Staying Authentic in the Age of AI

(This is an AI generated episode description just for fun 😬)
Discover the future of creation at the intersection of artificial intelligence and human ingenuity! Our latest podcast episode delves into the exciting realm of AI-enhanced art, music, and design, showcasing its transformative potential for creators worldwide. I'll also share my hands-on impressions of the Rode NT1 Signature Series microphone, discussing both its sleek design and its performance in my recording setup, offering insights that could shape your next audio investment.

This journey isn't just about the tools, but also the people behind them. We raise a toast to Bailey, our superstar moderator, who recently blew our minds with an AI-generated voice clone in his heartfelt message. As we unravel the authenticity of the AI craze, we also hint at a mysterious new microphone with advanced capabilities that's under wraps. Plus, I recount my own transformative experience with the Quest 3 headset, reinforcing how personal encounters with tech can redefine our daily lives and creative endeavors.

As we wrap up, our conversation turns to the ethics of AI in content creation, especially for YouTube creators. I discuss the limitations of AI-generated scripts, underscoring the irreplaceable value of personal touch and authenticity that resonates with viewers. We also look at how AI can be a partner in the creative process, assisting with content validation and idea generation, rather than a replacement. Join us as we explore these nuances and celebrate AI's supportive role in augmenting our content creation journey, all while maintaining the heartfelt connection that's at the core of every great story.

Anyway...

🎙This week's  mic:
•Rode NT1 Signature Series
https://geni.us/nt1signatureseries (Amazon)

•The NT1SS was running through the Mackie DLZ Creator XS.

•Send a voice, text, or video message to be included in a future episode!
tom@enthusiasmproject.com or use the audio submission button at himynameistom.com!

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📲 Connect!
•All My Podcasts: https://himynameistom.com/podcasts
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S12E3 | Series Episode 167

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Podcast Artwork by Kevin Ramirez
Original theme music written by Patrick Boberg and performed by Mike Alvarez

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:32

Hello and welcome. My name is Tom and this is the Enthusiasm Project, season 12, episode 3, and today we're taking a deep dive into the world of AI-driven creativity. Now, if you're anything like me, you've probably marveled at the incredible capabilities of artificial intelligence, but have you ever stopped to think how AI is revolutionizing the way we create? That's right. We're talking about AI tools that are pushing the boundaries of what's possible in the world of art, design and music. From generating mind-bending visuals to composing symphonies that stir the soul. These creative AI tools are not just changing the game, they're rewriting the rulebook entirely. So buckle up, because in this episode, we're going to explore some of the most cutting-edge AI creations out there, and, who knows, you might just be inspired to unleash your own AI-powered creativity. Stay tuned, because the Enthusiasm Project starts now. Music fades out. If you couldn't tell, I did not write that intro and no human wrote that intro, because that was an AI intro, and AI I'm not kidding when I say that this is what you're listening to now is not an AI intro. So that's what we're going to talk about today is this world of AI tools that exists for creators specifically. Now we're going to look at this through the creator lens. There's a bunch of lenses, you could look through it, but we're going to focus this on as a creator for this video podcast streaming whatever in this world of where AI tools currently are, knowing that they will continue to change and grow at a crazy pace, let's look at them the good, the bad, the ugly and maybe even some positives about them.

Speaker 1: 2:22

That's going to be the meat and potatoes of today's episode, but of course, there's a few things to do before we dive into all that. I've got a couple messages and we've got some gear to talk about, gear I am using. Actually, I'm using a totally new setup right now. I didn't really mean to do that, but that's what's happening, but kind of kind of a new setup. So the microphone I'm talking into is the Rode NT1 Signature Series, which you might be saying. That's not a new microphone. It's been out for like six months and it's a pretty basic modification on a microphone that had already been around for a lot longer before then. Yes, you're correct, but but this one's blue. So, even though this is an audio only version of this podcast, you're listening to a blue microphone, but not a blue branded microphone, just a microphone that is the color blue.

Speaker 1: 3:17

When Rode announced the NT1 Signature Series last year, they teased that they were going to come out in different colors and then it just sort of took a while and I had signed up on their website like notify me when new colors available, and finally I got an email a couple of weeks ago that was like oh, in stock now, and so of course I got the blue one. There's some really really cool colors out there. It's like green, purple I don't know if there's a red, of course there's black, I think, like an orange or something Really cool looking colors for the microphone, and something that was strange about it is that they the colors aren't as saturated as Rode normally goes. When Rode does things in color, they tend to be very, very bright, vivid, saturated. If you look at the Rode cables, the buttons on the Rodecaster Pro, the, the windscreen that I have for my PodMic, that's bright blue that they'll be coming out with for sales soon Everything's really bright. And these are a little more on the pastel side of things, which I was initially kind of bummed out about because I wanted that super bright color, but in person they look fantastic and yeah, I know, I know I'm spending a lot of time talking about how a microphone looks and not how it sounds. But they look fantastic and I realized once I had the blue one here and then someone also sent me a photo of the green one in real life. It's currently kind of hard to find pictures of these in real life. You can only find like the marketing images, which is gives you kind of a skewed thing. So in real life the colors are very pretty and I realized that the blue is very similar to Daphne blue, which is a Fender guitar color, and the green is very similar to surf green, which is also a Fender guitar color, and those just happened to be my two favorite colors. So now I'm very tempted to get the green one as well, just for funsies. But yeah, so that's. That's what you're listening to me on right now.

