Let's A Some Q's!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Hello and welcome.
My name is Tom.
This is the Enthusiasm Project,season 12, episode 5.
And it's alive at the halfwaypoint.
We are halfway through thisseason, and that means it's time
for this season's Q&A episode.
So I've got lots of Q's, I'vegot lots of A's.
Put those A's in those Q's.

(00:52):
Put those, matt.
We're going to answer somequestions.
That's what we're going to dotoday.
So thank you in advance toeveryone who sent in questions.
I always appreciate that.
We have a mix of stuff fromInstagram, youtube and a couple
of voice submissions as well,which is awesome.
I always love Q&A episodesbecause they I never know what
direction it's going to takewhen I ask for questions, you
know, it just kind of goes, kindof goes wherever, although

(01:15):
everything's fairly on topicthis time, which is very cool.
So that's one thing.
That's going to be our maintopic today.
Before we get into that, though,a few things.
We're going to do a gearrundown.
As usual, I am recording againinto the RODECaster Duo, because
that is at my desk setup, whichwe'll be talking a little bit
more about today.
So, rodecaster Duo, I am usingthe NT1 preset with a little bit

(01:39):
of adjustments on my part, solet's see if I go in here and I
turn off processing.
This is me now with noprocessing whatsoever, and this
is me with a little bit ofprocessing, so you can hear that
there.
And the microphone I'm using isthe mystery mic, the same one
that I used a couple episodesago.
That I can't I still can't tellyou what it is, which is crazy.

(02:00):
Soon soon I should be able totell you what it is because, if
you don't know, there's a bigevent happening in next month in
Las Vegas where a lot ofcompanies tend to release things
and, from what I understand,this mystery mic will be
revealed in and around that time.
But I'm not 100% sure that Ican't.

(02:21):
That can't be a coincidence, Ithink it is.
So anyway, this is the mysterymic, can't really?
All I can tell you is it's anXLR mic.
So there's that there and Iquite like it and it can do some
really cool things, which isinteresting, because typically
an XLR mic, can you know, it cansound good but there's not a

(02:42):
lot of features built in,because typically mics with lots
of features and capabilitiestend to be USB mics, because
they sort of need differentcircuitry, power, programming,
support, all that.
This is the USB mic.
No, or sorry, this is just anXLR mic, no USB option, and it
can do a lot of cool things,which I kind of talked about
last time I used it.

(03:02):
I don't want to give too muchaway, but one thing that's
really cool right now, as I'mtalking, I am moving very close
and very far away from themicrophone.
I'm sort of like over here onthe side of the microphone.
I'm really changing the distanceto my voice and what you might
notice is that the gain, thelevel, shouldn't really be
changing.
There's qualities.
If I go way back here and I'mpretty far away from the

(03:25):
microphone now, you hear, youknow, the room reverb.
I did this kind of last time.
But if if you're not listeningto the quality and you're
listening to just the level, I'mback here, you know, several
feet away from the microphone,slowly getting closer, closer,
closer, closer, till I'm almosttouching the microphone, the
gain didn't change.
The microphone adaptedaccordingly to me being in

(03:45):
different locations, which iscrazy.
Like that's a pretty crazything to do, not because I would
want to record from really faraway, but because if I'm near
the microphone and I maybe youknow, like right now I'm sort of
leaning back just a little, I'mgetting close to the microphone
.
I'm kind of going on one sideof the microphone.
I'm doing all of those thingsyou might do while using a

(04:07):
microphone, even as someonewho's well-trained on microphone
technique.
Maybe you're streaming and soyou need to like lean over and
check a screen over here orreach a keyboard or do something
.
You're kind of moving.
You can't see me but I'm movingall around the microphone or
you're somebody, you're workingwith somebody who's not
particularly trained how to usemicrophones, and so they

(04:28):
unintentionally keep gettingcloser and further away from the
microphone.
That's something that used tohappen to me a lot when I was
producing podcasts for otherpeople at school districts,
where it's like the people onthe podcast have zero training
with like any kind of mediastuff.
That's not their job orinterest at all, and so they
would come in and we would domic checks and everybody you
know everyone sits down whenit's time for a mic check.

(04:49):
If somebody's never used amicrophone, they'll get really
close and they'll say like okay,here's me talking.
You know, usually I would justsay like tell me what you had
for breakfast, or recite thealphabet or something, and they
would go A, b, c, d, e, f, g andthen they'd lean back and we'd
start the episode and they wouldstart talking from the further
back position and not the onethat they lean forward to do the
mic check-in.

(05:10):
It's sort of like this weirdthing.
So in those cases a microphonelike this, where it's going to
keep the gain level the same,even if you move further and
closer, it can't change the waysound works.
So if I get really far away itcan't change the laws of physics
, like sound waves bouncing offof things and causing reverb.
The microphone doesn't have theability to fix those, but it

(05:31):
does have the ability to keepthe gain level even, which takes
a little pressure off of me orwhoever might be behind it from
needing to have perfect mictechnique and mic positioning.
So this is the mystery mic.
I don't want to give too muchaway Everything I said.
It will be very obvious whichmicrophone it is when it is
announced and it can do evenmore than that.

(05:52):
It can do some really coolstuff.
But save a little bit for afterit's officially released, which
hopefully will be around thetime of NAB next month taking
place.
From what is it?
April 13th through 17th, aroundthose dates in Las Vegas Talked
about this last week.
Heather and I are going.
It's our first time.
I've always wanted to go Superexcited for NAB and there is a

(06:15):
promo code.
This is not a sponsored thing.
This is not a Tom GetsAffiliate kickback money or
anything.
This is literally just.
You can get a free pass if youwant to use the promo code.
If you want to go to NAB.
You can go to NAB show.
Oh my God, my microphone.
I'm going to leave that inbecause that was really funny,
but I'm going to pause reallyquick.

(06:38):
That was not the mic's fault,oh boy, that was.
I'm still using the newer boomarm and I was trying the end of
it.
That is sort of like.
The video about this will comeout this week, so you'll see it
a couple days.
I like this arm.
That's the first time that'sever happened, but I was trying
to raise up sort of thearticulating pneumatic part at

(06:58):
the end and the whole part justsort of lifted out.
Yeah, I don't know.
Anyway, maybe something needsto be tightened over there a
little bit.
That has never happened before,but I bet it sounded funny.
What I was saying was you can goto nabshowcom, you can sign up
to be an attendee, and if youwant to just go like have access

(07:18):
to kind of the main meat andpotatoes of NAB that would be
the exhibition hall you can getan exhibition pass.
It's usually $160 or $170.
But if you use promo code TOM24, it is $0.
It is absolutely free, free, 99, best price in town.
And then if you want to addother stuff, they have classes,
they have special events.
If you want to add those thingsto your ticket, you can.

