The Enthusiasm Project
The Enthusiasm Project
Pobody’s Nerfect: Being Human in the age of AI
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Many content creators work tirelessly to level up the quality of their work, but at what point does perfection go too far?
🎙This week's mic:
•Lewitt LCT440 Pure
https://geni.us/ygRb95l (Amazon)
⚙️ Gear of the Week:
Hollyland Lark M2:
https://geni.us/wxwfX (Amazon)
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——————————— 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)
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•XLR Cables: https://geni.us/bluexlr (Amazon)
S13E06 | Series Episode 180
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 6. And we are gonna pick up right where we left off before a very planned and definitely not unplanned bit of a midseason break, something that was for sure. Not a thing that happened unexpectedly, but something that I do have very cool things to share with you from, and I am very, very excited about that. So, all kinds of stuff today we got listener messages, we got topics to go through, we got gear to talk about and we've got some other stuff to share. We've got topics to go through, we got gear to talk about and we've got some other stuff to share. Before we can do any and all of that, of course, I want to focus on the thing that you're listening to me on right now, which is the microphone that I'm talking into in this week's Mic of the Week segment. So right now I am.
Speaker 1:If you remember this season, these 10 episodes, I want to use 10 different microphones, one different one on each episode, so that way you can see I have it written down over here, because I couldn't even remember everything I use. So on episode one, I used the Shure SM7B. Episode two, I use the Shure SM4. Episode three, I use the Rode Broadcaster. Episode four, I use the Earthworks Ethos. Episode five, I did the Rode NT1 Signature Series. And now, episode six, I'm using the Lewitt LCT 440 Pure.
Speaker 1:The reason I chose this one, because I really I have three Lewitt mics that I really like all of them. I have the 240, 440 and the Ray. The Lewitt 240 is oh, it's actually right here on the back wall behind me. It's this. It looks exactly like the microphone I'm talking into, except I have the white version, and that's actually one of my all-time favorite microphones because it's so affordable as an MSRP of $99. The 440 has a I forget the exact MSRP two something 220, 230, somewhere around there, maybe even a little bit more than that, and I really love the 240 because it sounds amazing and it's affordable and the build quality is exactly the same as the 440. You might have to spend a little more than $99 to get the kit that has a shock mount and the pop filter, which are things that I do feel are pretty necessary. And then there's also the Lewitt Ray, which is a little more expensive than the 440. And the Ray has a whole bunch of like really advanced features where, even though it's an XLR microphone, it can like adjust the gain based on your proximity, it can mute the microphone based on your proximity. It has these basically very cool proximity sensors that tie into how the microphone functions, and that's really cool. It's very unique. I've never seen another XLR microphone that can do stuff like that. But at its core it's basically the 440. So if you turn off all the fancy things that the Lewitt Ray can do, you end up with just a 440.
Speaker 1:So I wanted to focus on this one rather than the 240. I was going to choose between one of the Lewitts and I picked the higher end one because it you know, I am competing with things like the SM7B, the SM4. And while both this and the 240 sound amazing, I do have a video that compares the two of them directly. This one does have a larger capsule. That's the biggest difference. That has a small electric condenser capsule. This has just a large diaphragm condenser capsule, so it does sound a little bit better. It sounds fuller, richer, you know. It's just it is a better sounding microphone. I don't know that it's twice the price better sounding, to be totally honest with you, but it is a better sounding microphone, so I wanted to give Lewitt the best foot to stand on, and you know the microphone that I was putting into the comparison that we're doing, so this is the Lewitt LCT440 Pure. Absolutely totally love this microphone. You're going to hear me on a different microphone for a little bit later on, though, but before we move on to today's subject, I did want to talk a little bit about some things that happened over the break.
Speaker 1:Life was a little bit crazy in ways that were unexpected and some stressful and some insane, but some that were also really, really great. So last weekend, I actually got to play in my very first ever hockey tournament, which is super cool, and I naively thought that I had to play five games over four days, and I naively thought, like there will be plenty of time on one of the days to record a podcast. There was not plenty of time on one of the days to record the podcast, so I just couldn't. I just couldn't do it. It just didn't work for me and I needed to just sort of take a break to focus on surviving the tournament, and so it I survived the tournament, I survived the five games in four days, and then ended up actually including stuff I normally do outside of the tournament playing seven games in seven days. Today I am. I just I'm so sore like so much pain.
Speaker 1:If you don't know, I play goalie just in an adult league, not in a low level adult league, not anything crazy, not anything near professional level. It's a non checking league. There's no hitting, there's nothing like that. We're not supposed to be. There was a fight actually during one of our games, which is not a normal thing that happens, but I was not involved. I went to the corner and drank some water and there were 16 teams from I forget the total number of states a lot of different states in the United States and several provinces in Canada. So it was a super cool tournament that was hosted at our local arena Really cool thing to be a part of like different divisions and all that kind of stuff. It was absolutely amazing.
Speaker 1:Most of the games were played on the normal rink that I just do all of my, where I learned how to ice skate, where I learned how to play hockey, where all my normal games and stuff are. But we did get to play one game Every team got to play one game in the, the main arena of Acreshire Arena, which is where, like the, the Firebirds play the AHL team. That feeds into the Seattle Kraken. I've seen some NHL games there as well. It's an American Hockey League arena, so it's a step below the NHL. It is an 11,000 seat arena, although about 30 of the seats are taken up. When we were playing, it was a free event to the public, so it was super cool, though my team like we, you know, we're pretty much all beginners, and it's been. You know, leagues aren't always balanced, tournaments aren't always balanced, so it's always been, you know, a little bit of a struggle. Luckily, heather got to go and take some photos, but we did actually win our very first game.
Speaker 1:So a dream, like a thing that I'd always wanted to do, is skate on the big ice. The big ice at, like the main arena, because that's where, like, I watched my favorite hockey players play, that's where I got into hockey, was watching people play there, and then I decided I want to learn how to skate for myself and everything. And so skating there, like actually being on that ice, literally being in the goal crease that, like some of my favorite goalies in the world, stand in that exact spot and play in those exact places. Getting to do that too, like it was something I always wanted to do. So just getting to do that was, you know, was a victory and a win for me. But we actually won, and this was our first win ever, which was super cool. So we not only won, we not only got to skate on the big ice, but we actually won the game that we played on the big ice and more than that actually. If you look, I have a photo of nine seconds left in the game here you can see the score was 2-0. So not only was it a win, but it was actually a shutout for me, which meant the other team didn't score at all.
Speaker 1:That is the first time I've ever had a shutout. Ever in any game, in scrimmages, in pickup games, in practices, in classes, anything the hundreds of game or game type situations that I've been in over the past couple of years I've never gotten a shutout. That was the first one. So it's first shutout, team first win and getting to skate on the big ice. I was actually glad that I had never, never gotten a shutout before, because it would have. I don't think it would have been as special to do it here, and so it was awesome, like, despite all the exhaustion, everything that was amazing. It was the coolest thing.