Speaker 1: 5:03

The cool thing about this microphone the NT1 has always been a great microphone and the I guess it's the fourth gen that had been available up until last year Super solid microphone, one of my all time favorites. And then road came out with the fifth gen, which was also just as good, except it had USB functionality, which was cool because USB, because it had 32 bit float audio when you were doing USB, which is awesome. But it was also kind of a let down because it had nothing else in terms of USB, specifically no headphone monitoring. So it was it's like impossible to monitor your audio with no latency on that microphone because the only way to monitor it is through, you know, your computer or whatever you have it connected to. Anytime you run a USB microphone into a computer and then you try to monitor it through that, you introduce latency which is unpleasant and distracting. So there's no like headphone jack or anything on the microphone, which is unfortunate. So very cool USB features but not super usable. It's pal usable without USB. And somehow they did. And then they came out with the signature series, which was a much more direct update to the NT1. Basically it's the fifth generation without that USB functionality and for almost $100 cheaper. So it's $160 microphone and you know I think it's a great sounding microphone. I've always loved the NT1 family of microphones and that $160 also gets you a really nice super solid shock mount and a pop filter. Oh, and I think it actually comes with a cable too. It comes with like a whole kit for $160, which is awesome.

Speaker 1: 6:39

Jump into the world of condenser microphones. It's great for spoken word, great for music, great for all that kind of stuff, and so that's the microphone I'm using right now. I do have it on the Elgato low profile boom arm the white one that I made a video about recently. So that's why I said it's sort of a new setup, like I've had an NT1. I've even had a signature series, but I haven't had this blue one. I've had an Elgato low profile arm, but I haven't had this white one, which is the.

Speaker 1: 7:05

Has all the updates that they've done over the past few years, basically like better tension knobs, much stronger magnets, few more like holes for routing or cables and stuff. So it's just more enjoyable and better to use boom arm than it used to be previously. And that is all running into the Mackey DLZ Creator XS, which is excessively small. It's. You know I did a whole video on this. It's basically Mackey's version of the Rodecaster Duo, a dual input, much smaller version of their larger DLZ Creator. But, just like the Rodecaster Duo, has all of the processing power and all the internals of the Big Rodecaster Pro in the smaller package. Same here this is all of the processing power and capabilities of the Big DLZ Creator, just in a smaller package, and it happens to be the exact same price $.500 as the Rodecaster Duo.

Speaker 1: 8:00

I really like this. If you watch my video about it, you'll know how much I liked it. I love the size of the form factor. I love the functionality. The Big DLZ Creator is super cool, but it is just like way too big for me and there are things about it that are clunky, like the. I mean, if you watch my review, it's the whole thing that the Rodecaster Pro is so is just much more usable. You know in a lot of ways than the Mackeys are just more user friendly.

Speaker 1: 8:26

But the Mackeys really let you dive under the hood. So right now, for example, let me see if I can dive into the channel. Here I just have the condenser preset turned on, but then you can go into the EQ, and I have. I adjusted my EQ a little bit. Maybe I could turn all that off. So here, if I turn off the EQ on this microphone, now this is what that sounds like Basically, just more out of the box. And now here's my EQ added in. I also have some compression and noise gate and de-sing. If I turn all of that off, this is now just the dry sound of the microphone and I will turn all of that processing back on and I think this sounds really good, at least in my headphones as I'm monitoring this. But and the DLZ both of them will set your gain automatically, which is super nice. So you just push a button, talk in the microphone for a few seconds, it sets your gain perfectly, and then when I go over here, as if you can see, when I go to my home page and turn everything up to the unity level, I'm getting a good signal and I can just monitor that super easily. So that's what I'm using right now.

Speaker 1: 9:29

That's what you're listening to me on and that's what you'll be hearing. You know some of the messages and things running through as well as we go through this episode. So that's the gear segment. Moving on to some listener messages, I have two returning long time listener messages. It wouldn't be a season of this episode without messages from these guys. So we're gonna start off with a message from Gil. This is a super interesting question that I've never been asked before and I don't know if I've ever actually considered before. So take it away, gil.

Speaker 2: 10:03

Hey Tom, this is Gil, I hope all this well. Quick question what rituals do you invoke to have the best podcast or YouTube video For me? I like to clear and clean up my studio space, or any space that I'm in, in order to allow creativity to flow. I learned this from my second grade art teacher, miss Orlando, and that idea has stuck with me ever since and she pretty much was saying you cannot allow creativity to walk freely or come into your space if it's clutter or stuff all over the place Like it's just gonna be bumping and you're just gonna be distracted. And for me it works. So I'm wondering what tactics or summoning rituals do you invoke to summon the best YouTube video or podcast? All right, thank you so much All right.

Speaker 1: 11:03

Thanks, gil. That was an awesome question and I do have to say I know you live in Florida. Now I don't know if you grew up in Florida, but if you did and your teacher's name was Miss Orlando, that's hilarious. So I'm sure if that was the case, she's probably very tired of hearing about that, but it's new to me, so it's funny to me. Still, this is a really cool question what rituals do you have to make the best thing possible?

Speaker 1: 11:27

And, thinking about it, I don't have any conscious ones, which is funny because, as I've talked about many times learning to play hockey over the past year, those kinds of rituals and pregame things and pre-practice things are really important and I've tried to develop a warm-up routine and a thing that gets you into the proper head space so you can perform both physically and mentally at your best. But I don't think I have anything that conscious for my actual job that I've been doing for seven years at this point. But, thinking about it, I think there are sort of unconscious, or you know, things that I do without being aware, and a big one, like you said, keeping things clean and organized, I think is huge Right now. I'll be honest with you. I was working on a thing before recording this and my desk is very cluttered and it's stressing me out. I don't like it. So if this were a nice clean, organized and I could sit down here and just not have to deal with that mess, I would feel significantly better. So I think that is a good one. That's something.

