Bye Bye Bias

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:24):
Thank you, hello and welcome.
My name is Tom.
This is the Enthusiasm Project,season 13, episode 4.
And what I've got in store foryou is an episode.
It's a podcast, for sure.

(00:47):
Thanks for being here.
Good to see you, figuratively,since I am not spying on you in
this moment, or am I?
Yeah, no, thank you for beinghere.
I took a break last week and Idid kind of want to talk about

(01:08):
that just because I think itmight be helpful, as I'm
figuring out this video podcastworkflow and I know other people
are trying to do the same thingand I think that you know,
figuring it out might be helpfulfor other people.
So last week was just super,super busy.
Tons of different things,different products like all
kinds of stuff, all the thingshappening.
And you know, it's like,obviously I want to record the

(01:31):
podcast, want to do that.
We're getting kind of down tothe end of the week.
I haven't had time to outlineit, haven't had time to plan it,
so I'm thinking, okay, I can doit over the weekend, but I'm
just kind of exhausted and so Ijust thought, instead of doing
that, I'll just not.
I'll just not do it, I'll justtake a break because something
I've been trying to do lately.
Not that this is a hard andfast rule, and it's definitely a

(01:52):
gray area, because that'ssomething that happens when your
like hobby and your interestbecomes your job is what is work
and what is play, like I don'tknow.
But something that reallyreally kind of was is something
I've been trying to work on, isnot like producing stuff on the
weekends just because if I dothat as actually like sitting

(02:15):
down and producing a full onvideo for like a main channel
video kind of thing, trying tosave that for the weekdays and
have a bit of a break Again, youknow, if I have some like idea

(02:36):
that I'm just super excitedabout that, I don't want to wait
till Monday or something.
You know, I will break thatrule from time to time.
It's something I've been tryingto do and I decided last week
well, you know what, why don'tyou continue to do that?
It's going to be better in thelong run for everybody.
Continue to, like you know,give yourself time to rest and
recover, and then let's do anepisode next week.

(02:57):
And a thing when I was doing theaudio only version of this show
is it was a lot easier to sortof like squeeze that in
unplanned, you know, not just ona weekend, but even on a
weekday, in between things or atthe end of the day or whatever.
And the thing about the videopodcast even though I feel like
I've narrowed down the workflowabout, as you know, as

(03:18):
streamlined as it can possiblybe and I'm quite happy with it
it still requires what it itreally requires is a lot of
planning.
There's way way more planningand prep that goes into this
version than the audio version,and which I'm totally fine with.
I think that's great because itmakes the show better overall,
but it takes obviously more time.
And then there is more workafterwards, since it's not just

(03:41):
an audio file but there's avideo file you're uploading to
multiple places, there'sthumbnail, there's all the
YouTube stuff.
So the workflow, even in itsmost streamlined state, is still
more and still bigger than theaudio-only version.
And so what that means is, insituations like last week, where
time is just a very finiteresource, it's just one of those

(04:03):
things that had had to not be,not be done.
So hopefully understand that,but I thought that it was
interesting to share.
So it's not just like I didn'tfeel like it, I didn't want to,
but kind of the reasoning behindthat, especially if you're
somebody who's producing yourown show, whether it's audio and
video only, or especially forsomeone like me who is, you know
, maybe switching from audio tovideo and you're still sort of

(04:24):
figuring out that workflow.
So, anyway, that was sort ofwhat happened last week and
what's been going on, and beforewe go any further, I would like
to talk about our mic of theweek.
So the microphone I'm usingthis week again, if you don't
remember, my plan if I canexecute this and find a way to

(04:45):
execute this is to use adifferent microphone on every
episode.
That is very easy becausethat's something I do anyway.
So all 10 episodes of thisseason will have 10 different
microphones and then at the end,in the season finale episode or
somehow afterwards, I'll playclips from all of them and you
can tell me which one you likethe best.

(05:06):
I don't know, it's just for fun.
So this one right now, kind oflike I just mentioned, just
showed this is the EarthworksEthos and it's running through
the Rodecaster Duo, just on thegeneric condenser setting, if I
turn that off.
This is the microphone'sdefault sound Very flat, very
neutral, not unlike the SM7B,even though this is a condenser

(05:27):
mic and not a dynamic mic likethe SM7B.
So that's kind of a good place.
That the Ethos fits in is ifyou're somebody who you really
like the SM7B but you wouldprefer what happened Something
sounds strange over there.
If you like the SM7B but youwould prefer a what is going on?
Sorry, something weird ishappening here.

(05:48):
I'm going to pause that for asec.
Okay, I think we're back.
So I was getting some weirdsounds after I turned off the
processing and on the processingand I realized I just installed
a new beta firmware into myRodecaster yesterday and clearly
it does not like it if you turnprocessing on or off.
I don't know if that was justin my headphones or you heard it
, but the mic was suddenlycutting to like a weird like.

(06:08):
All the mids were gone and thenthey were back and then they
were gone.
They were back.
I don't know.
I just reset the processing.
Everything sounds normal.
Now I'm not going to turn thaton and off again on stream,
because I learned my lesson.
I forgot I was running betafirmware and I'm also in.
I'm using the Rodecaster videofor my video and I also
installed beta firmware in thatyesterday.

(06:30):
So you beta believe there couldbe issues, although I'm not
doing anything crazy with that,so I don't think that's going to
cause any problems.
As I was saying, the thing aboutthe ethos is, if you like the
SM7B but you want a condensermicrophone, for whatever reason,
you prefer condensermicrophones.
They work better with yourinterface, better with your
mixer, because they require lessgain and all that kind of stuff
.
This could be a really, reallygood option.

(06:52):
I love this is just one of myall-time favorite microphones.
I love it so much.
The only thing that's a bummerfor me personally is the
windscreens are very specificsize that come with it and I
can't get any of my colorfulreporter store windscreens on
here.
Sometimes you can like drape anSM7B windscreen, but it's a
little too big.
That's a.

(07:12):
You know that's nitpicky.
These things are just.
They're so well made, they'reso nice.
When this microphone wasoriginally released several
years ago, it had an MSRP oflike $750 or something like that
$700, $800, something like thatand then, after I don't know a
year and a half, two years, theycut it down to $399.

(07:33):
So it's at the exact same pricepoint as the SM7B, which really
seemed to be pretty clear whatthey were targeting with this
and I love this mic.
Like I said, it's an endaddress condenser microphone,
something we're going to bere-talking about later in this
episode, but it's great.
The thing I love about thismicrophone and this is maybe
just my opinion or it could beunique just with my voice in

(07:55):
this environment, whatever isthat this is the least fatiguing
microphone I think I own prettymuch.
So in terms of like, tons ofmics can sound good, tons of
mics sound good for five minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes.
When you're talking aboutsomething, that's one, one and a
half, two hours or more, thisis the microphone that I feel

(08:15):
like is the least fatiguing.
Like you just don't your earsdon't get tired, it doesn't get
uncomfortable to listen to Notthat all my other microphones do
, but certain things you know,like certain microphones that
are maybe a little more harshsounding or a little too bassy
or whatever it might be, justnaturally they can really start
to fatigue your ears after awhile, and this one just sounds
smooth and just.
It's just.

(08:36):
It's a very good mic.
I've noticed them becoming moreand more popular, which makes
me really happy, and I reallyhope that they continue to be
popular because I feel like it's.
I feel like it's a really goodone.
So the Earthworks ecosystemincludes the Earthworks ethos
and that's the microphone thatI'm using right now.
Now, before we dive into themain topic for today, there is

(08:58):
something I want to go back intolast week's episode a little
bit.
Last week's topic, or I guessnot last week there wasn't an
episode last week, but theprevious episode where I talked
about the cons of being a pro,and there's a few things that I
just wanted to sort of addressthat popped up in comments and
popped up in discussion andmessages and stuff.
So things that I want to likeexpand on and also things that I

(09:20):
want to clarify.
Something that was really coolabout that topic is that it
seemed like it resonated withpeople, which made me feel good,
because I was a little bitnervous about sharing it.
It felt like I could verge onbeing maybe a little bit too
critical and I didn't wantthings to be taken out of
context.
And you know, it's one of thosethings like I have this feeling
and I have this thought, but amI just, you know, a crazy

(09:42):
person over here on an island bymyself and nobody else has any
idea what I'm talking about.
Fortunately, that wasn't thecase.
Lots of other people sent memessages.
They felt the same, both fromthe creator and the consumer
side of things.
So I had other creators let meknow that they felt like, yes,
I've also dealt with this.
You know, I share a video onsomething and someone comes in
and tells me how long they'veworked in X industry and that

(10:04):
they you know all the reasonsI'm wrong for what I'm doing.
And then people all on theconsumer side of things also
saying like, yeah, you know, Ifeel like when I have a question
I don't understand somethingI'm either talked down to or the
explanation I get is way toocomplicated for me to understand
.
I just feel kind of dumbbecause I don't understand it.
So it seemed to resonate bothfor me to understand.

(10:24):
I just feel kind of dumbbecause I don't understand it.
So it seemed to resonate both,you know, with creators and
consumers as well, and that'sreally cool.
But the thing I really did wantto clarify because it was if
you didn't listen to thatepisode what I sort of talked
about was people who areprofessionals in industries
finding content like the contentI make, you know, which is

(10:45):
often geared towards eitherbeginners or prosumers,
consumers, prosumers so that'swhere a lot of it's focused and
sort of looking at that withthat industry standard, industry
professional eye and beinghypercritical in a way that
maybe is like uncalled for ornot even called for, but also
just unhelpful and sometimesjust inappropriate.
You know like why I I'm workingon a video or I wrapped up a

(11:09):
video about, I think I told youlast time, the mystery mic
Someone sent like a no namewireless mic from Amazon.
It's it's almost like a copy ofthe Hollyland Lark and it's
just a no name brand.
So I did like a video of likewhat is this mic and how does it
sound?
And that's the kind of thinglike obviously that's not geared
towards professional use.
Right, like a microphone, likethat is not at all geared

(11:30):
towards professional use.
But that's the kind of thingI'll make a video on and have
people say like oh, you couldnever use this for like real,
you know projects or whateverit's like you shouldn't.
That's not what it's for.
It is a $30 to $40 wirelessmicrophone.
Keep expectations in line withthat.
And if you look at it, if youlook at it with those

(11:52):
expectations, with realisticexpectations, then it actually
is quite good.
So something, though, that Iwanted to clarify that was kind
of the gist of the episode lastweek, but something that I
wanted to make sure was stillclear is that professionals are
good, and I have a lot ofrespect and admiration for
professionals in every field.
Like that's to the theexperience, the knowledge, the

(12:13):
skillset to become aprofessional at something is is
really good, and I'm not in anyway saying I'm not.
I don't want to be like theanti-professional person.
I would like to be professionalat what I do.
I would like to, you know, beconsidered a professional
content creator.
But I actually had a revelation, believe it or not, at a hockey
game last week, where I wasthinking about this, and that's

(12:35):
why I wanted to add thisaddendum here.
So our local hockey team is anAHL team, an American Hockey
League team, and that's onelevel below the NHL.
So the NHL is, you know, themain hockey league.
I know it's the National HockeyLeague, so it's North America
well, canada and US, but it'sthe main.

