The Enthusiasm Project
The Enthusiasm Project
Let's A Some Q's!
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It's time for the Season 13 Q&A Episode! This covers everything from tech and career advice to whether or not podcasting is too saturated and my biggest gear regret.
🎙This week's mic:
•Rode NT1 Signature Series
https://geni.us/rgjRyH (Amazon)
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——————————— CONNECT ———————————
Electronic Mail: tom@enthusiasmproject.com
Main Site: https://himynameistom.com
Social Medias: @sodarntom
——————————— PODCAST GEAR ———————————
•Rodecaster Video: https://bhpho.to/3Ub88j2 (B&H)
•Rodecaster Duo: https://geni.us/ULKDFkp (Amazon)
•Elgato Prompter: https://geni.us/elgatoprompter (Amazon)
•Mic Arm: https://geni.us/zc7hAbW (Amazon)
•Elgato Stream Deck Plus: https://geni.us/EzyY6o5 (Amazon)
•Headphones: https://bhpho.to/3JNacqg (B&H)
•XLR Cables: https://geni.us/bluexlr (Amazon)
S13E05 | Series Episode 179
Podcast Artwork by Kevin Ramirez
Original theme music written by Patrick Boberg and performed by Mike Alvarez
Thank you, hello and welcome. My name is Tom. This is the Enthusiasm Project, season 13, episode 5. And you're going to feel real alive today, because we are halfway through the season my 10 episode batches, and what that means is this is a Q&A episode, so that's something I've been doing for a very long time. It's sort of in the middle of the season to a dedicated Q&A episode, which is super fun because I haven't done one yet in the video format, which actually made this so much easier, because I can stay on track like way easier than I could before, because everything's just organized visually, which will be very, very cool. And if you're just listening to the audio version, that means you just hear something that's a little more organized instead of disorganized, which is also great. So that's what we're going to do today. Thank you to everyone who sent in questions. I asked for questions on Instagram, I asked for questions on YouTube, and yeah, well, yeah, and on those I told people they could email and stuff. So we got a mix of everything. We got some written things, we've got a video, we've got a couple voice messages, a little bit of everything, which is cool. I do want to remind you, though, that you do not have to wait for a dedicated Q&A episode to submit a cue to be aid. You can do that anytime, or comment or response, or whatever, anytime you want. It's just kind of fun to have. Like, here's just, this whole episode is just a Q&A episode. So that is what's happening today. That's what we are doing today.
Speaker 1:And before we get into that, though, I do want to make sure that we talk about the mic of the week, which is what you're listening to me on right now. Of course I don't. Yes, that is how that works. It is the Rode NT1 Signature Series. We talked about this last week and I figured, you know what this would be a good time to use this one. I haven't used it yet this season, so I need to incorporate it. You know I'm not really being super scientific. I had mentioned a while back that I was going to use a different mic on every episode and then at the end we can vote on, or you can vote on, which one you think sounds the best, and then that'll, I don't know, be interesting for me to know, maybe interesting for all of us to know, and so this is the NT1 Signature Series, which I really love. But we talked about this last week Can you use this on video without it totally blocking your face Because it is prone to plosives?
Speaker 1:And it also comes with a giant pop filter to prevent those plosives. That goes right in the right in your way. So if you are kind of on camera with this it blocks you pretty easily. But I've got mine in the shock mount that it comes with. I don't have that pop filter on and I just have it positioned a little bit lower and a bit of an angle. So I'm still speaking directly into, like, the correct pickup pattern of the microphone, but I don't have to worry as much about plosives. I do have my headphones on so I can monitor and just make sure I'm not like drifting. If I get too far off to the side it would start to sound weird. So I'm trying to stay right in that sweet spot. I got to be a little more conscious of that, but otherwise, you know it sounds great. I love this microphone.
Speaker 1:I have the blue one when Rode sent out, when Rode released the Signature Series, which is, you know, just sort of like an updated basic XLR NT1, which has a retail price of 160 bucks, and it comes with the shock mount and the microphone, and I can't remember if it comes with an XLR cable or not. It's a very decent deal for the price, for sure, super nice condenser microphone. But when they released this version, or when they released it originally, they sent over the black one and they announced like, oh, these colors are coming later, but they weren't available at the time and so, like I tested out the black one, I did a review on it. Compared to some other ones, it's great, I liked it. And then, as soon as the color ones were available, I immediately ordered the blue one and then gave away the black one that they sent. So because it was great, but you know, the blue is it's blue.
Speaker 1:There's also there's a lot of they're like green one, purple one, I think it's a red one, all of the kind of cool colors. They are a little more pastel than like super vibrant, which is sort of interesting because Rode, like through watching this, the cable I'm using is Rode, the mic is Rode, and they are two different shades of blue, and so originally I was like, oh man, I kind of wish the mic was a little more vibrant, but I realized the blue is very similar. I'm looking over at one of my guitars over here. It's very similar to Fender's Daphne Blue, which I really love, and the green is very similar to Fender's surf green, so kind of these more retro style colors and those are two of my favorite colors.
Speaker 1:So I'm like okay maybe I, you know, maybe I judged those colors too early or jumped to conclusions there a little too much. So that's the mic you're listening to me on all day today is the Rode NT1 Signature Series. And yeah, it's a great, it's one of my all-time favorite microphones. I absolutely, I love all of the NT1s. I had the original. I guess it was the fourth generation NT1. Then they had the fifth gen which included XLR sorry, included USB functionality, although it's, it works great as a USB mic. But the mic itself is pretty limited because they didn't add anything else like a headphone jack or indicator lights or anything. But it does do 32 bit float. And then they have the fifth gen, which are, sorry, the signature series, which is just the fifth gen with no USB. If you look in the XLR plug on this you can see the part that would be stamped out to put a USB port, but it's just not there. It's like if you ever bought a car that has those like blank spots on the dash. We're like there would be a button if you bought the higher end model. It's kind of like that, except, well, these come in cool colors, so I like it more.
Speaker 1:All right, that brings us to the meat of the episode. Let's A some Qs. We're going to start with video, then we're going to go to audio and then we're going to go to all kinds of text and hopefully we're not going to have too many technical difficulties. So our first Q to be aid comes from Gil, who sent in a video. This is a kind of a two part question, but it's a good question. I've had to think about this one. I had to think about this one a lot before I can answer it, and I hope I can. Still, I don't know. I hope I have a coherent answer for it. So let's hear from Gil.
Speaker 3:Hey Tom, this is Gil. I hope all is well. I have two questions and the first one is and the first one is simple, super simple. I know you have ample amount of gear, so do I. I have drawers, closets, storage containers filled with cameras, mics and whatever the case is, and a lot of them. I regret a lot of them are in the landfill, you know. A lot of them are donated to friends and family members because, you know, I thought this one particular thing would be the thing that will replace all the things and it didn't do a freaking thing. You know, it didn't push the needle forward for me, but what is one piece of gear, software, whatever the case is that you got and it didn't do anything for you, you regret buying it. So I guess I should say what is one gear that you regret buying? My second question is a little less gear focused.
Speaker 3:My second question is why doesn't YouTube allow video like channel membership videos? They don't allow you to have the ability to shut your phone off or close the screen and watch or listen to the video. So, like you just dropped a membership video, like you always do, and they're phenomenal, they're really cool, you know, they're like early access. I love that, and when I'm watching the video I shut. I'm like this morning I shut my phone, put in my pocket and video stop and I'm like, oh, I keep forgetting that members only videos, you can't enjoy the YouTube premium feature of. You know, playing the video, I think they call like background play. You can't do that on members only videos. Why is that? Is that? It's just so silly. All right, um, but all in all, great season. So far I have been enjoying it. It's been great. But all in all, great season. So far I have been enjoying it, it's been great. Can't wait for more episodes. Have a nice one.