Speaker 1: 12:32

Essentially, the thing that I've realized that I try to do is clear my mind of everything that's not related to what it is that I'm making. And so, for example, on a day that I'm gonna make a video, I usually like to set up everything the day before. So not just you know outlining and scripting and stuff, but setting up cameras, setting up any props or you know things that I might need for the video, testing everything. So that way, the next day when it's time to make the video, all I think about is what I'm doing on camera and not like, well, I need to run this cable over here and connect this. Like I don't wanna deal with any of those kinds of things on the day that I have to like be in front of the camera doing a thing, and that really does help quite a bit. And then also, like I actually just mentioned, like we talked about in the last episode, scripting and outlining, making sure that I know you know what I'm doing, what I'm talking about. Sometimes it's more formalized, sometimes it's less formalized, but not just totally winging it. Actually having a structure and an outline and a purpose is a very important thing, and once I do that, it really puts my mind at ease and then lets me focus on the fun of making whatever it is I'm making. So I guess that's kind of my the biggest ritual that I have. So appreciate the message, gil, as always.

Speaker 1: 13:50

And next message this is a little bit different. This is from Bailey, who is just awesome. So thank you for everything you do, bailey. He's been just such an awesome supporter of my channel and podcasts for many years at this point and is a moderator on my channel who's put together such awesome resources, like he went through and essentially spread sheeted out, spread shot out all of like product links and video links. So when there's a live stream going on and someone's like, hey, what boom arm is that? Or what video did you talk about this thing? It's like so easy to just find it, copy paste, you know, share the links, whatever. It's a very cool thing that I should have probably had the foresight to create myself, but I didn't, and then Bailey did, and he really bailed me out by doing that. So I have a message from Bailey here.

Speaker 1: 14:36

The difference between this one and last one is I have not heard this one yet. I told Bailey that I would react to it live, so I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's just a simple question or what, or something that's gonna be, like you know, demonetized. I don't even know if this podcast is monetized, it'll get it monetized and then demonetized. So I don't know what we're in for here. But let's see, take it away, bailey.

Speaker 3: 14:59

Hey, tom, congratulations on getting to season 12 of the enthusiasm project. I always love tuning in to each episode and hearing your thoughts At the start of episode two, when you were talking about quote unquote kids. These days I realized how often even I say that and I'm only a teenager myself, although I do always get told I've got a 60 year old soul inside. Anyway, just wanted to check in to see how you and Heather are doing. Can't wait to find out what the mystery mic was. Oh, and one last thing this entire submission was recorded using an AI clone of my voice. How did it do, could you tell? Thanks, tom, chat soon.

Speaker 1: 15:40

This is the thing with Bailey Everything lines up perfectly. I had no idea what his message was going to be and it just so happened to get thrown in the AI thing on the voice. That is crazy. What a perfect transition. So, thank you. So to talk about questions yay, thanks, bailey. Appreciate you enjoying everything.

Speaker 1: 16:03

The mystery mic I still can't reveal it, but it is super cool. Obviously not the one I'm using now, the one I used last week. I'm gonna use it some more, definitely have some videos about it. The couple of times I got microphones before they're released, it's usually pretty quick, but this one is. There's a bit of a longer time before the time I got it to the time it's released, which is actually awesome, because that means when it is available, I'll have been able to have used it for a long time, and the one I have is just the production model, and it's a pretty cool mic with all the advanced features that it has that I was talking about last time. But it is just an XLR mic, so it's not like there's gonna be new firmware or anything. It's the one that everyone else is gonna get to. So thank you for that, bailey.

Speaker 1: 16:47

Going to the AI thing, I did not know that it was AI, but it did sound like you were reading a script and I was literally thinking, okay, I guess he wanted to make sure you're an organized person. He wanted to make sure that he shared his thoughts and got out everything that he wanted to get out. So he must have scripted this out and wrote it. And then I was kind of thinking, like I did the AI intro to this episode. I was like I wonder if he did like an AI script. But the things you were saying went have made sense. Like I can't imagine it AI writing things that way. It didn't occur to me that your whole voice was AI. That is crazy. I don't know what to say about that. But it is the perfect tie-in to so many of the things that we'll be talking about in this episode right now. So we can just transition straight over to that, because Bailey always comes in clutch and makes everything easier all the time. So thanks, thanks for that. Now here's the thing with AI. So let's just jump in there Right now.

Speaker 1: 17:53

Ai is definitely a popular buzzword. This is obviously all of my own opinion and things I don't know. I don't have like the computer science background to really know where that line is, when something is or is not actual artificial intelligence. Right now I think there's a lot of things that are called AI, that are just really good programming or just, like you know, an advanced software application, but it's sort of hard to explain that and it's easier to say AI. It kind of reminds me of like from 2004 or five to like I don't know, 2013, 14.

Speaker 1: 18:29

So many things just had a lowercase I in front of them. You know, like if a company was gonna make like a I don't know a clock radio, instead of calling it like clock radio they would call it iHome or iBlank, whatever it is. It's just lowercasei product name, even though nothing else changed. But then it just tied itself in with things like the iPhone, the iPad, the iMac, the iPod, all that stuff that was huge at the time, and then the companies found out they could sell more of them that way. They could probably sell them for a higher price just because of that lowercasei.

Speaker 1: 19:10

I feel like AI right now is sort of similar, where there's a lot of things where it's like product name with AI or product name, ai, ai, product name, and I don't know if those things actually have it. I feel in some cases there's nothing even close to AI, where in other cases it's a pretty advanced thing that's hard to explain. So they just say AI just to make it, you know, just to sort of set expectations for people, and then maybe in other cases it's a genuine. I don't know what makes something officially an artificial intelligence, but it goes in that direction. So keep that in mind. Like I'm not a computer scientist, my knowledge in this area is not my area of expertise. So, you know, feel free to correct me when I'm wrong anywhere. But the things I'm looking at specifically are creator based AI tools. Quote unquote AI tools, especially things obviously chat, gpt, dolly that kind of stuff is huge. Photoshop has a lot of cool stuff. Adobe's been doing a lot of AI things those types of tools that we, as creators, not only can interact with but are also, in a lot of cases, confused and scared of because they are already so powerful that they're scary.