Speaker 1:And Heather and I you know Heather was like outside the glass taking photos and I could see her when we're in the third period and it's getting down. You know there's eight minutes left and the score is still like two zero. And she's looking at me and she's like, oh my. You know I've had shutout periods where the other team didn't score for you know a period or something. But I've never had a shutout game. And I got close once in like a pickup game. I got to like within the last minute somebody scored. That was. That was like a year ago. That was the closest I got. So I was literally thinking like I probably am just not capable of ever making that happen.
Speaker 1:And then it happened and Heather and I were looking at each other and like the first rule of shutout is you do not talk about shutout, you do not acknowledge that it's a possibility, you don't think about it. Heather was like so excited I was just trying not to look over there. And then it actually happened and you know everybody was just like jumping all over each other on the ice and I was. I was really happy. And then I went over to Heather and I was just in like disbelief and she didn't know what she thought I was like mad or not, and she didn't know what to read because I had like like no expression on my face but it was just the like sheer disbelief and like I was waiting for like a ref to say like actually there's five minutes left or you know, a goal went in that no one noted like some something like a gotcha moment and it never happened because we actually did the thing and that was just super, super cool.
Speaker 1:So you have to forgive me for not posting an episode last week, but that was instead of posting an episode I posted a shutout. Yeah, but the thing is I'm not perfect. That's the first time I've done a perfect game, which obviously wasn't perfect either. Still mistakes in the game. It just came out with a perfect score.
Speaker 1:But the main thing that I wanted to dive into, the main topic with today's episode, actually has to do with perfection. We kind of touched on this two episodes ago when I was talking about the mistake that I made in a video where I kind of presented a podcast setup as not being perfect. I acknowledged like, hey, you know, you might have this issue, you might have this issue. It was very much a more real world look, and some people are so accustomed to especially YouTube videos and any kind of reviews or tutorials, almost being like such advertisements and such slick, slick, like home shopping network style things, that it's almost like you can't comprehend when something like isn't totally frictionless or totally perfect, yet still something that a person likes and recommends and that's you know like, when is the last time you bought something, used something that was perfect? Probably never. You have to figure things out, you have to use it. So we're talking about mistakes. We're talking about that as it relates to products, as it relates to workflows and things like that.
Speaker 1:But I kind of wanted to dive in more, even to people and the stuff that we make and the idea that maybe we actually miss some of those mistakes, because this is sort of something that I think is interesting in terms of how, like independent content creators and content creation has evolved over a number of years. Because you know, as somebody who got into video production at a young age, a long time ago, long before it was, you know even something you could share online long before there was an online to share it on. Online to share it on, the thing was always trying to get better, like using a Hi8 camera instead of a regular 8mm camera, using MiniDV, you know, trying moving to digital at some point, like always trying to level things up. And then, with YouTube, that just really kicked off Once people could share stuff online. And then, around you know, 2008, 2009, those years when DSLRs could start shooting video, people were able to post stuff that look, you know, 2008, 2009, those years when DSLRs could start shooting video, people were able to post stuff that look, you know, put a 50 millimeter prime lens on a Canon 5D Mark II and you got some really cool looking, ultra cinematic footage that, like regular people had never been able to capture before because it looked so close to what people were doing in, you know, like actual movies and actual production. And so, speaking very broadly, you know video quality has leveled up a lot in the past 20 years of YouTube, because this is YouTube's 20th anniversary and that's crazy.
Speaker 1:If you look at early YouTube videos from 2005 and you look at YouTube videos from 2025, even ones that are not geared towards like filmmaking and video production and trying to have the best quality, like even just a lot of you know something, people are filming with their phones and, like a clip-on phone microphone looks and sound amazing compared to how things were, and so in general, there's been that trend to level up audio and video, even on non-audio and video channels, and a big part of that was because of that DSLR revolution. That happened when those cameras could do that and I know it's a term that sometimes gets thrown around, but it really is true, like I think now we're far enough removed from it 15 plus years, where it's just like yeah, of course, a camera that looks like a photo camera, like the a7 IV that I'm filming this on right now, that's going to take high quality video. There was a time when that was amazing, when that was like mind blowing, and the reason that was so mind blowing is because those cameras have big sensors, whether it's a crop sensor or a full frame sensor. That was a way bigger image sensor than any camcorder Like. If you look at like a three CCD camcorder, like the Canon XL1 or something, or a high definition camcorder, the sensors are so small compared to what was on these cameras, so right away you're getting a totally different level of image quality, of low light performance, of resolution, all of clarity, everything On top of the fact that then you can put high quality lenses. You don't just have to have the built in camera lens. You can put a really nice, you know, dedicated prime lens or something that has a very specific look to it and a very specific feel. Now you're getting shallow depth of field, which is something I know people.
Speaker 1:The pendulum has swung the other way, where so many people are like I don't want everything to be blurry and blurry backgrounds are lame or whatever, which, like a reason I go for blurry backgrounds as much as possible, is because growing up with eight millimeter camcorders, I was a thing it was like impossible to get unless you zoomed in all the way on something that was like semi close to the camera with a deep background. Then you could kind of get background blur. It wasn't something you get just sitting, you know, with a camera an arm's length away from you. So things started looking very, very different. Everything just became way more accessible, you know. Then you moved into mirrorless cameras. Resolution moved up past 1080 all the way to 4k. Phones became, you know, like, you know, any phone from the past several years now really outperforms you know huge dedicated cameras from the past and, you know, creates amazing looking image quality. Even in audio production obviously got better, so the level of accessibility just increased a lot as well.
Speaker 1:It it wasn't that you had to be super complicated, it wasn't the thing of like here's the 5D Mark II. It can do video. You can sort of install Magic Lantern, which is this sort of like semi-legit third-party firmware thing that will give you some more controls over here, and you're kind of like MacGyvering everything together. It's like no things are made to do this and it's actually made to be a lot simpler and a lot more affordable and now everybody can have really good audio and video quality and because of that, people are people worked really hard, myself included over the years to level up their audio and video quality and whatever they're doing, so that now you have stuff that looks really professional. I'm not talking about myself, but I mean you know you watch a lot of, especially on you know some larger YouTube channels and it looks like broadcast quality, film quality, like industry standard quality and people work really hard to. You know what was the thing Actually, right now in the background I have my drum stool here.
Speaker 1:Technically, I should probably not have that there. I should probably not be showing this little empty area. I should have maybe like a clean table with a little fake plant or something on there to like make everything perfect. I probably shouldn't have this cable draped across the desk. A lot of times people go to meticulous, to extremes, to, you know, have everything be just absolutely perfect, like we don't want a speck of dust, we don't want anything out of place, we want, like everything is perfect. We're going to cut out every imperfection in the video, in the project we're making, we're going to re-record things and all of that, a lot of that is done in the name of, you know, making the highest quality thing possible, being as good as possible, the thing you do. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I think that's a good thing. But in 2025, ironically, like that perfection and that high quality is not always ideal the way that it used to be, there's nothing. As things have evolved, things have just sort of changed, and part of that, then, essentially, my thesis here is that imperfections and little mistakes and little bits of humanity have more value now than ever. And, you know, as things have leveled up.
