Pobody’s Nerfect: Being Human in the age of AI

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:25):
Thank you, hello and welcome.
My name is Tom.
This is the Enthusiasm Project,season 13, episode 6.
And we are gonna pick up rightwhere we left off before a very
planned and definitely notunplanned bit of a midseason

(00:45):
break, something that was forsure.
Not a thing that happenedunexpectedly, but something that
I do have very cool things toshare with you from, and I am
very, very excited about that.
So, all kinds of stuff today wegot listener messages, we got
topics to go through, we gotgear to talk about and we've got
some other stuff to share.
We've got topics to go through,we got gear to talk about and
we've got some other stuff toshare.
Before we can do any and all ofthat, of course, I want to

(01:07):
focus on the thing that you'relistening to me on right now,
which is the microphone that I'mtalking into in this week's Mic
of the Week segment.
So right now I am.
If you remember this season,these 10 episodes, I want to use
10 different microphones, onedifferent one on each episode,
so that way you can see I haveit written down over here,
because I couldn't even remembereverything I use.

(01:28):
So on episode one, I used theShure SM7B.
Episode two, I use the ShureSM4.
Episode three, I use the RodeBroadcaster.
Episode four, I use theEarthworks Ethos.
Episode five, I did the RodeNT1 Signature Series.
And now, episode six, I'm usingthe Lewitt LCT 440 Pure.

(01:49):
The reason I chose this one,because I really I have three
Lewitt mics that I really likeall of them.
I have the 240, 440 and the Ray.
The Lewitt 240 is oh, it'sactually right here on the back
wall behind me.
It's this.
It looks exactly like themicrophone I'm talking into,
except I have the white version,and that's actually one of my
all-time favorite microphonesbecause it's so affordable as an
MSRP of $99.

(02:10):
The 440 has a I forget theexact MSRP two something 220,
230, somewhere around there,maybe even a little bit more
than that, and I really love the240 because it sounds amazing
and it's affordable and thebuild quality is exactly the
same as the 440.
You might have to spend alittle more than $99 to get the

(02:31):
kit that has a shock mount andthe pop filter, which are things
that I do feel are prettynecessary.
And then there's also theLewitt Ray, which is a little
more expensive than the 440.
And the Ray has a whole bunchof like really advanced features
where, even though it's an XLRmicrophone, it can like adjust
the gain based on your proximity, it can mute the microphone
based on your proximity.

(02:51):
It has these basically verycool proximity sensors that tie
into how the microphonefunctions, and that's really
cool.
It's very unique.
I've never seen another XLRmicrophone that can do stuff
like that.
But at its core it's basicallythe 440.
So if you turn off all thefancy things that the Lewitt Ray
can do, you end up with just a440.
So I wanted to focus on this onerather than the 240.

(03:13):
I was going to choose betweenone of the Lewitts and I picked
the higher end one because ityou know, I am competing with
things like the SM7B, the SM4.
And while both this and the 240sound amazing, I do have a
video that compares the two ofthem directly.
This one does have a largercapsule.
That's the biggest difference.
That has a small electriccondenser capsule.
This has just a large diaphragmcondenser capsule, so it does

(03:35):
sound a little bit better.
It sounds fuller, richer, youknow.
It's just it is a bettersounding microphone.
I don't know that it's twicethe price better sounding, to be
totally honest with you, but itis a better sounding microphone
, so I wanted to give Lewitt thebest foot to stand on, and you
know the microphone that I wasputting into the comparison that
we're doing, so this is theLewitt LCT440 Pure.

(03:57):
Absolutely totally love thismicrophone.
You're going to hear me on adifferent microphone for a
little bit later on, though, butbefore we move on to today's
subject, I did want to talk alittle bit about some things
that happened over the break.
Life was a little bit crazy inways that were unexpected and
some stressful and some insane,but some that were also really,
really great.
So last weekend, I actually gotto play in my very first ever

(04:23):
hockey tournament, which issuper cool, and I naively
thought that I had to play fivegames over four days, and I
naively thought, like there willbe plenty of time on one of the
days to record a podcast.
There was not plenty of time onone of the days to record the
podcast, so I just couldn't.

(04:45):
I just couldn't do it.
It just didn't work for me andI needed to just sort of take a
break to focus on surviving thetournament, and so it I survived
the tournament, I survived thefive games in four days, and
then ended up actually includingstuff I normally do outside of
the tournament playing sevengames in seven days.

(05:05):
Today I am.
I just I'm so sore like so muchpain.
If you don't know, I play goaliejust in an adult league, not in
a low level adult league, notanything crazy, not anything
near professional level.
It's a non checking league.
There's no hitting, there'snothing like that.
We're not supposed to be.
There was a fight actuallyduring one of our games, which

(05:25):
is not a normal thing thathappens, but I was not involved.
I went to the corner and dranksome water and there were 16
teams from I forget the totalnumber of states a lot of
different states in the UnitedStates and several provinces in

(05:54):
Canada.
So it was a super cooltournament that was hosted at
our local arena Really coolthing to be a part of like
different divisions and all thatkind of stuff.
It was absolutely amazing.
Most of the games were played onthe normal rink that I just do
all of my, where I learned howto ice skate, where I learned
how to play hockey, where all mynormal games and stuff are.
But we did get to play one gameEvery team got to play one game

(06:17):
in the, the main arena ofAcreshire Arena, which is where,
like the, the Firebirds playthe AHL team.
That feeds into the SeattleKraken.
I've seen some NHL games thereas well.
It's an American Hockey Leaguearena, so it's a step below the
NHL.
It is an 11,000 seat arena,although about 30 of the seats

(06:40):
are taken up.
When we were playing, it was afree event to the public, so it
was super cool, though my teamlike we, you know, we're pretty
much all beginners, and it'sbeen.
You know, leagues aren't alwaysbalanced, tournaments aren't
always balanced, so it's alwaysbeen, you know, a little bit of
a struggle.
Luckily, heather got to go andtake some photos, but we did
actually win our very first game.

(07:01):
So a dream, like a thing thatI'd always wanted to do, is
skate on the big ice.
The big ice at, like the mainarena, because that's where,
like, I watched my favoritehockey players play, that's
where I got into hockey, waswatching people play there, and
then I decided I want to learnhow to skate for myself and
everything.
And so skating there, likeactually being on that ice,
literally being in the goalcrease that, like some of my

(07:23):
favorite goalies in the world,stand in that exact spot and
play in those exact places.
Getting to do that too, like itwas something I always wanted
to do.
So just getting to do that was,you know, was a victory and a
win for me.
But we actually won, and thiswas our first win ever, which
was super cool.
So we not only won, we not onlygot to skate on the big ice,

(07:45):
but we actually won the gamethat we played on the big ice
and more than that actually.
If you look, I have a photo ofnine seconds left in the game
here you can see the score was2-0.
So not only was it a win, butit was actually a shutout for me
, which meant the other teamdidn't score at all.
That is the first time I've everhad a shutout.
Ever in any game, in scrimmages, in pickup games, in practices,

(08:11):
in classes, anything thehundreds of game or game type
situations that I've been inover the past couple of years
I've never gotten a shutout.
That was the first one.
So it's first shutout, teamfirst win and getting to skate
on the big ice.
I was actually glad that I hadnever, never gotten a shutout
before, because it would have.

(08:31):
I don't think it would havebeen as special to do it here,
and so it was awesome, like,despite all the exhaustion,
everything that was amazing.
It was the coolest thing.
And Heather and I you knowHeather was like outside the
glass taking photos and I couldsee her when we're in the third
period and it's getting down.
You know there's eight minutesleft and the score is still like
two zero.
And she's looking at me andshe's like, oh my.
You know I've had shutoutperiods where the other team
didn't score for you know aperiod or something.

