The Couple's Table
The Couple’s Table is a weekly livestream podcast hosted by Heather Ramirez and Tom Buck. Join us, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, as long as we both shall podcast and stuff!
The Couple's Table
Upgrading Our Workspace and Content Creation Tools
Is Friday the 13th really unlucky, or just another day to embrace change? Join us, Tom and Heather, as we unpack our latest office upgrades and streaming adventures in this exciting episode of the Couples Table! From the thrill of transitioning from a Mac Mini to a MacBook Pro to settling into the comfort of a high-quality office chair, we share candid stories and technical insights.
Have you ever wondered which wireless mic system reigns supreme? Get the inside scoop as we compare the Rode Wireless Pro and DJI mic systems. Spoiler alert: the DJI mics have won us over with their intuitive design and versatile connectivity options. Along the way, we discuss the intricacies of our setup, including using Stream Decks and dealing with single input interfaces. Plus, hear our thoughts on the reliability of Rode's customer service, even when handling out-of-warranty product issues.
Passion and perseverance in the gaming and creator community are key themes as we dive into personal growth and content creation. Tom shares the excitement of starting a new gaming channel, while we both reflect on the importance of reducing friction in the creative process. Explore the fascinating world of the Elgato prompter's voice mode feature and how it stands up to traditional prompter software. With tech tips, personal anecdotes, and lively discussions, this episode is a must-listen for anyone navigating the ever-evolving landscape of content creation. Tune in now and join the conversation!
🟣 CONNECT WITH HEATHER —
My Vlog Channel: http://www.youtube.com/heatherjustcreate
My Tutorial Channel: http://www.youtube.com/heatherramirez
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/heatherjustcreate
Website: http://www.heatherjustcreate.com
🟣 CONNECT WITH TOM —
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/tombuck
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/sodarntom
Hello and welcome. My name is Tom. And I'm Heather, you're sitting at the Couples Table.
Speaker 2:The Couples Table is a live stream podcast here on this channel. Join us for better or worse.
Speaker 1:For richer or poorer.
Speaker 2:In sickness and in health.
Speaker 1:On yet another totally different streaming. Well, semi-different streaming setup. That is the most comfortable I've been in a stream.
Speaker 2:Did you know, today's Friday the 13th, oh, no, oh.
Speaker 1:I saw someone at the gym wearing a Friday the 13th shirt and I was like, oh.
Speaker 2:I had no idea until this moment. Oh yeah, not that it matters, but I didn't know that it didn't click. Yay, it is time for the couple's table.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and of course more changes.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:Lots of more changes. Actually, I'm going to check and make sure how things are because, yeah, Well, I got to the point.
Speaker 2:I got a little tired of like, oh my God, we have to change it again. But okay, let's check in with the comments. Jeremy Hubbles in the house. Hey y'all, what's up?
Speaker 1:Kat Mulvihill saying hi, hi, hi hi, I just need to change something real quick here. We can still talk about the chat, even if the comments don't pop up on screen.
Speaker 2:Okay, kane travels here. I love starting Saturday with my two favorite creators. It's 6 am in Australia, but my toddler is up, so I get to join. Live, oh, wow.
Speaker 1:I always forget the time difference is so different.
Speaker 2:Morty's here. Oh yeah, what are you doing?
Speaker 1:over here, geesh. No wonder my input was not a high input and things weren't sounding quite right over there you got it now it should be a little bit better.
Speaker 2:I'm just going to keep that we just see streaming, we just have to go on the fly, you know all right audio hotline is in the house. Hey, hey, bailey, what's up? Hey, hey, audio and video are great, says kane, but it's not good enough for tom, so he's fixing it on the fly. We are streaming from a completely different computer. That's the level of change we did this past week.
Speaker 1:Uh, but I think I think we are dialed in oh, I'm, I'm dialed in comfort, comfort.
Speaker 2:Right now I have a new chair he's's got a new chair For the first time.
Speaker 1:This is pretty much the first time I've ever bought like a really nice chair in my life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, triple digit chair.
Speaker 1:Low triple digits yeah.
Speaker 2:I know Office chairs and gaming chairs can be very expensive, as we found out. Yeah.
Speaker 1:But prior to that, my budget, my max budget, was like 60 bucks. So, yeah, this is quite different, yeah.
Speaker 2:But prior to that, my budget.
Speaker 1:My Mac's budget was like 60 bucks. So yeah, this is quite different.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we can talk about all that, yeah, yeah, so we are streaming from. We used to stream off my Mac mini, now we're on a MacBook Pro.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're on your MacBook Pro, because you had you were switching between computers for different things and it was just too chaotic.
Speaker 2:I really tried.
Speaker 1:It really is chaotic and so we actually still now need to rewire everything for the third time, I know, because we'll be pulling out the Mac Mini and you're just going to be using the MacBook. So we got some nice under desk brackets for it to slide it in so the MacBook can be mounted under the desk. It's kind of nice. It will be nice redoing the cables this time, because we're removing a lot. We're not trying to manage what's there.
Speaker 2:We're actually like yeah, there's like, there's a lot of like two you're moving a whole computer setup, yeah exactly, yeah, so open to chair advice. Oh man, what a rabbit hole to go down yeah.
Speaker 1:So I've never um the past, up until I was like teaching the only officers I ever had, or like hand-me-downs for my mom's like work chair. She would get a chair and use it for like 10 years and like here you go, like okay, this is my chair for college, this is my chair.
Speaker 2:I mean same like at work, you just get the chair or the chair well, get public school.
Speaker 1:when started, they didn't give chairs, so you had to bring your own busted chairs.
Speaker 2:You had to bring your own chair.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my first classroom didn't have a chair. They did not provide a chair. They did not provide a chair. Public school baby, what yeah? So then I went to Ikea and I bought a $60 office chair, which I actually I left it in my classroom when I left, so I'm assuming it's still there. And then the maybe like six years later I was like I'm gonna get another chair. They only sold that Ikea chair in white, which I thought was really cool. This was another $60. I bought it and I liked it so much I didn't want to take it to school so I just left it here and that was like my office chair. And then when we got our Corgi Finley, it became his chair.
Speaker 2:It was his office, so yeah I'm sure he's.
Speaker 1:Oh no, he's chewing on a bone right now. If he's not in here, he's just. I will find him just in that room in the pitch black, just in the chair, because that's where he goes um. And then I've been working in here with you, having able to use that chair because of the corg plus. It's a six-year-old, 60 ikea chair, so it's not particularly comfortable and I was like it's time for me to get like a grown-up chair, to be comfy and like look at, look at this, look at my neck, look at this neck support.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, now we're at the point where we sit in the chair for for like a lot of the day.
Speaker 1:I got neck support. I got lumbar support. I got a foot rest if I need it.
Speaker 2:Like if we're not comfortable, that can cause problems. We're at that age where you know yeah. We have.
Speaker 1:Look at me, go, look at this.
Speaker 2:Look at this.
Speaker 1:Bye, yeah, peace.
Speaker 2:This is how he watches YouTube videos.
Speaker 1:That's not true, but then I can be back into work mode and be right.
Speaker 2:Is that your gear of the week?
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:Why wasn't it? You should have just made it the gear of the week it looks like I have ears or something.
Speaker 1:I just have never changed my chair. I always just sit in your chair in here and it is very nice to have a nice chair and this one.