(07:40):
I don't have a discount codefor those.
But if you just want to get intoNAB and be able to go through
the convention center, check outthe booths, talk to some
companies and all that coolstuff, ask questions directly.
I know, like you know, rhodesis going to have a everybody's
going to have a booth.
But I know Rhodes is going tohave a booth.
Ryan from Rhodes will be there,who I got to meet in person a

(08:08):
month or two ago, which wasawesome, and you know it's a
cool chance to just sort of meetpeople that you might know.
Like that's, I don't getstarted.
If I saw Brad Pitt, I'd be likethat's cool, it's Brad Pitt.
But then Ryan from Road walksin and like, oh my God, you know
total starstruckness, becauseyou know I spend a lot more time
with people like that or peopleon YouTube than I do with, like
a Hollywood celebrity, not inperson but on screen.
You know like I feel like I'vespent more hours with them, even

(08:29):
though they might not be awareof that.
That sounds weird.
But all of the differentcompanies, different
representatives for differentcompanies so you can check out
what people, what companies areworking on.
You can ask questions, heck.
You can offer some feedback andsome criticism.
You can get answers directlyfrom companies instead of
through third parties or randomYouTubers like myself.

(08:50):
So, anyway, nabshowcom, you canuse promo code TOM24 to get a
free exhibition pass.
And again, that's not likethere's no secret kickbacks or
anything for me, it's just acode they were nice enough to
give me, which is pretty sweet.
That, I think, is all of thehousekeeping before we dive into
the Q&A stuff.

(09:10):
So let's do that.
I want to start with the voicesubmissions, because I have two
people who are nice enough tosubmit those and it's easy for
me to get sidetracked and Iforget they're like on my
desktop, ready to be played, andthen I forget to play them.
So I don't want to do that.
I want to make sure we playthese.
First one is from Hassan, whohas sent in things a bit before,

(09:32):
and he is an absolutely awesomeguy, and he did let me know in
his email that he recorded thiswith the Lewitt LCT 440 Pure
into the Rodecaster Pro 2 usingthe NT1 preset.
So as we listen to this, that'swhat you're going to hear Take
it away, hasan.
I can never click the buttonright.

(09:55):
There we go, here we go.

Speaker 3 (09:57):
Hey Tom, first time caller, long time listener.
I have a couple of questions.
First is how do you manage yourtime?
I'm talking about from theperspective of the YouTube
production process.
When it comes to YouTube, howdo you spend your, how do you
schedule your time and how doyou?

(10:18):
That includes like do you shootat night?
Do you outline in the evening,record the next day, space it
out so that you have differentparts of the video being
recorded on different days?
Do you have something in likeset in stone in calendar?
My second question is do youuse any?

(10:39):
What kind of productivity toolsand apps do you use?
I think you mentioned multipletimes that you use Apple Notes
for your outlines, but are thereother apps like your to-do?
What's your to-do list app?
Or, when it comes to calendaragain, do you use Google
Calendar?
Because I know in GoogleCalendar you can create tasks

(11:02):
and then you can check them off.
So I was just curious of whatkind of productivity tools that
you use to manage your time, butmore from the perspective of
YouTube production process.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
Thanks, all right.
Thanks again, hassan, for themessage.
I appreciate it very, very much.
There's a two-part questionreally.
So the productivity side ofthings I am the I'm.
I am the least interestingperson in the world when it
comes to that.
You kind of nailed it.
Uh, the notes app is my mainproductivity tool.
So we're talking about tools,uh, the notes as my main thing.

(11:35):
That's where I outline videos,that's usually where I do my
to-do lists.
Um, yeah, that's that's kind ofmy main thing.
It's like the most basic, simplething.
But but you know, if you'resomeone like me, you have an
iPhone and a MacBook and an iPadand an Apple Watch.
Everything just comes togetherreally nice and I love that it
is so simple.
Sometimes it sort of feels likeI wish there was maybe some

(11:57):
more features here.
You know it could do somethinga little bit better, but most of
the stuff I do is relativelysimple and basic and outlining,
and the notes app has workedgreat for many years.
I just haven't changed itCalendar.
I do just use the Applecalendar, the default one.
Heather uses Google calendar.
It seems like she has a littlemore features, a little more

(12:19):
organization and but I justdon't want to change everything.
The Apple ones worked fine forme, except like a year ago.
This thing happened wherewhenever Heather would invite me
to something so if it was likeyou know, take the dogs to the
vet next Tuesday at 9am, and Iwould accept the invitation not
only would I get an email alertwhen it was time to do that, but

(12:40):
I would get like 86 emailalerts.
It was insane.
It happened.
Any event, that I was likeinvited to, that I accepted.
I would get and I'm not evenexaggerating somewhere between
80 and 100 separate emails and Idon't know why, and eventually
I forget how.
I had to like dig through andre-add all my accounts or
something.
It was the most frustratingthing.

(13:02):
But there we go, and those arekind of the two main things
there.
As far as like time management,actual production goes, that's
definitely changed over theyears, especially over the past
three years, since YouTube hasbecome my full-time thing versus
part-time.
When it was part-time which isprobably the case for most
people it was very different.
I was filming a lot of stuff onafternoons and evenings.

(13:24):
A lot of stuff on afternoonsand evenings, a lot of stuff on
weekends.
It was sort of like any time Iwas home from work, I was
filming or editing something forYouTube.
Obviously, that kind of changedwhen the full-time job went away
and YouTube became thefull-time job and something that
I had talked about three yearsago when I made that transition
was the biggest question I gotat the time was oh cool, are you

(13:47):
going to do more videos?
Are you going to do like, twovideos a week, three videos a
week?
And my answer was no.
I didn't want to do that.
I didn't want to just burnthrough all my ideas, all my
energy, all everything and makeyou know essentially my like
stress overload.
Goldfish just expands to takeup whatever space it is given,
you know.
So it's like oh, you had, youwere so stressed out and you had

(14:08):
so little time because of yourfull-time job and YouTube.
You got rid of the full-timejob.
Well, just make YouTube expandto take up the same amount of
time.
It was like no, I want to havetime to step away from stuff and
be a person and rest and haveother experiences.
That will help make the YouTubestuff better and more
interesting.
And you know time to work onthings, and so it's been.

(14:31):
It's sort of interestingbecause I was thinking about
this yesterday, like yesterday,I was thinking you know, if I
really wanted to, I could makeso many more videos than I do,
and I think that could be funonce in a while, like last week,
I did two videos in a week.
Sometimes I'll do a live streamor, you know, I'll do extra
podcasts or something, buttypically it's one video a week,
one podcast a week on thecouple's table, live stream week

(14:54):
.
That's kind of the main stuffthat is made every week, and
sometimes Heather and I willwork on client projects.
I just started am starting anew client thing, which is
pretty exciting.
I could probably mention it.
It's not really a secret, butI'm going to be working with
Buzzsprout, who is the companythat I host my podcast through,

(15:15):
to make some videos for theirYouTube channel, some like
podcasting related videos,because I've loved them forever.
The people who run Buzzsproutare just amazing and some of the
coolest, nicest people aroundand they've been into podcasting
for gosh like pretty much sincethe beginning and they're just
such an awesome company and theysort of asked for some help

(15:37):
with their YouTube channel.
So I'm going to be making somevideos for them and see how that
goes.
So maybe you'll see some ofthose pop up.
You talk about the.
I'm super excited about thatthough.
So sometimes I have projectslike that that I'll be working
on, which don't show up on mychannel or anything, but will
show up somewhere else or be forsomething else.
I typically have like since Iupload, since my videos are

(16:00):
published on Thursdays, eventhough I have like a backlog of
a couple of videos scheduled inadvance.
I like to you know, like if Ihave four videos scheduled and
then Thursday rolls around, it'salmost like by Wednesday night
I like to have five videosscheduled, so that Thursday one
goes out and then there's stillfour again, and so it's like