(08:52):
But I've never had a shutoutgame.
And I got close once in like apickup game.
I got to like within the lastminute somebody scored.
That was.
That was like a year ago.
That was the closest I got.
So I was literally thinkinglike I probably am just not
capable of ever making thathappen.
And then it happened and Heatherand I were looking at each
other and like the first rule ofshutout is you do not talk
about shutout, you do notacknowledge that it's a

(09:13):
possibility, you don't thinkabout it.
Heather was like so excited Iwas just trying not to look over
there.
And then it actually happenedand you know everybody was just
like jumping all over each otheron the ice and I was.
I was really happy.
And then I went over to Heatherand I was just in like
disbelief and she didn't knowwhat she thought I was like mad
or not, and she didn't know whatto read because I had like like

(09:34):
no expression on my face but itwas just the like sheer
disbelief and like I was waitingfor like a ref to say like
actually there's five minutesleft or you know, a goal went in
that no one noted like somesomething like a gotcha moment
and it never happened because weactually did the thing and that
was just super, super cool.
So you have to forgive me fornot posting an episode last week

(09:54):
, but that was instead ofposting an episode I posted a
shutout.
Yeah, but the thing is I'm notperfect.
That's the first time I've donea perfect game, which obviously
wasn't perfect either.
Still mistakes in the game.
It just came out with a perfectscore.
But the main thing that I wantedto dive into, the main topic
with today's episode, actuallyhas to do with perfection.

(10:16):
We kind of touched on this twoepisodes ago when I was talking
about the mistake that I made ina video where I kind of
presented a podcast setup as notbeing perfect.
I acknowledged like, hey, youknow, you might have this issue,
you might have this issue.
It was very much a more realworld look, and some people are
so accustomed to especiallyYouTube videos and any kind of

(10:39):
reviews or tutorials, almostbeing like such advertisements
and such slick, slick, like homeshopping network style things,
that it's almost like you can'tcomprehend when something like
isn't totally frictionless ortotally perfect, yet still
something that a person likesand recommends and that's you
know like, when is the last timeyou bought something, used

(11:00):
something that was perfect?
Probably never.
You have to figure things out,you have to use it.
So we're talking about mistakes.
We're talking about that as itrelates to products, as it
relates to workflows and thingslike that.
But I kind of wanted to dive inmore, even to people and the
stuff that we make and the ideathat maybe we actually miss some
of those mistakes, because thisis sort of something that I

(11:22):
think is interesting in terms ofhow, like independent content
creators and content creationhas evolved over a number of
years.
Because you know, as somebodywho got into video production at
a young age, a long time ago,long before it was, you know
even something you could shareonline long before there was an
online to share it on.
Online to share it on, thething was always trying to get

(11:48):
better, like using a Hi8 camerainstead of a regular 8mm camera,
using MiniDV, you know, tryingmoving to digital at some point,
like always trying to levelthings up.
And then, with YouTube, thatjust really kicked off Once
people could share stuff online.
And then, around you know, 2008, 2009, those years when DSLRs
could start shooting video,people were able to post stuff
that look, you know, 2008, 2009,those years when DSLRs could
start shooting video, peoplewere able to post stuff that
look, you know, put a 50millimeter prime lens on a Canon

(12:09):
5D Mark II and you got somereally cool looking, ultra
cinematic footage that, likeregular people had never been
able to capture before becauseit looked so close to what
people were doing in, you know,like actual movies and actual
production.
And so, speaking very broadly,you know video quality has
leveled up a lot in the past 20years of YouTube, because this

(12:30):
is YouTube's 20th anniversaryand that's crazy.
If you look at early YouTubevideos from 2005 and you look at
YouTube videos from 2025, evenones that are not geared towards
like filmmaking and videoproduction and trying to have
the best quality, like even justa lot of you know something,
people are filming with theirphones and, like a clip-on phone
microphone looks and soundamazing compared to how things
were, and so in general, there'sbeen that trend to level up

(12:54):
audio and video, even onnon-audio and video channels,
and a big part of that wasbecause of that DSLR revolution.
That happened when thosecameras could do that and I know
it's a term that sometimes getsthrown around, but it really is
true, like I think now we'refar enough removed from it 15
plus years, where it's just likeyeah, of course, a camera that
looks like a photo camera, likethe a7 IV that I'm filming this

(13:17):
on right now, that's going totake high quality video.
There was a time when that wasamazing, when that was like mind
blowing, and the reason thatwas so mind blowing is because
those cameras have big sensors,whether it's a crop sensor or a
full frame sensor.
That was a way bigger imagesensor than any camcorder Like.
If you look at like a three CCDcamcorder, like the Canon XL1

(13:38):
or something, or a highdefinition camcorder, the
sensors are so small compared towhat was on these cameras, so
right away you're getting atotally different level of image
quality, of low lightperformance, of resolution, all
of clarity, everything On top ofthe fact that then you can put
high quality lenses.
You don't just have to have thebuilt in camera lens.
You can put a really nice, youknow, dedicated prime lens or

(14:00):
something that has a veryspecific look to it and a very
specific feel.
Now you're getting shallowdepth of field, which is
something I know people.
The pendulum has swung the otherway, where so many people are
like I don't want everything tobe blurry and blurry backgrounds
are lame or whatever, which,like a reason I go for blurry
backgrounds as much as possible,is because growing up with
eight millimeter camcorders, Iwas a thing it was like

(14:21):
impossible to get unless youzoomed in all the way on
something that was like semiclose to the camera with a deep
background.
Then you could kind of getbackground blur.
It wasn't something you getjust sitting, you know, with a
camera an arm's length away fromyou.
So things started looking very,very different.
Everything just became way moreaccessible, you know.
Then you moved into mirrorlesscameras.
Resolution moved up past 1080all the way to 4k.

(14:42):
Phones became, you know, like,you know, any phone from the
past several years now reallyoutperforms you know huge
dedicated cameras from the pastand, you know, creates amazing
looking image quality.
Even in audio productionobviously got better, so the
level of accessibility justincreased a lot as well.

(15:03):
It it wasn't that you had to besuper complicated, it wasn't the
thing of like here's the 5DMark II.
It can do video.
You can sort of install MagicLantern, which is this sort of
like semi-legit third-partyfirmware thing that will give
you some more controls over here, and you're kind of like
MacGyvering everything together.
It's like no things are made todo this and it's actually made
to be a lot simpler and a lotmore affordable and now

(15:25):
everybody can have really goodaudio and video quality and
because of that, people arepeople worked really hard,
myself included over the yearsto level up their audio and
video quality and whateverthey're doing, so that now you
have stuff that looks reallyprofessional.
I'm not talking about myself,but I mean you know you watch a
lot of, especially on you knowsome larger YouTube channels and
it looks like broadcast quality, film quality, like industry

(15:48):
standard quality and people workreally hard to.
You know what was the thingActually, right now in the
background I have my drum stoolhere.
Technically, I should probablynot have that there.
I should probably not beshowing this little empty area.
I should have maybe like aclean table with a little fake
plant or something on there tolike make everything perfect.
I probably shouldn't have thiscable draped across the desk.

(16:08):
A lot of times people go tometiculous, to extremes, to, you
know, have everything be justabsolutely perfect, like we
don't want a speck of dust, wedon't want anything out of place
, we want, like everything isperfect.
We're going to cut out everyimperfection in the video, in
the project we're making, we'regoing to re-record things and
all of that, a lot of that isdone in the name of, you know,

(16:29):
making the highest quality thingpossible, being as good as
possible, the thing you do.
I don't think there's anythingwrong with that.
I think that's a good thing.
But in 2025, ironically, likethat perfection and that high
quality is not always ideal theway that it used to be, there's

(16:50):
nothing.
As things have evolved, thingshave just sort of changed, and
part of that, then, essentially,my thesis here is that
imperfections and littlemistakes and little bits of
humanity have more value nowthan ever.
And, you know, as things haveleveled up.
In the past, one way that peoplewere able to create higher
quality things and more perfectthings was to hire a team and

(17:13):
have a team.
And now it gets to the pointwhere having a team, it almost
feels like it's this essentialthing for a lot of people.
Like that's the next step.
You know, like you, you startmaking videos in your house,
house, your apartment, a spareroom, whatever.
Then you get a studio spacewhere now you're paying money to

(17:33):
rent a studio space and thenyou hire people to help you with
that space.
You hire people to help youmake your videos.
Now you have a team and now younow you're just an employer
like you.
Just you're you.
You tricked yourself into beingupper management.
Like I don't know.
To me that's like it soundslike one of the worst positions
to be in, but that's not thecase for everybody.
But it is often seen as havinga necessity because the quality

(17:56):
is so high.
It's like it's tough to achievethat.
Like if you look at a MarquesBrownlee video, right, who you
know, tens of millions ofsubscribers, super high quality
videos Like he is kind of abenchmark of someone who seeks
to have everything look andsound absolutely perfect At the
core of it.
When you're watching the video,it's usually one person on

(18:19):
camera talking, exactly like I'mdoing right now, but the thing
that you're not seeing, whichhe's very open about.
So I'm not like oh, you didn'tknow.
Like he is very open about theteam and the warehouse and the
studio.
You know the people, even if hehas, you know, fingerprints in
every part of the process.
It's like there are peopleworking on scripts and outlines,
there are people working onproduction, there are people
working on cameras.