Speaker 1:Peace. So let's start with the second part to that question, because I didn't know that that was even a thing. I had no idea that background play or whatever didn't work with members only videos. And then I tested it. I went to a channel that I'm a member of, clicked on a video, turned off my phone and the video stopped, even though I have YouTube Premium and I can do that with every other video. I had no idea. I don't. I'm torn between thinking it's either a like a bug, that just sort of like an oversight that no one realized, or the sad, maybe more accurate answer is it has probably something to do with ad revenue and since YouTube Premium subsidizes ad revenues, they added another feature and even though memberships but I was gonna say even though memberships go more directly to the creator, but that's not true, because YouTube takes a huge chunk of memberships, but memberships aren't necessarily directly. I guess maybe this is it If you have a YouTube membership, you don't necessarily have YouTube Premium. Background Play is a YouTube Premium feature and for some reason they just haven't made it a members-only feature, although it really should be Next time YouTube sends out one of those surveys. That's what I'm going to put on as recommendation.
Speaker 1:The first question, though, about gear. I had to make some notes on this because I was trying to think of, like what is one piece of gear and it's like I don't really have. Like I mean, there's definitely stuff where I'm like what is one piece of gear and it's like I don't really have. Like I mean there's, there's definitely stuff from like I shouldn't have bought this, should have bought another version of that. When it comes to like regrets, like straight up regrets, like I wish I hadn't bought this, it's usually, in my case, like when I buy really cheap junk. You know, sometimes you need something and you you could spend one or $200 on like the real version, or you could spend $28, $15 on like a no name Amazon brand version. And then you get that one and it just doesn't work. Or, more often than not, it seems like oh yeah, this is gonna work, to be okay, and then it just breaks. You know, like I've had so many things like that, like boom arms, adapters, cables, like all that kind of stuff that just breaks, you know, and then you end up replacing it, replacing it. By the time you replace it a couple times. You could have just bought the higher quality one that would have worked better from the beginning. So when it comes to regret, like I've kind of learned, there are some times when just getting the like lowest version of something totally works and is fine, but there are a lot of times when, like, looking at the dollar price of something is not always the best way to assess its value. So that's kind of when it comes to regrets. But speaking to your point, gil, of like I bought this, I should have had it, don't have it anymore.
Speaker 1:Something I've definitely learned is there is no like one piece of magic gear. Sometimes there can be stuff that feels like that Like. For me, the one that always pops into my mind is the Rodecaster, because it solves so many problems. I'm trying to piece together podcasts and multiple mics and recorders and multiple sets of headphones and suddenly there's this thing that just does it easily. Like that was a magic piece of gear, even like the original ATEM Mini, you know, at the time. Now there's so many switchers I've been doing all kinds of videos on switchers lately but the original ATEM Mini like it's not that it was the first multi-input video switcher, but it was the first like affordable, super simple one, I think at the time the next least expensive switcher. Well, black magic made a couple that were in the like two to three thousand dollar price range and then roland had some in like the five to six thousand dollar price range. And then black magic came out the ATEM mini. For three hundred dollars you could plug in four hdmi inputs, switch between them, like that. That was a magic piece of gear you, you know like. So sometimes there are those things that solve problems, but it's pretty rare and it's really hard to decipher now because you know, as every new product, as products are updated probably more often than they needed to be.
Speaker 1:I was just thinking about this this morning as I was fighting with Mac OS. Wish I hadn't updated to Sequoia because it is just bug city and it sucks Like. I do not like Sequoia, it doesn't work, it doesn't work reliably, it gives me all kinds of issues, not a fan of it. And I was thinking, like you know, if Apple didn't force themselves to release a brand new version of their main operating system every year, probably wouldn't have these problems. And I remember back like man, I sound like I sound like old man yelling at clouds, but 20 years ago, when you know new software updates would come out. It was more like when they were ready and when they needed to be, versus like we have to release a new thing every year, so it's probably gonna have some bugs, it's gonna. It has to look visually different, so that means all your workflow is gonna get, you know, completely messed up. And I don't know, usually I don't upgrade right away, but for some of the Final Cut Pro new features you had to upgrade and yeah anyway.
Speaker 1:So why did I go on that weird tangent? I don't remember why I went on that with that weird tangent. That's funny. There's no piece of magic gear, I know is the thing. I went on that weird tangent. That's funny. There's no piece of magic gear, I know is the thing I was talking about, or it's pretty rare.
Speaker 1:But like I guess it was feeling the need to upgrade or as things need to be updated constantly, and then there's new hype about it. You know, not just with technology like phones and stuff, but you know how many new 2.4 gigahertz wireless systems which are super cool, but it's like you know what's really the difference? The differences get pretty minute at this point when you're on the second, third, fourth generations of these systems from different companies, it's like you know, but every time a new one comes out it has to be hyped up as the next best thing and then as the consumer, you're sometimes just looking at all this stuff like I don't know, it's that, is that good Like? Why should I have that? Why should I not have that? So the thing I do say a lot, even as someone who really likes gear and I guess that's one of it too like if you're a gearhead which I am, gil, I think you are too. I'm sure lots of other people listening and watching are as well If that's just something you like, then, like you do sometimes just get the bug to try new things, to check new things out.
Speaker 1:Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, and that's okay and that's just kind of par for the course. It's like I'm not a phone guy. I get a new phone, you know, three to four years, usually Because it seems fine to me. But I know there are people who want to get that new phone every single year and that's because they actually like, have fun with that and they enjoy it and they're into it. So there's nothing wrong with that, even though I could look at it and say, oh, you don't need to do that. So if you're just someone who's just into gear, you want to try all the new stuff, see how it works. You know part of the maybe part of the price you have to pay for that is that a lot of times it doesn't end up working out. But you know that's just sort of the obsession.
Speaker 1:The real practical piece of advice that I tend to say there is always start with what you have and then upgrade as your needs become apparent. Because you can look at my setup, you can look at Gil's setup, anybody's setup, and think, oh, I need to just go to B&H or whatever and just throw all of their gear into my shopping cart and then I'll be happy. And it's like that you could copy and paste all everything I'm using into your setup right now. And it might not work out for you because you know I have spent time dialing it in for me and there's still pain points, there's still stuff that I need to figure out for me, so it might not necessarily work for you as well. So really figuring out what your needs are instead of going like everybody has this piece of gear, everybody uses this setup, everybody does this. That's what I should do figure out what you need to do and then look at you know what, what works best, uh, to solve that problem. You know, like you don't need a Rodecaster Pro if you only ever have one microphone only. Like there are so many other options, uh, that you that would maybe even be better. Or maybe you know a Rodecaster Duo instead of a Rodecaster Pro or something like that. You know, there's all that kind of stuff You'd maybe you don't need, like a Rodecaster video If you only ever have one camera input and you use Ecam or OBS to do all your graphics, you could just probably use a cam link for $100. Like, really figure out what you need specifically, not necessarily don't be dictated by what other people, what other people need. And then the other regrets, like other, since I can't think of anything specific.
Speaker 1:The note that I made to myself is when things have not worked out for me. It's usually when I'm trying to shoehorn stuff into my workflow because I feel like I should, not because I really need to, which sometimes happens with gear. A gear example would be like the two things I thought of are actually the Rodecaster video, which I love and is great. But like putting this podcast together, which I've talked about before, originally my plan was to just it's all on Rodecaster video connected SSD and I'm done and I really wanted to do that because it's slick, it's simple. But as I was putting together you know the stuff I want to do and start bringing in keynote presentations and mixing stuff together, I'm like you know, this is this would be easier to do with Ecamm, even though I could do it with the Rodecaster Ecamm just sitting right here. Just do it with Ecamm. Like don't try, like you know, and it's sort of I was trying to wedge something in that clearly what I was like going against the current when I didn't need to do.
