Creating video content
2025-05-25
I have started to post more videos on my Youtube channel. In this post I reflect on why I'm doing this and what I'm getting out of it.
What sort of videos am I making
I have started to record synthesizer demonstration videos that show what the machine sounds like and what buttons you have to push to make it sound like that. The video sound is a mix of the direct sound coming out of the synthesizer and some room sound so you can hear the button clicks and it doesn't feel too disembodied. I explain what I'm doing with on-screen titles I add in post-production. There is no voice-over.
What do I get out of making these videos
The reasons for me to make these videos are more or less the same as why I blog.
Sharing: I keep learning new things about synthesizers and it feels good to tell someone about them.
Reflection: Presenting things I've learned reveals gaps in my knowledge which prompts me to dig deeper and learn more myself.
Marketing: These videos will indirectly help make me and my work more visible.
A sense of progress: I usually forget how much I learn each day. Seeing a list of videos reminds me that I have done stuff.
Technique
The production quality is relatively rough. What matters most to me is that the viewer can clearly hear and see what I'm doing. I record using my smartphone mounted on a tripod. The tripod ensures that the picture does not shake.
At first I recorded the room sound on the phone and I used my regular studio audio recorder to record the synth sound. I would then have to combine the two in post-production. I got tired of this extra step so I came up with a way to record a mix of the room sound and the synthesizer sound directly into the phone. I have an old field recorder lying around that can act as a USB audio interface. The field recorder records the room sound with its own microphone and mixes in the synthesizer sound from a feed coming out of my mixer. It's cumbersome to have to plug in the field recorder into the phone every time I record a video but this way the phone video has the final soundtrack from the beginning.
I'm using Final Cut Pro for post production because iMovie wouldn't let me properly align multiple audio soundtracks to the video. Although now that I get the audio right at the time of recording, perhaps I can go back to using iMovie.
Meta-observation: this is the magic of blogging at work; I'm only realizing that maybe I don't need Final Cut Pro anymore because I am writing this post.
Reflection
I've only been putting out these videos for two weeks now but it already gives me things to think about.
Analytics are interesting and distorting
Unlike this blog, which currently has no analytics, Youtube provides all sorts of numbers about how much attention my videos are getting. This is interesting but I'm also wary of it for two reasons.
Firstly, it feels nice if a video gets a lot of views. This is an external motivator for doing work and I think it's better for my mental wellbeing to be internally motivated. If I make a video (or some other work) I'm proud of but that does not get a lot of traction then I don't want to feel bad about that. If the numbers can make me feel good they can also make me feel bad.
Secondly I am wary of becoming too focused on making what "sells". If my video about synthesizer X got more views than the one about synthesizer Y then I should make more videos about X. No. I should share things I find interesting and that I'm excited about.
I will have to learn how to manage the distraction of the numbers.
Making videos is work that displaces other work
Producing videos takes a lot of time. I can easily spend 2 hours making a 3 minute video, even with my very rough production standard. If I'm not careful I won't get to make any music and I spend all my time making synthesizer demo videos.
This is an interesting challenge. I am sure that if I get more experienced and make smart choices, I can make videos quicker. "Smart choices" means not "spending" time savings gained by experience or efficiency improvements by raising the bar of the production standard.
At this stage I can clearly tell that video making is eating into my music output. It's still a new and exciting activity for me. It's less scary than being creative and putting my music out there. And there is an immediate short-term reward of (hopefully) seeing the view counter go up.
I will have to develop a sense of judgment about when and whether to make a video about something or not.
Fine-tuning a demonstration is practice in disguise
Although all these synthesizers are broadly similar, you do have to learn how to use them. That takes practice. When I record a demonstration I end up with a kind of script of what I want to show. Without that script the video becomes too hard to follow. Executing the script is like a kind of rote learning. By recording multiple takes of a demonstration I am practicing operating the machine without noticing it.
Conclusion
I don't know what my video output will be in the long run but I'm glad I started doing this. I blog because I want to share and connect. Video lets me do the same thing but in a different medium, broadening the kind of information and ideas I can share.