(18:39):
There are entire higher setupsof videos where a team of people
will set the thing up and hewill show up and be the
on-camera personality.
That is different than likebeing the person fiddling with
the cables behind the camera,trying to figure out the camera
settings, then sitting down andtrying to create it.
So there's this level of polishand this level of perfection

(19:00):
that you know you can get closeto as an independent, individual
creator.
But it also a lot of what we'reseeing does become sort of this
unreasonable, if not likeunattainable benchmark for a lot
of people.
It's a good fit.
For some people, it's a goodfit for some topics, it's not a
good fit for other people.
There's no.
You know, one thing that's very,very true about YouTube is
there's no one way to do it, noone right or wrong way.

(19:24):
But you know, it's that thingwhere people are really aiming
for that glossiness, aiming forthat perfection, and it makes
sense to me that many creatorswould try to keep things as
perfect as possible, becausethat's something you see in
traditional media, right, yousee, whether it's a movie or a
TV show, you see things done toa very high level, and doing

(19:46):
that and creating things thatlook perfect and professional is
a way to show care.
It's a way to showprofessionalism.
It's.
You know, if you just have acrooked camera and bad audio and
bad lighting and you expectpeople to care about the thing
that you made, like that'sobviously not the answer either.
But that is a very differentthing, especially when someone's
working with a team that'smaybe not as open as others

(20:09):
about the team process and itreally seems like you know
they're presenting themselveslike I'm just a person making
videos and then it's like well,you have a whole team of people
helping you do that.
Now you've set this unrealisticexpectation, you know it's.
It's like the old school exampleof being in like the
supermarket checkout line andseeing the like, all the
magazines with supermodels andstuff on it and people feeling

(20:31):
bad about themselves.
They don't look like thesupermodel or the celebrity and
it's like that supermodel orthat celebrity doesn't even look
like that.
Like there's a team of peopleon that photo shoot day they
might have you know, on thatphoto shoot day they might have,
you know, dieted and exercisedlike crazy to be ready for that.
There's.
There's photo finishing photo,touching all this.

(20:52):
Like they don't evennecessarily look that way.
I know you're feeling badbecause you don't look that way
and that's you know.
That's the thing that happenswith creators is they look at
someone like, oh, look at theway this person is doing this
thing.
I want to make something thatlooks like that.
And then it turns out well,actually, like they're not even
just, they're not just theperson making videos, like
there's a whole team and there'sa whole strategy and there's

(21:12):
tens of thousands, if nothundreds of thousands in some
cases, literally millions ofdollars invested in doing that.
And you're sitting there withlike your mirrorless Sony camera
going like, why can't I makethe thing looks like this?
It's, it is an unrealisticexpectation.
The person you're watching ontheir own couldn't make the
thing that you're seeing likeand that you know some people
are more open about those typesof situations than others.

(21:50):
I bring all that up, that thatquest for high quality, that
quest for perfection, that questfor polish and gloss, because
of the rise in generative AIcontent where you can type in a
very simple prompt with a fewwords and you can get an audio,
you can get an image or you canget a video that looks I don't
want to say looks perfect, butyou know, if you compare Will
Smith eating spaghetti from ayear ago to Will Smith eating
spaghetti now, it definitely is.
It definitely lookssignificantly more realistic and

(22:12):
you know like it's just gettingbetter and better every day.
So when people first saw likeAI generative video or images
and it was like, oh yeah, theseare kind of weird, but like the
fingers are weird and the handsand the whatever, and it's like
those are things that veryquickly, like we can laugh at
those a year ago.
But yeah, within six months,within a year, a lot of those
problems get taken care of.
And now it's like the number oftimes, you know if I'm just

(22:35):
like browsing Instagram orwhatever, and I scroll through
something and I see, like youknow, it's something like you
know someone working with a sealion or something pops up and
it's like this just looks alittle, hmm, something,
something's tickling my brain ina weird way.
And then you go to the commentsand everyone's like this is AI,
ai, ai.
And I'm like, oh yes, it hasthat look, that weird AI sheen,

(22:59):
that like that unrealistic to.
You know the look.
I don't know how to describe itperfectly, but you definitely
know the look.
When AI makes something, it haslike a very glossy perfection to
it.
It can sometimes even mimicimperfections.
You know you can put that intoyour prompts or you could take
something and adjust it to makeit look imperfect.

(23:20):
But only a real human can be asmuch of a mess as a real human
is?
It's sort of the thing there.
The AI look like really hasbecome a thing in the past
couple years and they have thatstrange, like too perfect
quality to them.
And on top of that then, aitools have also made it easy to
eliminate mistakes.

(23:40):
You can just throw an imageinto something and have it
touched up.
You can throw your audio intosomething that's going to sound
better.
You can throw your audio into.
You can throw your video oryour audio into something that's
going to cut out all yourfiller words, cut out all your
mistakes somehow.
So that line between AI,perfection and, like the human,
striving for perfection is justgoing to keep getting blurrier

(24:01):
and blurrier.
But as people, as people whotypically live as humans the
whole time, we're alive, likeyou only experience yourself, as
a human, from the beginning tothe end.
We are very used to whatimperfection looks like and even
if you can't 100% identify it,you can kind of hone in on when

(24:21):
things don't, things don't lookright and when things have that
kind of like, even if it's.
It's like if you've seen, likea staged you know, I don't know
a staged movie, blooper orsomething where it's like, oh, I
think a movie could have ablooper like that, but this
doesn't seem like it's.
There's something in your brainwhere, like, even though this

(24:44):
checks all the boxes of whatwould happen in a blooper
situation like this, something'soff and this doesn't feel like
it's actually, it doesn't feellike an actual blooper.
So all that to say, all that,to say everything I just covered
the development of skill sets,the rise of AI, the merging of
these things.
I'm genuinely wondering, intoday's day and age, when it

(25:05):
comes to content creation, ifbeing perfect, if being
imperfect is really the perfectthing to do is embracing your
humanity, embracing yourmistakes, not advocating for low
quality, not advocating fornon-professionalism.
But it is okay to beprofessional, it is okay to work

(25:29):
towards that, to build thoseskills, skill sets, to showcase
those things.
But maybe it's also okay to behuman.
So that has more to do withthan just like being authentic.
Because I think when it comesto especially solo creators and
that's that's really the groupthat I'm like, super passionate
about, you know, when, when Ipost a mic review and someone

(25:49):
tells me about how they're, likemovie production team would
never dare use this microphoneor whatever it's like I don't
care about that.
I care about the individualperson who's trying to navigate
and figure this stuff out and dothe best they can.
Usually is like a one personthing.
That's to me.
That's I don't know.
That's just the person I careabout, because those are the
people that have voices thatthey've never had before and you

(26:10):
know, it's only gotten easierto have that voice throughout
all of human history and youknow, if someone wants to work
hard to do the best they can atthat.
That's something that I reallycare about.
So letting that humanity showhas, I think, more value than
ever before.
It's not just being authentic,like I'm just being myself on
camera.
If we meet in person, I'm goingto feel like the same person.
That's important too.