Speaker 1:Another example would be the Mackie DLZ Creator, the big one. When they released that, you know it's pretty cool, it's very different. I definitely wanted to incorporate that. You can see that there's a period of time where it's like kind of moving around the background of my videos a lot, as I'm like trying to figure out where it goes, how to use it, how to utilize it, and that thing for me, even though it's a really great device, was just like way too big and unwieldy. Like it's a big mixer. It just never clicked with me and I was like, okay, maybe I just don't like the Mackie stuff.
Speaker 1:Mackie came out with the Creator XS, the small version, which internally is exactly the same same processing, same interface, same everything. It's just in a smaller way, more like manageable form factor, and I love that thing. So it was like oh, it's not Mackie, it's this big thing. I just don't like using it. I gave mine away because it just didn't. It just was something I was never, ever going to actually reach for, even though it kind of felt like I should, because it was a high end device, it's a premium device, it, you know, it's a high quality thing. It just did not work for me. So that stuff definitely does happen a lot. It's a high quality thing. It just did not work for me. So that stuff definitely does happen a lot, maybe more than I would like it to All right.
Speaker 1:Thanks again, gil, for that video question and for sending that in. If you wanna send in video questions or comments for any episode, all Gil did there was just share a file on Google. Just email tom at enthusiasmprojectcom. Share the file and we're good to go. Now we're gonna move to two audio messages that have been sent in. The first one is actually from someone who we heard from last week HoopNuke which is the reason I'm using this NT1 Signature Series, because that's what he was talking about there and HoopNuke is back which is a really fun name to say, by the way is back with a question about industry standards.
Speaker 2:Hello Tom, I have a question about industry standards and about the blind recommendations that a lot of people get from these industry standards, quote unquote. So a lot of beginners get recommended the SM7B or the RE20 on internet forums or on other YouTube videos and they go out and they spend four or five $600 on these microphones. They get home, they plug them in into their older interface and it sounds terrible. There's a lot of hiss. These microphones while they are directional, they don't just remove room reverb and ambient noise and these people end up thinking, well, gee, I spent all this money on a microphone and it still sounds bad. Clearly I'm the problem here, instead of like just realizing, hey, dude, you got a bad recommendation, it's not your fault.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of factors that go into audio, but what are your thoughts about these? You know recommendations that we make based on something being the industry standard. Also, what do you think about companies like ElectroVoice that charge insane prices for their microphones, in my opinion, because they were the industry standard like 30 years ago? Like, yeah, the RE20 is a great microphone, but it's 600 where I live and for that money I can get two or three of these dynacasters that I'm talking to you on, and this microphone is probably a better fit for most people. It has a booster inside of it so you can use it with any interface. It has all these crazy eq options in the back so you can dial it in for your voice. It just it looks nice. So what are your thoughts on this? I'm very curious to hear about them. And have fun, tom, it's all. It's all about the fun.
Speaker 1:Thank you for that. It is all about the fun. This is a great question Because what you talked about with the SM7B which I reached around and got my SM7B during the question that was exactly my experience, which I know I've talked about before. But when I initially set up like my first podcast setups which wasn't even for me doing the podcast, it was for other people doing it, it was for a school district I worked with what we had we use like video shotgun microphones because those are only mics and it was yeah, and eventually we got a grant we could upgrade our gear. So I got four SM7Bs, nice boom arms this is pre-roadcaster so I got a big Yamaha mixer and a nice recorder and stuff and I was so excited to have the SM7B because it is that industry standard and that's what I wanted to use and part of my you know teaching program is like let's let students use industry standard equipment and the audio quality immediately took a nosedive when we got the SM7Bs because of all that stuff, even though we had new gear, I was unaware keep in mind, it's 2014, so it wasn't as maybe common knowledge as it is now. I was unaware of, like the gain needs and the signal processing needs of the SM7B. I thought I was going to connect it and suddenly we were going to sound as good as all of the shows, all the podcasts and stuff that I'd heard the microphone on, and absolutely that's not what happened, and I didn't know why for a long time. So it actually made me think, wow, this microphone kind of sucks and people are wrong about it. I was anti SM7B for, like I was 2014. I got my own one in 2021. So for that number of years it was seven years I was like this microphone is not good.
Speaker 1:And then eventually I got my own SM7B, which the only reason I got it was because, as I was doing mic reviews and comparisons, it's the number one thing people want to know how does that mic sound compared to the SM7B? So I was like I have to have one. I don't even want it, I'm just going to get it. I remember the day I got it. I like opened it up, I plugged it and I know I've said this before, but I literally did laugh out loud to myself because at that point I had the proper gear for running it, I had enough gain, I had enough signal, I had good processing and the mic just sounded so good and I literally was like, oh geez. And then, of course, the more I use the microphone, I was like, wow, yeah, the way you can EQ it is great. The lack of handling noise is amazing. And now to this day, the SM7B is one of my favorite microphones because I understand it more.
Speaker 1:And that took a long time because it wasn't super clear and I was. It's not the microphone that we should have got in that setup Like it wasn't the right mic, but it seemed like it's the industry standard. That's what we got to use. So for sure, like for sure.
Speaker 1:That is a thing that sometimes run people like, runs people astray. Is just getting the industry standard, getting what they see on stuff, a big thing like, when it comes to those industry standards things we've been talking about, professionals and professional experience and stuff If those are intended for pro settings, the infrastructure that's in place to manage pro gear, industry standard gear is very different and that doesn't just apply to microphones, that applies to anything I mean. Think of even like a camera. Right, if you're like I want the best image quality possible, I'm going to get you know, an Arri, alexa or something for my YouTube videos. You can do that. The workflow is going to be a nightmare compared to something like a Sony mirrorless camera or a Canon mirrorless camera or whatever that, like you, can easily operate as one person. It's got good autofocus, like all that stuff. You know you're going to get this better thing, this industry standard, you know professional level thing, but it's not necessarily going to be the thing that fits in your workflow and you might not have the infrastructure to support it.
Speaker 1:When you put an SM7B in a professional recording studio or broadcast studio, the amount of gear that they usually have that's running all of their stuff through like almost anything, will sound good when you plug it in there and they need, you know, the durability and the reliability and stuff more than just the sound quality and that's something that's often overlooked. You know it's not unlike. This is a very strange analogy, but when I switched to playing goalie in hockey, the thing that you know it's very expensive, like none of the gear, if you learn how to be a player in hockey, like you get all your pads and stuff. None of that translates over to goalie. Goalie is all completely different gear and it's all very expensive, and so I was like wanting to play goalie and I looked on like a used website and I found some leg pads like the big goalie leg pads that were decent and they were used and they were like $200 for the pair and I was like wow that's a great deal.