Speaker 1: 20:22

And this is where it's an interesting thing. It's probably different for everybody. You know, like I'd be curious to know what someone 20 years older than me thinks and someone 20 years younger than me thinks, because I'm right here, 38 years old, still youngish, but definitely old enough to be kind of stuck in my ways and have a like this is how things used to be and are supposed to be kind of mentality that creeps in sometimes and I don't want that Like as I get older. I don't want to be the completely stuck in my ways person, because right now, when it comes to AI as for an example, there are a lot of people who feel nervous and apprehensive and unsure about it, and I'm one of those. But as time goes on, I feel like there's gonna be less and less of those people, not just because people will change their opinions, maybe, but because you know time goes on and there will be generations of people eventually that grew up not knowing anything but having these tools and so they're not gonna think it's weird.

Speaker 1: 21:26

So if I'm over here saying it's weird, at a certain point it's like I'm gonna be the weird one thing. It's weird, I guess. So having like a healthy skepticism but realizing this genie is not going back in the bottle unless there's you know, I don't wanna jinx anything knocking on wood here but unless there's like a, the whole grid goes down. We lose the internet entirely, in which case not having access to chat, gpt would be not the biggest problem in the world. But you know, barring something absolutely catastrophic like that, these tools are here and they're just gonna stay and they're going to continue to evolve so you can dig your heels in or put your head in the sand, but I feel like in the long term, that's just gonna put you at a disadvantage, as opposed to learning more about them, seeing how they may or may not work for you, but at least understanding them and then potentially finding ways to use them, learning how to use them responsibly kind of all the stuff I used to talk to my students about with technology in general prior to AI just smartphones and the internet. It's like, yeah, smartphones are the bane of every teacher's existence, but they're not going away. So, rather than just like letting kids be babysat by them or trying to run a dictatorship where we pretend they don't exist, let's teach people how to use them responsibly and effectively.

Speaker 1: 22:46

And I feel like AI tools are very similar to that. Like, anytime there has been a technological advancement, whether it's the wheel or artificial intelligence, if it can be used for bad things, humans will use it for bad things, and I think that's just a given and with something like this, if you're a creator person, it's really scary because it does kind of feel like you have a target on your back more than you did in the past and like these things are potentially more impactful to what you do in a potentially negative way and something that can take away the value of what you do or take away a job, take away an audience, whatever it is. So I fully understand the trepidation and the worry with these tools, but there's also a lot of really cool stuff that they can do as well, and that's what I've been trying to really open up my mind to over the past few months and I feel like I've now got a pretty good handle on how I feel about these current tools and that's really what I wanna share from the creator perspective because, again, they're not going anywhere so you can kick and scream all we want, but maybe exploring them and even if I've explored them a bit and found things I like about them and things I don't like but even if you explore it, you find things you don't like at least you have that kind of perspective. Heather and I were talking on a recent episode of the Couple's Table about virtual reality and like headsets and things, which is something I had absolutely no interest in at all until I started playing hockey, and sometimes you can't go to the rink every day or for whatever reason you can't play. Getting practice is a little difficult.

Speaker 1: 24:33

But there's a virtual reality app called Sense Arena which is like an official NHL training app and you can practice. It's really great for goalies that you can have all kinds of drills, practice things. You can get your skill set diagnosed and then run diagnostics on your specific strengths and weaknesses and have a practice program created specifically for you. You can have someone take the same shot a million times at you and you can practice it. That way you can take shots from like real pro shooters and things. It's pretty cool and I really wanted to try it out.

Speaker 1: 25:08

So I got a Quest 3 headset and a Sense Arena subscription, kind of thinking, okay, vr is something I'm not interested in at all and there's a chance I might just return this because I might not be into it, but if I like it it'll be a cool tool to have for hockey and for practice. And I got it and literally as soon as I turned on the headset, before even installing Sense Arena. Just turning on the headset, it was like mixed reality, like you can see the room that you're in, and then a little screen popped up that was like enter the wifi password. And I was. I was verbally going like wow, this is amazing. And Heather was like what are you doing? It's like I'm entering the wifi password and it was probably the most fun I've ever had entering a password into something. And I didn't expect, when I put the headset on, it turned on for the first time, to have an audible reaction that I couldn't control like a non, it just happened and that was pretty crazy.

Speaker 1: 26:09

And then, obviously, like Sense Arena was super cool, but after a couple days I was like oh, what else does this do? Oh, there's a YouTube app Turns out watching YouTube videos not even VR YouTube videos, but just YouTube videos and this big, what feels like a big theater, is really, really cool. And then there's like Heather and I take body combat classes at the gym, which is sort of like this shadow boxing class I guess you could call it. They have a really cool body combat app where it's like you know, you're punching, you're in this crazy virtual environment, you're punching targets and they explode and there's a leaderboard with other people that you're in the class with at the same time. So there's this competitive part to it. There's all this stuff. That's really fun and I feel like I get it now.

Speaker 1: 26:55

My initial feeling was like I'm gonna try this out and if you had to ask me to bet, I would bet that I wouldn't like it and I would end up returning it. But it turns out I actually liked it. It's almost like way back when I got my first Apple Watch, which was like right after they came out. I had a Fitbit back in the day and I really liked it because I liked tracking my activity and stuff and the Fitbit I had was super, super basic. But if I was getting a phone call, it would tell me a little thing, would pop up on the very basic LED display or LCD display, not the. It wasn't a screen, it was just like an old school alarm clock looking display. It would tell me like who was calling or let me know that I got a text message, but it wouldn't show me the text message and I was surprised at how helpful that was, because there were so many times where I'd be like up on a ladder working on something. I'd hear my phone ringing, I would look at the Fitbit and I could tell that it was like a spam call or something I didn't need to even worry about. It was really, really helpful.