Speaker 1:Well, kat was asking about chairs, yeah, so chair chat here chair chat I was thinking about like, well, why not get one of those crazy gaming chairs that like looks like they're super ergonomic and comfortable and everything I saw, aside from like the good ones get very expensive said that they're really not that comfortable. Like, stick to an office chair over a gaming chair was kind of like the advice I found everywhere, like blogs and youtube channels and stuff, so like, okay, go to office chairs. So I found this one from a brand called voness v-o-n-e-s-s-e. You know classic brand that's been around forever.
Speaker 1:That's like 180 bucks, I think yeah yeah, um, it's nice, it's really nice, and I've been yeah, it's got a leg rest built into it leg rest, that pops out yeah, it's it's like cool like there's a lot of adjustments, yeah the back is mesh, so it's got like airflow.
Speaker 1:The the bottom is not mesh and they have different colors, so they have like I got the white one because I like white, but they have a blue, they have a purple, they have a the seat is a little bit too long for me. Oh, it's got a deep seat.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's deep.
Speaker 1:It's perfect for me. My knees are right where the seat ends.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I feel like, well, I think I mean you know.
Speaker 1:I got these long dancer's legs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, there you go, and you got yours on Amazon. Yeah, easy to install, there you go. Yeah, what chair did Tom get?
Speaker 1:The Vones, which made me laugh because they had a video on the Amazon page that for some reason they like set up video. It just shows someone like using the chair. Had Vanessa Carlton playing in the background.
Speaker 2:Oh, it says gaming chair. Is it a game? I think they make gaming chairs.
Speaker 1:Oh, but it's not. But I was like I think they use the vanessa carlton song because they thought the name sounded like it great chair. Uh, oh, there it is.
Speaker 1:That's the guy okay, so we go here boom there you here it is comes in nifty colors yeah which, like I, was very torn on that teal and I know you would think, why wouldn't you just get that chair? The reason that one is because the the seat is like a fabricy canvasy material oh yeah, you have to look at the seat material as well, and I wanted the, the smooth material. Yeah, and I've had. I liked my white chair that I had before, because it's bright and like I don't know. I liked it.
Speaker 1:But I was really torn, though, on the teal. The teal looks cool and I have a book.
Speaker 2:I'm going to get a copyright claim oh, we better stop that right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so anyway, making my way downtown.
Speaker 2:In this chair I can play that song Nice. On the keyboard I can't.
Speaker 1:Your keyboard's right over there. It's busted out.
Speaker 2:All right, here we go, guys. Let's see Careful the back of the chair doesn't ruin the green screen. Sounds like an office recliner. Tom's sound changed in that scene. Yeah, Tom just lost his mic.
Speaker 1:Oh, it probably wasn't added in that scene. Yeah, yeah, because we had to do something very different with the mics, um, because of the streaming setup. So that was one of the things we had to change. You might notice I'm not using an xlr microphone, I'm using a usb microphone.
Speaker 1:Oh, my god, you know what I would, never, would have noticed yeah, you might notice, well, in fact I am using a usb microphone in fact, uh, because one of the things we changed.
Speaker 1:So, heather, trying to get good looking 4K on here, we have settled on of the capture cards we have the Streamer X being the best choice to get good looking 4K. Streamer X is also an awesome audio interface, like it's basically got the preamps of the Rodecaster built right in, but Heather was using the Vocaster, the two input thing over over here, just so that the one hour a week we're doing the couple's table I can come and plug in a microphone. It's like it was whole second interface for this thing that happens one hour a week. I know it's, I know it's a priority, it's an important show, but it's like you have an unused perfect interface right there and so we tested it out like which. I kind of for some reason, mixing usb xlr has always been weird to me, so I was like let's just try. If I plug in a usb mic to your computer, can we add the usb mic as a source?
Speaker 1:so you're on streamer x as a source in ecam. I'm on usb. I think I got a little loud there. I'm on usb as a source in ecam and I think it's fine, but it's new. So when you switch to the other scene, my USB mic wasn't in that scene and yeah. So anyway, that limits my choices of mics I can use on the couples table. I can only be USB mics now. Usb capable mics. That'll be interesting. That will be interesting.
Speaker 2:But you have so many.
Speaker 1:I have a lot of USB mics, so that'll be fun. It'll be a lot of mics that probably don't get used as often, so I'm actually looking forward to it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, call me Cubby. Happy Friday. I like the white arm. It's more subtle than I thought it would be. Yes, oh, the white arm is awesome.
Speaker 1:So that was another thing we changed.
Speaker 2:I decided to do the white mic arm, and I wasn't sure, and then, and I wasn't sure, and then I we recorded a video.
Speaker 1:No, I did the youtube huddle up watch the replay and I was like oh man, I know I'm not even close the white is love it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know why I don't, because it's not.
Speaker 1:I don't know it's it's great, it just looks good, it just it adds a nice visual element oh, that's what you're looking at the what am I looking at?
Speaker 2:You're looking over there. I was like what are you looking at?
Speaker 1:Oh, you're watching the replay. Yeah, I don't know why.
Speaker 2:Hey Tom. What is the Enthusiasm Project coming back for season 13? Has it been renewed? I don't know.
Speaker 1:So I didn't mention anything when I ended it, but I don't know that I'm actually going to be bringing it back. I think I am, because I want to do it, but it was hitting the point where it's becoming a grind and I didn't want to not look forward to doing it. So I ended it with no plans to do it anymore, but I wasn't going to make any declarations because that could change.
Speaker 1:Um, well, my plan was do episodes here or there, not not to do seasons anymore, which I am definitely. After 13 seasons, I am seasoned out, um, because that's just too hard to be like. Okay, a season starting now for the next 10 weeks or whatever. Yeah, my workload has totally changed. It's just like it got too too much of a grind, um, but it's been long enough now that I miss it. But I need to find some. I need to change something about it because I'm just I'm just personally sort of like tired of doing it the way I was doing it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so I need to figure it out, and I think I think a way to do that is to make it. I really would like to have a structure to it, which we've kind of been adding here. So there's like, instead of me like, oh my God, from scratch, what do I do for a whole episode every week? It's like, okay, there's three or four segments in an episode. What is this segment this week, that segment, and you build that out and then it, then there's your whole thing, because sometimes there's you want to do episodes where you have more than you have two hours worth of stuff to say, and other times you're like well, I got I want to talk about this, but I got like 15 minutes really of like commentary to say yeah um, so being able to fit more of that kind of stuff and then that lets me shift between topics a little more, um, so I'm kind of like tinkering around with how to do that well, there you go but I want to make sure I can keep it fun yeah, cat says.
Speaker 2:Now I feel like you should get the stream deck Neo also.
Speaker 1:The white ones, it's all. Their whole lineup is all white.
Speaker 2:I mean. So I have a list on my computer of stuff that I want to do in the studio. I haven't even like shown you. I've not seen this Okay, studio, where is it Studio? Okay To do. We have to paint the book nook. Um, it's black, which is great, but uh, it sucks up all of the rgb and how like yeah. So, uh, I wasn't sure what color we're gonna purple. I wasn't sure what color we're gonna paint it. We're gonna paint it purple. We're gonna paint it the same, this same purple.
Speaker 1:That was tom's idea yeah uh, we gotta paint the rest of the room uh the rest of the room, the color that you can't see, but the color we did on this wall back here, and that way it'll be a little, instead of being like five colors in the room, there'll be two yeah, uh, and there's like other stuff, but also on this list is all the white line of elgato products.