Speaker 1:And then I found, you know, the glove and the blocker, found a used one for a hundred bucks like for $300, I can get all my pads. That's not bad at all. I'm totally going to buy these, not realizing well, I'm glad I did all that because it's my favorite, you know, it's like one of my favorite things to do. So no regrets there. But I thought like it's basically like I bought the SF7B, I'm good to go. I didn't realize that I also needed different knee pads, different pants, different undergarments, different skates, different, totally different helmet that's more expensive than any of that stuff different chest protect like that was just the tip of the iceberg, right? So it's like you get your SM7B awesome. You know the number of people who send me messages. They just want to get an XLR to USB cable to plug the SM7B into their computer directly. It's like that's not going to work. You're not going to get a good sound out of that you need, you know. So that infrastructure is important and a lot of people don't recognize that and it does. It does, you know, mean that a lot of people are getting things that probably aren't what's best for them. The Dynacaster you were talking on sounded amazing. You know something like Shure has addressed this with things like the MV7 and MV7 Plus. Like you know where you get a USB XLR combo mic. You know so many people would be better off with probably just a USB microphone or even a condenser microphone where you can plug that into any interface that has phantom power and it's going to give you enough gain. So you don't have to worry about boosters. You don't have to worry about clean gain, hiss, noise, all that. It's quite a bit better now because in the past few years any pretty much every interface, every mixer that's been released has at least 70 decibels of gain. And if you have an interface or a mixer that has at least 70 decibels of gain, that means you probably don't need a booster with pretty much any mic, including the SM7B. But prior to that, you know, just even when the original Rodecaster came out, a lot of them had, you know, maybe 40 to 55 decibels of gain and that wasn't usually enough for the SM7B. So then you had to get a booster and you know that's that adds on an additional cost to every microphone that you're plugging into it. So if you know, if you're getting, you're getting four mics that need boosters. For something like the original Rodecaster now you need four boosters. It's it can increase the price and the complexity a lot. Now you're introducing more cables, you're introducing more adapters, more components all of those things are, you know, potential points of failure versus just one simple setup. So, and the number of options? Now, you know, 10 years ago actually it was 11 years ago when I did that first podcast setup there weren't as many options Like there just weren't as many options as there are now. So, no matter what your budget is, what your needs are, there's something that probably suits you pretty well. At least that's what I think, and I think it's. Yeah, that's my opinion on that.
Speaker 1:The RE-20 is a funny one, because I have a lot of respect for the RE-20 and the other mics, like the other RE-320 and all the different names and stuff. They have an awesome legacy. I do think they sound amazing. I do not like how they sound on my voice personally and I do not like how susceptible they are to handling noise. They are quite expensive, although see the thing that comes with price, which is tricky, and this is something I do run into on YouTube. A lot is, you know.
Speaker 1:I'll say something like oh, the you know, the Rodecaster Duo is $499 MSRP. And people someone will say like, hey, in my country that is $800. Like it is way more expensive than that because stuff changes all over the place and global economics are a little bit unstable. You might say so I always just go by the MSRP, but it doesn't necessarily mean that's what it's going. The price it's going to be where you're at. Sometimes people will be like, hey, yeah, the PodMic is supposed to be cheaper than the SM7B, but where I'm at it's way more expensive or something you know, something crazy like that. So that does play into it. Like where you're at and what's available to you.
Speaker 1:There's just too many variables for me to always say that super clearly in every video like what the situations are, but yeah, the, every video like what the, what the situations are, um, but yeah, the re20. That was what we said. Uh, there was a question a while ago of like what's what's a. Well, this is in my youtube q a that I did recently, where it was like what's a microphone that you, that you think you should use, but you just don't like, you just never use it. And mine was the re20, which I gave away because I it's a great mic, I I loved it. I had so much respect for it and I was just like I'm never going to choose to use this microphone because I just I don't personally like it that much. So you got to work with what works for you. So thanks, hoop Nook for that question and for that fun name to say. Up next, we have a question actually from one of my friends. Our next actually from one of my friends. Our next question comes from nitro who, speaking of hockey.
Speaker 4:See, this is all tied together nitro is the captain of my hockey team that I'm on and uh is also thinking about starting a podcast. So take it away, nitro. Hey, this is nitro. I am curious if you have suggestions or recommendations for somebody who wants to start a podcast but also feels like they should be putting the video of them recording the podcast on YouTube. So like a video podcast as well, like what very basic gear to be able to do that, and any recommendations you might have, you know, just having like laptop, iphone, ipad, stuff like that, uh, iphone, ipad stuff like that, looking forward, uh to hearing your ideas. Thanks so much.
Speaker 1:Bye, all right, thank you, nitro. This is a great question because it's so. It's so common, um, and there are a few points that you brought up specifically that I wanted to touch on, the first one being feels like they should be posting a video podcast to YouTube. In your case, I think. I know specifically, I think video is good because, like, we've talked about it in person, but I think that is a good point. If someone feels like I want to start a podcast, I guess I should do a video podcast Anytime. You think like I should do this, I should do that, really pay attention to that, should. I saw something the other day where someone was like I need to stop shooting all over myself. Like, it's true, when you feel like you should do something, really examine that and make sure that you're the one making that decision and not just the feelings of like, well, this is how it's supposed to be or what I'm supposed to do. I think there are a lot of people who maybe make video podcasts. That would probably be a lot happier and even more successful, whatever that means, if they just did an audio-only version. So don't feel like you need to do a video version and remember that YouTube does accept audio RSS feeds. So when you have your audio podcast hosted somewhere else, you can actually bring that into YouTube and they will just put up your podcast cover artwork while the episode plays. So you can totally even get a podcast on YouTube without a video component, which is pretty cool. Now, if you want to take advantage of YouTube and the video side of things, like I'm doing right now, that is a little bit different. Actually, you can see on the channel that this episode is on Prior to the video season. This season, you see, all the other episodes are just audio podcasts that are on YouTube. So you can see how that works and what that looks like right here on this channel. But yeah, if you want to do video, you know, obviously that's probably going to. It's going to help get into YouTube's recommended a little bit more than a non-video thing. I think it's going to help get into search results probably a little bit more, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:But let's talk about, you know the basics, the beginner gear. Someone with a laptop, with a phone For microphones, I would recommend, you know, just a decent USB microphone If you really don't know where to begin and you don't want to watch any of the reviews on my channel. Just go to go to Amazon, go to B&H, search for USB microphone, sort by you know, average review, find something that seems to get really good reviews and give it a try. And especially if you're ordering from somewhere that has a decent return policy, then you know that if you get something that doesn't work for you you can return it. And there's some very decent microphones, especially from like Fafine, that are in the $40 to $60 price range that can be more than capable.
Speaker 1:My favorite USB microphone, as you might know, is the Sennheiser Profile. The microphone itself is about $100, sometimes a little bit more, sometimes a little bit less, depending on, again, where you go. I really love the Profile because it's really really simple. It sounds good, there's no handling noise, it's super reliable and it has all physical controls on it. So you don't need a software application to run your microphone. You don't have to install. You can run it through audio software and then you can process it and you can EQ it and get all complicated. But some USB microphones they don't have any physical controls and so to really use them you need to then open up an app and do all that. Some people love that workflow. Some people, especially if they're just starting out, find that to be a little bit too intimidating. So the fact that this is just plug and play even with mobile devices tablets, phones, all that is you can plug USB-C into it you're good to go. I don't 100% quote me on this, but I believe if you have an iPhone that does not have USB-C basically iPhone 14 or older, I think you can get a lightning to USB-C adapter and then you can connect a microphone like this. I feel like I've done that because that's what I have, but it's like I can't tell if that's like a false memory or not. So don't quote me 100% on that, but that could be an option.
Speaker 1:If you want to do video podcasting, which be as simple as possible, you know you can run the USB microphone into your computer and just record with any software QuickTime, garageband, audacity, anything that records audio. You can record in there OBS, whatever. You could also connect the microphone directly to your phone, your tablet, whatever you want to film with, and then that way you don't have to sync it up in editing, because if you record your audio separately and your video separately and then you have to match them up and sync them in editing. It's very easy to do, but you know it's one extra step. If you want to avoid that, you might be able to get by especially with a microphone like the profile just running this into your phone and then you can adjust all your settings right there and then you just have one file that has great audio and great video and recording on a phone. Totally nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1:If that's what you want to start with your video version, you know you can just set up the phone. People can see you. It's up to you like how in depth you if you just want to do one long clip, if you want to edit that afterwards, if you want to have stuff that you're prepared to like hold up. You know you don't necessarily need fancy graphics and keynotes. You could just make literally signs that hold. It could be very DIY and fun, honestly, which in a world of AI, that kind of stuff might actually stand out a little bit more than it used to in a good way. So that's that's something you could do right there.