Speaker 1: 27:56

And that's when I thought, like you know, might be worth trying this Apple Watch because it's all of those things done better. And it was sort of the same thing. I bought the Apple Watch expecting to return it, and I did return it to get a more expensive one, because I bought like the cheapest, most basic one, was shocked at how much I liked it and then wanted to upgrade to the stainless steel one because it has the sapphire screen, which is just harder to scratch and mess up and kind of don't have to think about screen protectors. And now that was, I don't know early 2016,. So it's over eight years later got my third Apple Watch here. Basically every day for eight years I've now had it on my wrist because I like it so much, even though I didn't expect to.

Speaker 1: 28:41

Vr is kind of the same thing. Went into it thinking it's not gonna be something that I love or am that interested in. Turns out I really, really like it and I get it. That's kind of the big thing is feeling like I understand the excitement and the hype for it now, where it felt like one of those things like NFTs, crypto, vrs, like it's all the same weird Silicon Valley bro stuff that I'm just not interested in and I was wrong. And VR kicks butt, it's not something I would wanna wear in the real world and it's not something that I want to.

Speaker 1: 29:22

Even hanging out at home with Heather like oh, I'm gonna put on my headset and go into my own reality over here, but at certain times it's one of the coolest things I could be doing and I love it and it's awesome and it's kind of cool to at least expose yourself to those sorts of things, even if you find out that you don't like them. Like if I had tried it and not liked it and returned it, at least I would then have my own opinion about it, rather than like you know well, I saw somebody said in a video this or whatever, I would have my own thoughts based on my own actual experience, and I think that's really important and that's when it comes to all these different AI tools, it's kind of the same thing. I feel like it's important to have your own experience and stuff like that and they can be used for bad. So from the creator perspective not even getting into, like you know, students using them for plagiarism or anything like that but from a creator perspective you could I mean, even with the free option like chat GPT the free version you can do a lot. But if you spend like 20 bucks a month, even just for one month, and you get access to Dolly and stuff which is generative imagery, and then you also get chat GPT for like the most updated version, you could literally say you know, can you create a title, thumbnail and script for an eight to 10 minute YouTube video about the Rode NT1 Signature series? You could even say in the style of, you know, tom Buck, or in the style of Gerald Undone or whatever, and it will do it. I don't know. Actually, I'm gonna try to pause this recording and do that real quick. Alrighty, so that was also my first time using the record pause function on the Creator XS, so hopefully that sounded okay. That took about a minute Is really the only time I took there and okay, okay, this is one of the times I wish I was doing a video podcast, so you can see here I asked Chat to do exactly what I told you and you create a thumbnail, title and script for an 8-10 minute YouTube review of the Rode NT1 microphone.

Speaker 1: 31:28

And it gave me a description for the thumbnail. The thumbnail will feature a close-up of the microphone set against the blurred background of a cozy personal recording studio. The microphone is in sharp focus, showcasing its sleek design and build quality. Subtle lighting will highlight the microphone's texture and curves, making it stand out. A small eye-catching text overlay in the corner will say crystal clear question mark to pique curiosity about the microphone's sound quality. Actually not a terrible thing to do. And then I asked it can you create that image? And it created a thumbnail that looks like that, although it is a microphone.

Speaker 1: 32:01

That says Rode NT1, but it is not a Rode NT1. It's like generic condenser microphone. But it gives me an idea, honestly, of the tone, the vibe. I could take that and try to recreate it myself and I don't hate that idea. Even crystal clear question mark in the thumbnail not terrible. The title it gave me is Rode NT1 Review of the Ultimate Studio Mic question mark. Nothing wrong with that title. And the script is broken down into segments, so it is literally time-stamped. Intro 0 to 30 seconds opening shot fade in from black music starts. Quick montage of the microphone at different settings. Host on camera. Hey everyone, welcome back to the channel.

Speaker 1: 32:41

Today we're diving into the world of studio sound with an in-depth look at the Rode NT1. Is it really the Ultimate Studio Mic? Let's find out. Then there's a couple minutes on design and build quality, where it specifically says cut to close ups. Here's a voiceover script when the host is on camera. Off camera. There's a one minute section, or minute 30, second section, of features and specifications. There's a sound quality section pros and cons. What does it say? Down to the pros and cons, peace and lack of versatility for non-studio use as cons. Price is not really a con, though. Conclusion and final thoughts. So is the Rode NT1 the Ultimate Studio Mic? For those looking for exceptional sound quality and build in a studio setting, it's definitely a top contender. Encourage viewers to share their thoughts in the comments, like subscribe for more reviews. So that's not even a script, that's a note to me. And then there we go and chat says this script offers a comprehensive review with the microphone, highlighting its strengths and potential drawbacks, to give viewers a well rounded understanding.

Speaker 1: 33:49

Now let's create the thumbnail to match the concept. Oh, I interrupted it while I was creating the thumbnail by asking it to create a thumbnail, so that took me a minute right to create that. Well, not to create it, but to have something else create it. That's not a video I would make. I've done NT1 reviews. There's elements of that I like. I don't hate the title. I don't even hate the concept for the thumbnail. I don't even hate the structure. Actually, I think the structure makes sense. I mean, this is how I usually structure my videos.

