if stressedout is the right word, but
maybe pressure there was just itfelt like overwhelming.
(25:42):
There was a lot of stuff.
It was feeling very cramped.
It also just felt like, youknow, I just sort of felt buried
by work, buried by things Idon't know.
There's a video Gerald Undonedid several years ago where he
was giving like kind of a tourof his old studio or talking
about YouTube a little bit, andhe sort of showed one area.
His old studio, I think was anapartment like.
It was a separate apartmentthat, not where he was living or
(26:04):
anything, but it was just usedas a studio and in one corner of
it he had all of the like apile of boxes that were just all
brand new gear like high endwonderful camera gear, photo
gear, all that kind of stuff andit was just like you could tell
photo gear, all that kind ofstuff, and it was just like you
could tell in the video it wascausing him stress because each
(26:24):
one of those things in his caseI think a lot of them were like
sponsorship things andobligations and commitments, but
each thing you know representedlike a very time consuming and
exhausting obligation and therewas just literally a mountain of
them.
I didn't quite have thatfeeling, especially because I
don't have like the obligation,sponsorship, commitment part,
but I definitely had the thingof like, oh, there's like
(26:46):
there's so much that I want tochange in here because it's not
working, but I'll never havetime to do it because there's so
much other stuff I need to workon.
And eventually I don't reallyknow what the catalyst was that
made me do it.
Oh no, I do know what thecatalyst was.
I'm going to blame PeterLindgren, my buddy Peter from
Sweden.
If you follow Peter onInstagram, which is just at
(27:10):
Peter Lindgren1, he has been.
He and his family are buildinga new house.
So they've he's been workingfor like years now.
They've been in a.
They've been in like a tinyapartment in Sweden.
Last year he finally hit thepoint where they were able to
buy a house and it's a newlyconstructed house and it's
almost finished.
Right now, part of the houseincludes a garage, like a
detached garage, which is reallycool, and he's gonna use that
(27:33):
not for cars, but solely as hisnew YouTube studio.
So he has, he has like a hisown at home YouTube studio.
He won't have to go 30 or 45minutes away from home anymore.
You know, 30 or 45 feet awayfrom home at this point and it's
a big one, I don't know.
You know he's in Europe theyuse meters and I can't tell the
(27:54):
difference.
But basically the the garage isgarage is almost the same size
as their current apartment is.
So it's a really nice, goodsize garage and he's just
building it out of their YouTubestudio and he's been sharing it
on Instagram and it's kind ofsending me pictures and stuff
too, and it's so cool to see itbuild from scratch and it's like
(28:15):
the thing that that pointed outto me was not only like he has
a wonderful working studiothat's amazing and it's huge,
like it's current.
It's multi rooms and multiareas, but he still wants to
make something that suits himeven better, but also, he's not
cutting any corners when itcomes to making it work for him.
You know a lot of stuff.
He's getting high qualitythings, but you know when
(28:35):
possible he's not cutting anycorners when it comes to making
it work for him.
You know a lot of stuff.
He's getting high qualitythings, but you know when
possible he's using an Ikeacabinet or you know something
that you can just get from thelocal store Like it doesn't all
have to be the most premiumstuff in the world, but he's not
cutting any corners.
And what I was feeling like was,with my studio being set up,
how it was for so long, I feltalmost like it was six years of
(29:00):
like I don't know if cornersbeing cut is the right word, but
of like you know, patches andfixes.
It's like a softwareapplication that just was
patched and bug fixed so manytimes that now it's like now
it's just Adobe Premiere.
Sorry, that's a bit of a dig,but it was kind of like that
(29:21):
thing versus like let's justblow it up and rewrite the code
from scratch is kind of like.
Okay, that's something I wantto do.
When am I going to have thetime to do this?
Because my feeling was I havevideos, I need to make podcasts,
I need to do client stuff, Ineed to do video calls.
Like I need this space, I needto work in this space, this is
where I work.
I can't just take it offlinefor undetermined amount of time.
(29:44):
Maybe you felt that way too.
If you, you know, when do youhave the time to stop doing
something or change up yourworkflow, and that also talking
about gear and expensive gear.