Speaker 1:In the past, one way that people were able to create higher quality things and more perfect things was to hire a team and have a team. And now it gets to the point where having a team, it almost feels like it's this essential thing for a lot of people. Like that's the next step. You know, like you, you start making videos in your house, house, your apartment, a spare room, whatever. Then you get a studio space where now you're paying money to rent a studio space and then you hire people to help you with that space. You hire people to help you make your videos. Now you have a team and now you now you're just an employer like you. Just you're you. You tricked yourself into being upper management. Like I don't know. To me that's like it sounds like one of the worst positions to be in, but that's not the case for everybody. But it is often seen as having a necessity because the quality is so high. It's like it's tough to achieve that.
Speaker 1:Like if you look at a Marques Brownlee video, right, who you know, tens of millions of subscribers, super high quality videos Like he is kind of a benchmark of someone who seeks to have everything look and sound absolutely perfect At the core of it. When you're watching the video, it's usually one person on camera talking, exactly like I'm doing right now, but the thing that you're not seeing, which he's very open about. So I'm not like oh, you didn't know. Like he is very open about the team and the warehouse and the studio. You know the people, even if he has, you know, fingerprints in every part of the process. It's like there are people working on scripts and outlines, there are people working on production, there are people working on cameras. There are entire higher setups of videos where a team of people will set the thing up and he will show up and be the on-camera personality. That is different than like being the person fiddling with the cables behind the camera, trying to figure out the camera settings, then sitting down and trying to create it.
Speaker 1:So there's this level of polish and this level of perfection that you know you can get close to as an independent, individual creator. But it also a lot of what we're seeing does become sort of this unreasonable, if not like unattainable benchmark for a lot of people. It's a good fit. For some people, it's a good fit for some topics, it's not a good fit for other people. There's no.
Speaker 1:You know, one thing that's very, very true about YouTube is there's no one way to do it, no one right or wrong way. But you know, it's that thing where people are really aiming for that glossiness, aiming for that perfection, and it makes sense to me that many creators would try to keep things as perfect as possible, because that's something you see in traditional media, right, you see, whether it's a movie or a TV show, you see things done to a very high level, and doing that and creating things that look perfect and professional is a way to show care. It's a way to show professionalism. It's. You know, if you just have a crooked camera and bad audio and bad lighting and you expect people to care about the thing that you made, like that's obviously not the answer either. But that is a very different thing, especially when someone's working with a team that's maybe not as open as others about the team process and it really seems like you know they're presenting themselves like I'm just a person making videos and then it's like well, you have a whole team of people helping you do that. Now you've set this unrealistic expectation, you know it's.
Speaker 1:It's like the old school example of being in like the supermarket checkout line and seeing the like, all the magazines with supermodels and stuff on it and people feeling bad about themselves. They don't look like the supermodel or the celebrity and it's like that supermodel or that celebrity doesn't even look like that. Like there's a team of people on that photo shoot day they might have you know, on that photo shoot day they might have, you know, dieted and exercised like crazy to be ready for that. There's. There's photo finishing photo, touching all this. Like they don't even necessarily look that way. I know you're feeling bad because you don't look that way and that's you know.
Speaker 1:That's the thing that happens with creators is they look at someone like, oh, look at the way this person is doing this thing. I want to make something that looks like that. And then it turns out well, actually, like they're not even just, they're not just the person making videos, like there's a whole team and there's a whole strategy and there's tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands in some cases, literally millions of dollars invested in doing that. And you're sitting there with like your mirrorless Sony camera going like, why can't I make the thing looks like this? It's, it is an unrealistic expectation. The person you're watching on their own couldn't make the thing that you're seeing like and that you know some people are more open about those types of situations than others.
Speaker 1:I bring all that up, that that quest for high quality, that quest for perfection, that quest for polish and gloss, because of the rise in generative AI content where you can type in a very simple prompt with a few words and you can get an audio, you can get an image or you can get a video that looks I don't want to say looks perfect, but you know, if you compare Will Smith eating spaghetti from a year ago to Will Smith eating spaghetti now, it definitely is. It definitely looks significantly more realistic and you know like it's just getting better and better every day. So when people first saw like AI generative video or images and it was like, oh yeah, these are kind of weird, but like the fingers are weird and the hands and the whatever, and it's like those are things that very quickly, like we can laugh at those a year ago. But yeah, within six months, within a year, a lot of those problems get taken care of. And now it's like the number of times, you know if I'm just like browsing Instagram or whatever, and I scroll through something and I see, like you know, it's something like you know someone working with a sea lion or something pops up and it's like this just looks a little, hmm, something, something's tickling my brain in a weird way. And then you go to the comments and everyone's like this is AI, ai, ai. And I'm like, oh yes, it has that look, that weird AI sheen, that like that unrealistic to. You know the look. I don't know how to describe it perfectly, but you definitely know the look.
Speaker 1:When AI makes something, it has like a very glossy perfection to it. It can sometimes even mimic imperfections. You know you can put that into your prompts or you could take something and adjust it to make it look imperfect. But only a real human can be as much of a mess as a real human is? It's sort of the thing there. The AI look like really has become a thing in the past couple years and they have that strange, like too perfect quality to them.
Speaker 1:And on top of that then, ai tools have also made it easy to eliminate mistakes. You can just throw an image into something and have it touched up. You can throw your audio into something that's going to sound better. You can throw your audio into. You can throw your video or your audio into something that's going to cut out all your filler words, cut out all your mistakes somehow. So that line between AI, perfection and, like the human, striving for perfection is just going to keep getting blurrier and blurrier.
Speaker 1:But as people, as people who typically live as humans the whole time, we're alive, like you only experience yourself, as a human, from the beginning to the end. We are very used to what imperfection looks like and even if you can't 100% identify it, you can kind of hone in on when things don't, things don't look right and when things have that kind of like, even if it's. It's like if you've seen, like a staged you know, I don't know a staged movie, blooper or something where it's like, oh, I think a movie could have a blooper like that, but this doesn't seem like it's. There's something in your brain where, like, even though this checks all the boxes of what would happen in a blooper situation like this, something's off and this doesn't feel like it's actually, it doesn't feel like an actual blooper. So all that to say, all that, to say everything I just covered the development of skill sets, the rise of AI, the merging of these things.
Speaker 1:I'm genuinely wondering, in today's day and age, when it comes to content creation, if being perfect, if being imperfect is really the perfect thing to do is embracing your humanity, embracing your mistakes, not advocating for low quality, not advocating for non-professionalism. But it is okay to be professional, it is okay to work towards that, to build those skills, skill sets, to showcase those things. But maybe it's also okay to be human. So that has more to do with than just like being authentic. Because I think when it comes to especially solo creators and that's that's really the group that I'm like, super passionate about, you know, when, when I post a mic review and someone tells me about how they're, like movie production team would never dare use this microphone or whatever it's like I don't care about that. I care about the individual person who's trying to navigate and figure this stuff out and do the best they can.
Speaker 1:Usually is like a one person thing. That's to me. That's I don't know. That's just the person I care about, because those are the people that have voices that they've never had before and you know, it's only gotten easier to have that voice throughout all of human history and you know, if someone wants to work hard to do the best they can at that. That's something that I really care about. So letting that humanity show has, I think, more value than ever before. It's not just being authentic, like I'm just being myself on camera. If we meet in person, I'm going to feel like the same person. That's important too.