(26:31):
But being human on camera isimportant, and mistakes like
what does it look like whenyou're being human, like what
does that actually look like?
Mistakes have a relatability tothem and it's almost like.
It's almost like I mean I'm notsaying you have to do this.

(26:51):
You know everybody's say sayyou're someone like me, who, who
has a setup, or you know acouple of different setups that
you use for most of the thingsthat you make, and maybe it's a
talking head thing.
You have a background, you havea space that you film in.
You know a lot of people willput stuff in the background.
They'll put things on shelves.
Something that I've personallyalways liked about the space
that I make my videos in is it'sa space that I do stuff in when

(27:12):
I'm not making videos.
Like I use the things you know,like I play the guitars, I use
the AV equipment, I move thingsaround, like it's not just like
a set that doesn't get touchedunless I'm filming something Not
that there's anything wrongwith that, but I like that, I
like that reality to it and likeI like that my.

(27:34):
You know, my drumstool is herebecause I was playing the bass
earlier and sitting on thatdrumstool and it's now in the
corner of the frame.
I could probably make thiscorner of the frame look a
little bit better, but you know,even right here, like this area
kind of does bother me.
If you're just listening to this, there's an area in the frame
that's just sort of like stuffand what it is is on the side of
my workbench.
I sort of have these little.

(27:54):
There's like a pegboard builtinto this tool chest thing and I
have some.
Basically, it's like there'spens, there's some adapters,
there's like all the stuff thatmy desk doesn't have drawers.
It's all the stuff that wouldprobably normally be in like a
desk drawer or something.
It's just kind of right there.
But when I'm at this cameraangle it's always just right
there.
I've tried to hide it but it'slike you know, like sometimes I

(28:17):
need pens when I'm here doingstuff and that's where my pens
are.
That's just.
It is what it is like, and evenI, a struggle that I've had
over the years, like even withthat in mind, is not trying to
hide that, but like working in aspace, especially not just
doing YouTube full-time anddoing podcasts and all that

(28:38):
stuff, but when I was alsoteaching and then teaching
online.
So for a while it was like thiswas the space that I did all of
my YouTube stuff, which was inand of itself a full-time job,
but I was also teaching online,like you know, during the first
year of the pandemic, year plusof the pandemic, and it was like
this is where I do my full time, like paid job, and my full
time YouTube job and and thentrying to film things and

(29:02):
present things in a way that,like, made it look very, very,
you know, almost like a set,like a thing that is, you know,
perfect and polished or whateverthing that is, you know,
perfect and polished or whatever, versus the chaos that it
actually was.
You know, which is why, likewhen I do studio tours and
things like that, I don't hidethe mess of cable management,

(29:23):
even if I try Like I did a wholevideo not that long ago about
redoing this desk setup that Ican do these podcasts and things
, and I'm like, oh my gosh, mycable management is so much
better, basically becausethere's not cables on the floor.
If you look under the deskthere's still the whole like
tangle town of cables, but it'sjust more practical.
It's just more practical andnot hiding that the fact that,

(29:44):
like, yeah, I need to have acable laying across.
Sometimes that is something assimple as, like if you have a
notebook that has some noteswhile you're recording a video,
you have the temptation to sortof like I'm just going to put my
notebook out of frame and whenI, when I need a note, I'm going
to bring it in.
Put it out of frame, bring itin, versus just have the
notebook there like, have thenotebook in a place where people

(30:04):
can see what you're doing, andthat's the kind of thing that,
like an AI not that it couldn't,you know, duplicate these
things, but the idea that youcan let your seams show, you can
sort of you know you wouldn'twant to do this in a like a
short film sense where it's like, you know, the boom mic falls
into the frame and ruins theimmersion.

(30:25):
But for content creators,especially independent content
creators, you know doing thebest you can, but not being able
, not being afraid to show thatyou are a person doing your best
, figuring it out, you knowworking within constraints.
That makes you more real andmore relatable and I think those
are very, very important things, because mistakes have that

(30:47):
relatability.
I'm not saying like leave in badtakes or waste people's time.
Like if you're trying to saysomething in a video and you
need to restart the line like 20times, don't just leave in the
20 mistakes, because that'sgoing to be weird and a waste of
time, but it means you don'thave to.
You know I've stuttered andstumbled multiple times in this
episode as I've tried to saystuff.
I could take this into aneditor, cut all those things out

(31:08):
and make it perfect, or I couldjust leave it, because I'm a
person trying to put my thoughtstogether and I still feel like,
even with those mistakes, theclarity is still there and the
points I'm trying to make, youknow, go.
It's like it's okay if yourspace is a little messy.
It's okay if your video is alittle janky.
Sometimes it's like it's noteven just that it's okay, it's

(31:29):
that I think that actually, in aworld where things where people
really try to present the bestsides of themselves.
There's AI creating stuff thatlooks too perfect, and then
people are using AI to maketheir already like their attempt
at perfection even more perfect.
I feel like there's genuinevalue in not having that, in
being imperfect, in being humanand in just being a normal

(31:53):
freaking person trying to makestuff.
I feel like there's more valuein that than there ever has been
before, and that's somethingthat I just feel like based on
conversations.
I've had things.
I've read online things, thingsI felt myself.
Maybe, you know, maybe peoplewould like that reminder.
So that is, I don't have aslogan like that's the way I see

(32:14):
it, or whatever, but that'sthat people would like that
reminder.
So that is.
I don't have a slogan likethat's the way I see it, or
whatever, but that's.
That's the thing that we'retalking about today.
The way I can get around thatis to play a song as we go into
the next segment, talking aboutchannel check-ins.
Let's see.
So we're talking about being acontent creator.
We're talking about thoseimperfections.
What are some things that I, avery imperfect content creator,

(32:35):
have been working on.
Now, the video that just cameout is the YoloBox Ultra one
which is very, very cool.
I mentioned trying to work onthat.
Getting it done, I actuallylike put that video out.
It's the most recent video Iput out at the time that you're
hearing this and I'm.
It's really that video isreally cool because, having made

(32:55):
my first YoloBox video, I can'tI think it was 2021.
It might've even been in 2020with, like, the original YoloBox
At the time when they firstreached out to me and you know
they ended up sending the thingto check out and I was
interested in it because it justseemed, you know, like the ATEM
had barely come out and theATEM was amazing, just a video

(33:18):
switcher.
So it was like okay, it's like a, the video switcher is a screen
kind of thing.
Oh, that's cool, but wait, itcan do more.
Like it can record, it canstream directly from here, you
can pop up little bits ofgraphics.
It was, you know, like a littlebit.
You could sort of tell it wasmaybe a little bit underpowered
for what it needed to do, but itdid some stuff that was really
cool and it really wasinteresting to me.

(33:40):
And so when I made a video kindof showcasing that, the biggest
reaction I got was moreconfusion from people like how
does what?
Like confusion.
Then I made a follow up video.
I mean, they've released somany different products and so
many different versions over theyears, but I've only done a
couple of videos.
I did a follow-up video maybelike a year and a half later,
and I noticed in that video alot more people were like oh,

(34:03):
but it can also do this.
But what about this?
But that you know, like it'salmost like oh, you forgot to
mention this, you forgot tomention that.
And with the video about theYoloBox Ultra that I just put
out, I'm so surprised at thenumber of people who are it's
like testimonials, like oh, Igot one, it totally changed my
business, like it changed theway that I do everything.
It made my life so much easierit can do.
It's like I've seen them goingfrom this obscure thing that a

(34:24):
lot of people didn't understandto like one of the standard
choices that a lot of peopleit's almost like, especially
with something like theRoadcaster video coming out.
It's less like should I choosethe Roadcaster or the YoloBox?
But a feeling I'm getting islike why would I want to choose
the Roadcaster over the YoloBox?
It's like it has built thatlevel of reputation and that has

(34:46):
been a cool thing to seesomething go from like nobody
knows what it is to that andthat's really fun.
And I feel like, even though Icouldn't cover everything that
the YoloBox can do in the video,I feel like I did a pretty
decent job of covering a lot ofthe stuff.
Another video that I justfinished editing and have
scheduled is a review or reviewslash, tutorial, overview kind

(35:10):
of thing of the Shure MV7i, andthis was one that I wasn't sure
that I was going to make a videoon, but then Shure did reach
out and of course they're likehey, yeah, they know the ethics
statement and the whole thing.
You don't have to make a video.
The thing with the MV7i,because I bought the.
Yeah, I bought the original MV7when it came out.