(16:21):
publish another one by beforethe next Thursday.
That's kind of.
My goal is to make a video bythe end of the day on Wednesday,
which usually means thepre-production stuff like
outlining and planning.
I do a lot Like sometimes it'lljust be like out on the couch
at night or wherever, like I dothat kind of constantly, and
then once I have somethingoutlined or scripted in a way,

(16:45):
that's like ready to go, thenI've started setting up the
production side of things on adifferent day from filming.
It used to be like I got to gomake a video.
Let me set everything up,record all that and like, try to
do everything in a day and Idon't do that anymore, which I'm
fortunate enough to have thetime now to not have to do it
that way.
So I usually set everything upon one day, test everything out,

(17:06):
get all the audio going, allthat kind of stuff.
If I'm playing with lightingespecially now that my studio is
a little differently I'm sortof relearning every angle, every
shot and there's more optionstoo.
So it's like reallyexperimenting with stuff.
I set up all that stuff, testeverything out, so that way the
next day can just be a filmingday where I can, you know, get

(17:26):
ready, show up, and I don't haveto think about like, where's
the camera going to go?
Am I using the right lens?
What about my audio?
Is this working?
Like all of those technicalproblems have been taken care of
and I can focus specifically oncommunicating.
Whatever it is I need tocommunicate, and then usually I
will just film talking headstuff one day, and then usually
I get a rough cut going prettymuch the same day and then I

(17:50):
take my rough cut, turn it intoa more polished rough cut, so
it's almost like a finishedvideo.
This is for like a standard typevideo.
It's almost like a finishedvideo.
So there's the main angle,there's, you know, usually I
have my secondary camera.
Sometimes there's screenrecordings, sometimes there's
things that crop in and crop outbut there's no B roll yet.
It's just that stuff.

(18:10):
And then as I'm going throughthat, it's like the video is
kind of done, Like the audio ispolished, the cuts are done, I
know how long it's going to be.
Then I can go through and justsort of mark what B roll I need
and then I can go and film thatexact specific b-roll.
And I really like that processbecause even then the files
literally on the memory card areusually in order, like because

(18:32):
I go chronologically through thetimeline.
Just put a mark here.
Oh, I need you know I mentioned, if I'm you talking about, a
microphone and I mentioned somecool button on the front of it.
Get a shot of the button of themicrophone.
Oh, here's the intro of thevideo.
Like, get, like, get you know,a wide shot with a couple of
microphones or something likethat, like.
And then when I go through thefiles afterwards they're just
kind of in that order Usually,unless I'm switching locations

(18:54):
or doing some kind of like bigsetup that needs to be torn down
to do another big setup.
Then I'll do like everything inthose locations or setups at
once.
But what I like about that isthere's no more wasted time with
B-roll.
What I used to do was like filma talking head part and then
usually right after just startfilming B-roll and just kind of
like guessing.

(19:14):
Like, especially if it's aproduct review, which is a lot
of stuff that I do it's like Iwould just kind of guess, like I
need a ton of beauty shots, anycool things that could work for
a thumbnail, I need, you know,just film every angle of the
thing, and usually there wouldbe enough.
But it's kind of like I wasn't100% sure and sometimes I would
know.
I remember in the video Italked about this, so I need to

(19:35):
show, you know, kind of knowwhat I need to show.
But a lot of it was sort ofspray and pray, like hope that I
got what I needed and if not, Idon't know, because it's a pain
in the butt to have to reshootlater.
So the way I do it now, bygetting the rough cut done, then
marking the B roll, I feel is alot more efficient because then
it lets me know exactly what Ineed to film, get the B roll

(19:55):
done, add that in and then afterthat is all the stuff, that's
like the captions and theuploading and the thumbnail
making.
Sometimes I'll make thethumbnail after the rough cut
around then too.
But yeah, that's kind of theprocess.
So generally a typical video,you know, if you count like the
pre-production day where Ifinalized the outline, set

(20:16):
everything up, then a day offilming and rough cut, another
day of like, rough cut andediting, and maybe another day
like three to four days maybe,to make a video from start to
finish, unless it's somethingcrazy, like you know, some of
those like the XL1 video I madeor something along those lines.
That's kind of typically theworkflow.
That was a very long answer tothe question, but I hope it kind
of gave you some insight.
The big takeaway there is thatit really has changed, going

(20:39):
from part-time to full-time andit kind of that also wasn't a
change overnight Like it.
I was still doing the almosttrying to like film everything I
need to film in one day for along time, to like maybe a year
ago, and then it was.
I kind of had to learn to liketake a break and maybe even do a
rough cut, come back the nextday and keep editing the next

(20:59):
day and keep editing and it.
I feel like it helped makeeverything better, because I
wasn't.
Sometimes you're kind of likein the zone editing and you feel
like you're kind of done butyou're like you're tired and
you're ready to wrap it up, butyou sort of see the light at the
end of the tunnel so you justkind of push through to get
there and even if you get there,that's cool but maybe it's not
as good as it could have been.
Like maybe you find yourselftaking a few shortcuts or

(21:21):
deciding not to add something inthat you would have added in
otherwise, whereas if you comeback the next day or even a
couple of days later, likerested and refreshed and excited
to work on the thing, then it'seasier to want to take the
extra time to do those extratouches.
And you know I have found thatthe videos have, I feel, have
gotten better since I starteddoing that.

(21:43):
So thanks again, hassan, forthe question.
I really appreciate it.
Next question is from SteveMartin, who was here, I think
last season's Q&A as well.
Steve sent an audio submission,so I'm going to try to push the
button correctly this time.
Take it away, steve.

Speaker 1 (21:59):
Hey, tom, hope you're well.
I've not sent anything in for awhile so I thought I should
change that and, being a Q&Aepisode, I thought it was the
perfect time.
So I am recording this into mySamsung Q9U, into the Rodecaster
Pro 2 on the SM7B setting, andactually I find that this needs
a bit more of a gain boost thanI thought it would do.

(22:23):
So I've actually got it on 65dB at the moment moment.
I don't know if that's good,bad, but it seems to work.
Um, not at all related to myquestion.
My question is about sounddesign for videos on my youtube
channel, my photography journey,which is teaching people about

(22:43):
nikon cameras and the basics ofphotography, kind of starting
from the very beginning andgoing through, like what does
this button do, what is apertureand things like that.
But I had a comment on one ofmy videos recently about sound
design and they suggested that Ishould do more of it.
So so if I'm looking at acamera, then adding clicking of

(23:05):
buttons and that kind of thing,having a bit more depth to the
sound, maybe I don't know ifthis is something that you do
and if it is, how do you do it?
Where do you draw the linebetween being over the top with
your sound design?

(23:25):
Um, and they were talking aboutthe use of B roll and things
like that as well, which issomething that I've used a bit,
but it's mainly me talking tocamera and I just wanted your
opinion on that really mainly,mainly the sound design.
So that's my question.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
All righty.
Thank you so much, steve.
I appreciate it.
I like that everyone is now,without being prompted, just
letting us know what they'rerecording on.
It's super cool, it's reallyhelpful.
I will say, though, I did notice65 dB on the Q9U is a lot more
than I would expect on thatmicrophone, and here on the Duo
I had to boost it quite a bit tobring up the level.