There's a reason why sometimesyou will find professionals in
any industry who aren't usingthe latest and greatest because
they don't have the time to, youknow, learn the new equipment,
(30:04):
the new software, the newworkflow, then all that kind of
stuff.
Like they just need to stickwith what works for them, even
learning to play hockey.
Over the past year, I've seenthat a lot of pro hockey players
who have access to the bestequipment they don't have to pay
for anything.
They have all you know, all theresources and accessibility
that they have.
They still use, like you know,old, rusty, beat up skates,
(30:27):
because those are the skatesthat work and are comfortable
and they don't have the time andaren't willing to adapt to
something new because they, like, essentially, can't suffer the
performance hit that it wouldbring and that's kind of how I
felt in my studio is like, yeah,I could tear everything down,
but then like what am I going todo?
How am I going to get stuffdone?
And that's very, very stressful.
(30:47):
Obviously, there's the answerof like well, you could create
even more stuff ahead of timeand schedule things out, but
that just puts more, that's justcreating more work.
Finally, I had the realizationit was really a bit of like
self-confidence that I needed tohave boosted In my mind.
I felt like this is a thingthat I have to start and then
(31:10):
finish Like I will start tearingstuff down.
I kind of knew some of thestuff I wanted to work on and
like the main pain points Iwanted to fix, and then I will
do that until it is done.
That is what was keeping mefrom doing it, because I don't
know how long that was going totake.
There's like a bunch ofdifferent problems to solve and
(31:34):
I didn't really know.
You know, I didn't really knowhow long it would take, and so I
never did it.
Finally, I realized this was theself-confidence part was, guess
what?
I have an okay skill set whenit comes to audio and video
production and I have enoughequipment.
I have lights and cameras andmicrophones, even if my studio
(31:55):
is like quote unquote, tornapart.
But I needed to make something.
I could probably do, set upsomething that looks fine it
doesn't have to be perfect andexactly.
You know everything where, inits exact right place, from one
video to the next.
I could set up a temporary set,I could figure something out
(32:18):
temporarily and continue to makestuff, and that was sort of a
relief.
And I know that sounds obvious,but I've never approached it
that way.
I've always this has to beperfect, not temporary.
And so once I realized, okay, Ican do that.
That means I can take as muchtime as I need to rebuild stuff,
because who cares if it's awork in process, that made me
(32:40):
feel just so much better.
And it turns out that wasn'tthat hard to do, like you know,
do a couple little seamlessthings where you can't even tell
that anything is happening,even though it's all in disarray
.
And it was nice because then,working on something, it wasn't
like I was trying to do this inone day or two days.
It was like I would do as muchas I could do.
You know, if there was amorning that I didn't have
(33:02):
anything scheduled, I couldspend that morning working on
stuff and then stop and go workon other things.
You know, if it got to the endof the day, I could just stop
for the day, everything inshambles, if you're.
I was posting some Instagramstories where it's like it looks
like something exploded in here.
It was like crazy, and justleave it like that till the next
day or even the day after,until I could, like, work
(33:23):
through it at a more reasonablepace, which made it so much more
manageable to me and also, Ithink, helped the result to be
better, because I got to makebetter decisions.
I wasn't trying to rushanything and like, oh, this is
fine for now, or, you know, like, I'll fix that later, which
turns out to be never, and it'slike here's the thing I really
(33:44):
need to figure out and solve.
Okay, I can spend the whole daytrying to figure out that
solution.
Cool, next time we'll move onto the next thing, to the next
thing, to the next thing.
Or if you need to ordersomething, then wait a couple
days for it to come.
You know all that kind of stuffthat happens.
So ultimately it ended up in agood result.
But it was me realizing I couldtear everything down without
shutting down my ability to makeand create stuff and I know,
(34:07):
you know I didn't do a podcastin that time, but that was also
a lot of.
That was also just exhaustion,because even though computer and
a microphone aren't that hardto set up, it was just sort of
exhausting and chaos.
And you know, it was kind oflike well, instead of taking a
couple of hours out of the dayto like totally shift my gears
into this, let me just focus onthis thing over here.
(34:29):
I'll get back to the podcastonce everything is set up and
nice and ready to go.
So I did post a video aboutthis on Patreon.
I'm trying not to repeat myselftoo much for Patreon and
YouTube channel supporters.