(35:32):
Yeah, I bought the original MV7when it came out because it was
like it was a big deal.
I remember Shure teasing it.
I signed up to be on the like.
You know they had a teaser thatit looked like an SM7B
silhouette but it was teasingUSB.
So it really made it look likeit was going to be a USB SM7B
and it wasn't.
It was its own thing.
But I like signed up topre-order that like right away,

(35:52):
and it was the MV7, which is agood mic.
You know the original one hadproblems with plosives and had
the weird micro USB.
But even then Heather boughtone, which is the mic she uses
to this day, cause she got itthrough color where where she
could customize the colors on it.
So I'm sure you, if you've seenany of her videos in the past
four years, you've seen themicrophone.
But hers is like purple andblue and white.
It's like really, really cooland it sounds awesome.

(36:14):
It's been a great microphone.
She loves it.
So that's the original MV7.
And then they did, the MV7X,which was just an XLR version of
that.
I didn't do a video on that oranything.
And then the MV7 Plus came outrecently so I did a video on.
I bought one and did a video onthat because it addressed all
of the complaints that I hadabout the original MV7.

(36:36):
It was USB-C, it had betterplosive rejection and then they
even leveled up the software andthe application so you can do
better processing and stuff likethat.
And that's actually the mic I'vebeen using in Heather's office.
She has her mic on an arm, herMV7, and I have the MV7 Plus in
there.
So when we do streams orpodcasts or whatever in her
office together, that's been mymain mic in there for every time

(36:58):
it used to be.
Every time I'd do something I'dhave to bring a mic, bring a
mic stand, plug it in.
That has just been my permanentmic in there for months now and
I love it.
It's great and it's greathaving both of.
So it's the same sound quality,same processing, all that USB-C.

(37:20):
So it's basically a USBmicrophone.
It has an XLR port on the back,but the XLR port is an input,
not an output.
So it by itself is a USBmicrophone but it's also an XLR
interface so you can plug amicrophone into the microphone
and then the USB connection ofthe mic's running is what will
get it into your computer.

(37:40):
So you actually don't need aseparate interface or a mixer or
a Rodecaster or anything.
And it has I forget the exactnumber 65 decibels of gain, I
believe is what it is.
It's not as much gain as likethe Rodecaster has, but it is.
It's not as much gain as likethe Rodecaster has, but it is
enough to run the SM7B I tested.
That has phantom power so youcan do condenser microphones you

(38:01):
can.
You don't need to put in like aFethead or a Cloudlifter or
something, but if you wanted to,you can run that with it.
If you really want to boost upanother microphone, you can
totally do that.
So that's a fun video.
I, um, I tested it out withdifferent microphones.
I did the SM7B.
I tested out with somecondenser microphones with, like
the pod mic.
I I did my mic comparisons butthey're all running through the
MV7 plus as the interface, whichI think is really cool.

(38:23):
I've never seen that before,like a microphone is an
interface and it's pretty nifty.
Um, and I also kind of narroweddown who that might be, for
Cause it's $350 microphone,which is a pretty good deal.
You get, you know, essentiallya two channel.
I don't want to say it's likegetting a Rodecaster Duo, cause
it's not.
It relies, you know, on thesoftware to do record.
It's not a, it's not, but youget a two channel audio

(38:46):
interface plus a good microphonefor $350.
That's not bad versus like aRodecaster Duo is 500 bucks and
then you need two microphones.
But if you're using, theconclusion I had was, if you're
using two microphones all thetime, you might get a little
like it might just ultimately beeasier to have like a
Rodecaster Duo or even just amore traditional interface.

(39:09):
But if it's like, kind of,every once in a while you have a
second microphone or you know aco-host for something or
whatever, or you need to travela lot and be ultra portable, it
is a very cool option becausethere's just, you know, you plug
a mic into your mic, you plugthe mic into the computer and
you're done, and I think that'spretty darn cool.

(39:31):
I did a video also on myfavorite mic arms because I've
done, you know, tall mic armreviews in comparison to low
profile ones, tabletop stands.
But I was like you know what,let me talk about the ones like
let me just go through the video, the mic arms that I have, that
I, you know it's not.
It's like you just make thereview and then I never like it
when a review is made and thething is never heard from again.

(39:53):
You know it's like, does thisactually fit into a workflow?
That's the thing.
Like I'm usually when it comesto camera reviews, for example,
I'm less interested in thecameras being reviewed and more
interested in the camera theperson's using to film the
review.
And you know, when someone sayslike this is game changing,
it's revolutionary and it's thebest thing ever, and then like
they're not, they never use itagain.
Okay, I mean, there are timeswhen that, when you might just

(40:16):
want to share your opinion andcontextualize something, but at
least then contextualize, likewhy you think something is great
but then why you might not beusing it, even though it's
awesome, I guess, those kinds ofthings.
So anyway, I wanted to.
I have like the, the Elgatoarms, the road arms, all the
things, and I just kind of wentthrough the ones that I use
regularly, the ones that are myfavorites and why they're my
favorites and what's differentabout them.

(40:38):
So it's a mic arm comparisonvideo, but specifically for the
ones that I love and that I use,and that was a really fun video
that just kind of popped up.
Also, nab.
So something else has happened.
Heather and I went to NAB forthe first time last year and we
booked all the things to goagain this year in April.
So NAB is April forget theexact dates.

(41:01):
I think it's April 4th through9th, something like that, in Las
Vegas.
We will be there the 5ththrough the 8th, so that should
be super fun.
I want to make some stuff whilewe're there.
Of course, I don't know whatexactly yet.
Last year I did like handheldmic comparisons, wireless mic
comparisons, because it was theperfect testing ground for that
sort of thing.
This year I'm not entirely sure.

(41:21):
There's a couple of things I'mthinking of that I want to sort
of explore and you know, alsojust have fun.
Like NAB was just so much fun.
I'm super excited to do that.
So registration's all open now.
I've been trying to work it outto get a promo code so that way
you could get to the show floorfor free, and they just haven't

(41:43):
gotten back to me yet aboutthat.
So hopefully they did it lastyear.
I think their system changed alittle bit this year, so I don't
know if it's as easy to do thatas it was in the past.
But that was cool Cause youknow it's the the admissions not
terribly expensive, but $0versus some dollars is always
nice.
So, uh, now speaking of gear,let's talk about gear spotlight.

(42:04):
Uh, something that I made avideo on a little while ago,
which is the Holly land Lark Mtwo.
This is not the new one, thisis the um, the one that's been
out for a while.
It's still barely a year old.
Like it is still new.
Um.
I bought this because so manypeople had talked about it.
I got it a couple of months agoand I love it.

(42:25):
Like I completely get the hype.
Since I've bought this, like,both road and DJI have come out
with their own compact micsystems.
I did a whole video about that,so you can kind of figure that
out.
I still think there's a hugeplace for this, especially the
M2, not the M2S, the new one,which is great in its own way or
it seems like I haven't used it, it seems cool, but I prefer

(42:47):
this one.
There's differentconfigurations.
The one I got is the one thathas not just like the receiver
that you can mount on a cameraand stuff, but also has the USB
and lightning ones for yourphones.
It comes with all kinds of coolstuff and I actually did set it
up.
So now you are listening to meon the Hollyland Lark M2, which

(43:09):
I know is going to sound verydifferent than the EQ-ed XLR mic
I was using.
It's the I hope my stringdoesn't mess up there.
It's just the thing pinned tothe middle of my chest right
here, but I figured it'd be kindof fun and I have it running as
a USB mic.
I just want to make sure thesecables I can take off my
headphones for now.
I just wanted to be able to.
I'm talking about themicrophone.