(24:07):
So the audio file that you sentin was a little quieter, but
that's confusing to me.
I'm wondering if there'ssomething in the recording.
65 should be more than enoughfor the Q9U.
Yeah, so I'm curious there.
It sounded great though, likethe sound quality is awesome.
I'm just curious about thatlevel.
It's one of those things whereit's like I'm sure there's just

(24:29):
like one little switch or buttonor setting somewhere that's
messing everything up, becausethat's typically what I do, but
it still sounded fantastic.
Just letting you know that onmy end I had to boost it a
little bit more.
But let's talk about sounddesign though.
No-transcript, and that's cool.

(25:07):
Footsteps are awesome.
But the mistake I would noticepeople make is like here's a
video that just has sort of likekind of okay sounding dialogue
and very obvious footstepseverywhere all the time that
sometimes even don't even matchlike right, you see someone
walking, like someone walks,stops, takes a few more steps,
walks, and you know a 10thgrader might just take a sound

(25:31):
effect of footsteps and justlayer it under that and so it
doesn't really sync up Like theperson stops and you still hear
footsteps walking and stuff.
And it's like taking the timeto.
Really, when sound design isdone right and I'm sure like a
pro film sound designer couldmaybe attest to this in a
different way when it's doneright you completely don't
notice it.
It's something that just goestotally over your head.

(25:53):
Even in a.
Let's go back to the world ofYouTube, then, and you're
talking about, like Nikoncameras and reviews and things
like that the sound design still, when it's done well, will kind
of be unnoticed.
It will just sort of someonemight not say I like that video
because of the sound design, butthey'll just know that after

(26:13):
they watched the video theyenjoyed it maybe more than they
expected or more than anothervideo they watched, and they
might not even realize that thatis because of the sound design,
but it is because of the sounddesign and that's the level you
want to take that to is sort ofup to you and it kind of depends
.
So some of the things I wasthinking was, you know, keeping
in mind that the best sounddesign is unnoticed.

(26:34):
So if you're doing a, you know,a tutorial on a Nikon camera
and you want to show the camera,you don't want to be so
distracting that every time thatyour hands move or a button
clicks it's like it's like ahacker is, you know, like typing
something on a on a keyboard orsomething crazy.
But there is, it is kind ofinteresting.
I wonder if it was kind of likea subtle, polished thing

(26:57):
there's almost leaning into likean ASMR quality for like a
camera review, if it would sortof add this texture that people
like would end up enjoying butnot even realizing what it is or
why they enjoy it.
Like there's, um, there's somepainting videos I used to watch
that I knew the sound design wasadded after you'd watch them

(27:17):
and do like a watercolorpainting or something.
But they would totally, totallyadd in like the sounds of the
brush strokes or the brush, likegetting in the water and the
paints and and it like it madethe whole thing so much more
enjoyable and satisfying withthe sound, even though I don't
know if it was totally necessaryto do it.
Maybe the reviews, maybe itcould be something like that if
you add sound design and itcould also just be fun.

(27:41):
Like it could be a really funcreative project.
But the caveats that popped intomy head also is you don't want
it to become distracting and youalso you don't just want to
become distracting in terms ofthe content.
Like you know, there's so manystrange loud button clicks.
You also don't want it to bemisleading.
Like if you press a button onan icon camera and you add in a

(28:03):
button click sound, is it goingto make people think that that
button makes a loud clicky soundBecause that could affect their
buying decision.
Right, like if someone needs tofilm weddings or something,
they're like oh this camera hasthese like loud clicky buttons.
I can't be changing thosesettings like during a wedding
ceremony, not realizing thatlike that's just something that
was added in for sound effects.

(28:24):
So you know kind of what I mean.
Like you don't want it to bedistracting and you also, if
you're doing a review type thing, you also don't want it to give
the wrong impression of theproduct.
And also I would say the otherwarning would be you don't want
it to be distracting in terms oflike actually dragging out your
production process, because ifyou're making, you know, a

(28:45):
tutorial or review or whateverit might be, that is helpful to
your audience and it could comeout today, but instead it's
going to come out in three daysbecause you have to torture
yourself, adding in all of thesound design.
I don't know that would beworth it, because I feel like
the info, the basic core infothat they want, is still going

(29:06):
to be there.
The basic core info that theywant is still going to be there.
And now you're, if it'ssomething you feel like you have
to do, you might not enjoy theprocess as much, something you
want to do.
If you want to drag that out,you want to spend more time on
it, then it could increase yourenjoyment of it.
But if it just becomes anothertask, another thing, you're like
, oh, I gotta do this before thevideo is done, then it could
decrease your enjoyment ofproducing videos.

(29:27):
So now the videos are liketaking longer to come out and
you're not enjoying them as muchand it might not actually
enhance the benefit to theviewer.
So those are just warnings.
That's not my opinions oranything.
I think the cool thing to dohonestly would be to try it out.
Like, make a video wherever onekind of lends itself and just

(29:49):
focus on sound design in thatvideo.
You'll learn a lot.
You'll learn so much by doingit.
See how you like the video, seeif anyone notices, see if
anyone appreciates it.
And again, noticing might notmean that they say, wow, the
sound design is really good.
Maybe the person who left thecomment to you might notice it,
but everybody else might not payattention to it.

(30:10):
But you might get comments likeI really enjoyed this video.
I don't know what you did inthis video, but I liked it so
much more.
Like you might get those kindsof things where people are just
telling you they like the videomore than you're used to hearing
and that might tell you thatit's having a positive impact.
So I think it's a fun thing toexperiment with at least once or
twice.
See how you feel about it, seehow your audience feels about it
and then go from there.

(30:30):
But it's definitely.
Sound design is definitelysomething that's underrated, for
sure.
All right, let's jump over toInstagram.
I do have, I have, a number ofquestions here, but I also I
don't know what was like thefull moon or something in the
water.
I got a lot of the same basicquestion multiple times so I
sort of took some of them andjust combined like multiple
replies into one question.

(30:52):
So I'm gonna go through someindividual ones here just to
kind of address those.
So the first one comes from DanVan Ball, and Dan asks or says
I'm in love with the bright blueRode XLR cables but I can't
find matching TRS quarter inchspeaker cables.
So I've been using the Rode XLRcables since they came out last

(31:12):
year.
They're awesome.
Rode does a great job at makingthings bright and colorful.
I love them.
I think they're good price, butthey are XLR, they're not
quarter inch cables.
My impulse here was just to saylike, well, just use an adapter
, use an XLR to quarter inchadapter, and then you're good.
But that can also be reallyclunky and, depending on what

(31:32):
you're, adapters can sometimesbe expensive and clunky and
unreliable.
Like I have not had the bestluck going from XLR to quarter
inch or whatever.
So I feel like if you need aquarter inch cable, that's the
way to go.
Unfortunately, as far as I know, rode doesn't make them.
But I do have two solutions foryou that I've been using for

(31:55):
guitars and stuff for years Onebrand which you might know, but
it's a brand called Pig Hog, Idon't know.
They have all kinds of cableoptions, both like traditional,
like I don't know if it's rubberor whatever cables are made out
of, but also like braidedcables, and then so you can get
different colors, differentmaterials.
And then also Fender makesreally cool cables.