As soon as I finished everything, I kind of like I was just so
excited I did this like manicvideo, showing everything and
trying all the different cameraangles and stuff, which is
(34:51):
pretty cool.
I'll do my best to describethat in this audio only format
that we're dealing with rightnow, because a thing for me was
I got so much inspiration fromyou know, like Peter's office
was a big one, but even like Gilwho sends in a lot of stuff to
the podcast.
Gil always shares his studiostuff and he's been so good at
(35:12):
figuring out how to be soefficient with a smaller space
or even with portable setupsthat like there's just really
good advice there.
And I've just been watchingother people's studio tours and
podcast studio tours and youknow kind of cherry picking
stuff that I thought would becool and then trying to
incorporate that stuff thatwould work for me into my setup.
So I'm going to share that withyou.
(35:33):
I will do a studio tour video,probably in a couple of months,
once things are really dialed in, so that way it's not just like
that way everything doesn'tchange.
As soon as I make the studiotour video I'll do my best to
paint a picture for you verbally.
That makes sense, becausethere's a lot of lessons I
(35:53):
learned which I think could behelpful.
And the big one is that evenjust looking at my studio, I
really like it.
It's a cool looking place.
It looks good on camera.
I think you know people arenice enough and leave comments
all the time that it felt sillyto want to want to change
anything.
You know like, yeah, if this isworking, why?
(36:15):
Why change it?
And also, you know that's kindof how things have been as my
channel has grown, as I've beenable to do this full time.
I'm kind of scared to mess withthat formula, because is that
connected to the success ofeverything?
You know like that's a little,a little scary to if something
seems like it's working, eventhough it wasn't working for me
(36:38):
on a day-to-day off-camerasituation when it came to the
stuff I was making, it wasworking really well.
Very scared to mess with that,but it's just something that
just had to be done, and so whatI ended up doing.
The big thing is that thephysical space that I'm in this
room used to just be a homeoffice, like prior to YouTube,
(37:02):
when I was teaching.
It's just my home office, mymusic room.
You know I had the blue wallpainted.
I had my desk up against theblue wall so that when I was
working at the desk I could lookat all the artwork and stuff.
And then I started making someYouTube videos in here and I
didn't have, you know, my firstYouTube video light was the
window, just window light, andit was sort of a thing where it
(37:27):
was like, well, if I set acamera on my desk and film me,
the background doesn't reallylook that good.
But if I put the camera facingthe desk then you get this blue
wall.
The blue wall looks kind ofcool.
And so I spent a couple monthsif you watch the first, you know
, especially the first likechunk of vlogs on my channel,
you'll kind of see how I'm likefiguring out how to use this
space that was not originallyintended to be a video space as
(37:50):
a video space.
And eventually I sort offigured it out and what I did
was pretty almost a year maybeinto my channel.
I remember coming in here oneSaturday and I just took my
camera and I just startedsetting my camera in every
different area to try to figureout, like, what looks good on
camera and I sort of found onecorner that I really liked.
(38:10):
If the camera is here facingthis direction, there's a lot of
depth, the background looksreally cool.
I think I want my camera to gothere and the camera kind of got
planted there for the most part, and a big thing that I had.
I was doing a lot of videoswhere it was just me standing
and talking or even just sitting, but it was just me a thing,
(38:38):
and it's nice to be able to likeset the thing on the table Very
basic, right Like super simple.
So it's like okay, I'm going tomove my desk kind of in this
front middle area so I can sitat the desk and talk to the
camera.
And a version of that has beenhow it's been since 2018, which
was six years ago, and in thattime the channel has grown, my
focus has shifted, the projectsI work on have changed.
(38:59):
Also, in that time, there was apandemic.
Don't know if you heard aboutthat or not.
It was crazy.
I ended up then working fromhome full time as a teacher, so
it became not just my YouTubestudio podcast studio workspace
for YouTube, but also my actualworkspace.
Then I left my teaching job todo this full time.
So it's like it was very it wastrying to serve a lot of
(39:22):
purposes which were verydifferent from what it was
originally set up for, and a big, a big thing was kind of what I
said at the beginning of thisepisode was I sort of had my
main area needed to be aworkspace and a video production
space.