Speaker 1:The biggest thing recording on a phone is just managing your managing your phone storage and your battery life, making sure your phone doesn't die in the middle of recording, especially if you have something plugged into it that's not only draining power but could potentially block the phone from being charged while it's being used and then managing, like you know, you have several episodes and I have hours long footage clips on there that can eat up your phone storage pretty quickly. So getting that stuff off of your phone afterwards and all that is is pretty key, but that's what I would recommend you know like absolute basics. If you're somebody who finds yourself really into tech like you know, gil, and I I mentioned I'm speaking for you, gil, but I think I know you well enough to know you're a gearhead like myself, if that's your thing. If you're somebody who's into gear, you're into tech, you're into that kind of stuff you could still start out with a USB mic, but that might be someone who is more interested in like the whole shebang of you. Know, let me get a mic, let me get a mixer, let me get a camera and a lens and some lights, like, let me set up a thing because that's part of the fun, not because you feel like you should, but because that's actually like oh, that would be like really fun to do If you're not into that and you just feel like you should be doing those things, if you're shooting all over yourself, then that's going to be an uphill battle the whole way and you're probably not going to want to keep podcasting for very long. So that's my answer to that. Thanks so much, nitro.
Speaker 1:Now we're going to jump into just some text questions and some. Now we're going to jump into just some text questions and some. We're going to jump into the ones from YouTube first and these. I don't know how I feel like I'm spending so much time on every question, but I guess it doesn't matter, right, that's what's fun about it. First question from YouTube comes from Level Up with Mike Newman, and this is actually from the Objective vs Subjected episode. Mike just said this is my favorite the objective versus subjective episode. Mike just said this is my favorite mic in my toolbox, which is the Earthworks Ethos. If Leonardo da Vinci were alive today, he would have designed this microphone Absolute masterpiece. I have the matte black, but I want the chrome one now. That's not a question, it's just a cool comment that I want to put up, because Mike was talking about the Ethos, which I absolutely love, and again we're going to be voting on microphones, mic-er-phones. I always like it when people into microphones are named Mike, because it's fun, All right. Next, youtube this is from Kane Visuals says what is the best method to get more podcast downloads.
Speaker 1:I know some is mostly quality of content, but there has to be more. This is a great question that I included, even though I don't really have an answer to. Has to be more. This is a great question that I included, even though I don't really have an answer to, but I think it's an important thing. Because I think it's an important question to talk about? Because I'm actually working on a video that's going to come out this week called Podcast Misconceptions, and one of them does.
Speaker 1:A couple of misconceptions include growth, and one of them is like the idea that if you build it, they will come. If I put out this podcast, people are going to immediately start listening to it. You do that and you find out that's not necessarily what happens. I use myself as an example of someone who's pretty terrible at promoting things and even after doing this show for over six years, I'm pretty I'm still pretty blown away by the number of people that listen. But like it's, you know, on average I would say between now, between audio and video, in the first week of publishing episode I get maybe 500 listens, which is like phenomenal to me in the world of podcasting. But you know, some people would never stop crying themselves to sleep if that were the numbers that they got, and it's been six years to get to that point. Some are a little more, some are a little less, but that's that's about.
Speaker 1:When I take my Buzzsprout numbers and I take my YouTube numbers and I do a little bit of math with my English degree, that's about the number that that it kind of averages out to be. So you know there, and that, just also for reference, puts this in like the top, what is it? It's something like the top 5 or 10% of all podcasts. Worldwide Podcast numbers are very different because you either have like the top ones that get, you know, hundreds of thousands or millions. You know like they are the main ones and that's like the 0.001% and then if you're getting like a couple thousand, you're in that like 1%, and then if you're getting into the hundreds, you're in the high 90s, low to mid 90s, percent of podcasts. Yeah, forget what it is. The numbers might have changed exactly. But if your podcast gets more than 25 downloads in the first seven days, you're in the top 50% worldwide. So it's very different than YouTube where you might see you know totally different numbers and that's something to keep in mind. So keep keeping expectations realistic.
Speaker 1:But if you want to grow your podcast, which is the thing that most people want to do, that's why you're sharing it online in the first place. You know you can do everything from being like super aggressive, which is definitely not my style. It's not something I would do. I wouldn't take out like sponsored ads or do anything like that. Word of mouth is the best, so encouraging people who, like your show, listen to show, to share it with a friend, like tell friends about it. Most of my favorite podcasts that I've discovered over the course of my life are ones that people told me about, like there are a couple of them are ones I discovered on my own, but a lot of them was like hey, have you heard this? If you're this, check this out. And that's how then I they became my favorite podcast. I told lots of people about it. That's a really good way. Word of mouth recommendation goes a long way.
Speaker 1:Not being spammy is important, like if you have a social media account, that every post is just a link to your new episode and there's nothing else happening there. That is not going to help you grow your show but say you're on, you know whatever social media platform Blue Sky Threads we won't talk about the other one, whatever. Whatever you're on, you know whatever social media platform blue sky threads we won't talk about the other one. Whatever you're, whatever you're on, if you're engaging in the thing that you talk about, as we said in my English program, if you're engaging in the discourse of your pedagogy, um, if you're actively like, if you know, for example, if I'm talking about audio video production a lot, sharing all that kind of stuff, and then I share a podcast episode when it's available, it doesn't feel crazy spammy and especially if I can then contextualize that and be like hey, this week's a Q&A episode. It's the first time I've done a video one. It's really fun to figure this out Some cool questions, check this out. That's better than just like a link and then leaving like post and ghost, as they say. So being active in your field, in your niche, is very important. And then when you share stuff, giving it a bit of context, it doesn't mean if you give too much, which, by the way, sort of funny.
Speaker 1:I got some questions for this episode from Instagram and I had to do that twice actually, because the first time I posted it I did a whole story. That was like here's the podcast artwork, here's some explanations doing a Q&A episode. If you want to do text, submit a thing here. If you want to do you text, submit a thing here. If you want to do you know audio, here's how you do audio. If you want to do video, here's how you do video. I got two replies and I was like I think I put too much into this. I think it's too much. And then I reposted another thing that was literally just a picture of a microphone and it said podcast Q&A and it was just the Instagram thing to like send questions. Way more responses. So I was like, wow, okay, when it comes to asking for things via Instagram stories being simple, so all that to say you don't need to write a novel every time you share a link to an episode or whatever, but giving it a little context, making it interesting, is definitely important, depending on your podcast host, like Buzzsprout lets you create these like visual sound bites so you can create a clip of an episode and it makes a little thing.
Speaker 1:That's like custom colors, it's got your artwork, it's a little like a little what's it called Like the audio meters bouncing up and down the waveforms that's what it is, and you can easily share that and it's kind of cool. You can find a little highlighted part of your show that you want to share and then it'd be a direct link to the episode. Stuff like that really really does help. Including, you know, if you have other social media stuff, just putting the link wherever you can in a way that doesn't feel spammy, because I'm not great at marketing or promoting things, but I also never want to be spammy, so that's always been my philosophy there.
Speaker 1:Our next question, also from YouTube, comes from Ryan Runs, who is an awesome guy and a great channel. This is on the objectivity versus subjectivity episode, the bias episode, it says, maybe my favorite episode. Yet Objectivity is mostly a myth and chasing it has ruined many of video for me, my own included. So trying to be objective turns out to be a little frustrating. Like you said, transparency trumps all If you're honest with yourself, honest with your audience, I'll take that over a tech spec video full of stuff I can Google any day. Plus, you've built trust regardless of agreement, which is more constructive than the alternative Person who disagrees is biased. Problem solved. Thank you, tom.