(32:17):
They're not as bright andsaturated, necessarily, as
Rhodes are, but Fender has a lotof cool.
I think that's like the classicseries.
It's almost like they madecables in the same colors as
some of their classic guitarfinishes.
And I do think Ernie Ball hassome more like wacky quarter
inch cables that are like brightorange, and maybe they have a
crazy bright blue or somethingtoo.

(32:37):
So that's where I would look ifyou want a good quarter inch
cable, if that's the kind ofthing that would suit your need,
that would be a good one here.
The next one.
Okay, so the next one I'm goingto combine, like the next, like
three questions into one.
A lot of people asked if I missteaching.
Someone said, like did you missteaching?

(32:58):
How do you feel about not beingin the classroom.
Do you miss your old highschool job?
Well, somebody said, do youmiss your high school job?
I'm currently part of thebroadcast and broadcast program.
Yes and no, I was just thinkingabout this earlier.
Again, I guess we're all on thesame wavelength.
I miss teaching, but I don'tmiss being a teacher and the

(33:20):
difference is subtle butimportant and maybe you know the
philosophical thing of like ateacher is one who teaches.
You are still a teacher, okay,but I mean, like the career
teacher, it's a hard job, right,like it's a very stressful job.
It's very difficult.

(33:41):
The way I always describe is itfelt like I was just swimming
upstream to try to do the thingI wanted to do, which was teach,
to share my knowledge andpassion about a subject with
students, help them improve,learn more, get better, grow
into, you know, young adult,like better young adults and
better people and the bestversion of themselves they could
be.
That was my favorite thing todo, but that was like you had to
fight such an upstream uphillbattle to do that.

(34:04):
It was like I'd almost do thatfor free and my salary went to
all of the other crap, like allof this, the school politics and
the meetings and the useless.
You know the uselessprofessional development and the
just.
I can't even I've kind ofblocked some of it out, honestly
, because it's just, it's such amess.
You know the part where youjust want to just teach students

(34:26):
stuff is so it's such a smallpart of the job.
You know the part where youjust want to just teach students
stuff is so it's such a smallpart of the job and obviously
that's completely backwards andit shouldn't be that way, but
that's just, that's just kind ofhow it is.
So I don't miss that, becausethat was stressful and
exhausting and frustrating anddemoralizing.
But I do miss the, the teachingpart, like the getting to work

(34:46):
with students on really coolstuff.
I was obviously lucky that youknow the teaching part, like the
getting to work with studentson really cool stuff.
I was obviously lucky that youknow the subject matter was
something I was passionate aboutand I found it.
I don't know if it was that itlent itself to helping other
people to feel passionate or itwas the kind of thing that, like
my excitement for it, madeother people more excited about

(35:08):
it, or both, but that was.
That was pretty cool.
But I feel, like you know, thesame could be true for, like an
English teacher who's actuallyinto teaching English and not
just someone they roped into it.
Like you know, when you reallyare into the thing that you're
trying to share, people, peoplecan pick up on that and they
want to be a part of it.
I am hoping I'm trying to worktogether to plan something out

(35:28):
with one of the local schooldistricts for next school year
to do a podcasting like I don'tknow what you'd call it, almost
like an after-school program.
It's the kind of thing that Iused to bring in people to do
with my students and now I canbe on the other side of that,
which is very cool because youget to be hired on as like a
it's like a visiting instructor,but you're kind of going

(35:50):
through a teacher so like.
So there's, say, like aproduction teacher of some kind.
They put together anafterschool program and then
they bring in somebody with youknow, specific experience,
skillset, curriculum to helpstudents kind of go through this
thing.
So what it's looking like itwould be now would be like a
couple days a week, which isreally only a couple hours a

(36:12):
week, running students throughpodcasting.
So the basics of you knoweverything from the writing.
You know pre-production,recording, all that and the
production side of things, basicequipment.
A lot of after-school programslike this have budgets so they
can get you know at least somebasic equipment going, figuring
out what the goal is at the end.
We're dealing with middle andhigh school students here, so

(36:36):
you know I don't know how muchof their stuff can be published
publicly from this program, butat least giving them the skill
set that if they wanted to go,hey, create a Buzzsprout account
and publish your podcast, theycould.
That would be cool and at leastgive them something to walk
away with that they actually didcreate, and maybe even a
workflow as well.

(36:57):
And the thing that I'm excitedabout is I would get to come in
and get paid to just teach.
I'm not a staff member, I'm anoutside instructor.
The teacher that I'd be like,whose students I'd be working
with, is the one that has to goto staff meetings and take
attendance and do grades andeverything I just have to teach.

(37:17):
The thing that I'm excitedabout and it's not a ton of time
, which is awesome, and it'sit's a thing where it's an
afterschool elective, so thestudents you're working with are
only students who want to bethere, because they choose to be
, because they're interested init.
So that would be kind of fun.
I think that could help scratchan itch, like the itch to teach
that I've had since leaving theclassroom.

(37:38):
A bit All right.
Next question this is from KyleMcKenna says how do you stay
looking so damn good?
From Kyle McKenna says how doyou stay looking so damn good?
Lots of Vaseline on the lens.
Hd is tough.

(38:00):
It's so funny because I feel Idon't.
I realized I don't have aperception of myself and I don't
know if other people are likethis too.
I was never someone who, like,wanted to be in front of the
camera.
That was a thing of necessitywhen I started making YouTube
videos, because someone had tobe in front of the camera and I
could just make more videos ifthat was me.
But now it's like I've heardpeople who are even in like
their 70s and 80s say that like,mentally and emotionally they

(38:21):
still feel like, you know, whenthey were teenagers or early 20s
.
But then they look in themirror and they're like who's
that person?
I feel like I have a perceptionof myself, but I don't know
what that is, to the rest of theworld, and I feel like you know
, seven years doing YouTube now,plus like heading towards
middle age, you can see theaging process happen and it's

(38:44):
weird and I don't know how tofeel.
But I don't know.
I'm going to take that as acompliment, I'm just gonna say
thank you and I don't knowthat's what we're gonna go with
there.
Joshie 989 asks can you stillturn your passion, slash, hobby
into a career in 2024 throughsocial media, youtube, et cetera
?
My impulse is to say yes, theseplatforms, well, these

(39:13):
platforms aren't going anywhere.
Youtube is a big platform that,for a lot of reasons, um has a
little bit more stability thanthe other ones do.
It's all very turbulent andunpredictable, but youtube's a
good one.
Social media and like theplatforms, might change and
shift and morph and mold, butthe idea of user generated
content, sharing content,building an audience online,

(39:34):
having your own voice, no matterwhere you are in the world,
those things aren't changing.
It's the like how do you beheard in a world where a lot of
people are?
Also you know, how does yourvoice stand out in a crowd of
many, many other people?
And it's a little trickybecause it's like I have my

(39:54):
channel so I feel like I'm doingthat now, but I started it
seven years ago.
Things are very, very differentthen, so I don't know like I
don't know how relevant anyadvice I have would be if you
were just starting from zero now.
The thing I would say that Idon't think has changed is if
you start it with the intentionthat it's going to be your
career and it's going to makeyou money, that's almost setting

(40:17):
yourself up for failure.
Even if that's something thatyou kind of want in the back of
your head, that can't be thedriving factor, because it's
just not going to happen for along time, if it ever does
happen.
And the thing that's going tohelp you keep going to the point
where something like that wouldeven have the chance of
happening is your pure passionand your pure enthusiasm for it.