Speaker 1:But being human on camera is important, and mistakes like what does it look like when you're being human, like what does that actually look like? Mistakes have a relatability to them and it's almost like. It's almost like I mean I'm not saying you have to do this. You know everybody's say say you're someone like me, who, who has a setup, or you know a couple of different setups that you use for most of the things that you make, and maybe it's a talking head thing. You have a background, you have a space that you film in. You know a lot of people will put stuff in the background. They'll put things on shelves.
Speaker 1:Something that I've personally always liked about the space that I make my videos in is it's a space that I do stuff in when I'm not making videos. Like I use the things you know, like I play the guitars, I use the AV equipment, I move things around, like it's not just like a set that doesn't get touched unless I'm filming something Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I like that, I like that reality to it and like I like that my. You know, my drumstool is here because I was playing the bass earlier and sitting on that drumstool and it's now in the corner of the frame. I could probably make this corner of the frame look a little bit better, but you know, even right here, like this area kind of does bother me.
Speaker 1:If you're just listening to this, there's an area in the frame that's just sort of like stuff and what it is is on the side of my workbench. I sort of have these little. There's like a pegboard built into this tool chest thing and I have some. Basically, it's like there's pens, there's some adapters, there's like all the stuff that my desk doesn't have drawers. It's all the stuff that would probably normally be in like a desk drawer or something. It's just kind of right there. But when I'm at this camera angle it's always just right there.
Speaker 1:I've tried to hide it but it's like you know, like sometimes I need pens when I'm here doing stuff and that's where my pens are. That's just. It is what it is like, and even I, a struggle that I've had over the years, like even with that in mind, is not trying to hide that, but like working in a space, especially not just doing YouTube full-time and doing podcasts and all that stuff, but when I was also teaching and then teaching online. So for a while it was like this was the space that I did all of my YouTube stuff, which was in and of itself a full-time job, but I was also teaching online, like you know, during the first year of the pandemic, year plus of the pandemic, and it was like this is where I do my full time, like paid job, and my full time YouTube job and and then trying to film things and present things in a way that, like, made it look very, very, you know, almost like a set, like a thing that is, you know, perfect and polished or whatever thing that is, you know, perfect and polished or whatever, versus the chaos that it actually was. You know, which is why, like when I do studio tours and things like that, I don't hide the mess of cable management, even if I try Like I did a whole video not that long ago about redoing this desk setup that I can do these podcasts and things, and I'm like, oh my gosh, my cable management is so much better, basically because there's not cables on the floor.
Speaker 1:If you look under the desk there's still the whole like tangle town of cables, but it's just more practical. It's just more practical and not hiding that the fact that, like, yeah, I need to have a cable laying across. Sometimes that is something as simple as, like if you have a notebook that has some notes while you're recording a video, you have the temptation to sort of like I'm just going to put my notebook out of frame and when I, when I need a note, I'm going to bring it in. Put it out of frame, bring it in, versus just have the notebook there like, have the notebook in a place where people can see what you're doing, and that's the kind of thing that, like an AI not that it couldn't, you know, duplicate these things, but the idea that you can let your seams show, you can sort of you know you wouldn't want to do this in a like a short film sense where it's like, you know, the boom mic falls into the frame and ruins the immersion. But for content creators, especially independent content creators, you know doing the best you can, but not being able, not being afraid to show that you are a person doing your best, figuring it out, you know working within constraints. That makes you more real and more relatable and I think those are very, very important things, because mistakes have that relatability.
Speaker 1:I'm not saying like leave in bad takes or waste people's time. Like if you're trying to say something in a video and you need to restart the line like 20 times, don't just leave in the 20 mistakes, because that's going to be weird and a waste of time, but it means you don't have to. You know I've stuttered and stumbled multiple times in this episode as I've tried to say stuff. I could take this into an editor, cut all those things out and make it perfect, or I could just leave it, because I'm a person trying to put my thoughts together and I still feel like, even with those mistakes, the clarity is still there and the points I'm trying to make, you know, go. It's like it's okay if your space is a little messy. It's okay if your video is a little janky. Sometimes it's like it's not even just that it's okay, it's that I think that actually, in a world where things where people really try to present the best sides of themselves.
Speaker 1:There's AI creating stuff that looks too perfect, and then people are using AI to make their already like their attempt at perfection even more perfect. I feel like there's genuine value in not having that, in being imperfect, in being human and in just being a normal freaking person trying to make stuff. I feel like there's more value in that than there ever has been before, and that's something that I just feel like based on conversations. I've had things. I've read online things, things I felt myself. Maybe, you know, maybe people would like that reminder. So that is, I don't have a slogan like that's the way I see it, or whatever, but that's that people would like that reminder. So that is. I don't have a slogan like that's the way I see it, or whatever, but that's. That's the thing that we're talking about today. The way I can get around that is to play a song as we go into the next segment, talking about channel check-ins. Let's see. So we're talking about being a content creator. We're talking about those imperfections. What are some things that I, a very imperfect content creator, have been working on.
Speaker 1:Now, the video that just came out is the YoloBox Ultra one which is very, very cool. I mentioned trying to work on that. Getting it done, I actually like put that video out. It's the most recent video I put out at the time that you're hearing this and I'm. It's really that video is really cool because, having made my first YoloBox video, I can't I think it was 2021. It might've even been in 2020 with, like, the original YoloBox At the time when they first reached out to me and you know they ended up sending the thing to check out and I was interested in it because it just seemed, you know, like the ATEM had barely come out and the ATEM was amazing, just a video switcher.
Speaker 1:So it was like okay, it's like a, the video switcher is a screen kind of thing. Oh, that's cool, but wait, it can do more. Like it can record, it can stream directly from here, you can pop up little bits of graphics. It was, you know, like a little bit. You could sort of tell it was maybe a little bit underpowered for what it needed to do, but it did some stuff that was really cool and it really was interesting to me. And so when I made a video kind of showcasing that, the biggest reaction I got was more confusion from people like how does what? Like confusion. Then I made a follow up video. I mean, they've released so many different products and so many different versions over the years, but I've only done a couple of videos. I did a follow-up video maybe like a year and a half later, and I noticed in that video a lot more people were like oh, but it can also do this. But what about this? But that you know, like it's almost like oh, you forgot to mention this, you forgot to mention that.
Speaker 1:And with the video about the YoloBox Ultra that I just put out, I'm so surprised at the number of people who are it's like testimonials, like oh, I got one, it totally changed my business, like it changed the way that I do everything. It made my life so much easier it can do. It's like I've seen them going from this obscure thing that a lot of people didn't understand to like one of the standard choices that a lot of people it's almost like, especially with something like the Roadcaster video coming out. It's less like should I choose the Roadcaster or the YoloBox? But a feeling I'm getting is like why would I want to choose the Roadcaster over the YoloBox? It's like it has built that level of reputation and that has been a cool thing to see something go from like nobody knows what it is to that and that's really fun. And I feel like, even though I couldn't cover everything that the YoloBox can do in the video, I feel like I did a pretty decent job of covering a lot of the stuff.