I mean, I literally mean mydesk, like it needed to have my
computer on it.
I literally mean my desk, likeit needed to have my computer on
it so I could work on stuff.
But it also needed to be clearenough and visible enough to use
(39:45):
with a camera and ultimatelythat was causing so much
friction because it's just itends up literally with me just
bumping into things, slamminginto things, dropping stuff,
breaking stuff, like there's notenough room for things, running
cables everywhere is anabsolute nightmare.
And I forget whose video it was.
There was somebody's studio tourvideo where they had like three
(40:06):
desk setups in their space andit was like one of them was
their filming desk setup, one ofthem was a streaming desk setup
, one of them was an editingdesk setup and I was like, oh my
God, like that's, that's crazy.
But then I was thinking kind ofmakes sense actually, like
maybe I don't need threeseparate setups, but sort of
breaking things apart based onpurpose sort of made sense, and
(40:29):
that was something I wanted todo is take my main desk and make
it a work desk.
That's where I'm sitting rightnow.
It's like, okay, this doesn'tneed to be floating in the
middle of the room, which thenalso makes it immobile because
it's all wired in and you know,there's like there's no way I
can physically move this, soit's just dominating everything.
It can go where, like kind of inthe old days how I just had a
(40:52):
desk that was a workspace and itdoesn't need to have every
piece of gear on it because it'sgoing to be used for every
video and thing I just need.
In my case I've seen amicrophone, a monitor, an audio
mixer, a little speaker, basicdesk things, keyboard, mouse,
you know, like all that kind ofstuff and that works.
Okay, cool.
And also, which is kind of neat, because now it doesn't have to
(41:15):
be a video thing my desk wasalways weirdly high high because
it needed to be to sort of likeframe stuff in the video in a
certain way.
So I was like I can actuallylower it.
It's not a nice fancy heightadjustable desk.
You have to like turn it upsidedown and crank all these screws
and stuff.
It's not an easy thing to raiseand lower, but I can lower it
to regular desk height where Ican sit at it with my feet like
(41:36):
flat on the ground for longperiods of time and be
comfortable.
Wow, imagine that like anergonomic workstation.
Crazy, right, I could just dothat if I wanted to do that and
that was like once I realizedthat was working.
And then it was crazy too,because this wasn't serving so
many production purposes.
The pile of AC adapters and USBcables and other cords that I
(42:01):
like just took out was insane.
Like the cable management wasso much easier because there
didn't need to be as much.
It was really nice and so andthen I had had two big, long
desks, kind of in an L shape,and the thing that bothered me
about the one that was on theside was that it was kind of
(42:21):
useless.
It sort of just had like my oldcamera collection.
On some lights it looked coolin the background, but in a
relatively small space that wasa lot of unused space, you know,
it's like kind of a waste.
And one thing I was learning asI was trying to redo everything
was there is kind of a likemurder, your darling situation.
(42:41):
One thing that was on that sidetable where I have amassed
quite a collection of retrocameras, and three of my
favorites were always there theXL1, the Sony broadcast TV
camera that I have and the RED1cinema camera.
They're such cool cameras.
They're really big and they'rereally heavy and they look cool
(43:03):
on display, but it's likenothing else can be there.
And so this was where I waslike, okay, this is something.
We're not going to get rid ofthose, of course, but I don't
think there's a way I can justhave them on display.
So instead I found a nice placeto safely store them in a
closet, which makes me sad,because it makes me sad when
(43:25):
gear lives in closets like that,but they're safe, they're
stored, I don't have to havethem anywhere.
And then, as I'm making videos,if I'm making a video where it
makes sense to talk about youknow these old cameras or
whatever, I'm making a videowhere it makes sense to talk
about you know these old camerasor whatever I can, then, you
know, dress the setup how I want.
(43:45):
I can put cameras in thebackground or on a tripod as a
prop or whatever it might be.
They don't have to just betaking up space totally.
And so I actually got rid ofall that stuff, took that entire
desk, put it in our garage andended up like doubling the size
of my workbench out there, whichis awesome, because I didn't
realize how inefficient thatarea was.
So now the garage is liketotally cool.
Just a side benefit to thiswhole situation.
(44:08):
And then I had more space inhere and so I bought.