(12:55):
It's the biggest hockey leaguein the world.
Right below that is the AHL.
Every NHL team has an AHLaffiliate team that feeds into
them, so it's supposed to belike a development team.
That's where they can draftplayers into, they can build up
their skill sets, move them intothe NHL team.
If someone in the main teamgets injured, they can pull
people up, all that kind ofstuff.
So it's a pretty cool system.

(13:17):
Our NHL team is the SeattleKraken and then our AHL team are
the Firebirdsbirds and they goback and forth.
The Kraken did a strange,they've done a few strange
things, so we don't need to turnthis into a sports podcast.
It's been a crazy week Prior tothis week.
They're not having the bestseason, but there's a player
they had.

(13:37):
It's only their fourth season.
So the Kraken is the newest NHLteam.
It's only their fourth season.
There was a player there fortheir first two seasons who was,
you know, like a good or greatplayer, like not like a
superstar or anything, but likea very solid NHL player, did
lots of good stuff, scored lotsof things, helped the team

(13:59):
establish.
And I don't know if he wastraded away or they just didn't
renew his contract or whatevergoing into the third season, but
he went somewhere else.
Okay, that's fine.
This season, the fourth seasonin the middle of the season they
did this trade and got him back, which I thought was
interesting.
I was like I didn't really know.
I'm relatively new to followingsports this closely.
I didn't know players couldleave a team and come back to

(14:20):
that same team.
Seems like it could potentiallybe awkward, but maybe it's like
cool.
Yeah, we realized we had thisperson who was really good and
we gave him away and we wantthem back, and they traded for a
couple other people and thenthey did something.
This was the strange part is theperson they traded the person
who left and came back had beenin the nhl like only the nhl
since 2017, 2016, something likethat, so for a long time.

(14:43):
And you know, because sometimesplayers will be in the AHL,
they go up to the NHL, they go,they kind of go back and forth
and then there's the players whoare only in one or only in the
other.
It's just kind of the way theircareers work out.
He's been an NHL player formany, many seasons, many years
now, and they took him and theyput, they assigned him to the
AHL team, even though, like,there didn't really seem to be a

(15:06):
reason other than that theyseem to prefer some of the other
players that they traded forand which is whatever.
It's a little.
It's a little strange.
You go out of your way to bringsomeone back and then like kind
of get rid of it, becauseassigning them down to the AHL
the way they did is is basicallylike you're going to stay there
for the rest of the and thenwe're not going to renew your
contract is kind of the message.

(15:26):
Obviously, he's probably nottoo happy about that, even
though it's strange, becauseit's like the AHL team, that's
our team, that's the team weroot for, the team we cheer for,
the team we're excited about.
But I understand that playersyou know most players
aspirations are to go to thathighest level and if you've been
at that level and you come backto the to the second highest
level, you know you're gonnafeel a way.

(15:49):
And it's been interestingbecause he did a press
conference like after the.
Well, so first he he got sentdown, they played a game and he
immediately like scored twogoals and like got some, got
multiple assistance.
That was just like like evenwith the really good players
because a lot of AHL playershave NHL experience like they're
all incredibly good athletes,incredibly good hockey players

(16:11):
he was just performing in a waythat like didn't look like
anybody else on the ice, it wasjust so.
It reminded me of like when oneof like the coaches or
something drops into like one ofthe learn to play classes that
I take, where it's like, oh, youcan just control the game.
It was kind of like thatfeeling.
And then in the press conferenceafterwards he was like yeah, my

(16:32):
goal is to prove that I don'tbelong here.
And he was like it's been, youknow, like the fan reception has
been nice.
I appreciate that I don't thinkI belong here and I want to be
back in the NHL and I like thathonesty of like, yeah, this is,
it's a public demotion in a way,and it seems pretty unfair and

(16:53):
it's cool that you are okayadmitting that.
But what he also said was hewas like this team has a lot of
young people on it.
I remember what it was like tobe a young player.
So while I'm here, I want to bea good role model, a good
mentor for them, and I thoughtthat was pretty cool.
But you know, it also soundslike just a nice thing to say.
Maybe I should have just saidsomething that sounds a little
angry.
But then in several games, since, especially because we get to

(17:13):
go, you know we have seasontickets so we go and watch the
players and our seats kind offace the player benches so you
can see them, and I just likekeep watching him because I keep
wondering how this person, howdo you do your job in this
situation?
And I've noticed like whenthey're on the bench, a lot of
players are sitting watching thegame.
He constantly has, like theyhave, an iPad that I think you
can, you know, review plays anddo all that kind of stuff, and

(17:35):
he's constantly has that withsomebody else.
So it's usually one of theyounger players.
A lot of players who aredrafted to the AHL are really
young, so, like you know, 19, 20years old they haven't gotten
to the NHL yet or whatever andhe's like constantly reviewing
things with them, talking about.
I've just sort of seen like andhe'll kind of go person by
person and do that and you cansort of see.

(17:56):
You can see that he has leveledup the performance of the whole
team, which I think is veryfascinating.
And I've seen multiple timeswhere he will sit with a younger
player.
They'll be reviewing somethingon the iPad on the bench.
That player will get off thebench, go on the ice and then
immediately like get a goal orassist in a goal, and it's like
I don't know what you guys aretalking about, but clearly, like

(18:18):
in terms of mentoring and beinga good role model, you're doing
it.
At the game a couple days agothat I was at, I was watching
him there.
There was like kind of tryingto set up this play and I could
really see he was like trying toget in position and trying to
make this one shot like severaltimes and they kept setting up
until eventually it did happen.
But I could see like he was notin any way giving less than

(18:41):
100%, like you could tell he wasputting everything he had into
this, even though it's a youknow, a mid season minor league
hockey game.
Right, and you're you're aspurned major league hockey
player Like you had every reasonto maybe not give it your all
and your contracts the same.
You're gonna pay the sameeither way.
So it's like you could justkind of coast in the minor
leagues, get your same paycheckand then leave to another team

(19:03):
next season.
But he wasn't doing that and thethought that popped into my
head was I saw that I literallyjust without even thinking of it
, thought like wow, what aprofessional.
And because that's you knowthat is an uncomfortable
situation, a tough situation,not to mention just the
logistics of like you randomlyhad to move and meet a whole
bunch of new people and then youknow play, you know play, you

(19:25):
know perform with them publiclyLike it's not, probably not an
easy thing to do.
And this is the thought of likewow, what a professional.
And then I was like, wait,that's a good, that, like what?
What makes me appreciate thatmore than you know?
The, the, like theprofessionals who sometimes show
up in the comments section.
And I realized that there is adifference.

(19:48):
And the biggest difference isbeing professional versus
proclaiming yourself aprofessional, and I think it's
kind of that thing.
Like a leader doesn't have tosay they're a leader, right?
Like if you have to tell peoplethat you're in charge and
you're the leader, you'reprobably not a great leader and
you Maybe you aren't actuallythe person in charge.

(20:08):
So being professional, beingthe person that has the skill
set, has the experience andimplements those and utilizes
those and stuff, that's a thingyou can do without having to
label yourself anything, andthat is very different than
proclaiming yourself aprofessional, which is the
person who will show up in theYouTube comments of a video

(20:29):
about a thing that's clearly notgeared for you and then have to
list out your entire resume andwhy that person is wrong, why
that thing's a piece of junk,why anyone who uses it doesn't
understand what they're doing.
And that's, you know, there canbe two sides.
You can have someone who is aprofessional who does that, but
that's, to me, that knocks downyour professional credibility a

(20:50):
little bit.
So I think there's a hugedifference and to me that was
very illuminating to kind ofhave that thought the difference
between being a professionaland proclaiming yourself a
professional.
And I think part of that is,you know, recognizing and
remembering that, and we'regoing to talk about this
actually a little bit latertoday in the listener messages
section.
But you know, professionalsobviously are huge resources of

(21:12):
knowledge and resources ofskills, right, like, if you go,
if you need a medical procedure,you want a professional doctor.
You don't want someone who has,like you know, a hobby interest
in medicine.
Like you want a professionaldoctor if you need to hire a
plumber to fix a huge leak inyour house, you want a
professional with that skill set.

(21:32):
The difference is, you know Iguess that's sort of the
difference Like, let's, let'suse the plumbing example Say you
have a leak in your house, youneed to.
You try to fix it.
It doesn't work.
You call the plumber and theycome in and say, okay, this is
what it is, this is the problemis so much it's going to cost.
Here we go, boom, they fix it,they do a great job and they
leave.
That's very different than themcoming in and going like, oh,

(21:57):
did you install this faucet?
This is from Home Depot.
Or did you try to get somethingon sale?
See, this is the right way.
Here, here's your, you know,inflated bill.
That's like you could still be,you could have that
professional skill set, butthat's not really professional,
that's not actually professionalbehavior.
And yeah.
So I think like when someone isa true professional, they know

(22:20):
how to either use their skillset.
They know how to just utilizetheir skill set and their
knowledge and the resource andexperience in a professional way
.
And when it comes to sharing it, relaying it with others, they
know how to do it either with alight touch or, you know, when
asked and how to do it humblywhen asked.
It's not the thing of like, hey, you're a pro at this, I need,

(22:42):
I need help with it.
How do you do blah, blah, blahand then just overload someone
with jargon so it sounds likethe retro encabulator video,
like just complete, you know,insanity that makes no sense,
that nobody can understand, andthen you kind of look down on
them for not understanding veryspecific lingo.
You know how to relate to them,how to help them, how to share

(23:02):
your knowledge with them, shareyour skills with them, and then
that kind of betters andempowers everybody.
That is what I think is themark of a true professional.
So, getting into today's topic,which I am so proud of, this
title, bye-bye bias.
Getting opinions in sync, whichI don't know if that makes
sense, I just yeah, anyway, ifyou remember, in sync, that

(23:24):
would make sense.
And that makes sense.
I just yeah, anyway, if youremember, in sync, that would
make sense.
And I still think that's very,very clever.
So something I wanted to talkabout today is something that
pops up a lot for me in theworld of being a content creator
, especially someone who focusesa lot on gear and products and
stuff like that, and I feel likelots of other people can relate
, but it also pops up kind ofanywhere online a lot, and that
is the idea.