(43:30):
I figured you might as well beable to hear it.
It probably does not sound itsabsolute best, like as good as
it possibly could in this, butbeing able to just pin the
microphone exactly where I wantthe new one.
The reason I'm not as into it isbecause they wanted to make
these transmitters even smallerand so they made them clips.
So basically like the circlepart that's on my chest here

(43:50):
would go behind a shirt and thenit's almost like a little
lavalier mic clips over.
So it's it's like a wirelesslavalier.
That actually kind of the partyou see looks more like a
traditional lavalier microphone.
So it's way more discreet, it'sway smaller.
That's cool, but that doesforce you to then clip it to
like a collar.
It gives you less flexibilitywith positioning and my favorite

(44:12):
thing about this is theflexibility.
Since I can't monitor thisaudio, I am actually going to
switch back, see imperfections,just for the sake of anyone who
is listening to the audio.
Only.
I wasn't monitoring thewireless directly.
But how small thesetransmitters are.
You get two of them, thissystem too, like I think the
retail price is $179.

(44:34):
I've never seen it for thatprice.
I got mine for like 120 bucksand so typically, even though
the MSRP is higher than, like,the Rode and the DJI systems
which I do both also think arefantastic kind of serve
different purposes.
The fact that you can usuallyget this like the full combo kit
with all the accessories andstuff for less than that,
significantly less than that,significantly less than that
sometimes, I think, just makesit such a killer deal.

(44:56):
And with the new one coming out,I just happened to release the
video.
I think I told you this.
I happened to release the videofor this on the day that the
new one was released andannounced Total coincidence.
I have no idea.
That's just a thing thathappened.
I'd made the video like threeweeks before and scheduled it
and like it was just coincidence.
And weeks before and scheduledit and like it was just

(45:16):
coincidence, and so a bunch ofpeople like, oh, this is the old
one.
You talk about the new one.
It's like, well, first they're,they're separate products, they
.
They kind of have separatedesign, separate purposes.
But I really think that thereis the tendency to then go
towards we got to get the newone.
The new one's better for a lotof people, I think the old, the
year old one is still probablythe way to go.
So, ultimately, I just wanted topoint out that this thing is
just an awesome value.
Even with the newer things fromRode and DJI, I think that the

(45:39):
Hollyland still stands outbecause the versatility of being
able to just pin thingswherever you need them.
The price it's the thing thatI've found myself using most.
Even though I prefer the soundquality of the Rode, I prefer
the Sony integration, the buildquality of the DJI You'll notice
in videos.
I use this a lot, especially ifI just need to put like a mic
on a t-shirt or something.
So I just wanted to spotlightthis gear here, the the

(46:01):
Hollyland Lark M2.
And now we can move on tolistener messages, of which
we've got quite a feast for thesenses this week.
We've got video, we've gotaudio, we've got text.
That's everything right.
What more could you want?
So we're actually gonna startoff with a video message.
If you ever want to send avideo message, a simple way to
do it is just email Tom atenthusiasmprojectcom, where you

(46:25):
can just send it as like a linkor whatever.
That's the easiest way to do itand then I just put it in my
keynote presentation.
So this is a video from John.
John has a really good questionabout video quality.

Speaker 3 (46:34):
Hi, tom, hope you're doing really well.
My question is this, and thisis something I've always
wondered so I record all of myYouTube videos on my Sony A7 IV,
which is then connected via aHDMI cable into an Elgato Cam
Link 4K and then that isconnected into my computer and
then I record everythingstraight into OBS.
So my question is and somethingI've always wondered does it

(46:58):
make a difference if you recordonto your camera, onto the SD
card and then transfer that file, or if you record through the
camera into OBS?
Do you lose any quality?
Do you lose any of the settings?
It's just something I've alwayswondered and I've searched the
internet for it and I can't seemto find an answer for it.
So yeah, just wondering isthere absolutely any difference

(47:18):
whether you record onto thecamera on the SD card and then
transfer it, or if you recordstraight onto, straight through
the camera, into OBS?
Just wondering if there's anydifference whatsoever and if
there's, you lose any quality oranything like that Cool.

Speaker 1 (47:32):
Thank you, john, for that question.
That is a great question andit's something it's like.
Speaking of Heather, we havevery different workflows.
I typically other than thispodcast or you know, other
specific things where I'm using,like the Rodecaster video or
something for most of my regularvideos that are in 4k, I record
everything internally to mycameras.
No-transcript.

(48:02):
I'm speaking generally becauseI don't want to get too into the
weeds where someone's going topull out like charts and
measurement things or whatever.
In general, especially with thesetup you mentioned, cam Link 4K
into, you know, obs, ecamm,whatever.
There should not be anydifference.
Once you dial in your settingsand you get, you know, the frame
rates matching, you get theresolutions matching of your,
especially with Sony cameras,because there's the resolution

(48:23):
they record in, then there's theHDMI resolution they output and
then you go into your computerand it's you got to change the
settings for the input and onceeverything's matched up and
working, there really shouldn'tbe any difference.
Now I do notice, you know, if Irecord 3040 minutes to my
camera's memory card, that filewill be.
I don't know 3540 gigabytes.

(48:45):
If I record this whole podcastinto Ecamm Live, I guess this
isn't 4k.
But even when I do 4k stuff,then the files may be like 11
gigabytes.
So there's obviously somethingthere in terms of, like, it's
making smaller file sizes,probably using different bit
rate.
I don't know.
I'm sure somebody could get atech microscope and look that

(49:06):
like, oh, these aren't exactlythe same quality.
But for anybody like, you'reusing decent capture cards,
you're using decent HDMI cables,your settings are right, there
really shouldn't be anydifference.
There are all those variablesright With HDMI outputs and
capture cards and settings andsoftware.
But in this case which I lovethat this is the example like a
Sony mirrorless camera into acam link into the computer, you

(49:29):
should totally be good to go.
So there could be somebody outthere.
I do want to note who knowsmore about this and could say,
like your colors or your bitdepth or something are getting
reduced in quality.
And if you have that kind ofinfo I'd be you know feel free
to share it with us so we canall learn.
But I think for practicalpurposes it's completely fine.
If you look at Heather's videos,you know that she's been doing

(49:49):
in 4k.
They look phenomenal and herlive streams look phenomenal.
I can't tell any difference inquality between those and the
ones that I record internally tothe memory cards.
The reason I do internally tomemory cards?
Because I usually do multiplecameras and multiple 4k
switchers are, as we know, notreally a thing currently, so
it's just easier to just recordinternally.

(50:11):
And then I have been imperfectand made enough mistakes that
having the dual memory cards ofthe cameras is really nice for
backup purposes.
So just for my specific workflow, currently that's what I do,
but this is being recordedthrough the RODECaster video
into Ecamm, so it's definitelyyou know there's what I do, but
there's there's.
This is being recorded directthrough the Rodecaster video
into Ecamm, so it's definitely.
You know there's other ways todo it.
Yeah, so I think that's, Ithink that's the way to do it,

(50:35):
and some not everything needs tobe 4k either.
You know, like this podcastdoes not need to be 4k.
Some videos I make don't needto be 4k.
So in those, especially with,like the RODECaster video being
able to record to an SSD or orsomething like you know, ecamm
being able to record, that'susually like more than fine.
Ecamm does have 4k recordingcapabilities as well.
I should be super clear aboutthat.

(50:56):
So thank you, john, for yourmessage.
Up next we have a voice messageand this is going to be a
message from, from Jack.
This is a very specificquestion that I actually don't
necessarily know jack about.
So, um, jack submitted thisusing speakpipe.
You can go to hi.
My name is tomcom.
There's just a thing rightthere.
It says leave a message for thepodcast.

(51:17):
You can send it in.
So let's hear jack's question.
This is something I mightactually be relying on community
help solve.

Speaker 2 (51:27):
You're the closest I can get to, but you know there
are lots of imperfections here.

Speaker 1 (51:32):
I had this audio clip rolled all the way back to the
beginning and I pressed play andit just jumped to the middle of
the clip, so I jacked it up.
Okay, anyway, here we go.