I solved the problem by buyinganother desk.
I bought a slightly smallerdesk.
I like these husky work benchesfrom Home Depot, that's just
what I've always used and Ibought a slightly smaller one.
Instead of a six foot one Ibought a four foot one that's on
wheels and is height adjustable.
And I was going through thiswhole thing of like, oh, I can
(44:30):
get one of those really cool sitstand desks and they're
electric and you pre-program allthe things.
And then I was like, wait aminute, I could even take this a
step further, because you canbuy just the legs of a sit-stand
desk and then you can go findlike a really cool top, a piece
of wood, a countertop, whatever,and you can do like this
totally custom thing.
But then I thought, wait aminute, it's an electric desk.
(44:52):
You know what that needsElectricity and you know what I
don't want Is a desk that needsan umbilical cord of power
running to it all the time.
So the Husky workbench not onlywas less expensive it's like 250
bucks but it just has a handcrank like an old car window,
and that's what raises andlowers it, which is totally fine
.
It's pretty decent, like.
(45:13):
Even when there's stuff on thedesk.
It's not hard to raise or lowerit, it just takes a while.
So even if you had like a fullsetup and it was kind of heavy,
it wouldn't be that difficult.
But in this case this is not awork desk, this is a video like
presentation desk, a set desk,so for the most part there's
nothing on it, which means it'svery easy to raise and lower and
(45:33):
it's on wheels so I can move itaround and basically I tried to
put everything on wheels.
So I have my main desk that I'msitting at right now.
That's the only thing in thisspace that's not on wheels.
My camera is on wheels on animpact, like rolling C-stand
essentially, so it's actuallyvery easy to raise and lower the
camera.
It's not like raising andlowering a tripod where you're
(45:54):
trying to get all three legseven and stuff.
It's just one center column.
My light, my main key light, ison a C-stand.
My fill lights and my likeaccent lights are off the floor.
They're mounted either to theceiling or on an auto pole
that's running from floor toceiling.
That's kind of been that wayfor a while.
Other, like you know,workbenches and chest of drawers
and things are all on wheels.
(46:16):
Basically, if I wanted to, Icould take everything but my
main desk out of this room inlike a couple of minutes max and
then it would just be a totallyempty space.
I don't need to do that.
But that flexibility is crazy,like being able to.
I've everything has been so setin stone for so many years and
now I can do so much more withthe space it's I have.
(46:36):
You know, you've maybe seen howI've done like product B-roll,
where I sort of had, like this,these colored paper backdrops
and this like corner of my deskthat I could kind of set things
on and film stuff, and it looksreally good, but it's an
absolute pain to film it.
Now I have a Florida ceilingcolored backdrop and I can just
easily move things in front ofit and use film bigger things.
(46:59):
I can even put myself in frontof it if I want to.
The cool part with this is athing that I figured out,
because I now have the sit standdesk with my normal camera on
wheels, so that right there Ican basically recreate the same
shot that you've seen for a longtime it hardly looks any
different, and that's what Iwanted, because I don't I didn't
(47:20):
want to, you know, make it seemlike I totally changed
everything.
So I can still go with what Ilike and what works and what's
been there and it's great.
But I can also just move thingsaround so that, like I guess it
would be like that main shotwhere my blue wall is the
background I can get sixdistinctly different versions,
because not only can I place thecamera in you know there's two
(47:44):
corners or dead on, so that'sthree right there but now
everything can either be asitting or a standing shot,
which looks and feels totallydifferent.
I can even then wheel out thedesk entirely and have nothing,
have just me in frame, which Ihaven't been able to do before.
So there's like every shotbecause of the sit-stand desk is
(48:06):
now two shots or even three, ifyou consider the fact that
there is no desk there, andthat's just from, kind of where
I've always filmed stuff.
Now it's almost 360 degrees,like I can put the camera in any
direction and film stuff.
And even though my work deskthat I'm at right now is not
intended to be a filming setup,there is the fact that like
sometimes I kind of need to beat my computer while I'm
(48:27):
recording something or filmingsomething or doing a video call.
So I just have a little stand,a little iFootage well a very
sturdy stand here where I cantake I don't have to do anything
other than literally likeunclip the Manfrotto plate for
my FX3 with the Elgato prompteron it and move it over here and
snap it in here.