Speaker 2:So, um, I have a ring light right here. I want to get the. I don't know what the light is called the key light. Oh, the neo one is there a neo white light? Yeah, yeah because that's just your fill light, so it doesn't need to be yeah, and then the thing with the stream deck, though, is fill light, so it doesn't need to be yeah. And then the thing with the stream deck, though, is only the like.
Speaker 1:The smaller one comes in white yeah, you have the one you have the stream deck xl with all the which I don't.
Speaker 2:I don't use a lot of the buttons, like, if you told me you were going to take three columns off, I would have been. I would be like, okay, I'll make it work, I don't like three columns off.
Speaker 1:I would be a normal Stream Deck.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because see a lot of these buttons are like just pictures.
Speaker 1:It looks so complicated. It's like, oh man, she's all the buttons.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then, like I have a Bluetooth speaker right here, I want to get a white one, so we're going to I want to get white speakers for my office too, because I don't really have good speakers. Hmm, hmm, speakers from my office too, because I don't really have good speakers.
Speaker 1:Tech troublemaker says get your rode wireless 2 or wireless, go and run it through streamerx the problem is you can't have, as far as I know, both audio and source at the same time. So I could pair it, but then it we wouldn't be using heather's mic, we'd be using either heather's mic or the wireless thing.
Speaker 1:Really it's a single input interface, unless there was a firmware update that changed that which there could have been, because you can do a headset mic, you can do an XLR mic, you can do one of the Rode wireless mics, but you have to choose like which one are you doing?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I could be wrong, but that's as far as that's how I've understood it the whole time.
Speaker 2:Bailey says talking. Bailey says talking of the Rode wireless mics. I heard of someone whose battery expanded. Even though it was out of warranty, they still took it back and replaced it for free.
Speaker 1:Yeah, rode's really good about that. I mean, battery things are bad, but Rode's good about like. I don't think they advertise Like if your thing's out of warranty, contact us Right. Prior to YouTube, I reached out on multiple occasions for things, usually with stuff students had broken, not things that had like failed, and they still helped us out, which was awesome uh, cat says they have streamed up plus and the 15 key in white also.
Speaker 2:I want the plus with the blue knobs, the white yeah, the knobs, that's the other thing is like I don't know if I, if I would need the knobs yeah, I don't like I. What do people use the knobs for? I don't know. I don't have one I. If I would need the knobs, yeah, I don't like I. What do people use the knobs for?
Speaker 1:I don't know, I don't have one. I just like that you can change them I like the knob on my keyboard though what I would actually like is if there's a way to map the knobs to like color correcting tools and final cut pro.
Speaker 2:I would actually really enjoy that where like I don't know if it's like up, up your mids highlights yeah, sure, oh, wow, that's like technical yeah, because you could just do.
Speaker 1:There's four wheels and you could just put a wheel on each knob.
Speaker 2:That'd be cool uh, have you seen the stream deck studio new announcement a few days ago? Yes, we did yeah, that's definitely that's cool it was.
Speaker 1:What's cool about it? What's interesting is like to see elgato just go for the professional market because the stream deck studio is not something it's really not something for any of us. For the most part, it's something for, like you would have in a production studio where you have a rack mounted system of gear and it's built for that, which is usually the kind of thing like you know black magic does or you know something like that it's. It's cool to see elgato go like. Now put this here yeah I can very much imagine.
Speaker 1:That being. It's a different market having worked in tv stations where there are engineers who have to route things and plug in things and connect things, having something as versatile as a stream deck there where you can just do it quickly through software instead, I feel like that could be very, very popular yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 2:Uh, let's see. Knobs are great for controlling your prompter brightness and editing interesting uh, I mean I, I want a white one putting it out there. It will, it will appear. Uh, tech troublemaker says what audience is? The elgato stream deck studio forikes the price for less buttons.
Speaker 1:It's not us.
Speaker 2:It's for like TV stations broadcast, studios. Like, even the pictures are people who you know it's not consumer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not, which is very interesting because Elgato has always been so good. They've always been so consumer-y, and then also they just released the Neo line, which is even more direct consumer, like that's the you know sub $100 items, and then they're like also $900 stream deck.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I feel like there was something I was going to say I forgot, though, oh well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's what we switched over to Heather's MacBook Pro, yeah, to get everything going in 4K and all that. And now we just need to remove the Mac mini, because this is just your main main setup yes, uh, which?
Speaker 2:yeah, I think we were trying to combine both, because eventually I want to start streaming on my gaming channel and we were thinking that we should keep the game on one and the stream on the other and then combine it, split up the processing power.
Speaker 1:That was the original panel the mac mini is perfect for streaming, but if you were trying to stream and play final fantasy plus, it's running three displays yeah that's a lot to ask from the four-year-old base model as good as it is. That's a lot, yeah, streaming in 4k um yeah.
Speaker 1:So then we thought, okay, we'll put the game on the macbook and do that, but it which would that, which would be fine. But then you were in here trying to like you have your monitors and they switch over and you have to switch your keyboard and your mouse and you're like, you're constantly just like.
Speaker 1:what computer am I on? Where's this file? Like nothing is simple and it's like okay, the MacBook. We did a few simple tests. It actually seems capable of doing both at the same time. Just fine, because it's the M1 Pro versus the M1 base model, so it's a lot more powerful.
Speaker 2:Oh, there you go. Yes, Tom keeps having to explain to me that even though it's a laptop doesn't mean it's less powerful. Heather refuses to believe that a laptop could be more powerful than a desktop computer. But the base model m1 mac mini versus the m1 pro uh, macbook pro, it just seems so like little to be able to do all that. I know I sound boomer. I'm like boomer, boom here.
Speaker 1:Well, that's the that's the example I always use is my grandpa, who was born in 1917. Uh, he's, he passed away 10 years ago, but in 2007 we bought him a macbook, like one of the white macbooks, just a simple one, because all he needed was a computer to like check his bank, maybe read some news and like do an email yeah, that was it, um, and prior to that he had this like windows 2000 computer that was like hand me down, donated from like a business or something, um, and he ended up.
Speaker 1:I ended up actually inheriting the macbook that was my first macbook because he didn't like it, because he just it was like not good enough. He went back to the windows 2001 because he loved it was this giant metal tower and you push the button and it goes and you hear the fans like it makes all this noise it sounds it felt like this is a machine, this is doing what it's supposed to do. This little white, quiet computer that's not doing anything. Um, and I was just like I'll take the macbook.
Speaker 2:That's fine, cool yeah, so, yeah, great. So what's your gear of the week, tom?
Speaker 1:oh, I'm so excited talking about my gear of the week I don't even know what it is it's this, oh, the thing I've been obsessed with all week I forgot, okay, yes, I have a new obsession and it's not something I ever would have expected. It's actually something. It's not even new. It's something that I've consciously been like not interested, don't care, and this was sent over last week, so I've been using it the past week and, to sound like a cliche, tiktok. I am obsessed with this thing.
Speaker 2:Oh, you said it I am obsessed with this product.
Speaker 1:yes, the dji mic 2, so freaking good.
Speaker 1:I was going to use it today, but I I don't know I wanted to also use this mic so yeah, because tom is really into it I cannot tell you how am I like, speaking of the road things, and I've used the road wireless mics since they were released like five years ago more than five years ago now and I really like them a lot. So I've been like, yeah, I like road, these are great. I don't why would I try the dji ones. Who cares? Yeah, uh, these are amazing for a lot of reasons. Um so, it's 350 bucks for a thing. It comes this little pouch, but I really. So the tinkeriness and like the, the like I don't know what you would call it the little tinkeriness of it is half the appeal to me oh, I mean like gosh, that's exactly.