Speaker 1:Again good stuff, again not a question, but I just thought good discussion point, good feedback on the idea of bias, and I really like the way Ryan points it out there, where acknowledging your bias and your preferences can in a way make you more credible because you're being transparent, you're being open, you're not trying to pretend that you're something you're not and you know. Once you put that out there, then you kind of can build trust in a bigger way. Next question this is a genuine question from Internet Doggo what episode of the Enthusiasm Project is your favorite? This is something I hadn't really thought of. Like you know, there's 180, almost 170 something episodes, six years worth of episodes. Which one's the favorite?
Speaker 1:I don't know, I'd have to like rank them all. The one that always pops up when I think of like my favorite one is the secret series, which is a series of episodes it's like three or four episodes where it was when I was quitting my job, basically like before I could like fully announce it. I, you know, I was gonna get my notice and quit the job and do the whole thing, and Heather was like you should do podcast episodes about this, and I I'm glad she did because I wasn't going to, and so we, like you, should do podcast episodes about this. And I'm glad she did because I wasn't going to, and so we start. She helped kind of guide me through it. So it's her is like co host, but sort of like navigating it with me all the way from like literally, I think I'm going to put in my notice. I put in my notice. Here's what's happening to. You know. Now it's been a couple months after I left and I've been doing YouTube full time. What's it like? So it kind of covers that whole thing. There's actually a playlist on this channel called the Secret Series. You can hear those episodes. I really like that because it's it kind of, you know, I don't think it's uncommon to sort of see things online where it's like someone saying, hey, I quit my job, I'm doing this full time, I'm going to give this a try, that sort of thing. But the nuts and bolts, the practicality behind it, what it feels like and the time span you know like those episodes were released over a period of months because it took time to do all that. Now you can listen to them all in a day, of course, but I think it's a realistic look at what that transition could be like for somebody. It's different for everybody, but at least you know we touch on finances, we touch on health insurance, savings, all of the. You know the nuts and bolts, things that oftentimes I think are big stumbling blocks for people who want to do that full time. You just can't even wrap your head around it, which is how I felt it. Really. I think it does help a lot there. Let's see here.
Speaker 1:This is a question from True Bearing Academy. Hi, tom, can you describe how the abilities of the Rodecaster video and Ecamm Live overlap, but also how they can work together? I'd love to see you do a video describing use cases where one might be better than the other, as well as a combined workflow. Thanks, this is something I actually do. I think I do want to make a video about. I'm not totally committing to that, but I think this would be a good video.
Speaker 1:And I kind of touched on this earlier where I was like I want to use the roadcaster for the podcast, but ECAM. So right now everything you're seeing is from the roadcaster, but the graphics and the scenes and everything are just through ECAM. So they are working together. There is a lot of overlap. If you just want basic scenes, if you want, you know, simple side-by-side stuff, the Rodecaster has you covered. You don't really need Ecamm. So the Rodecaster is great. If you the Rodecaster can work as a computerless setup because you can stream directly from it, you can put a little monitor there. Obviously, something like Ecamm is Mac only. If you want to stream through a computer, you can use the Rodecaster with a PC and that way you know you can stream through there. So the Rodecaster like, especially for things like events and whatnot, it's just so solid. But Ecamm just does a lot more. It has the whole processing power of a computer.
Speaker 1:And I don't know how old Ecamm is six, seven years at this point, maybe even significantly, actually might be significantly older than I think. Ecamm has been around a while, so it has a lot of features, versus the Rodecaster video, which does have a decent feature set, but it's been around for six months. Like you know, they're adding to it and growing it in a way that keeps things reliable. So Ecamm, like you, can do a lot more and you can make it look more visual. But a big thing there, a question I get so much is like whenever I talk about a switcher where it's a roadcast or something else is, people go like can I just do this with ecam and a stream deck? Yes, except they don't give you any input sources, like how are you going to connect these things? And sometimes people forget like oh yeah, the roadcaster video will let you connect to XLR four HDMI sources, usb sources as well, depending on which ones they are. And how do you get those things into a computer in the first place? How do you mix all those signals together that you can't do with just Ecamm and a Stream Deck, because how are you going to get your inputs in there? So there's a lot of overlap.
Speaker 1:I think that's probably worth explaining in a video, because it's also the like. The best example I saw online a while ago was somebody said like the internet is a place where, if you say you like waffles, people ask why you hate pancakes, and I think that's really true. Where it's like oh man, the Rodecaster video is great, and then a lot of people are like so you're just done with the Ecamm. Then no, ecamm is great, I like them both and I use them both, and I use them differently and use them together and use them separately, like they serve different purposes and they serve similar purposes, and sometimes it just comes down to things you like using more than other things, like yeah. So I feel like that's probably a worthwhile video topic to explore.
Speaker 1:Let's jump into our last comment from YouTube, and this is a. This is one that I am really glad is here. This is from Heather Majors. You know I always think people named Heather are cool. This was on. Actually, this isn't even a question for the q&a, but it's something I did want to highlight.
Speaker 1:This is on a video I did recently called make your voice sound better and podcast three quick steps, and the whole point of this video was that I wanted to give like for someone who we talked about. You get the SM7B and it might not sound amazing for someone who decides, hey, I think my audio could sound better. They've never worked on EQing or processing or anything before and it seems overwhelming. I wanted to give, like here's, three things you can do in any application, so it doesn't matter if it's GarageBand all the way up to you know, logic Pro, pro Tools, whatever Audacity for free. You can do it in video editing applications, like anything that has any kind of audio processing capabilities would likely let you do this stuff. It's just three simple things that are going to help things sound better. So it's you know.
Speaker 1:Quick examples of what they are and why. Pretty basic stuff, like you know, a little compression here and there and maybe adding a high pass filter, like simple, simple things. But if you've never done them before, why would you ever think of doing them? And Heather said, this video is the best for people like me who just use the basic out of the box settings because we have no idea where to start. Because we have no idea where to start, I learned more than I can apply in these nine minutes than I have in months of searching. Tom, you're the best for knowing this segment what this segment of your audience needs, for knowing that this segment of your audience needed this and that was I just wanted to throw that in there because it tied so well with that like professional discussion we've been having, you know, like, and this is sort of where it's like, I'm not, you know, obviously I'm not anti professional.
Speaker 1:What I am anti are the situations where people will. Someone will say, hey, I got this microphone, how do I process it? Or, you know, I think I'm going to add a little compression on it, and then someone's going to show up and say I'm actually, which. By the way, anytime you say actually in a comment, just check yourself and make sure that you're not being an um, actually person, because it's pretty much never good. There are times they actually, you know, like someone asked the other day, if I clean my Final Cut library, will it, you know, delete my project? I mean, no, it just gets rid of the render files, it doesn't actually delete any of your media. That's a good time. But if you say, actually, the SM7B doesn't need, you know, all, whatever, all that stuff, check yourself, because you're probably the problem in that case. But that's the situation.
Speaker 1:So someone like Heather here who's like hey, I just want the kind of basic, out of the box stuff. I'm not looking to be an audio professional, I just want to sound a little bit better and I want to do that simply, and I'm not looking to really go beyond that. That's all you need. Like we said last week, a true professional is someone who can recognize that, even though they might have all kinds of industry experience and all that stuff and they can distill a few things and be like, yeah, just do ABC and you're good.