It takes the same mount, Idon't have to change anything.
(48:47):
And now I can have my camerawith the prompter right here,
you know, next to my display,and I can use it for video calls
or even videos, and it's likethe Patreon video kind of shows
this.
It works great.
I was doing that a lot while Iwas reconfiguring the studio,
because everything still lookedpretty cool behind me even
though the rest was a total mess.
And that's kind of cool becausethat's also that lets me not
(49:12):
only do video calls or streamingeasily, but also then I can
even move the camera slightlyfurther away where you can see
the whole desk and you can seethe RODECaster.
And that's kind of cool if I'mdoing like a, say, like a
software processing tutorial orsomething where I kind of want
the whole desk set up here.
Basically a lot of versatility.
What I added it up to wasthere's at least 12 visually
(49:37):
distinct and unique shots that Ican get in here now easily like
and probably more that I justhaven't discovered yet but at
least 12 that look totallydifferent.
That's crazy In this space.
That, like space didn't get anybigger.
You know that that kind ofversatility has just blown my.
I've never had that freedombefore.
(49:59):
And the the other inspiration Ihad was a thing that I do miss
in my classroom was I had twostudio spaces.
One of them was a broadcaststudio that I had built a set in
, so that was kind of like fixed, you know, like we.
The set was a little bitmodular and we can move things
around, but for the most part itdidn't really change.
It was kind of always used forsome version of a broadcast.
(50:21):
The other space was the samesize but had nothing set in it,
and so we could build sets andbuild different kinds of setups
and different shoots and things,and it was always really fun to
walk in and just have that bigopen space and be like, okay, we
need to put like three lightshere, let's put a couch here.
Let's build out this backdrop.
Let's do this.
You know, whatever you can justsort of set things up like in
(50:49):
that space.
I can't recreate that amount ofspace in here, but that a
version of that versatility,which I really, really miss, I
have been able to recreate inhere, which is crazy.
I've never been able to do thatbefore and it's just it really
like I can't even tell you theweight that it feels like was
lifted because of finally, likere-evaluating the space, because
essentially, what happened wasnot only has it just been a
(51:12):
number of years and it was likethe software patches over and
over again, but also the needsthat I was trying to meet in
2018, when my channel had 700subscribers and was just
something I did on weekends.
Those are very different needsthat I'm trying to meet in 2024,
when this has been my full timejob for three years.
Like it's just different and Idon't want to do the thing where
(51:34):
you scale up and get a bigseparate studio and hire a team
and all that Like I don't wantthat.
I want to work with what I'vegot, because I like being an
independent solo creator.
I genuinely love that.
I don't really want to gobeyond that, whether or not that
sounds like it lacks ambitionor anything, and I like having a
home studio.
(51:55):
A year or two ago, heather and Ihad talked about like well,
what if we did get like you know, there's some industrial spaces
nearby, get like a smallwarehouse kind of shop, you know
big rolling door and kind ofsome cool.
Like what if we did rent aspace?
Financially?
It's like it just kind of feltlike why add that expense to
everything?
And then the big thing for mewas like the idea that when I
(52:18):
want to work on something or getsomething or try something, I
have to drive, even if it'sclose, even if it's five minutes
away, 10 minutes away.
That's a pretty big roadblock,you know, versus like just walk
down the hallway and go, andI've noticed, I've seen, you
know Peter's a good example.
He has this beautiful studio butis willing to essentially give
(52:42):
it all up to be able to worklee,who has a huge team and a huge
studio and that's the workplace.
But even smaller independentcreators who do just buy, you
(53:03):
know, maybe they live in asmaller house or apartment or
they have kids or something andthey need their studio space to
be outside of that.
So they rent a studio space.
They build it up there.
It looks amazing.
I've seen so many of them thenbuild a second small studio
again at home because they'relike I don't want to drive to
the studio, I don't want to gowork on stuff over there, like I
want to be able to just do athing from home, and so I.
(53:26):
It's a thing that I don'treally want to give up is the
nice home studio, home officefeel, and even though I would
always love more space, I dofeel like that.
I said this in my Patreon video.
You know this is an okay sizebed.