Speaker 1:Look how the pouch opens up, you got all your stuff just like stored in here, isn't?
Speaker 2:it. He loves it it's so nice.
Speaker 1:You got the little windscreens, got a lavalier microphone. It comes with this thing. What doesn't come with it? Sorry, they sent over, it came with this thing which is very cool.
Speaker 1:Um, this goes on the receiver and then this can clip onto sony cameras newer sony cameras and then you can use the mic without needing any cables. It just automatically. Just the same way. I have a sony mic that clips on the top and it's a shotgun mic and there's no cables. It does the the same thing even though it's not officially Sony. And then the mic system itself is in this charging case, the Rode Wireless Pros. I have also have a charging case, but it's a little different.
Speaker 2:See how he just launches into a YouTube video. This is like every day for us.
Speaker 1:It never stops.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:In fact, you open up the charging case and there you got your charger, your receiver. Do we have like, showcase mode on it? Oh, we don't have showcase mode turned on I don't focus though yeah, we just cover our beautiful faces oh, I can't get it to focus.
Speaker 1:We're too beautiful. Um, what I like about this over the roads, so what I need to do, I'm going to do a comparison video. I've been thinking about getting the ho, so what I need to do, I'm going to do a comparison video. I've been thinking about getting the Holly land Lark. Just to compare all three, because I've not used that one, but I'm very interested in it. It feels so good, like the quality and the like. Open it up and take one of the pieces out and just feel how like nice it is to just everything's magnetic.
Speaker 1:It's so nice.
Speaker 2:The little transmitters. Oh wow, okay okay yeah, little transmitters are.
Speaker 1:This is all you they're small, they're compact.
Speaker 1:You can do with the magnets. I mean similar to the roads, just smaller but bigger than the hollylands. You've got built-in 32-bit float recording um. You also got Bluetooth so you can pair this to certain things like the Osmo Pocket 3, you can just pair this directly to the camera without needing a receiver. And what I haven't figured out but I've heard is possible is you can pair this to the new GoPro, and I think, because I have the GoPro but it's not officially out yet, that I can't like update the firmware all the way, so I haven't been able to do that yet.
Speaker 1:But being able to use this with my GoPro would be awesome. I love, love, love the little receiver, because the screen is just all a touch screen. I can show Heather I can't show you, I guess, but if you want to go through the menus on here, let me see. Oh, it's down there, it's all just touch screen. You can go through all your settings, you can click through and just adjust everything right here, and it's super intuitive.
Speaker 1:I would never use this and like instantly, I figured it all out. I think it sounds great. I feel like the Rode has a bit of an edge in terms of audio quality, but this is good, like I'm more than happy with it. And it comes with these cool little things, these little attachments. I can't get that one out. That one's for phones. It's this little USB-C thing. So you can just take this little part off the back and then this slides on here and now I have a USB connector. This is the same way you attach the Sony thing. If I can figure out the way to do it, there we go. What's cool with this is now you can plug it into a phone and you have wireless on a phone, or you can do what I did on wednesday for a live stream and I just plugged this into my macbook and now it was a usbc mic.
Speaker 1:Yeah so that's what I was thinking of doing today was using as usbc kane is asking if you can bluetooth the phone for calls or teleconferencing I don't know it has bluetooth, I think I don't. I don't know that's I. I want to um, because there's you push the link thing he's figuring it out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm learning, but I've used it a lot. I've used it for videos, I've used it for live streams, I've used it for not calls or gopro stuff, yet, um, it's cool, it's. I really really, really like it. I'm very surprised because it was something that I was just I had like zero interest in and, prior to having it, every time I did anything where I talked about the road, wireless things, people would be like, oh, get the dji, try this. And I was like so annoyed it was almost like the sony fans before I had sony cameras. I was like, oh, stop talking about the sony cameras. And then I got mine. I was like, oh, I think I know why people are so excited about this. Now, like, and I get it the hype is real the hype is very real.
Speaker 1:Um, for the mic too. So yeah, I it's just so sad. Everything about it is satisfying to you wow, and I just.
Speaker 2:That's the review. Yeah, you heard it here.
Speaker 1:It's fun and it's satisfying and it works really well yeah, what more do you need?
Speaker 2:right uh, anyway, so my gear of the week a.
Speaker 1:A little different.
Speaker 2:Is a little different. I don't know if I can. Can you bring it to me here?
Speaker 1:I don't think so.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can you go to use your? Yeah, like that. All right, cool.
Speaker 1:Here we go. I was using it. It is a sheep, it's a lamb. Here it is.
Speaker 2:This is my footstool for underneath my desk, yeah, so if you want something that goes in a very different direction yet is more affordable.
Speaker 1:This is the Carol Made footstool.
Speaker 2:Yes, and you got a chair. I like my chair chair I'm not using it right now.
Speaker 1:It's office chair.
Speaker 2:Yeah um, I use it like pretty much every time I'm making videos or streaming, except for the couple stable, because putting two office chairs next to each other is kind of arms but I have been using my chair.
Speaker 2:I love it, I don't have anything like wrong with it, but I think just sitting for hours on end, um, I don't know. It's just like I was finding ways to kind of like adjust my legs. And finally I was like you know what, instead of spending a lot of money on a chair, why don't I try a footstool first? And that made such a huge difference yeah, and that's.
Speaker 1:It's like 35 or something. Yeah, it's not a baller thing, and it comes in different colors too. 32.99 right 32 bucks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a bunch of colors, um, I got the white one if you switch that scene, we have to uh I'm not gonna switch it, but yeah well, how people need to know.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's in the description the description.
Speaker 2:It's in the description Link in the description. Baby, yeah, if you want to check it out. But it's just especially like, I don't know, for those of us who work from home, like it's not just about the tech, it's also like being comfortable in the space so you can create at your best. And this 32 footstool, let me tell you I can't believe I haven't had it. I don't know what I've been using like nothing, just yeah. Well see, this is why I edit on the couch, because it's more comfortable to just lay um. But you know, now I've been on the computer so much that, yeah, footstool before it's.
Speaker 1:It feels like the same way when I redid my studio earlier this year and then I had like all this versatility, like I can do video sitting standing all these different corners.
Speaker 1:It's almost the same thing, like I got this chair, you got the footstool, but now when you're, when you're sitting and working, you can have legs up, you can have legs down, you can be reclined, you can be like you can. There's all these different ways to kind of shift your comfort and, like you know, aside from obviously like getting up and taking breaks and all of those things you should be doing anyway well, okay, so check.
Speaker 2:it called the door frame, the door frame of the bathroom right next to this office, and so we have been doing pull-ups basically every time we come into the office, and I have never been able to do a pull-up ever until we put it up here, and now I could do two.
Speaker 1:From hanging from full like yeah from full like Hang pull-up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because I practiced being on the floor like standing, and I'm not at full hanging because you know I could reach the bars, but then I, like you know, hang where I like, fold my legs, I'm like at full, complete hang and then pull up. I could do two. I think I could do three, I've just never tried.
Speaker 1:I'm sure you could.
Speaker 2:I just can't believe that I could do it.
Speaker 1:You couldn't do one before. I know it's crazy yeah.
Speaker 2:And then it was like you could'm sitting for hours and then you're stretching and pulling all those back muscles and aligning things so it's nice. I just like every time I come here I have to do two before I walk in.