Speaker 1:What seems to happen a lot, especially online, is that's when people feel the need to sort of flex their muscles a little bit and or their egos, and, you know, say, okay, here's what you need to do, and they're going to start recommending you need this advanced equipment, you need to build this crazy signal chain, you need to throw in all these different layers of EQ. You should always be doing this. You should always messing with these frequencies, changing this here, and it's like I just want to make a podcast. You know and I the number of times I've tried following advice like that. And then I'm, you know, and then I go listen to something someone recorded with a $40 Amazon microphone. I'm like, why does that sound better than mine? It's because I got so freaking in the weeds with trying to do things the professional way that I like lost track of, like I just want something that sounds good. So I just really appreciated this Because it's it's exactly what I was talking about and exactly why I think it's important to distill simple bits of knowledge and info, because that can often be incredibly helpful. And now someone like Heather her problem is either solved like she's got the audio sounding the way she wants, she understands it better and she's good, she never needs to think about it again or that that could be the thing if she wants to, or someone like her wants to go into. You know, being more advanced, now you have kind of the basics and you know a couple other questions to ask. Like it can spark the curiosity to keep going, and that's really kind of the whole point.
Speaker 1:Last few questions are from Instagram, so first one is from. Tim Cantrell says which 32-bit float onboard storage lavalier system would you recommend for a travel podcast? The first thing I really thought of was what I talked about recently and that's the Rode Interview Pro, because you got just your awesome sounding microphones no handling noise, built-in 32-bit float recording, but they are not lavaliers. So that is what I would recommend and what I would use because they're great. But you said lav system, so I'm assuming you specifically do want a lavalier microphone, especially if it's a travel podcast. You might be needing hands free, maybe, I don't know. So we're gonna go with. We're gonna go with that, simplicity sake sake.
Speaker 1:The thing that popped into my head right away was the zoom f2, which is an awesome little 32-bit float recorder. There's nothing you can mess up with it. It comes with a very decent lavalier microphone. It's relatively affordable, so you grab a couple of them and then you basically it's what I use for like a lot of my hockey mic'd up videos, because I can literally put it in my like big poofy goalie pants press record. There's even a switch you can flip to lock the record button, so if buttons get switched, nothing happens. It's 32 bit float, so I don't have to think about levels or anything and I don't have to think about it again until I turn it off at the end of the game. So that's a simple one.
Speaker 1:If you're looking for one of the systems that's also a wireless system, like the Rhodes or the DJI or whatever. I would go with the Rhodes Specifically, even though it's not my favorite system to use. The DJI is my favorite system to use because it yeah, but the Rhodes, the biggest downside to me is the design. It's the biggest, chunkiest of the systems with their big square transmitters and receivers. But if you're using it with lavalier, then that doesn't matter. And the wireless pro does come with two lavaliers that are quite decent, and then you're going to put the transmitters probably just in your pocket or clip them to a belt or whatever. So the size of those doesn't matter. And the Rode does offer the best sound. So, whether that's through the lavalier or the built-in microphones, the way they process it, the I don't know the Rode Wireless Pros do have the best sound of the wireless systems that I've used and that's the one I'd recommend there. So anything from the Interview Pro to something similar like the Zoom F2, to the Rode Wireless Pro all these product names.
Speaker 1:Next question from Real. Miguel Nunez says does Blackmagic app on iPhones work with the Rodecaster video? The answer is yes, I do have a video. I have a video about the Blackmagic camera app, which is very cool. It really opens up some cool options with your camera on your phone, and it also is a good way to get clean HDMI out. Apple at least when you're talking about iPhones Apple did recently release Final Cut Camera, which is sort of similar and lets you use your phone as more of a camera source for video that you want to edit later. I don't know if that does clean HDMI out, though the Blackmagic Camera app does give your phone clean HDMI out, which is really really cool. So I have a video on the camera app. I also have a video on my channel on my main channel called Use your iPhone with an ATEM Mini, and it's the same thing, even though I'm talking about the ATEM instead of the camera app. So yeah, sorry, atem instead of the RODECaster video. So, yes, it does work and it's great.
Speaker 1:Next question from Elemental Educator Love my MV7 Plus USB-C for the features, but is the XLR through Rodecaster better? So you have an MV7 Plus from Shure and you're using it through USB and it's working great, but you're wondering, since it's a combo mic, if I plug that XLR into my Rodecaster, would I get better quality? And the answer is I don't know. I really love using the Rodecaster because I am pretty partial to the presets. I'm using the NT1 preset right now. I think it sounds great, I think it's easy to dial in sound right there. But the Shure Motive Mix app that comes with the MV7 Plus is also really good.
Speaker 1:So, like I think the answer comes down to in that situation, if you, if you're getting sound, if you're happy with your sound through the USB side of the microphone, then you're good. Like, if it sounds good, then it's good. If it works, it works. If you're unhappy with it, if there's something where, like I just feel like I can't quite dial in the sound that I want, can't quite do that, then the Rodecaster would probably help fix that a bit. Although I really do feel like with the MV7 Plus specifically and the software that comes with it specifically, you can probably dial in something that's equally or even better than you would dial in on the Rodecaster. But the Rodecaster offers a versatility of like any mic mix and match, all that kind of stuff. So you can't go wrong either way. But if USB is working and it's sounding good, you're probably not going to be like totally blown away by the Rodecaster. If you've already got your Rodecaster, then give it a try and just do some comparisons and see what you like more. If you're thinking like, do I need to buy a Rodecaster to replace this, I think the answer is definitely no.
Speaker 1:Next question you can actually see this. It was a little photo question. This is actually from a former student of mine, from Tony Martinez, and the question was what do you miss most about teaching? And that's a great question and I the thing that I think of. It kind of goes into a few things, and Tony's a good example of this. You know, obviously the most rewarding thing is seeing students like grow, because the program that I taught in, the programs that I taught in were multi years.
Speaker 1:I would have the same students for three to four years and when you see someone come in in ninth or 10th grade, sometimes they don't even know why they're there. They're very unsure of themselves and you see them sort of discover the skill is talent, this interest, and by the time they they graduate they're just totally different people. And you know, especially when it comes to something like digital media and technology, that's not a traditional core academic subject you could find students a lot of my best students were students who were like had really bad grades in their other classes because they just didn't, their brains didn't work that way, that like. But then they get into the and so they were sometimes told that they were failures and and bad students and bad influences. And suddenly they would get into the and so they were sometimes told that they were failures and bad students and bad influences, and suddenly they would get into my program. They would discover this whole different world, this whole different side of themselves, and they would be super leaders.
Speaker 1:It wasn't Tony's case. He was good at everything all the time, but that is a thing that happened a lot, and some of the strongest leaders I had were students who in you know, other classes would be like the trouble kids, and some of the strongest leaders I had were students who, in other classes, would be like the trouble kids, and so I really do miss that. That was always like so rewarding, but on the day to day, like, my favorite thing about teaching was teaching, which I know sounds weird, but one of the reasons I wanted to leave and got tired of it was because you spend so little of your time teaching. It feels like you are a salmon swimming upstream to try to get to the point where you can just teach your subject. And so when I had that, when it was like, oh, like the number of times I go in like so excited about whatever like lesson we were going to cover, whatever project we were going to do, whatever like I was like every day there was something super exciting and then it was sort of like guarding everything to not interfere with that was the trick.