(23:44):
That is the the concept of biasand how that plays into what
you do and how you do it.
This is something.
Having a bias and not beingobjective is something I get
accused of regularly and we'lltalk about.
We'll talk about that Because Ithink that's I think it's a
very interesting thing toexplore and something that maybe
a lot of assumptions are madeby a lot of people about a lot

(24:08):
of people and a lot of timesit's not necessarily super
accurate.
So we're going to talk aboutwhat bias is and the thing that
this is something.
So I'm going to share a YouTubecomment and I do want to be
clear that when I share YouTubecomments here, it's not like you
got one negative comment andneeded to make a podcast episode
about it.
I got a comment the other day.
That is the type of comment Iget very often, and so it was

(24:33):
like, okay, let me you know.
Let me unpack this.
I think this is a worthwhilediscussion and I like using
YouTube comments because theyare posted publicly If someone
sends me a direct message or anemail, even if I block out their
name or whatever.
Obviously that wasn't sent.
That wasn't sent to be public,that was sent privately.
So I just sort of feel likeYouTube comments are an easy

(24:55):
thing to share because they areposted publicly, voluntarily, by
the person that did them.
So this popped up in my in myfeed the other day.
This was on a video about theZoom PodTrack P4 recorder.
So it's a little portablepodcast recorder and it says
keep in mind, he's road biased,yet it was hard for him to knock

(25:16):
something a third of the pricewith a better mic and headphone
preamps, everything that's anissue is not really.
Keep in mind, you can connectthe device to a PC and then I'd
assume you're doing some realneat stuff.
If you're next to a PC, justplug this baby, set it up and
you're good to go.
The pod is about what goes on,the convo, not the casters being
used.
Some of the best podcasts outthere had no good gear at all to
start, so this is sort of thatis all one sentence.

(25:44):
This is overwhelming, kind oflike a positive, kind of like an
upbeat message, which is thegear doesn't matter, you can,
you don't need the best gear.
This video I was comparing thePodtrak P4 with the original
Rodecaster Pro, because that waswhat was out at the time.
The P4 has an MSRP of likeusually under $200, sometimes
like 160, 170.
The Rodecaster, the originalone, you know $600, $ know 600,

(26:10):
700, and the roadcaster pro 2 alittle more expensive than that.
Um, and his thing here is isbasically what he's saying is,
at least at the start is he'ssaying that this guy is biased.
He can't recognize that thezoom is better because it's so
much cheaper.
It has better preamps.
The zoom is not better thaneven the original roadcaster.
It is not like that's not abias thing, that's just a fact.
It's also like he was saying athird the price, so I would not

(26:35):
expect it to be better.
And that was kind of the pointof the video.
Wasn't me making fun of thisrecorder?
Is me saying this thing'sawesome?
And if you need a smallportable podcast recorder, even
to this day that's still likeone of the best options out
there.
It's way easier to put that ina bag and do portable podcasting
than it is to.
You know, try to pack up aRodecaster, a full on Rodecaster
and stuff.
So tons of advantages to it.

(26:57):
It's a great deal for the price, a huge value for the price.
And those are all advantages.
It does not have the EQ.
It does not have the eq, itdoes not have the processing, it
does not have the overallquality, it does not have the
interface like.
It also has a lot of thingsthat come up short even with the
original roadcaster, much lessthan you know the roadcaster pro
2 or the duo or anything likethat, but those are

(27:18):
significantly more expensive andthat's kind of how the video is
framed.
It's like if, if you just needa podcast recorder, podcast
mixer, and you have you know youhave the budget or budget's not
an issue get a Rodecasterbecause it's going to give you
the best results.
If you are on a budget or youneed something portable, you
know you need kind of the mostbang for your buck.
The P4 is absolutely a goodchoice and that's kind of where

(27:41):
I was going with this.
Now, this is the kind of commenttoo where, like the rest of it
is is kind of cool, where it'slike I like that.
He's like you know, if you thisplugs into a computer, if
you're doing computer, you'reprobably doing cool stuff.
Like let your show go where itgo.
Like I actually liked themessage of this, um, but it's
the road bias thing where it'slike he's accusing me of being
biased in favor of road, notrecognizing that what he's

(28:05):
really upset about in that firstthing is that my bias doesn't
align with his bias, whichobviously he's biased towards
the Zoom recorder.
If I had said the Zoom recorderis great, get that over the
roadcaster anytime.
This comment wouldn't say keepin mind he's road biased, but
he's still recommending this.
He wouldn't mention the roadbias.
It's only because I disagreethat like, oh, you're biased,

(28:26):
it's like that.
Like you know, it's riggedagainst me because I disagree
with you but I also want to goon.
But the reason that I reallywant to kind of like touch on
this and why I think this isthis is just a good example.
I like this because it's arelatively polite comment, but
it still brings up the idea of abias, which gets brought up
anytime.
I talk about anything, itdoesn't matter.

(28:47):
Especially it happens a lotwith Rode, because I'm talking a
lot about Rode stuff and I'm abig fan of Rode, but pretty much
anything Sony cameras, applecomputers, elgato stuff, you
know, whatever you're biased,you're biased.
You're biased which I wouldlike to talk about.
What does it mean to be biased,and is it a bad thing?
Do you need to not be biased?

(29:11):
So, literally copy and pastethe definition from the
dictionary of bias is prejudicein favor of or against one thing
, person or group compared withanother, usually in a way to be
considered unfair.
So the unfair part I mean Iguess I could play into it,
that's the part that would makea bias negative is the fact that
it's unfair.
So the unfair part I mean Iguess I could play into it,
that's the part that would makea bias negative is the fact that
it's unfair.
But a lot of times, especiallyin the world of YouTube, when
we're talking about, you know,oh, that creator's bias, that

(29:33):
reviewer's bias I think whatthey're talking about is that
person has preferences, andpreferences are a thing that
everybody has.
So, whether you're talkingabout a preference or you're
talking about a bias, everyonehas lots of preferences,
everyone has lots of biases.
It's not always a bad thing.
It's also called just having apersonality and being a person.
So what we really need to getinto, then, is the idea of being

(29:58):
objective versus subjective,and this is where I think there
is a lot of.
I think there are a lot ofassumptions in the world of
YouTube, I think and this it'shard to navigate because it's
such a big, broad platform andthere's a lot of everything on
there.
So objective versus subjectiveI think is more of like

(30:20):
journalism versus opinion.
So if you go to something likethe Consumer Reports YouTube
channel and you watch, you knowthey review everything from cars
to washing machines tocomputers and phones, like you
know everything, you would kindof expect them to be objective.
You would expect them to have ajournalistic approach Like this

(30:41):
is the thing, this is what itis, this is how we rank it.
Okay, maybe this is how itcompares to other things.
You would expect them to have ajournalistic approach like this
is the thing, this is what itis, this is how we rank it.
Okay, maybe this is how itcompares to other things.
You would maybe also expectthem to have you know, if you're
talking about one type of thing, maybe they also cover a lot of
other things in that category.
That is a more journalisticapproach, ideally, right, you're

(31:05):
objective, you're fair, you'relooking at the whole scope.
Subjective is personal opinion.
If you go to someone's channeland they say, hey, I just bought
this new computer and I'm goingto do a review on it.
You're probably not going toget necessarily the most
objective thing in the worldbecause it's something the

(31:25):
person already bought.
So clearly they already hadpreferences.
They already probably ruled outother things.
They chose that for specificreasons.
Even if there's things theydon't necessarily like about it,
they probably still wouldprefer the thing they chose to
buy over other things.
And you know, and there's theinherent thing of like, they
want to feel good about thething that they bought.

(31:45):
So they might not want to tellother people like I bought this
thing and it sucks.
I mean, sometimes that's why youmake videos, right?
Is you just get really madabout wasting money on something
?
But in that case the personalso probably never claimed to
be objective.
They never claimed to be ajournalist, they never claimed
to take that approach.
It's kind of just assumed.
And especially in a world whereyou can go to something like a

(32:08):
Consumer Reports channel whereit's supposed to be objective
journalism, and then the nextthing up and you're recommended
is just like person's personalreview on a thing and as the
viewer, if you're not beingaware, if you're not being
conscious and you know, criticalof what you're watching and how

(32:28):
you're watching it.
It's easy to just lumpeverything together and be like,
oh well, a review should beobjective.
Not necessarily at all, and Ithink the key here for,
especially for you know,creators or channels is to
figure out what your approach isand and to just be be very
clear about that approach.
You know, are you somebody whodoes objective reviews?
Are you someone who doessubject reviews?
I don't know that.

(32:49):
I've ever claimed to beobjective when it comes to
reviews.
I like things that I like andthat's specifically why
sometimes people say, hey, whydon't you have a video on this?
Because I'm not interested init.
If I were trying to be asobjective as possible, I would
review every microphone thatcomes out.
I would review every cameralens, every streaming thing,
every Elgato prompter competitor, every stream deck knockoff,

(33:09):
every capture card, every, allthe things.
Every time one comes out, Iwould review it and then try to
rank and review.
I'm not interested in that.
I'm interested in the, you know, the stuff that I find fun and
interesting.
So, right off the bat, likethat's not objective.
That's that's my approach, hasnever been an objective approach

(33:30):
, but sometimes you know if, ifthat's what people are expecting
, and then they see someone whohas a preference.
Yeah, so the thing aboutobjectivity is it does set a
standard.
So it's difficult to beobjective in one case and
subjective in another, unlessyou're very, very, very clear,
like stating it, and I'm sayingall this for anyone who also is

(33:52):
a content creator.
I think this is helpful foranyone who just consumes
anything.
You know you're watchingYouTube, you're watching reviews
, whatever kind of how they're.
You know you can analyze howthey are approached.
But also if you're a creatoryourself, you know you can you
can analyze how they areapproached.
But also if you're a creatoryourself, objectivity sets a
standard.
If you are known for beingobjective and then suddenly you

(34:13):
throw in a subjective video thatis going to throw people off
and that's going to stand out ina weird way.
So you know, being super clearabout that's very important.
Maybe that's every video likethis is an objective review, or
even this is a subjective reviewlike this is all my opinion.
I'm totally like I love this.
I'm not even interested incompeting products because I'm
just really excited about thisand you know, and that opens up
whole other cans of worms,because obviously on youtube.

(34:35):
You can only be subjective aboutsomething.
You can only like something ifthe company pays you.
You can't just like a thingbecause you happen to like a
thing.
No, no, no, that's impossible.
Bigger thing, though, andespecially for creators, you do
not have to be objective.
You do not have to be objective.
All you need to be istransparent.

(34:55):
So, if you have a preference,if you're not being objective,
just let people know.
Hey, I'm reviewing theRODECaster Pro 2.
I freaking love this thing.
It is my favorite.
Okay, cool.
Now I don't really expect youto recommend other products over
it, but you can still tell mehow other products compare.
You can tell me what you likeabout it.

(35:16):
Maybe I just want to know moreabout that, you know, and those
biases having preferences,having biases, I think, can
actually be a really good thing,because that is what gives you
a personality.
It kind of goes back to thatthing from several episodes ago
where we talked about peoplesort of just reading spec sheets
in reviews and it's like thenevery review is the same, like
it, because it's just, you'rejust a different person reading

(35:37):
the spec sheet versus somebody'sactual insights, someone's
opinion, someone's use cases,even if they're not necessarily
covering every feature, everycapability of something.
And that is where having yourbiases, having your preferences,
makes you stand out.
Right, I have all these guitarsback here.
Right, I don't have a Gibsonguitar on this wall.
I do not like Gibson guitars.