Speaker 2 (51:43):
Hey, Tom, thanks for listening, listening in advance.
My name is Jack.
I've got a podcast called JustAdd Jack.
You might want to check it out,but that's not what I'm calling
you for, Tom.
I've got a Rodecaster Pro andI've downloaded the ELMC.
We did a video on this aboutthree years ago.
But when I go down to thebottom for the input, the

(52:03):
Rodecaster's not showing up as asource to actually get the MIDI
buttons to listen to.
I've turned the MIDI on andthey were MIDI on the Rodecaster
Pro.
They cannot get any helpanywhere on the internet.
You're the closest I can get to, but it doesn't sync up.
The ELMC is not recognizing theRodecaster Pro.

(52:24):
Any ideas would be reallyhelpful.
Thanks so much.

Speaker 1 (52:29):
Bye-bye.
Thank you, jack, for thatquestion, so I will share
everything I know, whichadmittedly, isn't much when it
comes to MIDI, but maybe there'ssomeone out there listening who
knows a lot.
If there is, feel free to sendin a solution.
This is almost like one ofthose help desk episodes right
when we dive into deeper techsupport issues and things, or

(52:50):
you know if this is like on ifyou're watching the YouTube
version, leave a comment howeveryou want.
If you have the answer, get usthe answer so that we can share
it.
What Jack is talking about, Ihave my original Rodecaster on
the workbench behind me here.
Several years ago, rode came outwith a firmware update that
allowed you to use the soundpads as MIDI triggers, which is
very cool.
So you could do all kinds ofdifferent things with those,
including camera switching.

(53:11):
So that was kind of cool.
I tinkered around with it anddid a video on it that showed
that you could like you coulduse the pads on the Rodecaster
Pro to like switch scenes inEcamm, almost like a stream deck
, which is pretty cool.
Programming it incrediblydifficult and it's something
that like.

(53:31):
It worked and it was a coolproof of concept for me, but it
was such a slog to figure outthat I just never wanted to deal
with it again.
Fortunately, though, rode didreally embrace the fact that
people liked that, and when theRodecaster Pro 2 and the
Rodecaster Duo came out, theyactually incorporated MIDI a
little more natively and alittle more functionally.

(53:53):
So something I will do which youknow, jack, sound like you've
scoured the whole internet, sothis is probably something
you've already seen, but just incase it's not, is in the show
notes for this or thedescription for this, I will put
a link to Rhodes user manual onusing MIDI control.
So this is everything on how touse MIDI control.
They cover using it with DAWs,they cover using it for

(54:14):
switching scenes and cameras andstreaming software.
They kind of cover a little bitof everything, and this is
article that I'm looking at,which is currently on their
website.
Still, that I'm looking at,which is currently on their
website.
Still, a lot of it is geared,still, towards the original
RODECaster Pro, so should coverjust about everything, and every
RODECaster you have should becovered here, but there are a

(54:36):
lot of caveats and compatibility.
It's just like it was one ofthose things where it's a cool
feature, but I don't know thatit really should be even
advertised as a thing, because I, like you, kind of need to be
someone which it sort of soundedlike you were with your
knowledge.
You need to be someone who'sfamiliar with this stuff before
you can to jump into it, becauseit's just too crazy and it's

(54:59):
such not my area of expertiseand I'll just admit it.
Admit it that, yes.
So jumping into email we've gotan email comment here.
This question is from Clark andClark says my question is about
handling.
Actually, I should be clear.
This was a question sent forthe Q&A episode that I received

(55:20):
like an hour after I recordedthe Q&A episode, so I wanted to
make sure to include it here.
Clark said my question is abouthandling noise on the Rode
PodMic and the Rodecaster Pro 2.
I get a lot when we recordusing these mics and I can't
seem to lessen it, no matterwhat settings I use.
I see loads of podcasts thatuse these mics and people are
handling them during therecording and there's no noise
picked up.
I've tried several differentXLR cables but always have

(55:43):
issues, regardless of what pod,mic cable and port I plug into.
Any suggestions what I could bedoing wrong or how I could
eliminate handling noise.
This is a really good questionbecause it can be frustrating.
I'm glad you troubleshootedtroubleshot everything,
including the cables, becausethat's always the first thing
when you're dealing with a micwhere things are sounding weird.
Sometimes it's a cable beingloose or cable being funky can

(56:04):
really be the culprit for that.
So I guess I should be clearwhen talking about the pod mic.
The pod mic is definitely notmeant to be a handheld
microphone.
It can be handheld and I couldreach over and grab a pod mic
real quick.
It has a yoke to it.
So sometimes when you seepeople holding these, if you
hold the pod mic by themicrophone body, it's supposed

(56:26):
to have built-in shock mount,shock rejection.
I found that to be a little bitiffy, you know, and if it's
mounted it's a mic that reallyis meant to be mounted on a boom
arm or a mic stand or whatever.
If you're grabbing the mic bodyitself, it has nowhere near the
shock rejection as somethinglike the Shure SM7B does.
The yoke that is built in andattached to the mic does help
reduce some of that.
So a lot of times you'll seepeople if they're holding a

(56:47):
PodMic by hand, they'll beholding it by the yoke, kind of
as like a makeshift handle, andthat definitely does help a lot,
but it's still going to pick upsome handling noise there.
I'm not sure why in your caseyou're not getting the results
that you're seeing from otherpeople, Because I've held
PodMics myself, your case you'renot getting the results that
you're seeing from other people,because I've held pod mics
myself.

(57:07):
I've seen other people holdthem by hand and have it sound
fine.
A couple things just to keep inmind, which you know maybe would
be helpful If they're nothelpful to you, maybe it'd be
helpful to somebody else is,when you're holding a mic like
this, being very aware of howyou're moving it, every bit of
movement, could you know thecable, sometimes the cable it's

(57:28):
not the cable's bad, but thecable bumping up against
something that can introducenoise.
Sometimes, if you're you knowyou're just sort of grabbing the
microphone, the yoke and themic in one hand, then you have
all kinds of shock transferhappening here.
But if you grab the microphoneand you just hold it like you
basically put Kung Fu grip on itand don't let it go, this is
good mic technique for anyhandheld microphone, even ones
that are like designed to bethat way, the more that if

(57:50):
you're kind of like squeezing inyour hand, sort of moving
around the microphone or you'rekind of rumbling it, all those
little things can get picked up.
But if you just kind of hold itand you're very careful not to
move anything on it, then themicrophone won't pick up as much
handling noise.
And that you know.
I don't know if I don't knowthat this is a mic technique
situation, but those are thefirst things that I look for.
And then you know, additionally, like I said, the PodMic is

(58:13):
designed to be mounted on astand or a boom arm or something
.
It can be handheld because youcan do anything with anything,
but that is not, definitely notits strength.
That's not what it was designedto do specifically.
But that's a good question.
I'm sorry I didn't get toinclude that in the Q&A episode.
Next question this is a veryinteresting one New viewer to

(58:34):
your YouTube channel and podcast.
This was one that I left out ofthe Q&A as well.
I have two questions forconsideration.
No worries if they don't makethe cut.
There we go.
First question how do you feelabout faint background music
with instructional videos onYouTube?
I'm a software engineer withover 20 years experience and
want to make videos talkingabout software and technology.
I'm curious if adding somesubtle background music during
the demo parts would keep helpmaintain the flow during those

(58:56):
parts of the video or ourbackground music typically
better with adventurous or funvideos and too distracting for
instructional learning content.
Curious if this is somethingyou've looked into.
That is such a good question.
If you watch my channel, you'llnotice that I would say going
back 18 plus months ago, prettymuch every video had background
music in it and more recently,very few videos have background

(59:19):
music.
Sometimes that's a reallypractical purpose, like if I'm
doing a mic review or a miccomparison, I don't want
background music because it'sgonna cover up the sound.
So me specifically, a lot oftimes if I'm talking about audio
gear, I want people to hear theaudio gear and if there's music
playing, even at a low level,it could kind of muddy that up a
little bit.
And sometimes on mic reviews Iwill put music at the beginning