Speaker 1:There we go yeah, that's a good one all right, uh, ernesto.
Speaker 2:Hi guys, sorry I'm late heading home from work. Happy friday, happy friday, good to see you. James is checking in from indio. Hello, gil. Hey, everyone, sorry I'm late.
Speaker 1:It's all good, good you were streaming a lot this morning, gil uh, doing even one pull-up is incredible.
Speaker 2:yeah, I it just always. I just could never do it before and I never understood. I would just look at everyone like I guess I can never do it, and then I don't know, just little by little.
Speaker 1:Progress every day.
Speaker 2:All those improvements with the stool sounds like quite a feat. A feat, and we beat you to it.
Speaker 1:I'm really glad that this is a comfortable stool, because some of them are. They're a little too hard and you have to get a stool softener.
Speaker 2:Oh See, look, did you see that? Did you see how easily you just Stop, anyway.
Speaker 1:Anyway.
Speaker 2:What else is going on, Tom?
Speaker 1:Oh my God, this has been a crazy busy few weeks, with a crazy few busy weeks to come. I'm definitely Not struggling because that sounds negative, with the crazy few busy weeks to come. I'm definitely Not struggling Because that sounds negative, not overwhelmed Because that sounds negative, but like working at capacity.
Speaker 2:I guess you could say you wouldn't be able to take anything else on.
Speaker 1:I am enjoying and having a great time, but I'm also, like, cannot wait for things to maybe Just breathe a little bit.
Speaker 2:Hopefully early October. Let's go games heather. Won't need those in my car, uh, if a piece breaks. I love this, this is funny uh uh, well, okay, so the saga continues.
Speaker 2:I mentioned on the last episode of the couple's table that I have been scrolling a lot. Well, I've been active on threads on my gaming account, heather just play, and it's been so nice because you know it's a new account and I'm following what I want to see and I feel like I actually I don't even know how old Threads is, but I feel like the algorithm is really good right now where if you post what you want to see and you talk about the things that you're excited about, that is what you will see in your algorithm. And then it's actually very jarring to go back to Instagram and just get a bunch of ads that like have nothing to do with, like.
Speaker 2:It's like, yes, I like this because it's relevant, but it it's not me searching out for a kind of thing right uh, the thing is, there's the gaming community, the streamer community, the creator community in the gaming space is just so freaking different from this space, from content creation as I know it, and it's just like I can't. It's so today I had to have the thought of like I can't help everybody, Like I can't. There's there's so many people who are like in the creator space or in the like gaming creators.
Speaker 2:They'll be, like, you know, I don't know, audit my channel or it's really humbling to be a, you know, a gaming creator, cause you can post all these shorts and reels and content and stream forever and nothing happens and there's no growth. And you know, and I'm just like I just feel so bad because I'm like you don't have to do any of that like what makes you think that you, that's what you're supposed to be doing, like I kind of it's that, it's like I, I feel this like compulsion to help and I have to remember all the things of like okay, I'm, I'm eight years into this. They're starting today. No one wants unsolicited advice. I don't want to be that person. I don't want to come in here and be like I've been doing this eight years, like you know. But I don't know, it's just, I feel it. It just I don't know it's stressful. It it just I don't know it's stressful, but also cool that this is so accessible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, anybody can like start, but that's the. That's the thing. That's kind of the thing about it, and I've been thinking about this with like videos I've been working on lately, because one thing I like to do is try to explain things in ways that like simplify them right yeah, and sometimes stuff can be complicated.
Speaker 1:I guess streamer X right here can be complicated and part of me was thinking, like, are you doing a disservice by making something seem simpler than it is, even though it feels kind of cool, like I can take this complex thing and break it down in a way that's easy to understand? But then sometimes it gives people the expectation that, okay, cool, I'm going to get a Rodecaster, for example, I'm going to plug it in, I'm going to instantly just know how to do everything. It's gonna be great. That's like not that. It's not that you, you know you can plug it in, turn it on and get some good sounds, right. But like, realistically, if you've never used something like that and you buy a Rodecaster Pro, you're probably going to have to spend a couple days at least, you know, a solid afternoon really diving in, figuring it out, tweaking. It's probably going to take a couple I don't know if it's weeks but a couple of runs of like going through a thing before you start to feel like, oh, I understand how this this works and I know like for me I want to try to make things seem simple and approachable.
Speaker 1:Obviously, companies, when they market stuff, they they want, they don't want to be like, this thing's super confusing, it's going to frustrate you, but eventually you'll get it. It's not great marketing, but does that set expectations, you know? And so the reason I was thinking that is because just being an online person and sharing your stuff and making your stuff and streaming and creating content and all that is so accessible now, which is amazing Does it give people that sort of same like, like the idea of what's so. Everything is accessible, it's easy to make this. Doesn't that mean it should be easy to you know, for it to go somewhere?
Speaker 2:That's so hard, it's so, it's so okay. So here's like. That's so hard, it's so, it's so OK. So here's like. Here's the thing I have to constantly tell myself not to do. I still have the compulsion to do.
Speaker 2:It's a huge freaking deal for gaming creators to declare or to share when they have become youtube partner, which is basically their channel, gets monetized. It's really funny to see how the the language is different. I I got youtube partner and they will post like they'll. It's a screenshot of like the progress, because now in the YouTube Studio app you literally see a bar to 3,000 hours or 4,000, whatever the requirements are, and they share it constantly. And it's like I get because it's a progress tracker and I understand that I have issues about like examining your stats that closely. I don't think that's helpful, but I see why everyone does it and so they'll post that. And then it's like.
Speaker 2:The rest of their posts are just like oh my God, I'm streaming so much I have to stream. And here's my next stream. And the thing with gaming streamers they stream for hours's, not one hour, it's many hours, it's the whole night, it's the weekend, it's like you know, 24 hour streams. It's it's like it's a. It's such a time chunk and I see them putting all these hours and I see, like the progress you know, no-transcript. Here's my gaming channel. I started it from zero. I did absolutely no streaming. I posted a video a, you know, long form, traditional old school, pre-recorded, edited video and got monetized in two weeks. And my point in sharing that is like you don't have to like if you want to stream that much awesome. But that is not like the only path to success. I'm trying to show like there's other ways that you can do it. You know, whatever I don't want, I don't want to say that, though I don't want you don't have to as a thing yeah and that's where it's just like it's like I I don't know what it is.
Speaker 2:It's like I feel like I want to like help people, because I just see all these anxious creators and I'm like you don't have to do that, though.
Speaker 1:Like there's a thing try making a video. I don't know in all, in all different areas of life, though I think there's a thing that I've learned, it's okay confusions no, I just mean like this applies to lots of different areas of life is you want people to learn from your mistakes?
Speaker 2:and you, you see, you're like.
Speaker 1:I don't want you to make the same mistake I made. So, here do this, learn from what I did, and sometimes it's really helpful, Like you can really help someone by saying like obviously I'm coming from that place. Like let me help you out, like don't, I made this mistake, don't do that, do this instead. But there are some lessons and some things that you just have to.
Speaker 2:You have to do it yourself.
Speaker 1:And I almost, almost feel like that's one of them. I feel like there's a few people who might be open to learning from a mistake, but I feel like a lot of people need to figure it out for themselves. Yeah, um, and that's just, and there's a lot of things in life that that's just how it works and I think that's one of them and that just means it's like it's.
