# I started a youtube channel, need some help



## that short guy

So I started a channel and just need some help with a few things. Right now it's mainly about getting tones out of the line 6 helix but I have other ideas, I just want to get the hang of things before I get too crazy with it. The things I want to know from you guys are....

1. Can anyone recommend a good quality camera that won't kill my bank account. keep in mind this is just a hobby and I have no intention of ever making any money off of it. So lets cap it at $400 USD.

2. Recommend me a video editing software that is cheap, easy to understand/navigate and is at least a step up from the old windows movie maker

3. is there anything that you guys that have made videos before wished you'd known ahead of time

here's my most recent video so you can see where I'm at and give any recommendation you see fit.


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## NickLAudio

You can find pretty decent quality used DSLRs on Craigslist and Ebay for a few hundred bucks with the kit lenses. As a backup, I got my Canon T2i off Craigslist for $200 which came with kit lens, case, battery, and charger. Could use the extra funds to buy maybe a small light kit or different lenses or a shotgun mic.

For free editing software, I've heard good things about Lightworks and DiVinci Resolve. Both are packed with tools and both are able to properly color grade if you ever need that ability.

Whatever camera you're using now doesn't look bad at all. Your videos are actually pretty good compared to a lot of other "channels" I've seen. Especially with the Helix's audio injected right in while you're playing. Lighting and audio quality are the two main things lacking in most bad YouTube vids today. Focus on those things and your vids will stand out.


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## that short guy

NickLAudio said:


> You can find pretty decent quality used DSLRs on Craigslist and Ebay for a few hundred bucks with the kit lenses. As a backup, I got my Canon T2i off Craigslist for $200 which came with kit lens, case, battery, and charger. Could use the extra funds to buy maybe a small light kit or different lenses or a shotgun mic.
> 
> For free editing software, I've heard good things about Lightworks and DiVinci Resolve. Both are packed with tools and both are able to properly color grade if you ever need that ability.
> 
> Whatever camera you're using now doesn't look bad at all. Your videos are actually pretty good compared to a lot of other "channels" I've seen. Especially with the Helix's audio injected right in while you're playing. Lighting and audio quality are the two main things lacking in most bad YouTube vids today. Focus on those things and your vids will stand out.




Thank you. I never stopped to think about lighting so I'm going to look into that. As far as the camera I'm using right now it's my phone so score 1 for Samsung lol. 

I'm going to look into both of those softwares and camera options

Thank you!


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## TedEH

IMO the video quality is good enough. I'd be more concerned with audio quality - record your speaking parts with a decent mic and process the audio to keep the whole video balanced. You want to avoid having quiet, hard to hear explanations, then all of the sudden your recorded tone blares out on top of it.

Outside of that, some creative editing to keep people's attention rather than a single shot focused on yourself the whole time (inter-cut some shots of the presets you're using maybe, stuff like that), and I'd personally re-take parts where you stumble in your speaking ("Hope you like gu-[stumble a bit] guitar tone you just heard"), or find a way to cover those things up with some character or something.


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## that short guy

TedEH said:


> IMO the video quality is good enough. I'd be more concerned with audio quality - record your speaking parts with a decent mic and process the audio to keep the whole video balanced. You want to avoid having quiet, hard to hear explanations, then all of the sudden your recorded tone blares out on top of it.
> 
> Outside of that, some creative editing to keep people's attention rather than a single shot focused on yourself the whole time (inter-cut some shots of the presets you're using maybe, stuff like that), and I'd personally re-take parts where you stumble in your speaking ("Hope you like gu-[stumble a bit] guitar tone you just heard"), or find a way to cover those things up with some character or something.




This is where I definitely feel I need the most work. I would much rather just shut up and play but I've got to start making the talking parts better. Maybe I should do some bullet points to at least keep my thoughts on track when I'm talking


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## spudmunkey

Is there a ceiling fan on in your talking-to-the-camera shots? The flickering is giving me nausea. ha!

Definitely mic yourself if you can, rather than depending on the phone's audio.

I've enjoyed my time with HitFilm Express, which is free...but I admittedly have nothing to compare it to: https://fxhome.com/express (I made this with it, and it was only the 2nd video I've ever edited in the last...oh...19 years or so: 
 )

Also, lighting lighting lighting. There are a few good tutorials on youtube for building cheap soft boxes, and other kinds of lighting.


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## NickLAudio

spudmunkey said:


> Is there a ceiling fan on in your talking-to-the-camera shots? The flickering is giving me nausea. ha!
> 
> Definitely mic yourself if you can, rather than depending on the phone's audio.
> 
> I've enjoyed my time with HitFilm Express, which is free...but I admittedly have nothing to compare it to: https://fxhome.com/express (I made this with it, and it was only the 2nd video I've ever edited in the last...oh...19 years or so:
> )
> 
> Also, lighting lighting lighting. There are a few good tutorials on youtube for building cheap soft boxes, and other kinds of lighting.




The rake had me dying, was not expecting that haha


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## that short guy

So I'm still working on finding a mic for the talking parts but i made another video because I was asked to do a demo what do you guys think of the quality so far. I'm not to happy with the headstock cam shots but everything else I'm fairly happy with

Here's the video


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## Headache

Lighting and angle make the video.

I've ways just used my phone. 
Makes it simplest for me.


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## alessandroarzilli

that short guy said:


> 1. Can anyone recommend a good quality camera that won't kill my bank account. keep in mind this is just a hobby and I have no intention of ever making any money off of it. So lets cap it at $400 USD.


I personally use a Panasonic DMC-TZ80-ZS60 for 90% of all my YouTube videos (250,00 $ on AZ) and
an Apeman A66 (50,00 $ on AZ) as an action camera. There are many others that will do the job that you need. A camera capable of recording up to 1080p30 that creates H.264 compressed files with an average bitrate of 20-30 Mbps would be perfect for everything. Don't forget to buy a tripod for it.



that short guy said:


> 2. Recommend me a video editing software that is cheap, easy to understand/navigate and is at least a step up from the old windows movie maker


Here's a bit more tricky. I personally use Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects, both at work and at home. There are some new freeware NLEs, such as Open Shot and Video Pad and Lightworks. The important thing is to understand how a video editor's timeline works and how to edit videos in the fastest way that you can, since the whole process can take a lot of time, rendering excluded. Also, consider buying a video graphics card capable of CUDA acceleration, since it will speed up the rendering a lot. I personalli use an old 2GB Gygabyte graphics card which has the nVidia GTX 750 Ti chip on it and can edit 4K videos quite smoothly. I heard Zotac's video card are new and good.



that short guy said:


> 3. is there anything that you guys that have made videos before wished you'd known ahead of time


The cinema editing's language. It makes a HUGE difference to understand how movies are edited. J cuts, L cuts, cross dissolves, black dissolves, white balance....for everything I really suggest you the Potato Jet YouTube channel. That asian guy is a great cinematographer.


Just my two cents. I subbed to your channel


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## that short guy

Thanks guys.

I've been pretty quiet on YouTube lately because of work (I'm currently in the middle of field exercise that's going to have me away from home until the 17th but I have a few projects partially done so hopefully I can get those out soon after I get back


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## SurelyTheEnd

I use my Samsung S8 and an LED panel light, coupled with a Lapel mic to pick up my voice work when speaking to camera. I've just started, made two videos so far and this works for me currently


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