(59:42):
and then when we dive into theactual thing, I won't add music
anymore and I always have musicat the end, like the thank you
end screen for the videos.
There's always the same songplaying there but in the videos
sometimes I do, sometimes Idon't.
Sometimes I'll go like I did ahow to start podcasting video
recently which had like or no,no, sorry, I did that video and

(01:00:04):
I did the same thing there.
But I also did a misconceptionsabout podcasting video.
That was like eight podcastingmisconceptions and I decided not
just to have background musicmusic in it but to have a
different background song foreach section of the video, so
all eight sections of theactually it was and then the
intro and the conclusion.
So it was like I had to gosearching for video.
Music is really hard to do and Imade myself have to search for
10 different songs for this onevideo instead of just one

(01:00:27):
background song.
So sometimes I go way in thatdirection or I just say like, no
background music.
I don't really think there's aright or wrong, but there's
definitely things to keep inmind and it depends on your
audience, it depends on yourniche.
The reason I stopped using it alot is sometimes I was just
like having I've used so manysongs over so many years from

(01:00:47):
like both Artlist and Epidemic,which are the services that I
use, and they add new songs allthe time, but it's like the ones
that work really well forbackground stuff, that have the
vibe that I want.
Sometimes I'm just like, oh, Icould spend another 45 minutes
trying to find the right song,or I could just not have music
in this one, and so sometimesthat's what I do, even if I

(01:01:07):
would actually prefer havingmusic in that one.
The other thing, though, isHeather, who's just come up a
lot in this video.
It's almost like I like her orsomething.
She watches a lot of content atlike faster speeds, at 1.5X or
2X, and if you have backgroundmusic and someone's, if you have
background music on when thevideo is being sped up, the

(01:01:28):
background music can then soundreally weird and get distracting
.
That was something that, likemy initial thought of that was
well, if someone wants to like,I'm not making my video to be to
intentionally be enjoyed,enjoyed, to intentionally be
viewed at double speed, like.
If someone wants to do that,that's fine, but, like, I'm

(01:01:52):
making it to be watched andlistened to the way that it is,
and that's what I want to focuson.
So if I want music, then I'mgoing to have music.
If that sounds bad becausesomeone's trying to blast
through the video, well so be it.
But you know it is something,especially when you're doing
educational content, wherepeople might you know they want
all the info, but maybe they areon a time crunch or something.
I try to keep that in mind.
But the thing I noticed so thatwas a big reason why I stopped

(01:02:13):
including music a lot was I wasthinking of people watching at
higher speeds and the musicsounding strange.
But what I noticed with myselfwas I would watch long videos,
like sometimes 45 minute videosor more, that had background
music, and maybe I'd even bewatching them at a slightly
higher speed and it didn'tbother me at all.
And, if anything, I actuallyliked the music because it
created a tone, right.
It creates a vibe, it creates afeel, and so I have been more

(01:02:35):
recently incorporating music alittle bit more back in because
it does that's kind of the pointright, it does help create a
feel, it does help create a toneand a vibe that you know maybe
you want, help create a feel, itdoes help create a tone and a
vibe that you know maybe youwant.
And so I do it on a case bycase basis.
I don't think that just becausesomething is educational means
it shouldn't have music.
I just you know the musicobviously shouldn't be

(01:02:56):
distracting.
If you know for a fact that 90%of the people that watch this,
these videos, are going to bewatching them at higher speeds,
that might be worth consideringnot including music, but
otherwise it's kind of you knowwhat's up to you, the last
question you had.
You had a second question,though, which is what's the
story behind the EnthusiasmProject name, and that's a funny

(01:03:16):
one.
I had to have told this at somepoint, but that used to be the
name of the YouTube channel, andthe original idea of the
YouTube channel was that Iwanted to do almost like short
documentary pieces on people whowere spending their time,
Because I believe time is yourmost valuable resource in life

(01:03:37):
and you don't have infiniteamounts of it.
So it's really cool to me whenpeople spend their time, whether
it's a job or something theyjust do on their own, doing
things they're reallyenthusiastic about, whether it's
a job or something they just doon their own, doing things
they're really enthusiasticabout.
So I wanted to do like theselittle profile pieces on artists
, musicians, business people,like whatever, like someone just
doing something they're reallyenthusiastic about.
I wanted to share that so thatother people would see it and
other people might feelmotivated and going like, hey, I

(01:03:59):
wanna do that too.
And I had everything plannedout Keep in mind, I was a full
time teacher at the time too,and everything planned out.
I even had people like that waslike asking to be parts of it
and trying to figure things out,and very quickly started to
realize, okay, you know, thisisn't just like I'm going to
bring someone in on like aremote, you know podcast

(01:04:21):
interview, but like I want to go.
This is pre having done anyYouTube.
I was not someone who was infront of a camera.
I wanted to go make like littledocumentary kind of profile
things, and the logistics justgot to me of trying to schedule
stuff out.
It was like I could make onevideo every couple of months

(01:04:41):
maybe, and that was just.
And then it's, like you know,in summer breaks.
As a teacher I would have moretime.
During the school year It'd beeven harder.
And it was like do I film?
Do I just film a bunch of stuffduring the summer and just edit
it throughout the school yearso I can make new videos, while
I can't don't have time to gofilm it.
And then I was like you knowwhat, if I'm in, if I'm in
videos and the videos I'm makingaren't big projects that need

(01:05:03):
to take a long time, I can makea video.
I'm the limiting factor.
I can make videos every day ifI want to, which I did at first.
And then I thought like well, Ireally like this name and I can
just sort of share things I'mexcited about and, hopefully, my
enthusiasm for those things.
Me projecting my enthusiasmwill, you know, be a positive

(01:05:24):
thing and help other people beexcited and understand different
stuff too, before I kind oflike decided that I did want to
focus more on audio videoproduction.
I was a little timid to do thatat first because I thought who
am I to be talking about thisstuff?
But that is kind of like one ofthe main things I'm interested
in the world.
So it just naturally took over,but prior to the YouTube
channel, so that's 2017.

(01:05:44):
In 2010 is when I originally hadthe idea, and it's just because
enthusiasm is like one of myfavorite words, one of my
favorite qualities.
It's something that I think ishugely positive.
I think it was Conan O'Briensaid when you're enthusiastic,
you can conquer the world.
I believe that a thousandpercent.

(01:06:04):
And so, way back in, you know,2010 or whenever it was, I
originally was going to start ablog.
It was the same idea, the sameconcept as what the YouTube
channel was supposed to be.
But in 2010, it was going to bea blog, and so I, like I had the
whole WordPress site andeverything, but it, you know,
never really went anywhere.
And so I, just when it cametime to make the YouTube channel

(01:06:26):
that I actually decided I'mgoing to go for this.
I was like I have this, finally, my idea can live.
And then it changed and thennow it's podcast.
So you know, that's, that's howthe world works, right, that's
how that's sort of how it goes.
Anyway, that is actually ourlast question.
So that brings us to the end ofthis episode.
Hope you got something out ofthat.

(01:06:46):
Appreciate you bearing with.
You know, schedule changes asthey happen, like I mentioned
before, doing video versionsdoes take longer in a lot of
ways, and so sometimes, ifschedules aren't working out,
it's a little more difficult tosuddenly decide to like crank
one out.
You know, like I can't justcome in and press record and
talk, talk, talk, like I need toplan things out and there's a

(01:07:09):
little bit more of a workflowand a little bit more of a
process, and sometimes, whenother things in life happen,
that's the thing.
If I can't do it well the way Iwant to do it, I would rather
wait than just force it.
So, um, that's there.
I hope I don't know I think.
I think it brings us to the endTalking about so many different
things I can't even remember.
I need like an outro sheet here, but if you want to, if you
want to do something, feel freeto leave a comment.

(01:07:30):
You can click the fan mail linkIf you're listening in the show
notes right at the top of thedescription, and of course, you
can go to hi.
My name is tomcom, Leave avoice message for the show or
just send.
Really appreciate you listening.
Hope you enjoy this.
Hope you have a safe, happy,healthy, fun rest of your week

(01:08:17):
and I'll see you next time.

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