(35:58):
It doesn't mean I would neverokay, that's a perfect example
actually.
It doesn't mean I would neverplay a Gibson.
Like there are beautiful LesPauls out there, there's some
super cool flying Vs, you know,give me like a Thunderbird bass.
It's pretty sweet, but they'renot my thing.
I really typically don't likethe style, I don't like the feel

(36:19):
, I don't like the price.
Like there's just things thatjust aren't for me.
When it comes to Gibson guitars, I love me some Fenders, though
, and just the colors and thedesigns and the styles really
love that.
And there's people who aretotally flipped, the people who
would never want to touch aFender and have a wall full of
Gibsons.
It's just personal preferenceand it's sometimes arbitrary and
just super subjective, but likethere's nothing wrong with that

(36:41):
either.
But like there's nothing wrongwith that either.
And sometimes, you know, if,say, someone runs, say someone
runs a YouTube channel wherethey talk about Apple products a
lot and they talk about thecomputers and the phones and
tablets and all that stuff, andthen suddenly they throw in a
Windows laptop review orsomething it could be fun to see

(37:02):
, like Apple user tries Windowsor whatever, like okay, yeah,
tell me what you think from thatperspective.
But if you're trying tosuddenly like be this objective
thing, like I don't need you tobe that.
If you're someone who I know isenthusiastic about Apple
products and something new justcame out, I kind of want your
opinion on it right, like I wantto know the person who likes
this stuff.
Sometimes the people who likestuff are the people who are

(37:23):
most critical about it, becausethey have the strongest opinions
about it and they're the mostfamiliar with it.
So I just want to know youropinion as the enthusiast.
I don't necessarily need you tothen also tell me what an
entirely different ecosystem ofproducts does, because that's
not what you need to do, unlessthat's something you really want
to do.
So, as long as you'retransparent about that, as long
as you let people know what youknow, if you are trying to be

(37:47):
objective, let people know that.
If you're being subjective, letpeople know that.
If you have your preferences,let people know that, and that
doesn't have to be a seriousdisclaimer.
At the start of the video, itcan literally be like I love
this thing, it's awesome, it'smy favorite.
I don't even care about, youknow, competing products.
That's definitely part of itand for me, this is something

(38:08):
that plays into it.
That does definitely makethings very subjective is I have
a very hard time in lifeseparating the art from the
artist.
You know, look at MichaelJackson, right, I feel weird
listening to his songs.
You know I used to love theCosby Show.
Don't want to watch thatanymore.
Like House of Cards great show,a couple of seasons Not going
to rewatch that one which islike I can't separate the art

(38:31):
from the artist.
And so there is a thing outthere where, you know, bad
companies can make good products.
And when I say a bad company,maybe a company that you know,
whatever they're unethical, theytreat their employees poorly,
they have bad manufacturing.
They can make good products.
And good companies that treatpeople well and do things nice
and try to, you know, be thebest they can be, can also make

(38:52):
bad products.
And something that I do takeinto and that can be a problem
when you're reviewing products,right, because sometimes you
want to look at here's product A, b and C and you just want to
look at those in a vacuum.
This would be the objectiveapproach Look at those in a
vacuum and go this is how Aworks, b works, c works.
Okay, b seems to be the best, bseems to be the best of this

(39:13):
group, and that would just be anobjective.
Look, you're not takinganything else into consideration
.
I can't do that.
I always look at where thingshave been, where they're going,
the stuff behind the scenes.
When I see a company thatcranks out a product that just
seems to be a cheap knockoff ofsomething another company
already did and spent a lot oftime researching and developing,

(39:36):
I'm already not that interestedin the product, even if it is
just as good as the original andmore affordable, because it's
like you just knocked off whatsomeone else already did and the
person who did it firstprobably has a bit more passion
about it.
Even in this case, person I'mtalking about, you know a huge
company or something like that.
So you know, road is a goodexample.

(39:56):
Let's talk about the road biasOver the years.
Like I started using roadproducts I don't know when I
bought my first one 15 years ago, let's say, way before having
YouTube channel I, you know,then I I had my own personal
road products that I bought.
I I stocked, you know, multipledigital media programs with
road products and I didn't evenrealize I had a lot.

(40:17):
It literally wasn't until Istarted my YouTube channel.
I started reviewing stuff thatI just had here's a microphone,
here's a boom arm, here'swhatever and I was like, oh, it
just keeps being Rode things,because they were just kind of
that intersection of likeperformance, quality,
reliability.
They're just good products.
Over the years I've gotten toknow people from Rode and, you

(40:38):
know, talk to them and they'veobviously sent out gear and
stuff like that and I have anappreciation for how they do
things.
I've been critical of them inthe past for products and
releases and approaches and allkinds of stuff.
But the reason I'm critical forthem is because I want them to
succeed, because I like them somuch and I also then acknowledge
when I think they do thingsright and they get things back
on track.
And what I've learned from atleast the people I've met on

(41:02):
their team is they really careLike.
They are passionate about,enthusiastic about the thing
that they're making and theproducts they make and the way
they design it and theygenuinely care Like.
I've just.
I've seen the I've talked topeople in high level positions

(41:22):
at road about very small minutedetails in products and they're
really like if they think therecould potentially be an issue or
something.
They take it so seriously andbecause they really care, and so
for me, even if sometimesthings are imperfect or you know
, here's a beta firmware updatethat has a bug in it or whatever
, like, who cares, I like that's.
To me that's totally fine,because I trust the people

(41:44):
behind the scenes want to do thebest they possibly can and
really care, and to me thatmeans a lot more than like, than
the opposite I guess happening,and for me it's hard to it's
hard to separate that and I caneven go, you know, let's go in
the other direction, let's gowith.
Dji is a company that I havetotally shifted my opinions on
in the past few years where, youknow, prior to doing YouTube or

(42:07):
whatever, I just I was intodrones.
If you want a drone, you buy aDJI drone.
Then, getting into YouTube,especially we'll say, from 2018
to 2021-ish, especially DJI,their products have always been
great, like, I always havethought their products are great
.
It was really their marketingand their approach that irked me

(42:29):
.
It just felt like it was veryeverything, just everything, and
everyone kind of looked acertain way.
Uh, and there I had some behindthe scenes uh accounts from
other creators, other people,people that were, you know,
maybe treated in ways that Ididn't agree with and I just
sort of stopped using DJIproducts.

(42:51):
I never cover them on mychannel, just sort of like put
them out there.
Well, about a year ago someonefrom DJI reached out and was
like hey, you know, we'reinterested in, you know, working
with you on something to dowith the mic to their wireless
mic thing.
And I, full on, like we had avideo call and my whole thing
was just a notes doc of likehere's everything.
Like if I have said this stuffon podcasts and I've said this

(43:14):
in videos, I'm going to say thisto you.
The person from the companyright now.
And they went through point bypoint address and they were like
you know, like we understandwhere it comes from this, this,
that and the other thing.
And they're like I think if yougo and you kind of look at our
approach for the past couple ofyears, just sort of see that
we've shifted.
And I did, I went and I looked,I looked at their websites,
their marketing campaigns, thecreators they include in
launches, how they approachproduct launches, and I

(43:35):
genuinely saw they had shiftedand they had changed things and
things felt a little more open,a little less like a little less
high pressure sales, a littlemore inclusive.
They kind of like remedied alot.
That was bothering me.
And talking to the person I wastalking to and you know the

(43:56):
people from the company I couldsee that they actually that
really bothered them and theyreally cared about not not doing
those things anymore andimproving and being better and
it was like, wow, okay.
So then I ended up you know,yeah, sure, let's do something
with the mic too, and now themic too is like my favorite
wireless thing because it's, youknow, it's nice and that's cool
, because now, like I said, djproducts have always been great.

(44:19):
Now I don't have a weirdfeeling Like when I pull out my
drone to fly it or I want to usethe mic too.
I don't kind of have like a orthe Osmo pocket three.
I can actually be excited aboutthese because I feel like you
know, at least by and large, thecompany behind them is trying
to do good things and obviouslywe're talking about a huge
corporation here, so there'sprobably good people in that
corporation and bad people, justlike anything, but in general

(44:41):
it's like they moved into apositive direction.
Now I feel better about theproducts.
My preferences and my bias havechanged and have leaned and
have evolved over time and Ithink that's totally okay and
that goes for you know, thatgoes for kind of anything, and I
think that at least that's forme is that I can't.
I have biases and preferences,not just for products, but a lot

(45:04):
of it is tied to where I thinksomething came from and why I
think it exists.
Is it just a money grab?
Is it because you know, likepeople are excited about it and
or the people behind it actuallycare about the thing that
they're making?
And that stuff is all justincredibly important to me and I

(45:25):
think just going back that'swhy it's going back to this and
just reminding you that they'rejust two different approaches If
you want to be objective, ifyou want to be subjective.
Not one isn't better than theother.
They're just different and allthat you need to do is be
transparent about what you'redoing.
But I do think the reason Ireally wanted to cover this was

(45:46):
to sort of explain that,highlight that, because I feel
like sometimes a lot of peopleespecially when I get criticized
for being biased it's peoplewho come into any YouTube video,
any YouTube review, and expectthat this is an objective
journalist piece.
I'm not a journalist.
I don't claim to be.
I never said that I wasobjective.
I never.
You are putting assumptions andexpectations on me that I never
, that I never put in place, andobviously people are going to

(46:10):
do that.
I can't control that.
But I think it's important tojust recognize that, especially
from the creator side of thingsand especially because that is a
criticism that you might findyourself getting often.
If you are somebody who has astrong preference for something
and to know that you do not haveto be objective, as long as

(46:30):
you're transparent, you're openand honest about it, you don't
have to do that.
It's not a bad thing.
It can also be just as helpfuland just as relevant and just as
important as being objectivecould be.
So let's move in, let's talk,let's do a little channel
check-in.
With all that in mind, let'slet's.
Let me share with you somethings I've been working on
what's happening.
The song is lasting a lotlonger than I expected it to,

(46:51):
still working out some kinkshere.
So this is a part of thepodcast where, you know, the
main topic of the show is oftenvery creator-based.
It's like hey, this is, youknow, something relevant to
being a creator.
This is more just like hey,this is what I've been working
on.
It's a little.
It's a little less less depthmaybe.

(47:12):
So stuff that I've been workingon.
If you remember, last time Iwas talking about trying to do a
switcher review with theYoloBox Pro.
I have solved my YoloBox review.
It is finished, it is scheduled, it is ready to go.
I have been doing reviews onvideo switchers.
So obviously, the RODECastervideo came out last fall and
I've been, you know, doingvideos on that.
And then recently I did a videoon the Feelworld L4.

(47:35):
I've also finished althoughit's not published yet, a video
on the Ulanzi DDO2.
And those two switchers doingthose videos kind of prepped me
for this, because those are verysimple switchers.
The YoloBox is a much morecomplex device and I felt like,
okay, I think I have that downin terms of like how to produce
the video in a way that showsthe capabilities of the device

(47:57):
but isn't something that's goingto take me six years to edit
and to film.
And a big thing when usingswitchers is it's very easy to.
You know, think about it thisway, I guess.
Camera lenses this is somethingI've noticed in the world of
camera lenses is.
You will watch a lot of cameralens reviews and you will see
the person sitting in front ofthe camera holding the lens

(48:18):
talking about the lens, showingB-roll of the lens, but you
don't see things filmed with thelens.
And so a good lens review willshow the lens, like most of the
review, will be shot through thelens and so a good lens review
will show will show the lens,like most of the review, will be
shot through the lens.
Not all of it can be, becauseif you need to show the lens,
you need to.
You know you need to use adifferent lens to film the lens,
kind of thing.