Speaker 1:It's so frustrating we see it happening. Because you're like the stove is hot, you're gonna touch the stove. I don't want you to touch the hot stove, but I guess you need to. So you know never to touch hot stoves and like it just is what it is.
Speaker 2:It makes me really appreciate eight years of experience, you know, because I forget, like I, I don't know imposter syndrome, you know self-doubt, insecurity, all these things like these are things that I'm. It is just my way of being, like I'm constantly going to to like be my own worst critic or enemy or whatever. But man, when I jump onto threads and scroll and see everyone like talking about all that, that's when I'm like, okay, yeah, I, I have learned that I don't have to contribute my opinion on every single thing. You know I don't have to just my opinion on every single thing. You know I don't have to. Just because there's like a thread about like I don't know, someone made a whole thing about like meeting, meeting streamers, like dating, like people learn, you know, meeting each other. You shouldn't meet people on streaming or something like that. And I, I was gonna go. I met my husband on youtube, it doesn't.
Speaker 1:You know, yes, there's like toxic people, but that doesn't mean I'm like, no, this is not my conversation, no, I don't have to be here like it doesn't involve me yeah, um, that happens to me a lot on reddit, because I'll go through like the podcasting subreddit, for example, and someone will ask the question like I need a really good microphone for this, or I've heard that you know, this interface does whatever. And it's like I know the answer from firsthand experience and I'm like, oh, I can jump in. And it's like, and, but there's already like sort of a discussion forming and it's like like it's gonna.
Speaker 2:It's gonna be just so much effort to contribute.
Speaker 1:That's not gonna the juice is not worth the squeeze of like me, contributing, being involved, this conversation, taking the time to do it and probably just getting ignored, not listening like it's who. Yeah, I'll just go do something else yeah, exactly, it's not my problem.
Speaker 1:It's not like I just learned that it I am coming from a place and then when you put it out there it's not received the way that I intended most of the time, and so it's just not worth it, and I don't know if people do it to me too, though, like when the tables are turned, you know like the number of times like I've been at like the ice skating rink, for example, and say I'm I'm in my goalie skates and I'm trying to do like T pushes, which is like a thing that move that you do a lot as goalies, and it kind of looks like a hockey stop, and then someone comes over it's like oh, here's how you do a hockey stop you just like.
Speaker 1:I appreciate, I appreciate your intent yeah you're right, that's not what I'm doing right now and I like I'm not, and now I'm like fame, like let me just do my thing yeah, yeah, yeah and so you know it's both sides of it. Sorry, I think I cut you off before I no, I'm just.
Speaker 2:I have to remind myself. So this week was a huge deal for me because I actually declared to the universe that I want my gaming channel to be my main channel I'm the three.
Speaker 1:Right, I see what you're gonna do, it's fine I don't know if this has one is this I don't know, push the button on there now we're muted. I'm just kidding, I don't know if this has one, I don't know. Push the button on there Now we're muted.
Speaker 2:I'm just kidding. I don't know Something happened, but there you go so. So yeah, I forgot what I was going to say.
Speaker 1:You declared your gaming channel.
Speaker 2:I know what I forgot. Well, my point was oh so I have to just remember, and it's like when I remember, and it's like when I say gaming channel, I'm not just going to talk about games. It's going to be the place where I talk about the things that, like, I'm really excited about that have just nothing to do with content creation. And I have to remind myself, like, if I want to talk about content creation, we have a freaking weekly live stream podcast this is the avenue to do that.
Speaker 2:And then I have a tutorial channel where I can make tutorials that, like, when you watch them, you're, you're coming. You are like receiving and watching my info from a place of wanting to learn, versus me just inserting myself into a conversation and coming off like you know, a guru which, like I don't, I just I don't want to be that person and it's like I don't know, it's, it's not, it's hard self-restraint.
Speaker 1:I think that I think that's great, though, like, and you were saying, yesterday you were recording a video for your gaming channel and at one point you found yourself feeling like you were kind of rambling and babbling, like, oh, and then you realize, like this is what I'm allowed, this is, but yeah, this is the place for it, and it's like right now I'm editing a video.
Speaker 2:Uh, it's gonna be my first video on the gaming channel starring tom, so if you want to check it out, it's gonna be hilarious.
Speaker 1:Clearly a banger.
Speaker 2:It's going to be trending page very different very different from any uh videos that we've made.
Speaker 1:It's gonna be fun, um, but like it's fun, like I'm having so much fun editing this video it was a very big deal for you to say that you want that channel, which for a certain point you were like, oh, that's so frivolous, I have to like not even focus on it until all this other stuff happens, to then flip that and be like, actually, that is kind of thing I would like to be my main thing yeah, no, I know a very, very big step you've been such a good job of like.
Speaker 1:I'm so excited I think the way I feel about that is very similar to when I finally admitted to myself like I think I want to do youtube full-time and you're like I know you do thank glad you joined the rest of us over here. But like also the excitement of when you saw me give myself permission to do that. It was like cool, now we can like go for it. Yeah, now we can have fun. Yeah, that's how I feel about you right, uh, tech trouble.
Speaker 2:Or gill says some have a do or die mentality. Uh, so many of us get gas and buy something we fail to take full advantage of, thinking this is the thing that will make folks watch our videos. Oh, yeah, yeah, and I see that a lot in the gaming space.
Speaker 1:It's like, oh, I'll stream for hours and hours because this is the thing that will help me grow my channel and yeah, yeah, I know we just talked about tons of gear, talk for setup upgrades, but it's like oh, I'm using a, I'm using a webcam, a 1080 webcam. If I get a 4k mirrorless camera, that's going to be the thing that's gonna make my channel grow, it's not we'll see like okay, so this is a perfect example.
Speaker 2:I'm excited about it. I definitely did not upgrade the setup thinking, oh, this is the thing that's gonna blow up the channel.
Speaker 1:That's. That's. That's a different thing is like now, when you have tools that make you excited. They eliminate friction, they make you excited to make stuff. Now it's like help me do my art better.
Speaker 2:Yes, you know, like that's. That's different than like this is my ticket to fame or whatever. I don't know, I don't know. I don't want to, I don't want to like make it seem like I'm judging people who do it that way. So I want to be careful of like. I don't mean it that way.
Speaker 1:No, you're just talking about, I mean, we've all done the thing. If I just get this one thing, this is going to, this is going to be it, and it's like you know, lessons learned.
Speaker 2:I recorded a 13 minute video on how to bring it down to 120, to simplify, simplify it for instagram reels and it, and to me it still wasn't enough.
Speaker 1:It's extremely difficult it's kind of fun, though. It is sort of a fun challenge if you have to do like the 60 second, like I thought it was 90 why I do 60 for stories. I don't know. I mean it's a fun challenge when you're trying to like. You have to be so economical with like, every word, every line, every cut, every like. Should this be like two frames shorter to like? I kind of think that's a fun challenge sometimes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like it, Kat says. If only most people had the same thought. I don't have to share my opinion on that. It's so hard not to, especially on the internet.
Speaker 1:Well, there is a weird thing that I've noticed.
Speaker 2:Luckily, like I don't think we've had to deal with it too much, but also really quick where he says I feel like your mic is duplicating, duplicating, or something like that I don't know.
Speaker 1:We might be like double check. Are we like feeding back?
Speaker 2:we might be bleeding into each other's mics, maybe um, I have a thought that I don't want to lose, so I'm going to type it in my notes app.