Speaker 1:But you know, getting to getting to actually teach and show something, especially in a visual way, where it's not just like a lecture in front of a classroom, but you know, we could set up a workshop, we could set up a demo, I could like really show, you know, show what I'm talking about, make it really visual, make it really interactive. That was always really, really fun. And then, when I had those times, something I loved was like when we'd be in the middle of like a work, like I'd have, like you know, I'd have assigned projects, maybe students would have like two or three weeks to work on a project, and we're kind of right in the middle where everyone's working on stuff and I could walk through sort of like the classroom and the studio space and it's like there'd be students filming a scene for a movie. Over here, students working on a stop motion, over here, someone working on a digital animation. You know, students doing storyboards and drafting Like it's just sort of like this whole like smorgasbord of digital media production happening in the class called digital media production, and I love that, where it was like everybody was sort of doing their thing and it was such a hodgepodge of different stuff and people start, especially by the time they've been in the program for a couple of years, they start specializing. So you know, like here's the the students are gonna be working on 3d animations, here's the people that are going to be doing you know, crazy visual art kind of stuff here, whatever it is, and I just then get to walk through and kind of like guide, coach, offer, you know, help, feedback, whatever. That was cool. And that's when you would also have things where you know students would be like, hey, we need to do this, how do we do it? And sometimes I'd be, I would be like I don't know. Like you know, they need a certain camera shot or a certain lighting thing, and it's like let's think like we could set up a thing over here and we could move the camera this way and whatever. And like you know, it was so fun to like problem solve. I miss all that stuff so much because that was really cool. Unfortunately, teaching is a very small part of the job of being a teacher, so I guess that's it. I love teaching. I got to a point where I didn't like being a teacher.
Speaker 1:Next question is from Hanzomat1963. Oh, you've got a Rode Broadcaster. Please make a review. That's because on Instagram, when I did the repost, it was just a picture of the Rode Broadcaster that I used in a previous episode and then I put the Instagram question thing there and I just wanted to point that out. Yes, I have the Broadcaster, it's great and I definitely do want to make a review on it. I am proud to say that I have every microphone I own I have a dedicated review on or, yeah, I have a review on every mic, except those two, the ones that Bronson from Audio Hotline gave me, which is the Dynacaster we heard Hoop Nook talk on earlier, and the Broadcaster. So I want to make reviews on both of those because they're great. And actually just yesterday I got a delivery I just showed up unannounced from Doc Rock, who's you know, big part of the Ecamm community, one of my good friends. He sent the original Neat King Bee microphone, which isn't available anymore, but it's pretty cool. I don't know if I'll do a dedicated review on that, since it's like not available and I would just be sort of, you know, making people feel bad about something they can't get, but I seems like a pretty cool mic. I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, though. Next question is from Nicholas R says Is it possible to create a unique podcast in 2025 and gain an audience? Yes, 1000% this.
Speaker 1:Going back to the video I mentioned I was working on for this week about podcast misconceptions. Misconception number one that I talked about is podcasting is too saturated, because there are. I looked it up there are about 4.2 million podcasts worldwide now, which feels like a lot, but when I, you know talk about I started listening to podcasts, specifically in like 2008, 2009. And they had already been around for a number of years prior to that, so podcasting is like over 20 years old. At this point at least, it's been around for a while 2009,.
Speaker 1:When I would tell people like, yeah, I was listening to a podcast, they'd be like what? It's something about your iPod, what, and you know, even you know 2014, when I started producing them. Like, the reason I started producing the podcast for the school district is because they were doing a weekly radio show and the radio station went out of business or got bought out, so they needed something else. And I was like, oh, podcasting it's like, it's like a radio show that goes on your phone. It's an internet radio show and it doesn't have to be live. You know, trying like every time I can remember whether I'm talking about well, I take that back around. That time was when you'd have stuff like serial would become really popular. There were certain podcasts that were becoming more popular and more mainstream really popular. There were certain podcasts that were becoming more popular and more mainstream. So people listening to them was a little more common.
Speaker 1:You'd find people who listened to podcasts, but it was still a little bit niche and especially if you're making one trying to do your own thing, even though it felt like there was a lot less competition because there was, people weren't expecting to listen to random people's podcasts as much. Now it's like a joke. Like, everybody has a podcast. My dog has a podcast. Like you know, every everybody you encounter like has a podcast, and that can make it feel very saturated, but the benefit to that is people actually understand what it is you know, and that is really cool, because when you tell someone, hey, I have a podcast, they're not going to be like, wait, what is that? How do I do that? I don't think I want a new app on my phone, I don't want to get anything. It's more like oh yeah, what's your podcast? They can look it up on whatever they listen to podcasts on.
Speaker 1:So, even though it feels more saturated, I think it's actually absolutely possible to create a new, unique podcast in 2025. And the fact that people understand what podcasts are like even my parents are aware of what podcasts are. I don't know if they listen to any, but they at least know what they are. That speaks volumes and means that you know you've overcome a huge barrier of just what is this that you're talking about? So, yes, absolutely, and the rest is up to you. You know the rest is it's your concept, your presentation, you're sharing it, your personality, your presentation, you're sharing it, your personality, all that stuff. And even though stuff does feel very, very saturated, keep in mind that you know now that something has been around it's just like YouTube, now that something's been around long enough. You actually have the. You have the chance for things to come and go. So when something is new, it's like it's it's still the original generation of stuff. But now podcasting has been around long enough for you know series to come and go, careers to start and end without even like not that the career ended out of failure, but like literally people can retire out of it, like it just comes to a natural close. And when that happens, then that means there's more space, you know, room for new things to pop up and new perspectives and all that kind of stuff. So, yes, definitely possible.
Speaker 1:Last question comes from Paul Wait, paul Robert Berman. It says beginner's guide to recording audio, which is is a question. I don't have a beginner's guide to recording audio, but what I wanted to include this, even though I don't have specific recommendations, just because, like, the University of YouTube is so great, and we talked about the question from Heather a while ago where or the comment from her a while ago where it was like, hey, this beginner's thing is really cool. Um, I think it's very important that if you to understand where you're at when you're looking for resources. So if you're looking for a beginner's guide. Make sure that what you find is a beginner's guide. And sometimes things will say audio guide for beginners and they jump in and it's all. It sounds like the retro encabulator video where it's just so much jargon you don't know what they're talking about. It's like that's not, that's not for beginners.
Speaker 1:Make sure that what you find is beginners, and what I mean by that is you're like okay, I want to learn how to do audio. You're going to go to some channel that is like crazy technical in depth, and now your head's just going to feel like it's exploding because you want to learn basic math and now you're in a calculus class. Like that is not the road to success. It's okay to do the absolute basics and then sometimes if you, even if you feel like you know something, like, oh, I think I'm already pretty solid in that area Sometimes rewatching you know beginner material, for that can still help you fill in some blanks and then also that will like help you figure out exactly where you're at. So I guess my advice there you know I don't have necessarily specific channels to recommend, because there are there are great ones out there there, but I don't want I almost don't want to make people feel like this is who you should listen to, because sometimes the channels are a little too technical or sometimes they are maybe a little too opinionated or and feel like they're going to make you think you have to do something. You search around, find some tutorials from people that you jive with, that you just really like their style. Really cool thing, though, about audio is, while the technology has really changed a lot lately, especially with mixers and what's accessible, the fundamentals and like the processes and you know, the basics of what you're doing haven't really changed much. So even if you find tutorials and videos from five, 10 years ago, they're still going to be like really, really helpful if you can apply what they're talking about to your current setup. So, yeah, that's what I recommend there.
Speaker 1:That is our last question, so thank you very much to everyone who sent in questions. I appreciate that a lot. Definitely couldn't have done a Q&A episode without you. If you have other questions, if you want to reply, if you're watching the video version, you can leave a comment. If you want, you can send an email to Tom at enthusiasmprojectcom. You can go to hi, my name is Tomcom and leave a voice message if you want, and you can also, just if you're listening to the audio version, click the little fan mail button right in the show notes and send a message directly to the show, just like a text message. And there we go. Q&a episode in the bag, baby. Thanks for listening, thanks for sending your messages. Hope you have a safe, happy, healthy, fun rest of your week and I'll see you next time.