(48:38):
So I get that, but most I feellike most of the lens review
should be through that lens.
Most of a microphone review youshould be hearing the
microphone that you're reviewing.
And if you're doing a videoswitcher, talking about what the
video switcher can do is verydifferent than having the video
be created with the videoswitcher.
So that's what I've been doingwith all these switchers is I've

(48:58):
been just recording the.
I've been running, I've beensetting up a multi-cam setup and
basically producing the reviewon the fly with them.
I of a multi-cam setup andbasically producing the review
on the fly with them.
I don't want to add in fancyB-roll and cutout.
I want to show you what you cando with these things and use
them to actually make the reviewabout them, so that every frame
of the video is produced by thething.
That goes for all the switchersthat I put together recently.

(49:20):
So that's something I want todo with the YoloBox.
I thought I had it all set up,the thing that actually I
learned a lot about the YoloBox,but I really like it was tricky
because I had to redo it,because I made a mistake and I
had to, and this was a.
You want to talk about acompany that has people behind
it who really care about thething that they're making.
That is, yolobox, yololive.

(49:42):
They they genuinely like, wantthis to be the best and they
want, but they want you to haverealistic expectations.
And so it's kind of coolbecause I know that when I run
into a problem or I have aquestion, I can email them and
they explain it very clearly,really quickly, sometimes in
even way more depth than I askedfor, which is super nice.

(50:03):
So the big thing here, asidefrom just how much this can do
if you don't know what theYoloBox is.
It's a video switcher.
It's a big, it looks like atouchscreen monitor but you got
four HDMI inputs.
You also have two USB inputs.
You have 3.5 millimeter audio,but inside of here is basically
like Ecamm, so you can createscenes just like you can in the
Rodecaster, but with more depth,more complexity.

(50:25):
You can do like animatedoverlays, you can do instant
replays, you can do crazytransitions, you can do
scoreboard updates, you can doguests, you can live stream,
bring in a guest.
You can pop up comments to yourstream.
You can multi-stream.
It's kind of crazy what you cando inside this thing.
But obviously that means it's apretty complicated device.
You know it can do a lot, soyou have to learn it.

(50:47):
There's a learning curve and,what's interesting, the thing
that I learned because I've beencomparing the YoloBox and the
Rodecaster Video as the they'rethe two advanced mixers that you
could potentially use them tocreate something that looks
produced and professional andslick and has all the graphics
without needing a computer,without needing other software.
But they are different and theYoloBox does have more features.

(51:10):
But I don't want to say it'sunreliable.
It could be unreliable becauseonce you dial in your workflow.
It's very reliable but there'sa lot more potential for user
error is probably the way to go,whereas the Rodecaster Video is
simpler like, doesn't have asmany features of the YoloBox,
but it's very rock solid.
It's like they tried to make ita little more foolproof, but

(51:30):
that also means they're moreconservative with the updates
they put out to it.
Anyway, now I'm just getting,I'm just rehashing the review.
So what happened was one thingabout the YoloBox.
It addresses.
The biggest criticism of theRodecaster video and any video
switcher is it has 4k, 4kcapabilities, asterisk, but you

(51:51):
know it has big 4k things.
You can choose 4k resolution,you can stream in 4k, you can
record in 4k, kind of, and sothat was something that I've
I've been, I haven't been ableto figure out, and so I had to
go back and forth with theOlabox to kind of fully
understand this and they tookthe exact opposite approach of
Rode.
So with the Rodecaster video,basically what Rode said is

(52:13):
Rodecaster video is it's verypowerful, like the internal
processors that are in its, itscomputer, it's got like a full
on GPU, full on CPU in there.
It's capable of handling 4kvideo.
But when you have four 4Ksources that are then being run
through scenes and transitionsand effects and chroma key and
all this stuff, then you couldpotentially have some

(52:37):
reliability issues if peoplelike take it to the max kind of
thing.
And with Rode specifically,what they said is like we don't
want the Rodecaster video tolike rarely drop frames, we want
it to never drop, for like itneeds to, they want this to be
capable of being in aprofessional setting and so to
do that it needs to, it needs tobe rock solid, reliable.

(52:59):
And so the fact that eventhough, yeah, I could probably
squeeze in some 4k things and Ihonestly still, as a user, kind
of hope that maybe they find away to put in some limited 4K
just to sort of like, just tosort of answer that criticism
and claim, even if it meanscertain things get limited or
taken out or whatever restricted, while you're using 4K to keep

(53:22):
it reliable, whatever it mightbe.
I fully understand wherethey're coming from.
Yolo takes the exact oppositeapproach and they're like this
can do 4k, but it's limited andit could get a little weird.
But if you want, basically ifyou want to do like one input
source of 4k that's kind of whatthis is for you can play in one
4k camera streaming to onesource, you're good to go.

(53:44):
Maybe recording I've never beenable to actually get recordings
to be 4k.
Even when I select them becauseit has an SD card, they always
end up at 1080.
And basically the explanationfor that is that, yes, it's
capable of 4k.
I have gotten 4k signal, 4koutput with one source.
But as soon as you start havingmultiple sources, then because

(54:06):
of the processing it needs to,it bumps everything down to 1080
.
So pretty much like 95% of thetime or more, just depending on
how you have this set up, withthe graphics that you're using,
the inputs that you're using,you don't need to buy this.
If you're just doing a singleinput like that is absolutely a
waste.
So you're probably always goingto have more than one input,
which means you're probablyalways going to have more than

(54:26):
one input, which means you'reprobably always going to not
have 4k capabilities.
And then the other thing theproblem I was having was I
wanted to record in here and soI had my four hdmi's and I had
my two usb webcams, becauseit'll take any webcam you throw
at it.
So I had six input sources.
I was recording to the sd cardand it just looked like there
were some dropped frames, likeit was a little stuttery, like
looked okay.

(54:47):
If you're watching it as a livestream, you'd probably be like,
yeah, this is fine.
Look, you know, it's a littlestuttery maybe, but it's okay.
But for a pre recorded video,especially trying to show that
something has capabilities, itwasn't working for me and so I
recorded, recorded the wholething, and then it looked like
that and I was like I can't usethis, what do I do?
And so I talked to YOLO andbasically what they said was

(55:09):
like yeah, you're using the fourHDMI inputs and the two USB
inputs.
Each USB input takes two and ahalf times the processing power
as one of the HDMIs.
And then you're trying to alsorecord simultaneously and
they're like it just that kindof maxes out the capabilities.
So if you want to recordinternally, you need to like
probably remove the USBs and notuse all six inputs at once

(55:31):
while you're recordinginternally.
Or the other thing which I didwas I just kept my six inputs
and then just streamed it to aprivate stream and then just
downloaded the stream, becauseit streamed full 1080, super
smooth, looks fantastic, noproblem.
It was just the internalrecording was where things were
getting weird.
So it's like even that, likestreaming, looked good, internal

(55:53):
recording was a little funky.
And that's basically what Ilearned with the YoloBox is
every workflow is different.
So what workflow you're usingwith it, what equipment you have
running through it, whatgraphics you're using, that's
going to tax it differently interms of the CPU and the GPU and
all that stuff, and so you needto get your setup set up and

(56:14):
then you need to test it andexperiment it, and once you've
got it where your setup isworking well, it will keep
working exactly like that.
But every time you set up adifferent configuration, it
might work a little differently,because it's taking all these
resources and it's trying toassign them in the most
efficient way possible all thetime, and so it's different than

(56:34):
the RODECaster, which is likeit only works this way, but also
you're limited, like you can'tdo a lot of that stuff because
it's only ever going to workthis way.
So I don't think it's good, bad, right or wrong.
It's just two very differentapproaches and it was something
I had to learn.
I had to redo the refilm, thatvery long review, entirely, but
now I'm really happy with it andthat was a cool thing because I
learned a lot more.

(56:55):
It's a thing I've used a lot,but trying to use it to make a
review of it sort of put itthrough this second level of
like scrutiny.
So I learned a lot.
I have a different appreciationfor it despite all of that, and
that's sort of a thing thereactually.
Is that not a thing?
Yes, that's something we'regonna talk about.
A second I was like I put thatin here, right?
Yes, I did, that's somethingwe're gonna talk about.

(57:16):
Right now.
Actually, as we kind of switchon past that, so I'm going to
pause that there.
Think about mistakes, justthink about mistakes.
The Mr Mike video that I talkedabout, that was something I
worked on.
That was super fun because thatwas like, basically it's a $40.
It's kind of like the HollylandLark M2, but it's 40 bucks and

(57:40):
it only works with phones andtablets.
It's a cool little thing and itworks okay.
It's not the best soundingthing in the world.
The Hollyland definitely soundsbetter.
But again, looking at theperson who probably doesn't want
to spend hundreds of dollars ona microphone and just wants to
spend 40 bucks to get a bettermic with their phone and you get
two transmitters with it.
I think it's very usable andit's gonna give you better audio

(58:02):
than your phone.
That was really fun.
Less for the product and morefor the exploration of.
Like.
This stranger sent me this whatis it?
How does it work?
Like the, I feel like that's avideo that could potentially be
fun and interesting to someonewho's not even interested in
microphones.
Just for the journey and theexploration at least.
At least that's what I hope.
And in doing these, thesestreaming things, I have just

(58:23):
gotten into the habit of anytimeI use a switcher, I just kind
of switch to 30 FPS because itit just seems like all switchers
tend to prefer it, even thoughsome most now are capable of
handling 24 FPS.
That's just where things justkind of.
I just feel like I have so manyfewer problems when I just put

(58:43):
everything in 30.
And especially editing backsome footage that's not run
through a switcher but it's thefull 4k footage, which I did for
the, the mystery mic, I kind oflike I had everything in 30fps
for the YoloBox and I forgot toswitch it, so it's just a 30fps
video, but I was like gosh, Ikind of like this, like I like

(59:04):
it.
It just it looks good in a way.
I was like it looks good in away.
I haven't seen things lookinggood in a while, so that's
pretty cool.
I do want to talk about thismistake.
This is maybe something Ishould have even saved for a
separate episode, since we'regoing a little bit long here.
We haven't gotten to usermessages yet, but that's okay.
There's something.

(59:31):
This ties in very much to whatI just said with the YoloBox,
where I could be kind ofcritical, show some limitations,
but be like.
I really like this thing and Ithink we live in a world where,
when it comes to reviews andcontent, if you have like, if
you have mild criticisms ofsomething like oh, this
microphone doesn't accommodatemy colored windscreens Like
that's an okay criticism.
But if you, if you come up withactual limitations on something
, that's where people are like,obviously it's a piece of
garbage, right, like it has tobe either the best thing ever or

(59:53):
a piece of garbage, nowhere inbetween, and I'm I'm a big fan
of like.
No, you just need to understandyour tool.
The YoloBox has theselimitations.
That just means it's acomplicated tool that you need
to understand.
Don't buy this to use latertoday.
Like, buy this to use nextmonth and then spend the next
few weeks learning how to use itand how it works, and then
you're going to have a greatexperience.
But you need to the onus is onyou to then, you know, take that

(01:00:18):
time to put in thatunderstanding and do that stuff.
So a couple of weeks ago I madea video about a simple podcast
setup that was just using theRode Interview Pro, so that
microphone.
I kind of talked about this onhere too.
It's a wireless microphone butit also has built-in internal
recording and if you take two ofthose or any number of those,
you can go into any location.
You can have them all recording.