Speaker 1:Another video that I just finished editing and have scheduled is a review or review slash, tutorial, overview kind of thing of the Shure MV7i, and this was one that I wasn't sure that I was going to make a video on, but then Shure did reach out and of course they're like hey, yeah, they know the ethics statement and the whole thing. You don't have to make a video. The thing with the MV7i, because I bought the. Yeah, I bought the original MV7 when it came out. Yeah, I bought the original MV7 when it came out because it was like it was a big deal. I remember Shure teasing it. I signed up to be on the like. You know they had a teaser that it looked like an SM7B silhouette but it was teasing USB. So it really made it look like it was going to be a USB SM7B and it wasn't. It was its own thing. But I like signed up to pre-order that like right away, and it was the MV7, which is a good mic. You know the original one had problems with plosives and had the weird micro USB. But even then Heather bought one, which is the mic she uses to this day, cause she got it through color where where she could customize the colors on it. So I'm sure you, if you've seen any of her videos in the past four years, you've seen the microphone. But hers is like purple and blue and white. It's like really, really cool and it sounds awesome. It's been a great microphone. She loves it. So that's the original MV7. And then they did, the MV7X, which was just an XLR version of that. I didn't do a video on that or anything. And then the MV7 Plus came out recently so I did a video on. I bought one and did a video on that because it addressed all of the complaints that I had about the original MV7. It was USB-C, it had better plosive rejection and then they even leveled up the software and the application so you can do better processing and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:And that's actually the mic I've been using in Heather's office. She has her mic on an arm, her MV7, and I have the MV7 Plus in there. So when we do streams or podcasts or whatever in her office together, that's been my main mic in there for every time it used to be. Every time I'd do something I'd have to bring a mic, bring a mic stand, plug it in. That has just been my permanent mic in there for months now and I love it. It's great and it's great having both of.
Speaker 1:So it's the same sound quality, same processing, all that USB-C. So it's basically a USB microphone. It has an XLR port on the back, but the XLR port is an input, not an output. So it by itself is a USB microphone but it's also an XLR interface so you can plug a microphone into the microphone and then the USB connection of the mic's running is what will get it into your computer. So you actually don't need a separate interface or a mixer or a Rodecaster or anything. And it has I forget the exact number 65 decibels of gain, I believe is what it is. It's not as much gain as like the Rodecaster has, but it is. It's not as much gain as like the Rodecaster has, but it is enough to run the SM7B I tested. That has phantom power so you can do condenser microphones you can. You don't need to put in like a Fethead or a Cloudlifter or something, but if you wanted to, you can run that with it. If you really want to boost up another microphone, you can totally do that. So that's a fun video.
Speaker 1:I, um, I tested it out with different microphones. I did the SM7B. I tested out with some condenser microphones with, like the pod mic. I I did my mic comparisons but they're all running through the MV7 plus as the interface, which I think is really cool. I've never seen that before, like a microphone is an interface and it's pretty nifty.
Speaker 1:Um, and I also kind of narrowed down who that might be, for Cause it's $350 microphone, which is a pretty good deal. You get, you know, essentially a two channel. I don't want to say it's like getting a Rodecaster Duo, cause it's not. It relies, you know, on the software to do record. It's not a, it's not, but you get a two channel audio interface plus a good microphone for $350. That's not bad versus like a Rodecaster Duo is 500 bucks and then you need two microphones. But if you're using, the conclusion I had was, if you're using two microphones all the time, you might get a little like it might just ultimately be easier to have like a Rodecaster Duo or even just a more traditional interface. But if it's like, kind of, every once in a while you have a second microphone or you know a co-host for something or whatever, or you need to travel a lot and be ultra portable, it is a very cool option because there's just, you know, you plug a mic into your mic, you plug the mic into the computer and you're done, and I think that's pretty darn cool.
Speaker 1:I did a video also on my favorite mic arms because I've done, you know, tall mic arm reviews in comparison to low profile ones, tabletop stands. But I was like you know what, let me talk about the ones like let me just go through the video, the mic arms that I have, that I, you know it's not. It's like you just make the review and then I never like it when a review is made and the thing is never heard from again. You know it's like, does this actually fit into a workflow? That's the thing. Like I'm usually when it comes to camera reviews, for example, I'm less interested in the cameras being reviewed and more interested in the camera the person's using to film the review. And you know, when someone says like this is game changing, it's revolutionary and it's the best thing ever, and then like they're not, they never use it again. Okay, I mean, there are times when that, when you might just want to share your opinion and contextualize something, but at least then contextualize, like why you think something is great but then why you might not be using it, even though it's awesome, I guess, those kinds of things. So anyway, I wanted to. I have like the, the Elgato arms, the road arms, all the things, and I just kind of went through the ones that I use regularly, the ones that are my favorites and why they're my favorites and what's different about them. So it's a mic arm comparison video, but specifically for the ones that I love and that I use, and that was a really fun video that just kind of popped up. Also, nab.
Speaker 1:So something else has happened. Heather and I went to NAB for the first time last year and we booked all the things to go again this year in April. So NAB is April forget the exact dates. I think it's April 4th through 9th, something like that, in Las Vegas. We will be there the 5th through the 8th, so that should be super fun. I want to make some stuff while we're there. Of course, I don't know what exactly yet. Last year I did like handheld mic comparisons, wireless mic comparisons, because it was the perfect testing ground for that sort of thing. This year I'm not entirely sure. There's a couple of things I'm thinking of that I want to sort of explore and you know, also just have fun.
Speaker 1:Like NAB was just so much fun. I'm super excited to do that. So registration's all open now. I've been trying to work it out to get a promo code so that way you could get to the show floor for free, and they just haven't gotten back to me yet about that. So hopefully they did it last year. I think their system changed a little bit this year, so I don't know if it's as easy to do that as it was in the past. But that was cool Cause you know it's the the admissions not terribly expensive, but $0 versus some dollars is always nice. So, uh, now speaking of gear, let's talk about gear spotlight.
Speaker 1:Uh, something that I made a video on a little while ago, which is the Holly land Lark M two. This is not the new one, this is the um, the one that's been out for a while. It's still barely a year old. Like it is still new. Um. I bought this because so many people had talked about it. I got it a couple of months ago and I love it. Like I completely get the hype.
Speaker 1:Since I've bought this, like, both road and DJI have come out with their own compact mic systems. I did a whole video about that, so you can kind of figure that out. I still think there's a huge place for this, especially the M2, not the M2S, the new one, which is great in its own way or it seems like I haven't used it, it seems cool, but I prefer this one. There's different configurations. The one I got is the one that has not just like the receiver that you can mount on a camera and stuff, but also has the USB and lightning ones for your phones. It comes with all kinds of cool stuff and I actually did set it up. So now you are listening to me on the Hollyland Lark M2, which I know is going to sound very different than the EQ-ed XLR mic I was using.