(40:38):
If you're, if you want to makevideos that nobody is watching
because you love making videos,and then you get one or two
comments on those videos and itmeans the world to you.
And then you find that you havea couple of people who seem to
be watching all your videos andthat means the world to you, and
then it kind of slowly growsover time, slowly but surely,
and then you eventually kind ofbecome a voice in whatever space

(41:03):
that you're a part of, and youknow like it takes a lot of time
, but yes, I do think it isstill possible.
And going back to some stufflots of people have talked about
, like the, it's almost like thegreat retirement of YouTube
this year, where a bunch ofpeople like quit or scaled back
or whatever it might be, andHeather and I were talking about
this being just like that's asthis industry and this job and

(41:27):
this career grows and matures,people are going to wind down
their careers just like theywould in any other field.
But what that also means is foranyone who's thinking of like
is it too late to start out?
The answer is no, because it'salmost like there's another
generation of, there's onegeneration that's phasing out,
which it opens up the door foranother generation to step in

(41:49):
and bring new ideas, newperspectives and new voices to
it.
So, yes, I do think it'spossible.
The specifics of the hows if Iknew that, if I could answer
that question, this is how youdo this full time I think I
would.
I'd be a very wealthy man, butI don't.
I don't have those answers, butyes, I do still think it is
possible.
Sammy Superstar asks what isyour favorite lens for Sony

(42:11):
cameras?
This is a conflicting one too.
Now the lens that I've used themost by far on my Sony cameras
is my 24 millimeter 1.4 G Master.
I love the image quality ofthat lens.
I love the super fast, supersilent auto-focusing of that
lens.
I love the super fast, supersilent auto-focusing of that
lens and I love that it also nowand with the a7S III recent

(42:33):
firmware update focus breathingcompensation on it's been on my
FX3 for a while Now it's also onmy a7S III, so it's like it's
such a phenomenal lens.
The reason I'm conflicted, asyou might know, is I've had
issues with mine.
Mine has lived in a studiobasically its whole life, like
it has not been abused.
It is nothing's $1,500 lensthat I bought when I got my Sony

(42:57):
camera three years ago.
It has spent 99% of its life ina studio environment, never
been dropped or anything likethat, and the focus is kind of
crapping out on it, like thefocus motor just like kind of
randomly dies and it like youcan't.
You can't manually focus, youcan't autofocus.
It's very strange and I've sentit to Sony twice now.

(43:19):
And this is where I'm sort ofconflicted because Sony, like to
me, this is a defect, like thelens.
It's been like a year that it'sbeen doing this weird thing,
kind of off and on.
It's very intermittent, but itmakes the lens unreliable.
It's not something that I wouldreally trust to take anywhere

(43:39):
because I don't know if thefocus is gonna randomly stop
working when I really need it to.
So that's very frustrating.
The service I got from Sony theyreally, I mean they like
Sherlock Holmes.
They try to find, deduce everyproblem that could be happening,
diagnose everything, talk to meabout it, keep me updated.
So like in terms of service inthat regard, like the people who

(44:01):
got the lens and were put incharge of trying to figure out
what the problem was, it's likean A plus 10 out of 10.
They were amazing.
But it was also they were doingthat because Sony as a company
was trying to bend themselvesinto a pretzel to just like
avoid replacing the lens, likejust replace the defective lens,
like let this all be done.
Because now I'm at a pointwhere it's like I'm a little

(44:24):
frustrated, like when I boughtthat lens I really liked it.
But if you go back and watch myreview on it, I do say like the
one thing that kind ofsurprised me is the build
quality, and maybe I just needto change my perception of what
it means for a lens to have goodbuild quality.
I was used to Canon lenses.

(44:45):
Canon lenses, especially get tothe L series.
They're built like tanks, likethey are phenomenal lenses.
I still prefer Canon lensesover Sony lenses all day, every
day.
I just prefer Sony cameras overCanon cameras.
So it doesn't work.
But I was kind of thinking okay, this is a new camera ecosystem
, yes, this lens, I spent $1,500on it and it feels very

(45:08):
lightweight and plasticky.
But hey, I'll take it for whatit is.
Well, okay, I've never had oneof my Canon lenses randomly stop
working ever and this onesuddenly has a problem.
And and this is very anecdotalbut everybody else I know who
has a G Master lens that is notthe 70-200.

(45:30):
I had Sony 70-200 at myprevious teaching job.
It worked great.
Everyone I know who owns thatlens.
It has worked great.
But the other G Masters,especially the 16-35, everyone I
know who has one, which isn't aton of people, it's a handful
of people.
They've all had focusingproblems and a few people with
the 24 and the 35 had the sameproblem I have.

(45:50):
So for me that's like it'sreally conflicting, because I
love this lens, I love theperformance of this lens.
The focus breathingcompensation has become a really
like invaluable tool.
I don't know that, like I don'tknow what to do.
I kind of just want, if I hadto replace the lens right now,

(46:10):
which I feel like I'm going tohave to, I don't want to spend
another $1,300 or $1,400 on thesame lens because that's so
unsatisfying.
Plus, then it's like, well, isthis new expensive lens just
going to break and I'm not goingto get any support from the
company when that happens.
So the lens I would get wouldbe the updated Sigma 24 1.4,

(46:31):
which is pretty much the same asthe Sony in every way, except
it's like almost half the price,a little more than half the
price, but it doesn't have focusbreathing compensation.
So it's like, ah, I'd lose thisthing I really love, but I have
a more reliable lens at a lowerprice.
So anyway, that's kind of mytangent there, but it's been
interesting because it's like Ihave no need to replace my

(46:54):
cameras now.
I really love my Sony cameras.
Like they just do such a goodjob and even going through like
Canon's current camera lineup.
While they're great and theresults you get from them are
phenomenal, there's just thingsabout them where there's nothing
there that really works for me.
You get from them arephenomenal.
There's just things about themwhere there's nothing there that
really works for me, but in acouple of years, if I need to
upgrade my camera right now,it's like, well, if I don't,

(47:15):
sony's not doing anything tokeep me like as a customer let's
put it that way Like, likethey're.
They're not winning me over,making me feel like you will be
taken care of.
Once you've invested 10s of1000s of dollars into our
product ecosystem, we'redefinitely going to take care of
you.
I don't have that feeling atall.
I have the feeling of like ourstuff might crap out on you and
then you just have to buy itagain.
Cool.

