Video Delays Update
Added 2019-01-11 16:22:32 +0000 UTCI feel compelled to kind of give a run down of why videos have been delayed recently. I was thinking about making a update video about this but I decided I wanted to lay this out in text so I don't miss anything.
I think I've started to hit a point where I'm trying to push myself too hard to make heavily produced videos but then run out of time to meet my schedule to do that and end up making a half baked rushed video that looks like I put in no effort at all. I have all these ideas and plans for videos that seem daunting to execute in a week and I run out of time to do them and just make something that is a shadow of my concept or delay the video seemingly indefinitely. I have a bunch of video concepts that have been in the back of my mind for months as "I can't wait to get ahead on videos so I can start this with more time!" but I never can gain enough ground to start them.
So, here is how I can kill an entire week by working on videos without recording a single thing.
This week I was starting on pt2 of the MT-200 video. On the face, a simple video, all I need to do is demo it playing MIDIs. But I also wanted to show it being used to record MIDIs which meant writing a short song, what some of the features are it has, some of the cool sounds it can make are, and the differences of what kinds of MIDIs it can play. It took more research about using the device, getting more MIDIs that show it off, converting them(which is a process I want to document the how and why on), and making disks. So a simple concept kept expanding.
I was also given some suggestions on the floppy drive and getting a replacement working. I ended up going through all of my 1.44MB drives looking at each one's capability to be changed from DS1 to DS0, but none of them worked in the MT-200. I have two Sony drives that are fairly popular to mod to put in an Amiga 500 though. The process for that is more involved so I thought there was a possibility it could be related. So I spent some time learning about that and attempting the mod on both sony drives. Neither one worked in the MT-200 but were visibly closer to working because it could detect that a disk was in the drive at least. After a lot more searching around though I couldn't find any more info on it. I know someone put a Gotek in one, but I gave up on it before I thought to look at how and moved on to the next thing.
The problems I had recording this part in the last video were all related to audio so I decided to change how I was recording audio for this video. I need a voice mic, line recording, and my area mics which is at least five audio channels. That meant multi-track recording. Trying to set that up broke everything on my mac that I normally use for audio. And I never got it working right on my desktop despite it's overkill CPU power and a lot of effort. I did manage to get the mac fixed but still not working for multi-track recording. I ended up wasting a lot of time in the pursuit of coming up with a new way to record audio like that to save me some time in editing later. In the past I've done something similar, but recorded in a way that meant multiple takes, hardware mixing, and a lot of editing to line up all the audio. I think I need to go back to that less optimal process until I can buy a proper dedicated multichannel recording device. In theory, a computer should definitely be able to handle it, but in practice it has been nothing but a nightmare for me.
Yesterday it was clear the MT-200 video would not be done in time and I decided that I should try coming up with some really short videos that require minimal research and production that I could film multiple of in one day. This would buy me some time for the bigger videos. So I grabbed a few of my calculators and sat down to try writing some scripts for ~5m videos about each of them. Well I only got one video scripted because I ended up taking about an hour to script a minute worth of video. Then when I was done I realized that I had pretty much just written a regular video but since it was scripted it would flow more quickly.
I think mentally for me, I have to convey something of significance in a video for me to be happy with it. I can't just grab something, start recording, and gab for an hour until I get enough phrases I can stitch together for a video. I don't have a problem with those types of videos and I do enjoy watching some of them. I just can't make them it seems. It's why I don't want to review games, I have nothing of worth to say about them. In this regard I really like The 8 Bit Guy's videos, because I think he is similar. He doesn't have a release schedule, he just puts out videos he's happy with when they are ready. I think I would like that workflow more, but that it's not conducive to growing a small channel. I feel I need to keep throwing out new stuff to grab the attention of as many new people as possible.
So that's where I am right now. I feel like I'm stuck between wanting to produce high quality content, but should be trying to get more lower effort stuff out instead. But that I have a difficult time making intentionally lower effort content. I'm not sure what the solution is going forward, but I think at least addressing this and being aware of it could help me in some way.
Comments
The repair videos like that are my second favourite type of video to make. (My favourite are pure creative videos like the ATX2PCjr series where I made the video's subject). It's hard to find things that are the right amount of broken to repair in a video like I do. An I have a tendency to seek out broken stuff. I am trying to find a balance. I know I 'm reaching really high here with the types of videos I'm trying to make. It would be a lot easier if I had let myself have more of a "computer on chair" period. The way my brain works though, I'm not happy unless I've had to put a level of effort into the video that challenged me. So I am subconsciously always pushing myself. Doing this has had some benefits, the research I've done to make videos has helped me learn a lot more about some topics that has helped me come up with other ideas for more videos. My perfection problem I think usually stems from not knowing what to cut in a video. I end up making some videos too big in scale. Like for the MT-200 video, most people who want to just play MIDIs from a floppy probably don't want to record themselves playing a keyboard. I should probably cut the keyboard part. It's still something I want to do though, but I don't think that alone could hold up on it's own as a video, and it would end up meaning there are 4 parts to that video. I don't know if people would be annoyed by so many videos on one thing. I'm really bad at accepting compliments, but thank you. I hope I offer a unique perspective on this stuff and that my videos get better at showing it. I spend a lot of time on my workflow, I think I should spend less time on it and more money instead. I have a habit of trying to use low quality stuff far beyond what I should. Like Blender, I love Blender it's an amazing 3D modeling program. But I didn't know how much its video editor was holding me back until I switched to Davinci Reslolve. Getting the BMPCC4k as a real video camera had similar revelations. So identifying the areas of significant strain and looking for upgrades I think may be an important step for me now.