Speaker 1:Um there's something. There's like a weird reverb thing happening, but I have no idea what it is oh, there is. I mean it's because you push the button no, no, no, that that should have just been a sound effect. I think, um, I don't know, I'm not sure what it is, it's probably mic bleed, more than anything okay, jorge hello couple.
Speaker 2:I believe that more important than how big your channel on followers I'm not sure what it is, it's probably Mike Bleed more than anything, okay, jorge Hello couple. I believe that more important than how big your channel on followers is, I think it's more important the label of influence you have, if they don't follow your recommendations.
Speaker 1:it's not worth. It's sort of a strange thing. I forget what it was Somebody after, I think, because I've been doing the Q and a live streams lately.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's been really nice Cause, like people will just coincidentally ask me about, like question about the thing you're going to make a video about question about the thing that you happen to have in a drawer right here, and it's like I can take these random questions and suddenly it's like, um, I have answers for them and it's really cool and I had someone send a message. That was something along the lines of I can't believe you like you can, just you know about everything you do. That it's like no.
Speaker 1:I am playing to very specific strengths here and, like the people asking questions, are asking about very specific things. Like if someone was like, hey, how do I make my perfect fantasy football team? I'd be like I got nothing you know like, and that's that's an important thing to recognize for, I think for everybody, because as a viewer you can see somebody who seems to be very competent and knowledgeable about something. It's important to remember that that extends maybe to just that space and not all things yeah.
Speaker 1:And as the person doing it. It's also important, especially if you get to a point where people like look up to you and respect you and your opinion things. It's also important to remember about those things not necessarily all things and I bring that up because it's very, very common to see you know, you could see a gaming channel person on a podcast interview and suddenly it's like they have to have, like, these political opinions. It's like I, you can have your political opinions. That's not what people need. That's honestly. You don't need to make those public. You don't need to like you're not the expert there. Maybe that's your. I don't know your knowledge about one thing, not all things necessarily and I think viewers and creators need to remember that and it's okay to go like I just don't know about that thing or I don't, not my area of expertise well, so okay.
Speaker 2:The thing with threads is I feel like, uh, and I guess this was true for twitter it's just been so long since I've been over there, but you ain't missing much it's like it's conversational right, whereas instagram you're just scrolling, maybe you leave a comment, but it doesn't feel like I don't mind jumping into random people's conversations, like people post pictures of their setup or whatever, and be like oh my god, this looks so cute, or you know is that what threads tries to?
Speaker 1:is there's so everyone I see is someone I don't really know. Is that what they try to build conversations with other people, right?
Speaker 2:so I get a lot of final fantasy stuff and I think also gaming creator stuff, but the like. Going back to the, I don't have to share my opinion. The thing that I've started to notice now is, like you know, I'll see a thread that has like several hundred likes, so obviously many people have seen it and then under that I'll see a completely random person where there's no interaction on their thread, their post, and you can totally tell it is a response to that viral thread, and that's the stuff that I don't want to do. Is, if I did, if I did not have this thought before, I don't want to post like I don't need to share it, because I know, yep, I'm doing that thing, I'm doing the thing where I like.
Speaker 2:This was not even in my brain and I feel like maybe I do have something to contribute, and maybe I do, but like I want to make sure that I'm in the driver's seat. You know, especially like moving into this, like different, like the I feel like we've been leveling up this past month. I want to like make sure that I am the one who's like the source of all the inspiration. Like take everything, soak it all in, but now it's like the source of all the inspiration. Like take everything, soak it all in, but now it's like I everything needs to be vetted by me.
Speaker 2:Right, yes I don't know if that makes sense, like it's not that I wasn't doing that, I'm trying to like figure, I'm trying to explain how it's different, but the fact that I'm conscious of it at all, I feel like, okay, okay, it's different. Yeah, because I wouldn't have done that before.
Speaker 1:No, I think it's big. It's a good thing to recognize.
Speaker 2:Like I just want to talk about the things that I'm excited about. I don't need to give opinions on, like people busting their butts off to get YouTube partner. Yeah, go, do you, you know? Like I don't know.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 2:Anyway, let's see Aaron short music Hi. Anyway, let's see Aaron short music, Hi. Did you try the voice mode for the Elgato prompter? I haven't had a chance to test it yet. Well, Aaron, over at youtubecom, slash Tom Buck. Tom just put out a video last Sunday talking about this exact thing, and he loves it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's great and I've used it a lot since they put it out, and I used it on a very, very, very long script an hour, a 90 minute script, almost, uh, and it was so helpful that would have been a four hour script, otherwise uh, oh, no copies here.
Speaker 2:Late to the party. Hello all, what's up. Did I say wall?
Speaker 1:hello all you, hello, wall. You're thinking about painting the walls. Huh, hello, wall.
Speaker 2:So what else is up? Wow, that was the whole hour.
Speaker 1:Yeah, time flies.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, Was I talking a lot? No.
Speaker 1:I feel like I was talking too much. I feel like I spaced out. Hey, you gave us all these weird political opinions.
Speaker 2:I don't, you just kept going. I don't know you hit me. It's a whole thing. Yes, uh, I had some struggles with voice ink.
Speaker 1:Oh boy have you um, I mean, it's not perfect the, the, the thing with the elgato prompter software. So this is this is another, this is another thing, and maybe elgato falls victim to this, because they are such a good example of a company that takes complicated things and makes them simple okay stream deck is.
Speaker 1:It does really complicated things, but now anyone can get one for like 99 bucks um same thing, like atem mini, which I know is not elgato. But yeah, yeah, a lot of people and I'm not saying you can't, but a lot of people have never used a teleprompter until the Ogato prompter.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Cause it's affordable, it's high quality, it's good, so they get it. They're looking at it. As I just spent almost $300 on this thing, it better be perfect Versus, prior to that, the cheapest prompter with a built-in screen maybe $1,500.
Speaker 1:a built-in screen maybe fifteen hundred dollars and are okay. Is this coming from the response on your voice sync, since I've been talking about the prompter for the past year? Um and a lot of those pro prompters, if they come with software, it's terrible. A lot of them don't come with anything. You just have to figure it out and there's really no good prompter software. Even having worked at a television station, I was the prompter operator for a number of years during broadcast shows.
Speaker 1:The software is bad, the elgato software. This is where, like I, come into sort of some friction sometimes. The elgato software is a version 1.0 software that has a lot of bugs and things that need to be worked out, like voice sync. Um overall is incredibly. It's not even close to any other voice tracking. Um overall is incredibly. It's not even close to any other voice tracking software of you. It's not even close. There's still a lot of work to do, like there's still sometimes it'll drop out or sometimes it it won't pick up on something or whatever, but it's still not even. It's so much better to everything else. Same with the prompter software, like the way that you manage scripts, the way that you could do offline edit or can't do offline edit, like there's all kinds of things that could be improved and need to be improved with it and will improve and will improve with it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, as it is it's not even close. It's the best prompter software on planet earth.
Speaker 2:Like it and it's not even close. It sounds like you're coming.
Speaker 1:I feel you sound defensive yes, I am well, because because I've dealt with people who bought my first prompter and they're like you're getting a lot of comments. Yes, because people go like the software is still kind of buggy. It still has this problem. Why don't they fix this?
Speaker 2:look, this is the voice he puts on when he when he reads whatever, I don't need to make my point.
Speaker 1:It's fine, but yeah, I don't mean to cut you off it's fine, it's just.