(47:38):
So yeah, I don't know.
It puts a bad taste in my mouth, all that to say.
My impulse is to say it's the 24millimeter lens, but I have now
such a conflicted relationshipwith it.
There are a couple other ones,though, specifically a lens that
I really love that I think isabsolutely underrated is the

(47:59):
Tamron 20-40 f2.8.
I love this lens.
This is the lens that I use.
I use it a lot in the studiofor B-roll.
Sometimes you get for a Bcamera because 20 millimeters is
so wide on a full frame camera,but it's also the lens Anytime
I take a camera out anywhere.
Oh, it's the best, especiallywhen you you factor in that you

(48:20):
can use like super 35 crop modeon a full frame camera Cause,
then it it's not just a 40millimeter lens, it goes up I
don't know what it ends up being65, 70-ish millimeters,
something like that.
You get a little more reach outof it and that's such a useful
focal length.
I know 16 to 35 is there.
16 is a little wider, 35 is notquite as narrow, but 20 to 40

(48:40):
for me on full frame has been soinsanely practical.
That lens is like six or $700.
So it's built just as well asthe GM lenses are, which I'm
saying that as a good thing,because it's so much cheaper
than those are.
I haven't had any issues withthis one at all.
The autofocus is every bit asgood as the Sony and I know Sony

(49:04):
also, like, owns part of Tamron.
So if you kind of look atTamron's lens lineup and Sony's
lens lineup and you realize,like why they don't make
overlapping focal lengths andlenses in a lot of cases, and
then you realize like Sony ownspart of Tamron.
It all kind of the puzzlepieces all kind of fit together
there.
But that lens and it's an F2.8.
So it's pretty decent.

(49:26):
In low light it's capable ofgetting some cool background
blur at times.
You know a 20 miller 20millimeter 2.8 shot, it's
awesome.
And it's so small and compactand lightweight that it is a
great lens to take with youplaces because it just it
doesn't take up any space and itdoesn't add a lot of weight to
stuff.
And I just feel like tamronannounced that lens.

(49:46):
I was on the pre-order listimmediately.
Like I was waiting for monthstill it was like available for
order and then I ordered itright away.
I made a video about it.
I feel like I don't hearanybody talking about this lens.
I feel like it's sort of likemeh, like people just kind of
overlooked it.
It's like the next option islike a 16 to 35.
And in the Sony world that'sthe 16 to 35 G master.

(50:08):
Like $2,000 for another 2.8lens.
This is like six or $700.
And it's almost the same insome ways, I think.
I think I have found it moreuseful to be able to to go
further to 40 millimeters thanwider to 16.
Having previously owned a 16 to35 as well.

(50:34):
Okay, that was lens talk, lenschat.
There we go.
A couple more questions.
Oh, here's two that are sort ofthe same.
So this is Peter Lindgren askedwhat's the difference between
the previous office setup andthe new one, and then James
Watts Films asked how are youfinding the separation of the
edit desk with the filming desk?
So kind of similar-ishquestions there.

(50:54):
I don't want to go through thewhole thing of, like, the studio
rebuild because that wasbasically the whole last episode
.
Go listen to that.
Go watch the Patreon channelsupporter video if you want to
see some of it in action, but Ican give sort of some updates
now.
That's been a little longer andI've been able to use this and
it is phenomenal.
So, like right now, I'm settingup to film, actually, a

(51:18):
Buzzsprout video.
To do that, I want it to looklike one of my videos, but I
don't want it to look 100% likeone of my videos.
I want to incorporate a littlemore of Buzzsprout's branding,
which is a lot of green.
I maybe want to use an anglethat's not like so typically,
tom, but it's still likeobviously it's me in the same

(51:38):
space so I'm able to move myrolling desk around, find a cool
angle I can incorporate maybe alittle bit more of like the
guitar wall, since that'ssomething that sometimes that
sends mixed signals on my videosCause people like this isn't a
music channel, why is half theframe just instruments and stuff
?
But for this situation itactually makes a lot of sense.
So it's like I've been able tosort of dial in this one setup,

(52:01):
that um, that I can use for aclient thing, and even brand it
a little bit differently, verysubtly, but a little bit
differently, and then I couldjust switch things around and go
back to my own setup likealmost instantly.
And to do that was so easybecause it was literally like oh
, I need to move the camera here, let me roll it over.

(52:22):
I need to move my desk, let meroll it over.
Oh, there's stuff in thebackground, let me just roll
that out of the frame.
My desk, let me roll it over.
Oh, there's stuff in thebackground, let me just roll
that out of the frame.
I didn't once knock anythingover, I didn't bump anything
into anything.
The versatility and the spaceand like the freedom of movement
is just, oh, it's absolutelyunreal.
I've never experienced this inmy own personal studio, ever,

(52:43):
and so it's.
I can't even tell you how muchI love it.
It's great.
And then to go back to like thething I did, which was
splitting the filming and workdesk because that was kind of my
problem before was like theywere one and for some people
that might work.
So just because I split mineoff doesn't mean that's the
thing to do.
Like I didn't discover the wayto do it, I just discovered a

(53:06):
way to do it.
Oh, but it's been so nice Likesitting here at my work desk
right now.
It's so easy, like everything,because everything is designed
for me to work comfortably,ergonomically, efficiently.
There is still a setup that itcan work on camera, but that's
kind of secondary to me beingable to get my work done,

(53:27):
because it's not going to beused for that as much and that's
not the purpose of it here,whereas it was sort of the other
way around before.
It's like this needs to lookgood on camera and then if you
can like somehow manage to getwork done, which is very
uncomfortable, even littlethings like anytime I'm editing
I use headphones.
I'm wearing headphones rightnow I always edit videos with
headphones.
I don't have studio monitors.
I don't really like workingwith studio monitors and they're

(53:49):
expensive and I just don't wantor have any so and they take up
a lot of space.
So I just have like a littlecomputer speaker thing that I've
used forever.
It's mainly just for likewatching videos, listening to
podcasts, playing music whileI'm filming, like whatever it
might be.
It's just I'm not doing likework through that speaker, I'm
just listening to stuff throughit.

(54:10):
It just needs to soundlistenable.
Like you know, it's better thanjust a phone speaker or
something.
But it's a small little speaker.
It doesn't look great on my desk.
So previously I sort of had iton this little like shelf thing
under my desk, which is fine andI know putting a speaker under
a desk is not going to give youthe best sound quality but it
meant that every time I neededto turn on I kind of had to like
lean and then like like contortmy arm into this S shape to

(54:35):
reach over and push the buttonand turn the speaker on, and it
also has an auto power off thing.
So if it didn't play sound forlike an hour it would turn off,
and it's like it was one ofthose things where every time I
needed the speaker on, it wasn'tthat it was that hard, but
there was a little part of methat just sort of felt like like
it's just a little annoyance, alittle bit of like oh geez,
like you know I don't know howto describe those things it's

(54:56):
like if you have a I don't knowa drawer in your kitchen that's
just not organized well, andevery time you open it you just
get a little annoyed that youkind of have to like reach back
to grab this one thing, and theneventually you realize like can
I just put that one thing inthe front, and then it
eliminates that pain point.
Now I can just have my littlespeaker on top of my desk

(55:16):
because it doesn't matter,because it's not a thing that's
going to be on camera andwhenever I need to turn on I can
just reach over without havingto like contort myself, push the
button, speakers turned on,done.
There's those little quality ofupgrades times 100, like
quality of life upgrades times100 throughout the whole setup,
where everything just feels somuch better and easier to use
and easier to work with.
And that has been, it's justbeen so nice.