Tech Tangents
2019-01-13 15:26:43 +0000 UTCSpeaking just for myself, I think the reason I subscribed/pledged was because I enjoyed watching the macro soldering shots and your circuit-board tours. I also love and collect retro hardware, so it was like, “this guy is cool, he can do all the soldering work I wish I could do, he knows what all these chips do, he clearly knows what he’s doing, and he’s explaining what he’s doing.” So while the videos that are MOST satisfying are when you 1. show a broken thing, 2. diagnose it, 3. repair it and 4. show it working again, I would gladly watch videos that are any combination of the above, because I can either geek out over a piece of retro hardware or watch you diagnose/repair it. Both awesome. I think you can count any of these as “quality content” for YouTube. What you’ve done so far is excellent, and far surpasses your peers when their channels were in their infancy. If you go back to really old LGR videos, for example, I mean that guy literally sat a computer on an ugly chair and talked about it, and it was awesome and we loved it because we knew HE loved it. Vwestlife bought a box of light bulbs at a dollar store, and that’s a video I watched. This is all ultimately a mental game warped by the comments you read on these platforms. It’s much easier to be an editor than a reporter. Self-criticism can push you to be your best, or it can cripple you. David Foster Wallace said, “If your fidelity to perfectionism is too high, you never do anything.” You’re the Bob Ross of calculators. You have a super advanced skillset. This skill is like anything else — you will figure out the workflow that works for you. Keep uploading videos, and people will keep watching.
J.R. Williams
2019-01-13 01:19:01 +0000 UTCI would say it's more of the second, which is still the first like you said. I would really love for this to be my job, I enjoy the entire process of making videos. I don't really care how many subscribers I have as far as some sense of satisfaction. To me it is just a number. Sometimes that number could meant YT thinks my channel is doing well and send me something. But it's hard to not look at the numbers as a whole an make inferences from them. A couple months ago I missed a video and it went more that a week between videos. After that views on my channel rapidly died off and the ad revenue is now nearly 40% of what it was then. So there seems to be a direct correlation to video frequency and how much people watch/YT recommends my videos. I've heard that you just make more on ads in the build up to the holidays, so maybe it's all in my head. I don't know. It feels like I made a mistake though. I know consistent quality content is the #1 recommended guide to success on YT. I feel like I have the quality down when I have enough time. It's just meeting the consistent part that is a challenge for me right now. I keep thinking it will get easier the more I do and it's at least partially true. The more resources and experience I build up the easier it gets. For a while I had a pretty good groove but then I lost it when I got the new camera and my workflow reset. It's not the camera's fault. It's just a new thing I need to learn and get comfortable with. Like today I tried to record the calculator video I mentioned. I tried to make my editing super easy this time and use a new lapel mic. But at some point the camera decided it was a line in instead and recorded nothing for a few clips. I didn't notice, I should have been watching the levels. So I have a couple clips with no audio I need to re-record now. Along those lines, a big hurdle for me right now is my lack of dedicated filming area. I just don't have the space I need to work really. It can take me 30m just to get ready to film because it's not just for that. That kind of went on longer than I meant for that part. I guess I really do need to "play the game" more with YT. I added the ending labels in the video that shows you can support the channel on Patreon. But I've never really addressed it directly. I have a hard time doing that, I have mentioned that before. I think I just need to get over it and start mentioning it directly. Just decide on having a standard vocal outro in addition to what I usually do and see how it goes. It's absolutely not stepping on my toes. Sometimes you can miss the forest for the trees and get blinded to big things by trying to hard. Maybe I do just also need to take a step back and breath over this. You speak English far better than I could ever hope to speak German! You made perfect sense to me!
Tech Tangents
2019-01-11 23:19:32 +0000 UTCSo, the question is: Why do you want your channel to grow fast? Is it to reach a broader audience or are you trying to make this a full-time job? If it's the first: The audience will come and stay, only because of the quality. Look at some admittedly crazy examples like GradeAUnderA or JonTron (yeah, I know they aren't tech realted) both still have a huge subscriber count, although both had times where they hadn't realeased new videos for months. If they occasionally released a new video, people knew what to expect, because the quality of the content never suffered. The same is true for The 8-Bit Guy, or The Post Apocalyptic Inventor. If it's the second (or a combination of both): Tell people about your Patreon, I think you never really did that. I became a patreon of your channel because I searched for it, I liked your content (still do, don't get me wrong) and I wanted to support you. You said it yourself, that you like the way The 8-bit Guy is doing his videos, then go for it. Don't try to improve the quality of your content, while trying to beat a 1 video per weak deadline. There is a proverb in Germany: "Man kann nicht auf 2 Hochzeiten tanzen", which I'd loosely translate to "you can't dance on 2 weddings at the same time". Hopefully I didn't step on your toes, I'm aware that my way of making a point is sometimes "harsh". Best greetings from Germany - Oskar and please excuse grammar mistakes
Das Osi
2019-01-11 22:37:22 +0000 UTC