(01:00:38):
There's no handling noise, theysound great and you can
basically have mobile podcastingand then you just mix all the
audio files together, sync themup in editing and there you go.
That's, that's pretty much itIn that video.
I made a mistake that Iintentionally left in and even
addressed in the video, so toshow that Heather and I had gone

(01:01:00):
to like the small littlemountain town nearby for New
Year's and while we were there Iwas like, oh, it'd be really
fun to film part of the videothere.
So we're like kind of outsidein the mountains, because it's a
place where you wouldn'tnormally think of making a
podcast, like that's what Iwanted to show, like I didn't
want to just be in here, whereof course it's like it's a
podcast place.
I want to be somewhere whereyou wouldn't normally think of

(01:01:21):
that.
And so we're sitting outside,we're sitting next to each other
kind of on like this picnicbench and we're talking to the
microphones, and basically whathappened there was that was my
mistake Because we were tooclose together the interview pro
has an omni directional pickuppattern, so it's the microphone
I'm using right now will pick upthings pretty much directly in

(01:01:41):
front of it.
But if I go off to the side.
My voice changes With theInterview Pro.
As long as you're just kind ofaround it in any direction, your
voice doesn't really change.
It picks up sound from alldirections and that really does.
That's one of the reasons Ichose it as an example for being
a good podcast mic, because ifyou're somebody who doesn't

(01:02:02):
really know how to use amicrophone that well you don't
have experience like you're aguest on a show you can hand
that to someone and it doesn'tmatter if they go far away from
it, they go close to it, theymove it around or whatever.
Like the sound is going to staythe same.
It really compensates for poormic technique in a great way,
and there's also no handlingnoise on it.
So I was like cool, that'sawesome.
The thing I didn't realize,heather and I, we were like

(01:02:23):
shoulder to shoulder and you cansee in the video we're right
next to each other.
So in that case I should havebeen like we can actually use a
simpler podcast setup and I canput one of these microphones in
between us and we're done andit's going to sound great.
Instead, we each had one and sowe had some mic bleed because
they were too close, they werepicking each other up, and so

(01:02:44):
when I filmed that and I watchedit back I was like, oh, that
doesn't sound right, that soundsweird.
So I need to go through andedit this and like, essentially
I have Heather's audio track, myaudio track, and I need to sort
of like cut between them sothat way there's not the weird
kind of mic bleed sound, whichis fine, there's nothing wrong
with doing that.
But that definitely goesagainst the like.

(01:03:04):
Hey, this is a simple podcastsetup and so I thought you know
I could redo this.
Like we could redo this, wecould explain it.
Like we could either use onemicrophone close together or we
could just be further apart.
As long as we're not in thereach of each microphone's
pickup pattern, it would be fine.

(01:03:29):
But I thought you know, if Imade this mistake and I have a
decent amount of experience withthis stuff- I think, other
people might make this mistaketoo, and so what that means is
maybe this would be a goodchance to not only explain that
but even show a solution,because someone might've made
that mistake and just feelinglike oh, my podcast is ruined is
not the best way to feel.
So what I did was I um, I put a.
There's a whole segment in thatvideo where then I explain like

(01:03:51):
here's what I did.
You know, heather and I arereally close here.
We should have used onemicrophone because we we were
sitting close together.
There's some mic bleed.
Here's how I'm editing aroundthis.
If you find yourself in thatsituation with any microphone or
this one, here's how you, youcan fix that and you know, kind
of it's a couple minutes of thevideo where I talk about.
You know, here's some podcastediting techniques.

(01:04:12):
Here's how to fix this issue.
Here's how to do that.
Cool, if you don't want to dothis kind of editing, just make
sure that your microphones arefar apart, because then they
won't pick up each other's sound.
You won't have the mic bleedproblem.
So that's all that was in there.
I thought that was reallyhelpful and I still think it's
really helpful.
But where people got confusedand a comment that popped up a

(01:04:34):
lot on that video was this isn'tsimple.
There's nothing simple aboutthat.
There's not like.
How could you say this issimple?
This isn't a good workflow andit's like, I think.
I think what people wereconfused by is that it was
biased.
It was my personal preference,like, yeah, we could use
different microphones that havedifferent pickup patterns, but I

(01:04:54):
don't prefer those because Iknow that they're also then
they're not going to sound asgood, because if you use a lav
mic that's positioned poorly,now you're going to have someone
sounding muffled.
If you use a microphone that'smore directional but has more
handling noise, now you're goingto have all this weird rumbling
and then you're going to haveto put it in a mic stand and
you're going to then get awayfrom my whole point of the video
, which was a simple mic setup.

(01:05:15):
So, rather than again, I guessthe point of the point of the
video which I emphasize in thevideo is it's, it's, it's simple
, it's you take these twomicrophones, or however many you
want, and you hand them topeople and everyone talks in a
microphone and they don't needany mic experience and you're
gonna get great sounding results.
They're just certain instancesto be aware of, where, if you

(01:05:36):
don't wanna do any editingafterwards, you need to be very
aware of your positioning.
That's all pretty simple, but Ithink, because people are so
used to the home shoppingnetwork style of things, where
everything is polished andeverything is perfect and all
mistakes are edited out, it waslike almost confusing to see
something that's like oh yeah,here's a problem you could have,

(01:05:57):
but this is still an awesomesetup.
Same thing with the YoloBox ohyeah, here's all these
limitations and weird things,and I even had to redo my video.
It's still awesome, and I evenhad to redo my video.
It's still awesome Like andthat's to me that's the
realistic experience, becauserarely do you ever buy any
product, any piece of gear, thatyou get it and you open it and
everything's just perfect.
You know, like doves fly out ofthe box and your life is just

(01:06:18):
better.
Usually it's like oh wait, howdo I use this?
How does it work this way?
Well, you kind of have tofigure it out, right?
That's the realistic thing andthat's what I wanted to show in
that video and I think it reallythrew people off because it
wasn't just this very polishedthing, and even last year I did
this video.
It was an unedited, ended upbeing like 35 minutes, I think,

(01:06:39):
and it was like my top fivepieces of underrated gear, and
so it was just me at my desk,one camera shot.
Because it was unedited doesn'tmean it was unplanned, not
unlike this podcast.
I had five pieces of gear.
I know what I was gonna sayabout them, but I just said like
here's the thing, I like thisbecause this is what it does.
Okay, here's another thing,blah, blah, blah.
So it's, it's just me talkingabout that.

(01:07:00):
People loved that video.
Like it got such a positiveresponse.
It made me so happy because itwas like okay, I don't need I
don't always need tons of B-roll, I don't always need fancy
editing, flashy editing.
Sometimes you just need tocommunicate the thing that's
happening.
And something that people didsay they really liked in that
video was a couple of times whenI'm using things.
It's not that the things don'twork, but you see me like trying

(01:07:21):
to, you know, screw an adapteron something and it doesn't
quite go right away, or likethings don't work perfectly
every time, and people commentedthat they liked that because
that is realistic.
That's what you can expect yourexperience to be like as the
person, the user right, and Ilove that people like that.

(01:07:43):
So I thought that's why, withthis video like this is one of
those times where don't edit itout, don't refilm it, don't make
it look perfect.
This is a problem, a mistakethat people are realistically
going to make.
Instead of pretending like itdoesn't exist and making someone
feel bad when it happens tothem, explain it so people know
how to avoid it or fix it whenit happens.

(01:08:03):
And that, to me, was way, way,way more helpful.
And, especially, I reallyactually love that, because in
our current world, whereeverything can even be like
polished AI content that lookslike way too hyper-realistic and
hyper-perfect, I think realismreally stands out.
I think stumbling over yourwords, maybe leaving things a
little less edited than normal,leaving in mistakes, explaining

(01:08:25):
your mistakes I think reallydoes add that human touch that
makes things stand out.
And so, in this case, thismistake is something that I am
really happy about and reallyproud of.
And if you're making stuff too,I wouldn't say let your stuff
suffer in quality or be lowquality, but don't be afraid to
let your realistic, human natureseep into it.

(01:08:46):
Don't be afraid to includemistakes and then even explain
how to fix those mistakes.
Speaking of things that aren't amistake, let's talk about gear
of the week.
I'm excited for this onebecause I haven't gotten a
chance to talk about these yetand I'm biased, so I want to
talk about desktop monitors.

(01:09:07):
So a while ago I made a desksetup video where I was like,
hey, here's my desk setup, thisis what I'm using, and in that
video I was like I don't reallyhave good speakers.
I sort of had this like SonyBluetooth speaker that I've had
forever.
It was actually from multipleteaching positions ago.
I think I got it in like 2013or something and it was so I

(01:09:27):
could have a little speaker likeon my desk in the classroom.
But it was easy to like putaway, you know, because anytime,
sometimes, especially whenthere's substitutes you're not
going to be there, you kind ofneed to take things away and
lock things down.
That's the way public educationis, so something like that and
that's what I've just been usingforever.
I just I've never, had like agood pair of like monitors or

(01:09:47):
anything and I edit withheadphones.
So I don't really like I don'twant to have the editing room
where you have the big speakersthat are in like the perfect,
optimal position and do that.
And I know that might be thetechnically correct way, the
professional way to do it.
It's not what I'm particularlyinterested in.
So, anyway, I made that video.
I explained I don't haveanything.

(01:10:12):
I even asked for a lot ofsuggestions in the comments and
people gave me some suggestions.
I was kind of looking at andthen Mackie reached out and they
were like hey, would you liketo try our 3.5 inch studio
monitors?
And I was like sure, this isn't.
Yes, they sent them, but it wasthe typical ethics statement
thing of like eh, if you likethem, cool, if not, let us know.
You don't have to make a video,you don't have to do anything.
Obviously, from their end itkind of makes sense because if I

(01:10:34):
like them and they're on mydesk, next time I make a desk
setup video, guess what'sprobably going to be in them is
those.
And what's really cool is theysent me white ones they're
usually black.
That ones they're usually black.
That's pretty standard.
I've been getting whiteequipment just to try to
brighten things up more in hereSee the white boom arm and they
have white ones.
The white ones are onlyavailable at Guitar Center

(01:10:57):
though, so like a Guitar Centerexclusive, just so you know.
If you want the black ones,they're available anywhere else.
But these are really coolbecause they're not huge.
The speakers themselves are Idon't know the exact height.
I would say eight inches tall,maybe the.
You know they're three and ahalf inch speakers.
They sound awesome, but theyhave a ton of capabilities.
I'm trying to look at like Ihave the box over here.
So what's really cool is you'vegot quarter inch inputs, you've

(01:11:19):
got RCA inputs, you've got 3.5millimeter inputs and you've got
Bluetooth.
So I know it sounds like an ad,it's not.
It's just why I really likethese, because it covered all of
the different things that Iwanted in monitors and they even
.
They have a.
It's basically a tone thing, atone knob on the front, but it's

(01:11:39):
labeled as like a work plaything.
So if you want to use them asreference monitors, you can turn
it to the more to the work side.
You're going to get more of aneutral, accurate sound, but if
you're just listening to music,watching videos, playing games,
you can crank it to the otherend and it's going to like give
away more less accurate, moreprocessed sound but maybe a more
fun sound for stuff like that.
So I kind of like I waslegitimately sort of torn like
well, do I want something that'ssuper accurate or something
that just sounds good, soundsfun?