Speaker 1:It's the I hope my string doesn't mess up there. It's just the thing pinned to the middle of my chest right here, but I figured it'd be kind of fun and I have it running as a USB mic. I just want to make sure these cables I can take off my headphones for now. I just wanted to be able to. I'm talking about the microphone. I figured you might as well be able to hear it. It probably does not sound its absolute best, like as good as it possibly could in this, but being able to just pin the microphone exactly where I want the new one.
Speaker 1:The reason I'm not as into it is because they wanted to make these transmitters even smaller and so they made them clips. So basically like the circle part that's on my chest here would go behind a shirt and then it's almost like a little lavalier mic clips over. So it's it's like a wireless lavalier. That actually kind of the part you see looks more like a traditional lavalier microphone. So it's way more discreet, it's way smaller. That's cool, but that does force you to then clip it to like a collar. It gives you less flexibility with positioning and my favorite thing about this is the flexibility. Since I can't monitor this audio, I am actually going to switch back, see imperfections, just for the sake of anyone who is listening to the audio. Only. I wasn't monitoring the wireless directly. But how small these transmitters are. You get two of them, this system too, like I think the retail price is $179. I've never seen it for that price. I got mine for like 120 bucks and so typically, even though the MSRP is higher than, like, the Rode and the DJI systems which I do both also think are fantastic kind of serve different purposes. The fact that you can usually get this like the full combo kit with all the accessories and stuff for less than that, significantly less than that, significantly less than that sometimes, I think, just makes it such a killer deal.
Speaker 1:And with the new one coming out, I just happened to release the video. I think I told you this. I happened to release the video for this on the day that the new one was released and announced Total coincidence. I have no idea. That's just a thing that happened. I'd made the video like three weeks before and scheduled it and like it was just coincidence. And weeks before and scheduled it and like it was just coincidence, and so a bunch of people like, oh, this is the old one.
Speaker 1:You talk about the new one. It's like, well, first they're, they're separate products, they. They kind of have separate design, separate purposes. But I really think that there is the tendency to then go towards we got to get the new one. The new one's better for a lot of people, I think the old, the year old one is still probably the way to go.
Speaker 1:So, ultimately, I just wanted to point out that this thing is just an awesome value. Even with the newer things from Rode and DJI, I think that the Hollyland still stands out because the versatility of being able to just pin things wherever you need them. The price it's the thing that I've found myself using most. Even though I prefer the sound quality of the Rode, I prefer the Sony integration, the build quality of the DJI You'll notice in videos. I use this a lot, especially if I just need to put like a mic on a t-shirt or something. So I just wanted to spotlight this gear here, the the Hollyland Lark M2.
Speaker 1:And now we can move on to listener messages, of which we've got quite a feast for the senses this week. We've got video, we've got audio, we've got text. That's everything right. What more could you want? So we're actually gonna start off with a video message. If you ever want to send a video message, a simple way to do it is just email Tom at enthusiasmprojectcom, where you can just send it as like a link or whatever. That's the easiest way to do it and then I just put it in my keynote presentation. So this is a video from John. John has a really good question about video quality.
Speaker 3:Hi, tom, hope you're doing really well. My question is this, and this is something I've always wondered so I record all of my YouTube videos on my Sony A7 IV, which is then connected via a HDMI cable into an Elgato Cam Link 4K and then that is connected into my computer and then I record everything straight into OBS. So my question is and something I've always wondered does it make a difference if you record onto your camera, onto the SD card and then transfer that file, or if you record through the camera into OBS? Do you lose any quality? Do you lose any of the settings? It's just something I've always wondered and I've searched the internet for it and I can't seem to find an answer for it. So yeah, just wondering is there absolutely any difference whether you record onto the camera on the SD card and then transfer it, or if you record straight onto, straight through the camera, into OBS? Just wondering if there's any difference whatsoever and if there's, you lose any quality or anything like that Cool.
Speaker 1:Thank you, john, for that question. That is a great question and it's something it's like. Speaking of Heather, we have very different workflows. I typically other than this podcast or you know, other specific things where I'm using, like the Rodecaster video or something for most of my regular videos that are in 4k, I record everything internally to my cameras. No-transcript. I'm speaking generally because I don't want to get too into the weeds where someone's going to pull out like charts and measurement things or whatever.
Speaker 1:In general, especially with the setup you mentioned, cam Link 4K into, you know, obs, ecamm, whatever. There should not be any difference. Once you dial in your settings and you get, you know, the frame rates matching, you get the resolutions matching of your, especially with Sony cameras, because there's the resolution they record in, then there's the HDMI resolution they output and then you go into your computer and it's you got to change the settings for the input and once everything's matched up and working, there really shouldn't be any difference. Now I do notice, you know, if I record 3040 minutes to my camera's memory card, that file will be. I don't know 3540 gigabytes. If I record this whole podcast into Ecamm Live, I guess this isn't 4k. But even when I do 4k stuff, then the files may be like 11 gigabytes. So there's obviously something there in terms of, like, it's making smaller file sizes, probably using different bit rate. I don't know. I'm sure somebody could get a tech microscope and look that like, oh, these aren't exactly the same quality. But for anybody like, you're using decent capture cards, you're using decent HDMI cables, your settings are right, there really shouldn't be any difference. There are all those variables right With HDMI outputs and capture cards and settings and software. But in this case which I love that this is the example like a Sony mirrorless camera into a cam link into the computer, you should totally be good to go. So there could be somebody out there. I do want to note who knows more about this and could say, like your colors or your bit depth or something are getting reduced in quality. And if you have that kind of info I'd be you know feel free to share it with us so we can all learn. But I think for practical purposes it's completely fine.
Speaker 1:If you look at Heather's videos, you know that she's been doing in 4k. They look phenomenal and her live streams look phenomenal. I can't tell any difference in quality between those and the ones that I record internally to the memory cards. The reason I do internally to memory cards? Because I usually do multiple cameras and multiple 4k switchers are, as we know, not really a thing currently, so it's just easier to just record internally. And then I have been imperfect and made enough mistakes that having the dual memory cards of the cameras is really nice for backup purposes.
Speaker 1:So just for my specific workflow, currently that's what I do, but this is being recorded through the RODECaster video into Ecamm, so it's definitely you know there's what I do, but there's there's. This is being recorded direct through the Rodecaster video into Ecamm, so it's definitely. You know there's other ways to do it. Yeah, so I think that's, I think that's the way to do it, and some not everything needs to be 4k either. You know, like this podcast does not need to be 4k. Some videos I make don't need to be 4k. So in those, especially with, like the RODECaster video being able to record to an SSD or or something like you know, ecamm being able to record, that's usually like more than fine. Ecamm does have 4k recording capabilities as well. I should be super clear about that.
Speaker 1:So thank you, john, for your message. Up next we have a voice message and this is going to be a message from, from Jack. This is a very specific question that I actually don't necessarily know jack about. So, um, jack submitted this using speakpipe. You can go to hi. My name is tomcom. There's just a thing right there. It says leave a message for the podcast. You can send it in. So let's hear jack's question. This is something I might actually be relying on community help solve.
Speaker 2:You're the closest I can get to, but you know there are lots of imperfections here.
