For the most part, I thought the tutorial was excellent.
Having seen you interviewed and speaking extemporaneously in other videos, I thought your style of speaking came across as natural, but reasonably fluent, without sounding too stilted or scripted. In other words, you sounded genuine, which carries a LOT of currency in communication.
There are a couple of specific things that (I feel) need attention:
Be careful with speech mannerisms that don’t add any descriptive value to the dialogue, like the repeated use of the word “actually”.
The explanation of what the compressor is doing (2:00 - 2:05) is confusing, because it uses the terms “harder” and “lighter” in a contadictory manner…
…I mean, I know what effect you are describing because I have a lot of experience using compressors, but I was putting myself in the shoes of someone who is not already familiar with the concept…“what is it doing? Is it compressing harder or lighter? I’m confused!”
…but overall, nice work… I think it is very important that you retain your sense of self and your own personality in these presentations. In a crowded marketplace where everybody wants to do “me too”, sometimes the best thing you can do is stick to your guns and be yourself, because nobody else can do that as well as YOU can!
I think it is very important that you retain your sense of self and your own personality in these presentations. In a crowded marketplace where everybody wants to do “me too”, sometimes the best thing you can do is stick to your guns and be yourself, because nobody else can do that as well as YOU can!
Well said Andrew. Case and point…
This is still one of the funniest “tutorials” I have seen. Nicely done Mr. Boz.
AND… more on the number 432…
This happens to be the root of… 186624
And now we can reveal the LOWDOWN of 186624…
186624 is an even composite number. It is composed of two distinct prime numbers multiplied together. It has a total of sixty-three divisors. (SOUNDS OF JAWS DROPPING…)
For more amazement, see this link…
Being a few years into making YouTube videos, I have also struggled with inflection, emphasis, quality of voice, scripts and no scripts. Having watched the video a couple of times, here’s my two eurocents worth:
I used to work with scripts early on. When I listened back to those videos, I hated the sound of them. I could practically hear my eyes following the words. For me it was completely unnatural sounding and stiff. So now I work with crib notes, and I just talk as if I’m explaining it to an actual person sitting in front of me.
To start the video, I would possibly have the drums (or other track) playing. It wouldn’t necessarily have to be with the Loud Relief turned up, but it would give the viewer an instant feeling that something was happening.
For 3 minutes and 15 seconds, a single view of the plugin isn’t dynamic enough. Some simple zoom in’s to the knobs that you’re moving, to the waveform, would really help the viewer to understand what you are doing.
I too have a tendency to just talk. I’ve started to get really critical of how long I take to say something. If it takes 2 sentences to say it, use 2 sentences.
I love that you simply show how the settings work in the plugin. Personally I am done with watching a close up of some guy’s face, which he’s changing settings on his computer. I just can’t see the point of that picture in picture stuff when I’m watching settings being changed. Overall I really liked the video, it’s the kind of stuff I can watch all day because it’s somebody showing me how to do things that will make my music better!
This may be a small thing, and it may just be me but I think the years now of watching youtube videos starting off with, “hey guys” has come to me now as being annoying. At the least I think it is unprofessional to a degree. I do like when a tutorial is coming to you as a simple and down to earth approach, as if someone is just talking to me, but the second I hear the “hey guys” I picture the countless people on youtube who do some kind of how-to on a computer tutorial.
You know what really bugs me about this whole thing? There’s this guy who does tons of VI reviews, and he has this inflection that really rubs me the wrong way. It sounds like he’s trying really hard to sound emotional about things, and I can’t listen to his reviews because of it.
Then I listen back to my tutorials, and I do the exact same thing. Almost exactly. Kills me. Maybe if I spoke with a british accent, it would be better. I’ll study Dick Van Dyke’s accent in Mary Poppins as a good example.
How do you open up 2 instances of Reaper? Are you doing that on PC or Mac? I can’t seem to open more than one instance on Windows. I know old version of Windows used to let you do this with some programs, but most on newer versions of Windows direct you to the already open app window when you try to launch the program.
I don’t see File->new window (I have Reaper installed on Windows 7). I see File->new project tab, but that just creates a subproject, it doesn’t appear to do what you’re describing.
Oh, I finally found it under Actions / Show action list / [Filter] File: Spawn new instance of REAPER. Did you turn that into a custom menu for yours or something? I have a custom action for it now, so I can at least get to it.
That’s pretty cool that you can have each one on a different audio device!
First off, the tutorial is pretty good as it is. Your voice is fine. If you’re trying to do a better job of selling your stuff, you need to develop a formulaic approach that is recognizable, and straight to the point and add your personality to the formula. A good sales technique for this is simple:
Give a little background about yourself, then give a very concise description of the problem the plug solves.
Tell the listener what they are going to hear.
Give a brief demo that makes that happen.
Tell the listener what they just heard, and how it solved the problem.
That’s it. You need to be able to do all this in a short period of time for it to be effective. If you’d like to get more into detail, direct them to a more detailed tutorial that follows the same format, feature by feature.
My two bashes about the tutorial are that it takes too long to get to the point, and the demo doesn’t immediately make you think “Oh, that’s what it does”!
If you script it and do the right demo it will take care of itself.
At the least I think it is unprofessional to a degree. I do like when a tutorial is coming to you as a simple and down to earth approach, as if someone is just talking to me, but the second I hear the “hey guys” I picture the countless people on youtube who do some kind of how-to on a computer tutorial. 