This bedroom that's what it isoriginally is way bigger than
the bedroom I grew up in, spentmost of my life in, where I had
(53:48):
to like live.
I had to sleep and exist as aperson and smash all my hobbies
and stuff in there.
Like this doesn't need to havethe living part.
There doesn't need to be a bed.
There doesn't need to have the.
The living part there doesn'tneed to be a bed.
There doesn't need to be awardrobe or like clothes or
anything.
It can just be a workspace.
That's pretty cool.
Like that's a lot of space andthough even though it could be
(54:08):
bigger and I'd like more.
I feel like the amount of spacethat I have to dedicate
specifically to this is far morethan most people on planet
earth have to dedicate tosomething like this if they want
to.
And you know, I'd rather findways to make this work than to
to just be like oh, I got to gospend a whole bunch of money and
(54:31):
get a whole new space orsomething.
And I think you know,creatively, when we go back to
like where creativity flows, Ithink you need some constraints
for your creativity to shine itsbest, and sometimes your
physical space can be one ofyour best constraints, because
you have to figure out how tomake that, how to make that work
and how to make it do what youneed to do.
And so I'm super excited aboutthis.
(54:51):
I cannot wait to share more ofit with you through videos and
podcasts and all the cool thingslike to just read.
It really feels like Christmasit's.
I can't even tell you howexcited I am.
So I guess the moral of thestory is you know we're talking
about cheap and expensive gear.
You really have to evaluateyour needs and what works
(55:13):
specifically for you, andsometimes you might be surprised
the stuff that you don't needto spend a bunch of money on.
But also it's important toacknowledge the needs and what
works specifically for you.
And sometimes you might besurprised the stuff that you
don't need to spend a bunch ofmoney on.
But also it's important toacknowledge the areas where you
do.
And just because you look atsomeone else and see what they
choose to spend money on andwhat they choose to get the
cheap versions of, that doesn'tmean those things will work for
you.
You know, someone might be okaywith a cheap camera, but they
(55:36):
need an expensive mic, andsomeone might need an expensive
mic and it's or wait, that wasthe same thing a cheap mic and
expensive camera.
You know, whatever.
Those are just sort of someexamples there.
And when it comes to your space,I guess the lesson is don't be
afraid to try to to try to makethings work, and you probably
(55:57):
have the skills.
If you have the skills to havecreated a video or audio
production space in the firstplace, you probably have the
skills to work in it whileyou're redoing it.
So it doesn't mean you have tostop everything, do all this and
then start everything.
You can probably find a way tomake it work while you're in
that process of remodeling.
(56:18):
And the thing that you set up,even if it's awesome, even if it
seems amazing, if it's been anumber of years, it might be
worth reevaluating andreassessing.
Is it meeting your needs or not, and are there some problems
you can solve?
Because, even though it seemsintimidating or scary or
whatever, I promise you,speaking from experience, it is
(56:40):
absolutely worth it and it canmake the biggest difference.
So interested to know if anyonehas any thoughts or even tips.
You know, I know this, this issomething that probably lends
itself better to a video version, but right now that's not a
thing I have.
But if you have any thoughts ortips about studio redos,
renovations, equipment,definitely feel free to send
those.
Tom at enthusiasmprojectcom.
Next week's episode excuse me asI cough is going to be the
(57:05):
season 12 Q&A episode, which Ialways love.
I've already got a few questionsget sent in, but if you want to
send in a question for the Q&Aepisode again, you can do tom at
enthusiasmprojectcom.
Or you can go to hi, my name istomcom and scroll down to the
little thing that says leave amessage, and you can leave a
message right there on whateverdevice you happen to be using.
It doesn't have to be perfectquality or anything, don't worry
(57:28):
.
And I'll also be posting a callfor messages on youtube and
instagram and all the socialmedias and stuff.
And don't forget, if you wantto go to n 2024, you can go to
nabshowcom, sign up for theexhibition pass and if you use
promo code Tom24, it'll betotally free.
And that is.
That's pretty darn cool.
(57:48):
So, with all that in mind,thank you so much for listening.
Hope everything worked andsounded good as I'm recording
the first official thing in thisnew official setup, and I hope
you have a safe, happy, healthyrest of your day and I'll see
you next time.
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