Speaker 1:I had this audio clip rolled all the way back to the beginning and I pressed play and it just jumped to the middle of the clip, so I jacked it up. Okay, anyway, here we go.
Speaker 2:Hey, Tom, thanks for listening, listening in advance. My name is Jack. I've got a podcast called Just Add Jack. You might want to check it out, but that's not what I'm calling you for, Tom. I've got a Rodecaster Pro and I've downloaded the ELMC. We did a video on this about three years ago. But when I go down to the bottom for the input, the Rodecaster's not showing up as a source to actually get the MIDI buttons to listen to. I've turned the MIDI on and they were MIDI on the Rodecaster Pro. They cannot get any help anywhere on the internet. You're the closest I can get to, but it doesn't sync up. The ELMC is not recognizing the Rodecaster Pro. Any ideas would be really helpful. Thanks so much.
Speaker 1:Bye-bye. Thank you, jack, for that question, so I will share everything I know, which admittedly, isn't much when it comes to MIDI, but maybe there's someone out there listening who knows a lot. If there is, feel free to send in a solution. This is almost like one of those help desk episodes right when we dive into deeper tech support issues and things, or you know if this is like on if you're watching the YouTube version, leave a comment however you want. If you have the answer, get us the answer so that we can share it. What Jack is talking about, I have my original Rodecaster on the workbench behind me here.
Speaker 1:Several years ago, rode came out with a firmware update that allowed you to use the sound pads as MIDI triggers, which is very cool. So you could do all kinds of different things with those, including camera switching. So that was kind of cool. I tinkered around with it and did a video on it that showed that you could like you could use the pads on the Rodecaster Pro to like switch scenes in Ecamm, almost like a stream deck, which is pretty cool. Programming it incredibly difficult and it's something that like. It worked and it was a cool proof of concept for me, but it was such a slog to figure out that I just never wanted to deal with it again. Fortunately, though, rode did really embrace the fact that people liked that, and when the Rodecaster Pro 2 and the Rodecaster Duo came out, they actually incorporated MIDI a little more natively and a little more functionally.
Speaker 1:So something I will do which you know, jack, sound like you've scoured the whole internet, so this is probably something you've already seen, but just in case it's not, is in the show notes for this or the description for this, I will put a link to Rhodes user manual on using MIDI control. So this is everything on how to use MIDI control. They cover using it with DAWs, they cover using it for switching scenes and cameras and streaming software. They kind of cover a little bit of everything, and this is article that I'm looking at, which is currently on their website. Still, that I'm looking at, which is currently on their website. Still, a lot of it is geared, still, towards the original RODECaster Pro, so should cover just about everything, and every RODECaster you have should be covered here, but there are a lot of caveats and compatibility. It's just like it was one of those things where it's a cool feature, but I don't know that it really should be even advertised as a thing, because I, like you, kind of need to be someone which it sort of sounded like you were with your knowledge. You need to be someone who's familiar with this stuff before you can to jump into it, because it's just too crazy and it's such not my area of expertise and I'll just admit it. Admit it that, yes. So jumping into email we've got an email comment here.
Speaker 1:This question is from Clark and Clark says my question is about handling. Actually, I should be clear. This was a question sent for the Q&A episode that I received like an hour after I recorded the Q&A episode, so I wanted to make sure to include it here. Clark said my question is about handling noise on the Rode PodMic and the Rodecaster Pro 2. I get a lot when we record using these mics and I can't seem to lessen it, no matter what settings I use. I see loads of podcasts that use these mics and people are handling them during the recording and there's no noise picked up. I've tried several different XLR cables but always have issues, regardless of what pod, mic cable and port I plug into. Any suggestions what I could be doing wrong or how I could eliminate handling noise. This is a really good question because it can be frustrating. I'm glad you troubleshooted troubleshot everything, including the cables, because that's always the first thing when you're dealing with a mic where things are sounding weird. Sometimes it's a cable being loose or cable being funky can really be the culprit for that. So I guess I should be clear when talking about the pod mic.
Speaker 1:The pod mic is definitely not meant to be a handheld microphone. It can be handheld and I could reach over and grab a pod mic real quick. It has a yoke to it. So sometimes when you see people holding these, if you hold the pod mic by the microphone body, it's supposed to have built-in shock mount, shock rejection. I found that to be a little bit iffy, you know, and if it's mounted it's a mic that really is meant to be mounted on a boom arm or a mic stand or whatever. If you're grabbing the mic body itself, it has nowhere near the shock rejection as something like the Shure SM7B does. The yoke that is built in and attached to the mic does help reduce some of that. So a lot of times you'll see people if they're holding a PodMic by hand, they'll be holding it by the yoke, kind of as like a makeshift handle, and that definitely does help a lot, but it's still going to pick up some handling noise there. I'm not sure why in your case you're not getting the results that you're seeing from other people, Because I've held PodMics myself, your case you're not getting the results that you're seeing from other people, because I've held pod mics myself. I've seen other people hold them by hand and have it sound fine.
Speaker 1:A couple things just to keep in mind, which you know maybe would be helpful If they're not helpful to you, maybe it'd be helpful to somebody else is, when you're holding a mic like this, being very aware of how you're moving it, every bit of movement, could you know the cable, sometimes the cable it's not the cable's bad, but the cable bumping up against something that can introduce noise. Sometimes, if you're you know you're just sort of grabbing the microphone, the yoke and the mic in one hand, then you have all kinds of shock transfer happening here. But if you grab the microphone and you just hold it like you basically put Kung Fu grip on it and don't let it go, this is good mic technique for any handheld microphone, even ones that are like designed to be that way, the more that if you're kind of like squeezing in your hand, sort of moving around the microphone or you're kind of rumbling it, all those little things can get picked up. But if you just kind of hold it and you're very careful not to move anything on it, then the microphone won't pick up as much handling noise. And that you know. I don't know if I don't know that this is a mic technique situation, but those are the first things that I look for. And then you know, additionally, like I said, the PodMic is designed to be mounted on a stand or a boom arm or something. It can be handheld because you can do anything with anything, but that is not, definitely not its strength. That's not what it was designed to do specifically.
Speaker 1:But that's a good question. I'm sorry I didn't get to include that in the Q&A episode. Next question this is a very interesting one New viewer to your YouTube channel and podcast. This was one that I left out of the Q&A as well. I have two questions for consideration. No worries if they don't make the cut. There we go.
Speaker 1:First question how do you feel about faint background music with instructional videos on YouTube? I'm a software engineer with over 20 years experience and want to make videos talking about software and technology. I'm curious if adding some subtle background music during the demo parts would keep help maintain the flow during those parts of the video or our background music typically better with adventurous or fun videos and too distracting for instructional learning content. Curious if this is something you've looked into. That is such a good question. If you watch my channel, you'll notice that I would say going back 18 plus months ago, pretty much every video had background music in it and more recently, very few videos have background music.