Speaker 1: 34:20

Like design and build quality, sound quality, pros and cons, conclusions, features and specs. Like those segments and the amount of time we spend on each one of them actually make sense. The content of those is pretty thin. I feel like if I made this video just using this script, it would definitely come across as like do you really know anything about this microphone? Are you just saying general things that could apply to almost any microphone? And there's some stuff that is I would call it wrong, like where price being a drawback of the NT1. Absolutely not In the world of microphone. Like, objectively, it is a great priced microphone. So there's those kinds of things. And then it's a little thin on things like oh, it's not great in a non-studio setting. What does that mean? Like? Are we going outside? Why is it not great? Like, because it's a condenser versus a dynamic. Should we talk about condenser versus dynamic? And obviously there's no personality in this Like? There's no. There's no jokes, there's no word play. There's no you know, anecdotes about personal experience or anything, but it's an outline.

Speaker 1: 35:24

Now I have seen people do this and then just make this video. Just okay, cool, I'm going to load that into the prompter, make it. You could. You essentially have a shot list here, but I'm guessing I could also have chat. Just generate a shot list for this script. And then I know, okay, you know, get these handful of shots that show, you know, the microphones connector, show this, that, the other thing, and edit it together and I'm done and there's a video. You know how easy that would be compared to my current video or micro view process. It'd be so much easier. But the video, I mean I would. I would be embarrassed to publish a video like that, but some people aren't and some people will. Just okay, cool, I can crank out four of these a day. You know every. I'm going to upload constantly and grow my channel, even though I sort of feel like whether or not people recognize that it's AI generated.

Speaker 1: 36:18

I feel like there's something there that would stop people from connecting it because it does not have that personal touch.

Speaker 1: 36:24

It does not. It does not sound like something that's coming from somebody who has real life experience, you know, at whatever age, but just experience of living in the world. I don't know if this will get better in a year or whatever, but that is a thing that makes me sad is when I've seen people just copy and paste chat scripts into videos and think that it's almost like this easy button cheat mode that they've uncovered to like unlock YouTube potential. Now they can just keep making everything. And then it's like I don't know that it freaks me out because it's like who are you even making this for? Because I can't imagine human beings wanting to listen to that. And just last week I logged into LinkedIn for the first time in a long time, like a couple of years and they've added a few things, one of them being AI generated like quick replies to things, which is not new, like lots of platforms have that. Even YouTube has it. You know Gmail's had things like that for at least auto generated replies for years.

Speaker 1: 37:29

But LinkedIn kind of went a step further and totally closed the loop in a way, because, like, if somebody posts something, you can do a like generated AI quote, unquote quick reply to it. But then the person who posted it, if they see that they can do an AI generated quick reply to yours, and what are we doing? Like, what are we doing at that point? And that's that's the thing that almost freaks me out when I think of people just sort of like copying this AI script, making that video, posting it, and then it's. It's almost like okay, I don't know, some view bot is just going to watch it and like leave a fake spam comment and like Then then it's just that dead internet thing. I don't know if you've heard about the dead internet theory. I forget the exact percentage, but it's something. It's at least 50, but it might be as high as like there's an estimate that like 80% or something along those lines of all activity on the internet is nonhuman spots and AI and scripts and whatever it might be, and so most of the internet is Dead is the term, because it's just these artificial things like interacting with each other and there's nothing actually going on there. That is scary. I don't want to live in that world. I don't want to create things that encourage that, but that would be. I think that would be an irresponsible use of this. And so Is there a good use of this? Absolutely, I think there is, and I've tried to find ways to incorporate stuff like this into Into my own workflow.

Speaker 1: 38:59

And when it comes to scripting and outlining, I do not use chat to script and outline I you could probably tell my videos, but one thing I have done in the past is I've almost used it as a check in a weird way. Especially, there are a couple videos I made for clients over the past year when they want something like. One video I did for a client was how to get started with podcasting on my channel. I would make that video for my audience, which I kind of know who they are, and most of them have some level of experience with audio video production or even if they don't, they're totally willing to put in the work to learn more about it. This clients audience with like it's almost like people who need to make a podcast but are not audio video production people, which is a thing that happens in the world. Now you could find yourself like working at a company and suddenly it's like, oh, we got to do a podcast. I have to produce a podcast. I don't know how to do any of this stuff. It is like a video for that kind of person getting started and so I Wrote it.

Speaker 1: 40:01

So basically it needed to be a very broad general outline of the process of starting and producing a podcast, and I put together my outline and my script for that, which I liked and I was happy with. But then I went over to chat and asked it like you know, can you generate a script for a video? For that? That video I didn't use any of chat, but I wanted to see how it would structure it because I did kind of think that, based on the info it had access to, it would create something that was Appealing to like the broadest audience possible. And it turned out that my outline this Does structure of my outline matched what chat did for the most part In terms of just the order that I went through everything, which was kind of cool, because to me it was like, okay, I feel a little more certain that the way I put this together is the best way to do it for this audience. And Then you know, and then I made the video and it turned out to be one of the. It turned out to be a very successful video for that client, which is cool. So I didn't use AI to create the video, but I used it to sort of Like double-check that I was on the right path, doing something that I was a little bit unsure of and and that I think is really helpful. A way that I've used it also for my channel Does have to do with titles.

Speaker 1: 41:19

I kind of like this title wrote NT won the ultimate studio mic. I Wouldn't want to generate a title. I wouldn't want to copy and paste an AI title, even if it's a good one, because I would worry that it just it. It would lose my voice in some way. It's not me thinking of the idea, but when you're trying to distill a complex concept Into a title, you know like you make a video, you really like the video, but it's not something simple, like I shouldn't say simple. But you know you can do those like mr B style videos where it's like I ate the same meal for a hundred days straight. Okay, that's a pretty easy title because it's like the concept is so clear, the title is so clear.