(01:11:59):
This is kind of both.
It's pretty neat.
They even have a little um.
They have a little speaker or alittle switch where if it's on
the desktop or on a shelf, youcan switch in.
It changes the way the speakersounds based on where you have
it positioned.
It's pretty cool and the msrpis 130 bucks for for the set.
So that's like they're not thehighest quality professional

(01:12:20):
speakers.
They're really nice and I lovethem and they suit my needs
perfectly.
I don't I use them forlistening to podcasts, listening
to music.
I don't edit on them you could.
I don't have them positioned ina way that's good for that at
all, but they're great Like.
They sound awesome, they don'ttake up a lot of space, they
look cool.
They have tons of features.
I really love these things.

(01:12:41):
They have been nothing but ajoy to use Totally, would spend
the $130 on them.
It was just nice that it wasone of those things where I was
like I'm shopping for monitorsand this company is like, hey,
you want to try these monitors?
Well, yeah, sure, sure, I do,so they're awesome.
So that is my gear spotlight ofthe week.
I haven't had a chance to talkabout these.
I've had them for a couplemonths now and they are
absolutely awesome.

(01:13:01):
I'm just oh, sorry, I waslooking at the box.
I was like, with touch control,tone control, I misread.
I was like where I guess youtouched the knob.
Anyway, I misread things.
Let's move on now to wrapthings up with listener messages
.
So we've got, we've got a voicemessage and we've got a few
comments to go through, andwe're going to dive back in,

(01:13:22):
like I said, a little bit moreon that professional
conversation.
We're going to do that veryprofessionally.
Up first, though, I have avoice message from HoopNuke,
which is a very fun name to say,and we're going to be talking
about the Rode NT1 SignatureSeries.

Speaker 2 (01:13:40):
Hello Tom, I have a question, surprisingly, about
microphones.
I'm talking to you on the RodeNT1 Signature Series and the
question is about this exactmicrophone.
I recently started a basketballchannel called Hoop Nook where
I just basically talk about thehistory of the game basketball
players, weird moments, stufflike that.
And the problem is the audioquality is really good.
People have been really likingthe videos.

(01:14:01):
I know what a terrible problemto have, but it is a problem
because while most of the videois B-roll clips and me just
doing voiceover on top of those,sometimes I like to mix it up
and have some A-roll in therewhen I'm on camera.
And my problem is the Rode NT1is just a damn big microphone
and while I love the way itsounds, I've been really
thinking about buying a Lewitt440 Pure because it's more

(01:14:24):
compact, it takes up less space,I can wave my European arms
around and all that.
But the problem is, in everycomparison video I saw between
these two microphones, I reallyprefer the NT1.
It's much more smoother, it'seasier to listen to for long
periods of time.
So how would you balance thisif you could only have one
condenser microphone?
And I do this because I want tohave consistent audio quality

(01:14:46):
throughout all my videos.
Which one would you go for, theone that sounds better or the
one that's more practical to useon camera?
How would you balance that out,or do you have any
recommendations for me to dothat?
So yeah, thank you, tom.
If you include this in theepisode, have fun.

Speaker 1 (01:15:01):
Thanks so much for that message.
If you want to leave a voicemessage, just like that, you can
go to hi, my name is Tomcom,scroll down and click on the
little, leave a message for apodcast thing and you can use
whatever device you have.
You can sound awesome, like ifyou use the NT1 Signature Series
or if you just use your phone,or whatever.
You can do that.
So this is a great question.
I love the way that you phrasedit.
I also love fun.

(01:15:31):
It was just, I liked themessage a lot, but I like the
way you phrase it.
Should I use the one thatsounds the best or the one
that's the most practical?
And I have found myself in thissituation making reviews and
making videos.
Where the DJI Mic 2 is a greatexample, that's not the best
sounding wireless system.
I think the Rode Wireless Prosounds significantly better.
The DJI is the most practicaland fun to use, so it's actually
the one I would recommend morebecause it's just.
If you want to just get set uprunning, it still sounds great.
I recommend that one more, eventhough it's not the best

(01:15:53):
sounding one.
So sometimes I know we'retalking about microphones and
you would think, well, you gowith best sound.
All the time, a lot of it islike what do you have to go
through to get that good sound?
So it's not always the defaultoption.
In this case, though and I evenput this in my notes here I
love both.
You're talking about the Lewitt.

(01:16:14):
The Lewitt 440 is a wonderfulmicrophone.
It's awesome.
It is more compact than the NT1.
So I have an NT1 right here,but if you've not seen it, the
microphone itself, this is ashock mount.
The microphone itself is alittle condenser mic, and then
you put it in the shock mount,and it does need the shock mount
.
You don't have to do it.
Rode does make a mount calledthe RM2, which is a non shock

(01:16:38):
mount.
That will then like let youjust clip this, clip the mic
itself to a mic stand, and thatdoes cause it to take up less
space.
I would only use that, though,if you know that you're never,
ever, ever going to touch thesurface that the microphone is
on, because then it will pick upevery bit of handling noise.
Usually you need it in theshock mount and it comes with it
.
So you already got the shockmount.
You're good to go.
This is already a pretty bigsetup, and it is a side address

(01:17:01):
microphone, but what it alsocomes with because it is prone
to plosives is a pop filter.
So there's a pop filter, thatkind of screws in a little
holder on the front, and thenthis is the setup.
So this is kind of the setupwe're talking about.
When we talk about somethingtaking up space.
It's big Like this does take upa lot of space.
If this were in front of me,you know, if you're just doing

(01:17:31):
voiceover, you're just doingaudio, it doesn't matter, but if
you're on camera, this can veryeasily start to take up a lot
of space.
The thing I put in my notes,though, is that one you sound
awesome Like your audio qualitysounds so good.
Whatever processing you'redoing on that microphone maybe
it's just the mic itself how itsounds on your voice it sounds
really good.
So it is kind of one of thosecases where, if it ain't broke,
maybe don't fix it.
You know, spend like you havesomething that's really good

(01:17:51):
already, and maybe spending moremoney isn't the solution to
that.
So I don't know that you wouldactually be happy with something
else.
Even though the Lewits aregreat and I love them, I would
worry that you would get one andthen feel like I wish I was
using my other microphone, youknow, and you could switch
between them.
You could have the Lewitt foryour A-roll stuff and the NT1
for your voiceover stuff and youcan mix them together pretty

(01:18:12):
well.
That wouldn't be a problem.
But I really think we can workwith what you have, and
especially if anyone else hasthis setup or a similar setup,
because I use the NT1 on cameraa lot and I've had this same
problem because you have thisbig setup here and it can be an
issue.
So what I would say is, ifyou're doing just the audio only
thing, keep this setup, keepthe pop filter, do all that,

(01:18:32):
because that's going to make iteasy to get the best sound.
When I use this camera or thismicrophone on camera, I never
use the pop filter with it,because getting rid of that
slims down the size tremendously.
So I usually use it just likethis.
There you go, and then theproblem is it is very prone to
plosives.
The NT1 will pick up plosiveslike crazy.

(01:18:52):
So it really comes down topositioning.
Instead of having it right infront of you, where it's still
going to take up space, Iusually have mine kind of like
this at a 45 degree angle,usually a little lower than me.
You could even position it up Alot of times.
You'll see, if you have a highmic arm, like a tall mic arm,
sometimes people will take thesemicrophones.
They will actually positionthem upside down, so you can do

(01:19:13):
that.
It doesn't really matter, butit's, it's out of the way and
it's at an angle, so that wayI'm not talking directly into it
, my breath's not going, butit's pickup pattern is still
picking up my voice from mymouth here and that works really
well.
And so usually this is kind ofwhere I will have that mic
positioned when I, when I'musing it, and it works great.
As you can, if you're watchingthis, the microphones kind of

(01:19:35):
down to my, or if you'relistening to this, microphones
kind of down to my side, but myface is still clear.
It's not in the way.
And the NT1 looks cool.
I have this isn't the one I'mholding here is not the
signature series.
I have a blue signature seriesthat's mounted to the wall over
there.
I love it.
So even the default black one.
It's a cool looking microphone.
But if you got one of thecolored ones and it's really,
you know eye catching and looksgreat on camera.
So that's what I would workwith is position the mic a

(01:19:59):
little bit differently, take offthe down to the side.
You have to be very aware ofyou know where your breath and
how you're speaking.
But I think then you can workwith what you have and then,
when you're doing thosevoiceover only segments, you can
put a pop on the pop filter andget the same audio quality and
it'll be way easier to matchthat, even if the mic is in
slightly different positions forthose different parts of what
you're making.

(01:20:19):
And that's what I wouldrecommend doing and I think that
would work really, really well.
Like I said, there is thatlittle mount that the Rode RM2,
if you don't want to use theshock mount at all, but I would
only do that if you never touchthe surface that the microphone
is on.
So thanks for the message.
I hope that that helps and Iwould definitely recommend
working with the mic that yougot because it sounds so good.
Up next, we got some commentsfrom last week's episode which

(01:20:42):
are always fun to go through.
So this is from Don Bullock.
Tech Eyehound says afterlistening to you on the couples
tables this week, I realized Inever subscribed to the podcast.
How dare you?
This was a very helpful episode.
While your section onprofessionals doesn't pertain to
me in tech, it did speak to meregarding how I present material
on my podcast.
It needs to be focused more onbeing helpful rather than just

(01:21:03):
informative, and that's a greatway to put it.
I mean, there's nothing youknow.
There are places for just beinginformative, but I feel like a
lot of us, when we create stuffand we put it on, we put it on
the internet for other people.
What we're doing is we want itto be helpful, right, but if
we're just speaking in ourjargon and our high level stuff,

(01:21:23):
that's not necessarily helpful.
Keeping in mind what levelyou're, you know what level
you're explaining, like I when Itook an online bass course last
year.
It's called beginner to badass.
So you start at the beginnerphase.
I've been playing guitar since2001.
And you know, even though Istarted playing bass more fully

(01:21:45):
in like 2022, I had the.
I had the basics down right,the basics of bass.
I knew how to hold it, I knewhow to use finger style, I knew
how to pick all that kind ofstuff.
But the first chunk of thatcourse is literally like this is
how you hold your bass, this ishow you plug it in, this is
where you put the finger here tolike, strum this string, like
this is what a fret fret.
It's very like.