Speaker 1:It goes back to my thing of like we made something so complicated, so simple, that now people expect it to be perfect and simple all the time and I'm trying to go like you have no idea, like it's. It's like, this is something that just wasn't even possible two years ago. Yeah, and now you're, you know, like, yeah, and I and that's the cat, cat's thing just sort of sent me. I think they're like voicing has has ways to go, but I really want people to give credit where credit is due for version 1.0. If this is something that's been around for 10 years and it's version, you know, 12 or whatever, and it's still having these issues, we gotta have a talk.
Speaker 2:Version 1.11 is great jose hi from puerto rico, rim jam, a 90 minute script, tom book movie no, I just I got cut down which is so dumb, like what is my scripting efficiency?
Speaker 1:because it got cut down to a 36 minute video. What was in the script?
Speaker 2:I know I'd like redo parts, but I had that thought too, because, like back in the day, oh my god I would have. I would have raw footage of 52 minutes for a nine minute video I'm like what? What did I cut out? Like why did this? What the heck so weird? Uh, let's see. Cat says it would track my voice until the last line of a section.
Speaker 1:For more than half the sections is there like a voice training I don't think so currently, but that would be helpful I feel like you can get to know how you speak or get an accent, because if alexa already does that or siri, that's a good one.
Speaker 2:Yeah enthusiast impressions. Is it just me, or is there reverb? It's so, it's on your mic.
Speaker 1:It's probably something to do with USB. No, it's not that that's turned off, because the button's off. I hit like an air horn.
Speaker 2:Diana, don't forget to hit the like. It's good seeing you, erin. Any tips for reading from a prompter and making it look natural? Okay, I will say I use the prompter for my tutorial that I uploaded yesterday and I just dragged my notes app to because I use the. I don't use the prompter software, I just use the prompter as a monitor. So I just drag the notes app, I put the font on big and then I just read it and you couldn't tell at all. I am so paranoid about like, can you tell? Can you tell? Because the first time I used the prompter you totally tell. But this time, like, I'm conscious of making, like not having the script go all the way across, because then I think that, like you can see the eyes move, but you know, like if it's in the middle and then basically I just scroll. You know, I don't know.
Speaker 1:It looked great. Those are good tips. I mean, aaron, as a musician, any tips for playing guitar and making it sound better. It's practice, like the more that you. The first time you use a prompter is weird, second time is better and eventually you can. It's a skill, just like anything else that you can. You learn how to use it, you get more comfortable with it yeah, it's a skill um a big thing.
Speaker 2:I thought it would be easy.
Speaker 1:I was very see, this is what I'm talking about. Oh it's, you got a prompter, everything's easy.
Speaker 2:And then people are like why do I look? And it's like because I have not used a prompter. I think the.
Speaker 1:I think making things so accessible is undermining the skill and effort that is still required. Like I, don't even.
Speaker 2:I don't think I've ever used the prompter for a script until this past month, and I've had the prompter for a really long time. It's just we use it as a monitor yeah, a monitor or for Zoom calls or whatever, and I never used it for a script until this past month and I think I don't know. I had to figure out, like, do I use bullet points? Do I type everything out word for word? You know, you kind of have to find the way that you use it for you in order to make it sound natural.
Speaker 1:But yeah, there's definitely like it's practice, like now that I've done it a few times, I can read word for word and still put the inflection and, you know, make it conversational there's, there's, I mean a couple of simple things that I could suggest would be um, I think, if you, if you're, you're kind of like jumping into using a prompt for the first time, it's natural to like look at it and read and you kind of like lock your eyes onto it, whereas when you talk to someone, you don't just stare at their eyes the whole time, you're talking like it's really intense.
Speaker 1:I have to like I always look up here for some reason blah, blah blah, blah, blah, blah, and then I don't know blah blah, blah like consciously give your chance to break eye contact with it, and that actually helps.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And then to not feel like you have to do a speed reading competition, like just because the text is there, like I have to get through it all, like you can still take your time, you can still like which is why the and better because, um, it's not moving automatically, or anything, so you can, you can take your time, you can go off script, you can come back in, and that's you guys are my favorite youtube couple that is that's so sweet totes dorks, thank you all right, so we still gotta fix the mic yeah, there's something, it's something you we're combining usb and xlr is never and that's.
Speaker 2:So you think that's what it is.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Kat says I used a script for the intro on my latest video.
Speaker 1:Your latest video is so good.
Speaker 2:Yes, it didn't seem like you used a script at all.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I couldn't have guessed.
Speaker 2:At all. Let's see it's amazing. I own a dumb prompter and the Elgato prompter is just leagues ahead, yeah.
Speaker 1:I have that parrot padcaster from the Kickstarter. I think it opened it.
Speaker 2:Mark says the Elgato teleprompter seems kind of small. Does it cause eye fatigue after extended use?
Speaker 1:What is it? I think it's a nine inch display. I mean, it's intended for this. It's intended for like it's at the end of a desk over here. Yeah, If you've ever been.
Speaker 2:I saw the prompters that were in your like high school studios. Those were massive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, those are big displays, which would be awesome.
Speaker 2:I would love a giant Like you can be, yeah, feet away.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because you are. You're. Sometimes you're 15, 10, 15 feet away from the camera. You have to be able to read it.
Speaker 2:So it's like the text is the words are this big on the screen, um, but that's also why I think you can't see the eye movement at all, because you're so far.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, so the elgato prompter, I think. Yeah, it's supposed to fit on a desk. It's kind of small and that's that's what it's intended for. I would love it if they did like a I don't know prompter pro or something, and it was like a big, big xl or big xlr big elgato prompter.
Speaker 2:Gill says the prompter unconsciously has become the mvp of my setup.
Speaker 1:I use it for everything yeah, it's like I, it's like there was a. I have a bp and an ap in my creator timeline before, prompter, after prompter, because it's wow it's like roadcaster brc I love my prompter.
Speaker 2:It is a confidence monitor or a prompter. Yeah, wow, it's. It's a good thing yeah, well, great well, I have some bad news I know what your bad news is it has become a tradition, after the couple's table, for us to go get Handel's ice cream. And unfortunately well, not unfortunately.
Speaker 1:We regret to inform you.
Speaker 2:We're meeting up with friends tonight and we figured there would be desserts and snacks involved, so we decided to use our ice cream ticket yesterday. But oh boy, am I craving that.
Speaker 1:Oh, no right pavlovian response is very real oh my gosh, I'm drooling but, yeah, we shouldn't.
Speaker 2:How long can you extend the cord of the elgato prompter?
Speaker 1:uh, the longest. Actually, this cord I'm using right here is a 16 foot 20 gigabit per second cable. Um, and I have several of these and that's that's the longest one I could find, so I don't know if I could go longer, but 16 feet is the longest, but it has to be high speed cable. So I get these 20 gigabit per second ones and those work great, because then I can like have my computer over in my office but I can move. The prompter can be at all my different locations.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, no ice cream time today, sad boy, very sad boy summer. Anyway, well, that was a fun episode.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there we go.
Speaker 2:All right.
Speaker 1:Thanks for thanks for hanging out even with audio delays and all the things.
Speaker 2:Yes, hopefully we can dial it in for next week. Yeah, and all the things. Yes, hopefully we can dial it in for next week. Yeah and yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so thanks for hanging out, thanks for all the just fun and support and all the cool things. Hope you have a safe, happy, healthy, fun rest of your weekend and we'll see you next time.
Speaker 2:Bye.