(55:40):
And then the versatility of thefilming desk being able to do
whatever.
So right now I have it set upto do a video about podcasting.
So that means on it I have myMackie DLZ Creator XS, a boom
arm and the SM7B, because that'sthe gear that I'm gonna use for
filming and that's all that'son the desk.
So in the video you're justgonna see that gear and

(56:01):
microphone on the desk.
That's it.
It doesn't have to, like youknow.
Like prior to that, if I was,you know, filming something, say
, I needed to use the dlzcreator but my computer set up
to use the roadcaster.
It was a lot of likereconnecting stuff on unrouting
cables, unmanaging cables, thenputting them back.
And now it's not the casebecause my desk just has the

(56:24):
roadcaster duo.
That's just there.
I never have to touch anything.
Nothing has to be moved,unplugged, switched ever, and I
can just do a different thingover here.
It has worked.
It has just worked so good.
I just can't even tell you howmuch better the workflow is.
It's awesome.
I tried my best to tell you.
That's about as good as I cango.

(56:44):
I've got two questions left.
They're both Elgato related, sowe Elgato answer them.
The first one is kind of goingback to lenses.
What is the best lens?
Oh, this was one.
Sorry, this is a combinedquestion.
I got this.
I got versions of this questionlike six times no-transcript.

(57:18):
You're going to see theteleprompter in it and I my 24
millimeter lens is fine.
So 24 millimeters on full frame, totally fine.
That's what I've been using thewhole time.
20 millimeters is where youstart to kind of get that, so to
see the edges a little bit.
So on full frame I wouldn't gowider than 24 millimeters On a

(57:38):
crop sensor camera.
That's about 16 millimeters.
And I say that because I know alot of people have the Sigma 16
millimeter F1.4 lens,especially paired with something
like a ZV-E10.
And that's about as wide as youcould go.
But the flip side of that,because there's also people who
want to use GoPros, who want touse phones, who want to use

(57:58):
webcams.
If you have a camera that's alittle too wide or using a lens
that's a little too wide, youcan always just crop in.
Because somebody sent me awhole thing saying that they
were thinking of buying a brandnew lens because they had I
forget what lens they had, butit was too wide, and so they
didn't want to see the edge ofthe prompter.
And should they spend now likehundreds and hundreds of dollars
on a new lens just for theprompter?

(58:20):
And I told them don't do that,don't spend hundreds of dollars
if that's all it's going to bedone, used for.
Instead, just use your lensthat is too wide and then in
your editing software, if you'rerecording, you can do this in
final cut resolve.
If you're streaming, you can dothis in ecam or obs or any
application you can just crop inso we don't see the, the black

(58:42):
frame, and then the problem issolved.
So if the only lens you have isone that is too wide to use
with a prompter without seeingthe edges of it, don't worry,
just crop in after you film, oreven while you're streaming or
filming or whatever, andeverything will be totally fine.
So that's a quick little lifehack that I think some people
were overlooking, because theygot the prompter, they put their

(59:03):
lens on it and it was suddenlylike, oh my gosh, my lens
doesn't work and lenses areexpensive, and it's a crazy
thing.
And the last question, goingback to low profile arms, is an
Elgato question.
I recently made a video aboutthe Elgato low profile arm.
I got it when it first came out.
This is Tom talking, not thequestion.
By the way, I got it when thearm first came out and I liked

(59:24):
it a lot, but it had some issues.
Over the past couple of yearspeople have been kind of telling
me like, hey, the arm has beenupdated, things have been
changed.
Elgato themselves even left acomment on a video saying like,
oh, just let you know, we didupdate this, that and the other
thing.
So I bought a new one recentlyto see what the changes were and
there were things that weredifferent.
They basically fixed all of mycomplaints.

(59:44):
So I recently made a video thatwas like it's called.
They fixed everything.
You know, elgato low profile armre-review, something along
those lines, and I think I was alittle.
I think it's a combination of.
I was unclear about somethingin the video, combined with what
people sort of expect when theysee videos like this, cause I
got versions of this question alot, which is how do I know, how

(01:00:07):
do I get the new version of theElgato low profile arm?
I'm only seeing the originalversion for sale and I think so
the version I have, this updatedversion.
I think it's been the way thatit is for like a year.
It's not new.
Elgato has just been makinglittle iterative changes to the
boom arm since they released it,which is really cool, based on
customer and community feedback,and hopefully they'll continue

(01:00:29):
to keep doing that.
But I think, because I madethis whole like re-review video,
I think people thought thatit's like there is a new version
of the boom arm, cause somebodyeven said I know you're a
reviewer, so you get this stuffearly, but when's it going to be
available for everyone else?
And I'm like this was availablelike a year ago.
It's not, I just bought it offAmazon, like it's not nothing

(01:00:49):
special going on there as far asI'm involved with, and so I
want to be clear Elgato, at thetime I'm recording this, has not
released a version two of theElgato low profile arm.
They've just made changes to thedesign in a couple of years
since it was released and nowthey fix a lot of things.
So unless you're buying fromsome strange place that's got

(01:01:13):
really, really old stock, if yougo to amazon, if you go to bnh,
if you go to like any you knowtrustworthy retailer that moves
a lot of merchandise, they'reonly going to have the new,
current versions of things andso it might not say that it's
not going to say you know, 2024update.
Even some of the product photosmight look a little out of date

(01:01:33):
.
You might look at it and golike wait, there's not the, the
knob isn't where it's supposedto be or whatever.
These are the only versions ofthe arms that they make
currently, so it's the one thatyou will get if you order it.
You know you can always protectyourself by making sure you're
ordering from somewhere that hasa good return policy.
So just in case you do get anold version somehow, you can
just send it back and return it.

(01:01:54):
But yeah, if you just go toAmazon, type in Elgato low
profile arm, the listing thatpops up is the one, is the only
one, available.
It's not a new version.
It's not going to say it's anew version.
There's only ever been oneversion, at least according to

(01:02:14):
the listings, even though therehave been different iterations
of this one version.
I guess, if that kind of makessense, so that's all the
questions.
Hey, that's perfect.
That was like right on time interms of keeping this episode at
about an hour.
So thanks to everyone who sentin questions.
Of course, as I said, as I havesaid many times, you do not
have to wait until Q&A episode.
You can send a question anytime, tom, at EnthusiasmProjectcom

(01:02:34):
or HiMyNameIsTomcom, and justscroll down to record your
SpeakPipe message.
That's the app that recordseverything there.
You can do that at any time.
Next week, episode six is goingto be the community episode.
That's something I started doinglast season, where it's a
little more like less creatorbased and more personal based,

(01:02:54):
sort of you know what I maybeHeather has also been up to,
what we've been working on,maybe stuff we've been watching,
playing, doing, you know, likelives outside of YouTube and
content creation, sort of somechat and updates about that
stuff is what's coming your waynext week and we've still got
time.
Nab is two weeks away, so I'mtrying to think of.

(01:03:16):
Yeah, I'm recording this onSaturday for listening to it on
Monday when it's released, soyou still got time to register
for NAB.
If you want to go to Las Vegasany of the dates between April
13th and 17th, you can go tonabshowcom, sign up as an
attendee and you can get anexhibition pass for free if you
use promo code TOM24.
So there you go.

(01:03:36):
Thanks so much for listening, Ihope.
Thanks again for all thequestions.
I hope they were interesting tolisten to and I also hope that
you have a safe, happy, healthy,fun rest of your week and I'll
see you next time I'm out.

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