Speaker 1: 42:02

But when you're doing something like you know, a Firewire video transfer versus Analog video transfer like what's the difference and how do you do it, and all that kind of stuff like how do you distill that into something simple and interesting, that's where you can potentially go into, you know, one of these AI tools, ask it those questions and Get some ideas. Not necessarily that you'll use any of those ideas, but you might. It might spark something in your brain like, oh, that's a cool approach. I'm gonna change it and, you know, I'm gonna revise my idea with that, like I that structure in mind or whatever. That's been helpful for me to kind of get the gears turning a little bit and things like that. So it's like I wouldn't use it To generate content I actually use and create, but to get the ball rolling, to kind of get the hamster running on the wheel a little bit. It is a really, really valuable tool and something I did recently. Heather and I talked all about this on a recent episode of the couples table as well, if you want to actually see the examples.

Speaker 1: 43:07

But I was working on a video about firewire image transfer because I did a video about the Canon XL one a number of years or not a number of years ago last year and that video. I loved that video and I wanted to do. A bunch of people in that video in the comments said that they were like Disappointed that I didn't use firewire to import the footage because it would have looked so much better and they remembered the XL one being such a higher quality camera than what they were seeing in my video. I Was a little dubious on this, but I didn't know how to import firewire at the time and fortunately I had some people like reach out and tell me exactly what I needed to do and what different adapters I needed. Again, it's a little bit complicated. So I wanted to make a follow-up video that not only did show those firewire examples which is the highest quality you can import the footage but also then Explained exactly how to do it and what you need. So that way somebody's not stuck in my shoes. We're like I kind of want to do this but I don't know where to begin. So I'm just gonna put it off for three years and I think it's a cool, helpful video, but it's not the most exciting topic on the surface, so Figuring out like the thumbnail, for that was a little bit tricky, because it's one of those things where it's like I, if it's a thumbnail for the road NT1.

Speaker 1: 44:23

Yeah, you take a cool picture of the microphone awesome. In this case it's like data transfer. So I was like, okay, there's a camera to compute. I don't know what do I do, what I do. So I asked chat like hey, what are some thumbnail ideas for importing footage of your firewire? And it gave me a couple things that and like these really weird-looking AI cameras that like they were like digital cameras with Half a film reel on top. They're really weird, looking kind of cool, really weird-looking, you know, and have that AI art look to it. So I would never just take one of those thumbnails and upload it. No, but what it did was it kind of gave me like one of them had a layout.

Speaker 1: 44:59

It was like the camera and a cable and the computer and it was really simple and I liked. I liked just the framing of it. I was like, okay, I could set up my camera and my computer in this way to sort of like Create a frame like this and then take a photo and work with it that way. And then the other example, I didn't like as much but the, I guess, because I said firewire, the cable in the example was like bright orange, like neon glowing, lava orange. I was like, oh, I guess it literally thought like a wire of fire or something. But I was like, oh, that's a cool idea actually, because the cable is kind of the most important part here. So you know, if I I went into procreate and then did like the you know the light pen and the light brush to kind of like add a neon glow, and then I went in Photoshop and added in some flames to it, so it's like a fire wire and it's like, you know, it's probably the most fun slash, clear way I could communicate that concept and it was. You know, if you look side by side my actual thumbnail Doesn't? It does not look like a copy paste of the AI generated thumbnail, but it you could see. Oh, like you could see that it was inspired by that, you know, and that's that's a cool thing.

Speaker 1: 46:14

And then a thing that I've been using to another tool oh, my gosh, adobe. As much as I hate your licensing and subscription services, adobe has some amazing AI tools. Not last season, but the one before on the help desk episode. Gil had sent in a thing that a podcast he was recording had some messed up audio and I ran it through Adobe's enhanced speech AI podcast thing, which is still. It's included if you have an Adobe account, but I think you get a couple hours for free.

Speaker 1: 46:42

It's pretty phenomenal when it comes to like audio repair and voice repair. It's not. You know, it can't take the worst audio in the world and make it something someone would want to listen to for an hour, but it can definitely save your butt in a few cases and it saved mine. It took, it saved mine a few times, not just improving audio, but there was one time I did a video last year it was. I think it was a studio tour video or something like that. It was a video where I was essentially walking around with With my camera and had the road mic on it. The road mic was facing backwards towards me so that way I could just you know my voice over was recording, and I've done that many times. It sounds great, it works great, except when you don't plug the microphone into the camera, then it doesn't sound so good, and that's kind of what happened. So I ended up Unknowingly recording audio with just the microphones built or the cameras built-in microphone. And not only that, but the cameras mic is pointed towards the front and I was behind the camera and I spent so much time recording. That was like. And there were things that happened that like.

Speaker 1: 47:48

It's not that I couldn't re-record them like. I couldn't recreate it would feel forced and fake. And so I ran it through Adobe's enhanced thing and the audio sounded awesome like it almost sounded too good. I actually had to mix in some of the bad audio with it to sort of let it like Breathe a little bit or feel like it had room space, but it completely saved the day. That video was totally usable. The audio was a non-issue like it. It got. The audio sounded great. Nobody talked about the audio, the video just went out. We talked about the subject, that what the video was of, and not a production issue with the video. So things like that. It's an absolute lifesaver.