Speaker 1:Sometimes that's a really practical purpose, like if I'm doing a mic review or a mic comparison, I don't want background music because it's gonna cover up the sound. So me specifically, a lot of times if I'm talking about audio gear, I want people to hear the audio gear and if there's music playing, even at a low level, it could kind of muddy that up a little bit. And sometimes on mic reviews I will put music at the beginning and then when we dive into the actual thing, I won't add music anymore and I always have music at the end, like the thank you end screen for the videos. There's always the same song playing there but in the videos sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. Sometimes I'll go like I did a how to start podcasting video recently which had like or no, no, sorry, I did that video and I did the same thing there. But I also did a misconceptions about podcasting video. That was like eight podcasting misconceptions and I decided not just to have background music music in it but to have a different background song for each section of the video, so all eight sections of the actually it was and then the intro and the conclusion. So it was like I had to go searching for video.
Speaker 1:Music is really hard to do and I made myself have to search for 10 different songs for this one video instead of just one background song. So sometimes I go way in that direction or I just say like, no background music. I don't really think there's a right or wrong, but there's definitely things to keep in mind and it depends on your audience, it depends on your niche. The reason I stopped using it a lot is sometimes I was just like having I've used so many songs over so many years from like both Artlist and Epidemic, which are the services that I use, and they add new songs all the time, but it's like the ones that work really well for background stuff, that have the vibe that I want. Sometimes I'm just like, oh, I could spend another 45 minutes trying to find the right song, or I could just not have music in this one, and so sometimes that's what I do, even if I would actually prefer having music in that one.
Speaker 1:The other thing, though, is Heather, who's just come up a lot in this video. It's almost like I like her or something. She watches a lot of content at like faster speeds, at 1.5X or 2X, and if you have background music and someone's, if you have background music on when the video is being sped up, the background music can then sound really weird and get distracting. That was something that, like my initial thought of that was well, if someone wants to like, I'm not making my video to be to intentionally be enjoyed, enjoyed, to intentionally be viewed at double speed, like. If someone wants to do that, that's fine, but, like, I'm making it to be watched and listened to the way that it is, and that's what I want to focus on. So if I want music, then I'm going to have music. If that sounds bad because someone's trying to blast through the video, well so be it. But you know it is something, especially when you're doing educational content, where people might you know they want all the info, but maybe they are on a time crunch or something. I try to keep that in mind.
Speaker 1:But the thing I noticed so that was a big reason why I stopped including music a lot was I was thinking of people watching at higher speeds and the music sounding strange. But what I noticed with myself was I would watch long videos, like sometimes 45 minute videos or more, that had background music, and maybe I'd even be watching them at a slightly higher speed and it didn't bother me at all. And, if anything, I actually liked the music because it created a tone, right. It creates a vibe, it creates a feel, and so I have been more recently incorporating music a little bit more back in because it does that's kind of the point right, it does help create a feel, it does help create a tone and a vibe that you know maybe you want, help create a feel, it does help create a tone and a vibe that you know maybe you want. And so I do it on a case by case basis.
Speaker 1:I don't think that just because something is educational means it shouldn't have music. I just you know the music obviously shouldn't be distracting. If you know for a fact that 90% of the people that watch this, these videos, are going to be watching them at higher speeds, that might be worth considering not including music, but otherwise it's kind of you know what's up to you, the last question you had. You had a second question, though, which is what's the story behind the Enthusiasm Project name, and that's a funny one. I had to have told this at some point, but that used to be the name of the YouTube channel, and the original idea of the YouTube channel was that I wanted to do almost like short documentary pieces on people who were spending their time, Because I believe time is your most valuable resource in life and you don't have infinite amounts of it. So it's really cool to me when people spend their time, whether it's a job or something they just do on their own, doing things they're really enthusiastic about, whether it's a job or something they just do on their own, doing things they're really enthusiastic about.
Speaker 1:So I wanted to do like these little profile pieces on artists, musicians, business people, like whatever, like someone just doing something they're really enthusiastic about. I wanted to share that so that other people would see it and other people might feel motivated and going like, hey, I wanna do that too. And I had everything planned out Keep in mind, I was a full time teacher at the time too, and everything planned out. I even had people like that was like asking to be parts of it and trying to figure things out, and very quickly started to realize, okay, you know, this isn't just like I'm going to bring someone in on like a remote, you know podcast interview, but like I want to go. This is pre having done any YouTube.
Speaker 1:I was not someone who was in front of a camera. I wanted to go make like little documentary kind of profile things, and the logistics just got to me of trying to schedule stuff out. It was like I could make one video every couple of months maybe, and that was just. And then it's, like you know, in summer breaks. As a teacher I would have more time. During the school year It'd be even harder. And it was like do I film? Do I just film a bunch of stuff during the summer and just edit it throughout the school year so I can make new videos, while I can't don't have time to go film it.
Speaker 1:And then I was like you know what, if I'm in, if I'm in videos and the videos I'm making aren't big projects that need to take a long time, I can make a video. I'm the limiting factor. I can make videos every day if I want to, which I did at first. And then I thought like well, I really like this name and I can just sort of share things I'm excited about and, hopefully, my enthusiasm for those things. Me projecting my enthusiasm will, you know, be a positive thing and help other people be excited and understand different stuff too, before I kind of like decided that I did want to focus more on audio video production. I was a little timid to do that at first because I thought who am I to be talking about this stuff? But that is kind of like one of the main things I'm interested in the world. So it just naturally took over, but prior to the YouTube channel, so that's 2017.
Speaker 1:In 2010 is when I originally had the idea, and it's just because enthusiasm is like one of my favorite words, one of my favorite qualities. It's something that I think is hugely positive. I think it was Conan O'Brien said when you're enthusiastic, you can conquer the world. I believe that a thousand percent. And so, way back in, you know, 2010 or whenever it was, I originally was going to start a blog. It was the same idea, the same concept as what the YouTube channel was supposed to be.
Speaker 1:But in 2010, it was going to be a blog, and so I, like I had the whole WordPress site and everything, but it, you know, never really went anywhere. And so I, just when it came time to make the YouTube channel that I actually decided I'm going to go for this. I was like I have this, finally, my idea can live. And then it changed and then now it's podcast. So you know, that's, that's how the world works, right, that's how that's sort of how it goes.
Speaker 1:Anyway, that is actually our last question. So that brings us to the end of this episode. Hope you got something out of that. Appreciate you bearing with. You know, schedule changes as they happen, like I mentioned before, doing video versions does take longer in a lot of ways, and so sometimes, if schedules aren't working out, it's a little more difficult to suddenly decide to like crank one out. You know, like I can't just come in and press record and talk, talk, talk, like I need to plan things out and there's a little bit more of a workflow and a little bit more of a process, and sometimes, when other things in life happen, that's the thing. If I can't do it well the way I want to do it, I would rather wait than just force it. So, um, that's there. I hope I don't know I think.
Speaker 1:I think it brings us to the end Talking about so many different things I can't even remember. I need like an outro sheet here, but if you want to, if you want to do something, feel free to leave a comment. You can click the fan mail link If you're listening in the show notes right at the top of the description, and of course, you can go to hi. My name is tomcom, Leave a voice message for the show or just send. Really appreciate you listening. Hope you enjoy this. Hope you have a safe, happy, healthy, fun rest of your week and I'll see you next time.