(01:22:05):
These are the parts of theinstrument, very basic, but with
something that has beginner inthe title.
That's what I would expect andso, even though I already know
those things I just went throughand you know, try to pick up
any helpful tidbits I could.
If that were called likeadvanced to super advanced, I
wouldn't expect that.
I would expect to jump inhaving expectations, like you

(01:22:26):
probably know, major, minorscales.
You know this, you know that.
You know like all, like, therewould be an expectation of
proficiency jumping into it, andthat's you know, and that's
just what to keep in mind.
Like who is your audience?
If you are seeking to behelpful to beginners, you do
need to distill, and that, to me, is just such a skill set being
able to distill complex thingsinto simple explanations.

(01:22:49):
That is a very hard thing to doand it's something I always
admire when people can do itwell.
And Don says, as for usingKeynote, it's an amazing tool
for videos that most people whohave Macs don't realize they
have much less use, because thatwas my gear of the week was
Keynote.
Not only can it do a lot andApple continues to add more
capabilities, it's alsoextremely easy to use.

(01:23:09):
Now I have to go back andlisten to the first episode,
season two.
Thanks as always.
Yeah, that's what I'm usingright now.
I love Keynote.
It's awesome.
It's just, it's genuine.
It's an application I genuinelyenjoy using, like I like making
Keynote presentations.
It's fun.
Up next, internet Doggo.
This is where we're going to goback to the topic.

(01:23:29):
I'm curious what are theadvantages and disadvantages of
side address or end address mics?
Also, why do you suppose sideaddress are the standard for
condensers?
I love that you asked this.
It's because I was using theRode Broadcaster last episode,
which is an end addresscondenser, just like this is.
But a lot of condensers I don'tknow that I would say most

(01:23:51):
because I don't have the databut I feel like most of the
common ones they're side address, like the NT1 here, where you
talk into the side of it, youdon't talk into the end of it,
and so when you end, sometimesyou find people who have side
address microphones and they'retalking to the top of it it
doesn't sound good.
And sometimes then, if you havepeople are used to condensers,
you find them talking into theside of end address microphones,

(01:24:12):
which also doesn't sound good.
Especially on the RodeBroadcaster that I was using
last time, it looks kind of likeyou could talk into the side of
it.
So it's not something this onemakes sense, like you talk into
the end of it.
I think anyone would do that.
That one was a little less clearso I thought that you know what
?
That's a really good questionthat I don't actually know the
answer to.
So I had to do a little bit ofdigging online into some like

(01:24:34):
websites and blogs fromprofessionals.
This is where I was like I wanta professional resource.
I don't want guessing, I don'twant hypothetical stuff.
I want someone who knows theanswer to give me the answer.
And that's where it's like Iwant the professional resource.
So this is a time where thatprofessional input really really
really helps.

(01:24:54):
So in general, what I've learnedis, from side address to end
address, there's really nodifference in sound for the most
part, like yeah, I mean, Iguess if I took this capsule
from this microphone and somehowmounted in the side, in general
, it would sound pretty much thesame.
Side address microphonestypically do allow for larger
capsules, so it's a littleeasier to have a large capsule

(01:25:15):
facing that way rather thanhaving to make the mic bigger in
diameter.
You can just make it.
You know, I don't know.
I think in terms of designingthe microphone it helps.
The biggest difference, though,that I found was pickup
patterns.
Having the side addressmicrophones makes it easier to
allow for different pickuppatterns.
So if you want something thatnot just you know has a cardioid

(01:25:36):
pattern that picks up what's infront of it, but maybe you want
a figure eight pattern thatdoes in front and behind, or you
want an omnidirectional pickuppattern, that side address makes
that significantly easier andsound better than trying to do
that through an end addressmicrophone, and I was like, oh,
that makes sense right there.
So side versus end address, Ithink pickup pattern is probably
the biggest thing.
And then there was also somediscussion on working with

(01:26:04):
different gear.
So what you're trying to mic up?
Are you trying to mic up aperson?
Are you trying to mic up a drumset, a choir, an amplifier, all
that kind of stuff like certaindesigns end address, side
address, based on the mountsthat you have and the stuff that
you're trying to do.
Some of them just work betterthan others.
So, in general, like aprofessional recording studio
will probably have a variety ofmicrophones, studio will

(01:26:25):
probably have a variety ofmicrophones and address and side
address, and then we use themfor different things, for
different reasons, and those aresome of the some of the answers
to that.
That was an interestingquestion and I was excited that
I was able to, you know, rely onprofessional uh resources for
that.
Uh.
Speaking of the roadbroadcaster, next comments from
audio hotline, who gave me theroad broadcaster.
Also, I need to send a hugecongrats because Audio Hotline

(01:26:45):
had a baby this week.
Audio Hotline's wife had a babythis week.
He, I was gonna say he now ownsa baby.
That's not it, butcongratulations.
That is super exciting.
He's a nice mic Also, greatepisode.
I do think the enthusiast routeis best to take.
I've had a hard time bridgingthe gap between pro and
enthusiast, which seems weird,but it's a bit of a struggle

(01:27:07):
with every video and I'm tryingto work it out though, and
that's if you watch Bronson onAudio Hotline, I think he does a
great job of bridging the gapbetween pro and enthusiast, but
you know, like he wants peopleto have the best info, and so he
, I think.
I think I am more willing andthis is why I rely on the fact

(01:27:28):
that there are other YouTubersout there I think I'm more
willing to leave things out, tosort of simplify stuff to the
point where, if you really diveinto this, then you're going to
find, okay, here's the nextlevel.
And sometimes I do that,sometimes I don't, but I am
always worried aboutoverwhelming people.
And I do that because I know Ican make a simple video about an

(01:27:49):
audio thing that kind of getspeople in the door, gets them
feeling comfortable with it,gets them asking.
You know, as long as you getsomeone to ask questions, like I
can overload everyone with likeinfo about lens, aperture and
the exposure triangle and allthat it's not going to really
mean anything until you justsort of help someone go like hey
, you wanna take a photo thathas a blurry background, and

(01:28:10):
then they really like that.
And now suddenly they're likewait, how do I do that again?
Now they're suddenly askingquestions about what is exposure
, what's ISO, what's aperture,how does that work?
And then, once you've gotsomeone to ask their own
questions.
Everything else is easy.
Then you've won.
And that's where I know like,if I can do that, if I can bring
people in, give them the basics, get them to ask questions,

(01:28:31):
then I know there are the peopleout there, like audio hotline
Curtis Judd in the audio world,where, because he wants you to
have the technical info andwants you to have the full story
, it never, ever feels likeyou're being talked down to.

(01:28:51):
It really feels like you'rebeing shown, guided.
It really genuinely feels likeyou're just hanging out with a
friend who's just like showingyou something and nerding out
about it.
I think you do a great job ofthat and that's, that's pretty
awesome.
Level up with.
Mike Newman says thank you forthe video.
I have been really strugglingwith my channel.
I feel like the harder I try tokeep my videos fun, simple and
funny, I get killed withcomments from pros.

(01:29:13):
I seem to get a lot of flackabout my presentation, my lack
of specs, even how I use my owngear.
Are you me, mike?
Are you, are you me?
Even how I use my own gear inmy own videos via emails and
Facebook messenger.
So I caught myself trying tochange my style, from trying out
mics for enthusiasts to makingvideos to get their approval.
I feel this to my core and Iwell, let's finish, I get no joy

(01:29:38):
from that.
It has brought me to a placewhere I was contemplating just
hanging it all up.
To hear this from you haschanged my outlook and I'm going
to push through a stroke.
I'm so happy to hear that, mike, not the bad part, but the push
through part, because I feelthat, like I feel that so much,
if you're trying to like all thethoughts right, let's look at

(01:29:59):
the Rodecaster right, theRodecaster Pro.
It has pro in the name, soright there it's setting itself
up for a little bit of criticism.
The Rodecaster Pro is somethingthat can be used in professional
environments.
Yes, it's really more of aprosumer device and I think
that's where it lines up, and sothat's one of those things
where I feel like someone who'sa pro, who has all that

(01:30:22):
experience, they can find thatand they can know how to use it.
They can know how to tocontextualize in their workflow
and that's cool.
I feel like a pro.
Somebody at that level wouldalso know like, oh, it's just
isn't for me, so I'm just notgoing to worry about it.
The weird thing is when theperson comes in and then has to
tell you all the reasons whyyou're wrong.
This thing sucks, this is bad,and then, yes, then you might
find yourself going like, okay,when I make this, how do I

(01:30:46):
please that person?
How do I not get any more ofthose comments?
That person didn't need theinfo right, they know what the
thing is already.
They know so much about it.
They know why it doesn't workfor them.
They don't need your video.
That's not who it's for.
It's for the person who's likeyou know, like the mystery mic.

(01:31:06):
I'm really looking forward tothat video coming out, the
little 2.4 gigahertz mystery micvideo I mentioned, because I
can't help but feel like there'sgoing to be professionals in
the comments telling me how thatmic sucks and I can hear it.
I can hear that it does notsound as good as the other
microphone.
But I tried to be very clear inthat video of like who is this
for?
Who is a $40 dual transmitterwireless microphone for?

(01:31:27):
It's not for professionals,it's for, and I even say like
get the Hollyland if you wantsomething relatively affordable,
that sounds way better, but ifyou're somebody who would never
consider spending over $100 on amicrophone and you do a lot of
filming just with your phone andyou just want a little bit

(01:31:49):
better sound.
You just want to be able to pina microphone to yourself, to
someone else, to make somevideos or do whatever.
40 bucks is going to get youbetter sound Not the best sound,
but better sound.
And that is who that is for.
That actually has a place, thathas a purpose, and so that's

(01:32:10):
the person that's going to behelped by that going, oh my gosh
, there's resources, or it couldalso help that person by going
oh, that's what the $40 onesounds like, that's what the you
know $125 one sounds like.
That seems like a big pricedifference, but the features and
the sound really do seem a lotbetter.
So maybe I'll go with the $125one, like that's actually going
to help the person versus theperson who is never going to buy
it anyway.

(01:32:31):
I just feel you to my core withthis comment.
I'm glad that by sharing that,I let you know that you're not
alone in feeling that way.
I'm glad you could let me know,and you know we can all not be
alone together.
We can all be alone together.
Oh, that was the last comment.
All right, see, that's why Ihad to put up the end frame
there.
I didn't realize that was atthe end.
So thank you to everyone whosent comments.

(01:32:52):
If you want to again, you can goto hi.
My name is Tomcom, leave voicemessages.
You can tap the fan mail thingIf you're listening to the audio
version right at the top of theshow, or you can always email
Tom at enthusiasmprojectcom.
Definitely recommend you dothat, because next week is
episode five.
So, as is tradition, that isgoing to be the Q&A episode of
the season.
Not that you can't ask cues anyepisode, but that where the

(01:33:14):
whole episode is dedicated justto questions and answers.
That'll be fun, because Ihaven't done that in video
format yet.
So if you have any questions,however, you want to send them
text, voice video, feel free tosend them my way and I'll
include them in next week'sepisode.
Thank you so much for listening.
I really appreciate it.
Hope you enjoyed that.
Hope you got something out ofit.
Have a safe, happy, healthyweek and I'll see you next time.

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