Speaker 1: 48:25

And then a photoshop has generative fill, which, if you use photoshop, it's just so awesome. It's something that Initially I looked at it as like this is a way to do things in photoshop that I could do myself, but instead of spending 30 or 45 minutes doing it I can spend 20 seconds and Photoshop will do it for me. Specifically, what I use it a lot for is in thumbnail images, just sort of like extending backgrounds and foregrounds. So I have a little like Like backdrop shooting space for products and things in my studio, but it's pretty small and so, depending on what I'm doing like when I did this thumbnail right here for the the XL one and the firewire transfer, the camera and the computer, those were kind of big and so to fit them all in the frame when I could get the blue background entirely behind them, you were seeing the edges of the background, kind of the edge of like the table that they were on, and it it looked a little janky. So then I can go into photoshop, sort of select these edges in these areas and it would just it would not only extend like I had the cameras on a black reflective surface and not only like extended that out and covered up the just the under the open production thing that you could kind of see under it that I didn't want to show. It extended that black reflective surface out and Generated reflections that look really good.

Speaker 1: 49:55

I was like, wow, okay, that's not something I even know that I could actually do in Photoshop, or if I did, it would take me a really long time, probably wouldn't look as good, and I don't know that it would actually be worth it. But I could do it here in 30 seconds. And you know, and that kind of thing is hugely helpful and it makes my life and my workflow so much easier and so that I mean that's a good example of a video has a lot of AI tools in it. Like I'm using AI tools on the thumbnail, not to just not to actually make the thumbnail, but to even come up with the idea. I did the title thing of like Trying to figure out how to approach the title. So even though the title is my title, that I came up with it, you know, I used AI examples to get my brain going to come up with my own Title for that the content of the video. I think it would have been way too confusing to even ask AI, so I didn't do that.

Speaker 1: 50:52

But that's that kind of thing, like that sort of workflow. It's. It's a hugely helpful tool that I wouldn't want to To not have access to and that's. You know, that's pretty simple just for me as a creator, and obviously there's more advanced tools and other things you could do, but I love that and I think you know Even the example I gave of like you could just take the script, use that script and make that video. Even in that Example you would still need to film and edit things. So there's like a there's some calories that need to be burned and a skill set that needs to exist.

Speaker 1: 51:23

But, as we heard with Bailey's message, ai voice is getting more convincing. It's not perfect, but it's getting there imagery. At one point in the not too distant future, it wouldn't surprise me if I could say like hey, can you make a YouTube review? Can you create a YouTube review of me, for me, for the you know, the road NT1 signature series, eight to ten minutes long, whatever other parameters, and it will just take my voice and my likeness and create the video and probably Be somewhat convincing, especially if you, you know like, if you're not expecting it to be AI, you, it'd probably be pretty easy to sort of like Pass off as a thing.

Speaker 1: 52:10

That would be scary because I wouldn't, because I wouldn't want to, I that would be scary for a lot of reasons and that also brings me I Don't know hesitation when I think of the people, the same people who would use their audio video production skill sets so, you know, produce an AI generated script fully, if they don't even have to have the skill set of filming and editing now. They just essentially type in a few sentences, they get a video done. At that point they're probably not proofing anything, not checking anything, they're just cool. Take this video, upload it. Take this title title, upload it, thumbnail done, you could. That's where you get those content farms that could just create, you know, many, many videos every day, and it's gonna be harder and harder to distinguish real videos from fake videos.

Speaker 1: 52:57

But I feel like that is an advantage for the Hands-on, handmade, old-school creator who does want to make their own thing. Even with imperfections, even with all of those things that AI would smooth over and polish out, I feel like those things are going to stand out so much more. Even if you can't make as many videos because you're not an AI, even if you know the ideas aren't as simple and clear, I really feel like people are able to Sniff that out and, even if it's a subconscious thing, I feel like people will, even more than they already do, connect with that kind of authenticity, because it will become much more of a rare commodity than it is even now. Because now, when we talk about Artificiality and fakeness, we're almost talking about, like influencers who are putting on a show or persona or facade a facade or whatever but in this case we're talking about, like, something that was created by a human versus something that was not.

Speaker 1: 54:02

And when you get into these finer points, you know even something that's like the experience with a microphone in a real-world setting. It's just something that you need a person who has been in these experiences to share their experience with you, and that's something that can't be done without a living, breathing, flesh bag human doing that for you. And and that's something I think to keep in mind like your, your creativity, your authenticity, your genuine humaneness is an asset and Is something that is going to become very special and very Rare and appreciated as time goes on, because these tools are going to just the amount of artificiality and Junk that gets created with them is going to be massive. But that is not the tools fault. You know, a hammer can build, a hammer can destroy. That's the user's fault.

Speaker 1: 55:06

As a creator, you also have the power to use these to help you to to do better, to To make your life easier, to make your workflow easier, so you can focus on the parts of what you appreciate, of what you like to do, more than the parts you don't like to do, and I think that's just important to talk about. Who knows where things go from here. But essentially, I would like to encourage you in the end, if nothing else, especially if you're hesitant about any kind of AI tools, I would encourage you not to dig your heels in the ground or stick your head in the sand, but to try them out yourself, form your own experience and your own thoughts and opinions about them, and then go from there, even if you decide that you hate them and you want nothing to do with them. I think having your own experience Generate that opinion is incredibly valuable, and you never know, you could find something that's absolutely awesome, that you really, really want to keep using and actually makes your life a little bit better. So that is all I got to say about AI today, so thank you for listening to that.

Speaker 1: 56:13

If you have any thoughts, because this is a topic, feel free, tom, at enthusiasm projectcom, or you can go to hi, my name is Tom calm and leave a voice message, just like Gil and Bailey do. And thank you, gil and Bailey, for your messages. I appreciate it. Two episodes from now will be a Q&A episode, but, like I always say, you don't have to wait until then to submit questions or thoughts or things. It can be a dialogue all season long, even if it's not a dedicated Q&A episode. So thank you so much for listening. I appreciate it. I hope you have a safe, happy, healthy rest of your week and I will see if I can push the right button on this new mixer and I'll see you next time you.