A LOT of people have seen my studio and said, "Daniel, that's a really cool setup
that must have taken a lot of time and effort to build something so big."
Well the reality is it's actually a really small space that i built
over time to fit the needs as i grew as a creator i've been promising that i would
do a quick tour of the studio and talk about some of the gear i use so let's do that today
so originally this entire space was only about a 12 and a half by eight and a half foot space
it had a little partition wall that kicked out that separated it from the kitchen and i had my
office desk there was a coat closet to the left of it a bay window a door going out onto the deck and
another window i got to the point where i wanted to make something cooler than what i had in terms
of the look of my set so i decided what i would do was gut that closet rip everything out of it
build a new closet where the old desk was add a sliding barn door in front of that closet and then
build a studio right inside of the closet that i gutted that's what i originally called studio a
the heart of my entire set is really a couple of custom pcs that i have down below studio a one
is an amd ryzen custom build that i built myself and the other one is one i bought from a creator i
know and it's an intel nvidia custom build i also have an m1 mac mini on top that allows me to work
with programs that are mac only and do things that maybe my pcs can't for certain types of software
now over time i knew there was more i wanted to do with the room but that took a little bit of effort
patience and a little bit of money so what i ended up doing was removing the large bay window that
was behind me along this long wall and i rebuilt it to be the back wall of my set for studio b
studio b is made up of a custom motorized standing desk that i can either sit or stand at i sort of
frankenstein my own top onto it because i didn't like the size or look of the tops that came with
most of them and then i had to figure out how to get all the gear i wanted here to work as
efficiently as possible i didn't want stands on the floor all around me so a lot of the gear
ended up being flown and hung from the ceiling my powered studio monitor speakers my main light
my cameras that i was using in front of me my overhead boom mic those are all hung from the
ceiling above now the rest of my gear here is pretty much attached to the standing desk itself
i've got two different monitors i've got my main studio mic my laptop my ipad pro and then my other
gear for mixing my video and my audio all sits on top of my desk with me now i use multiple cameras
at any given moment sometimes i'll use them for an alternative shot coming across the studio but
i also use them in different ways when i'm filming different types of content for instance in front
of me i have two identical cameras one that's set up for 16 by nine and the other one that's
flipped up for nine by sixteen that way i can film short form content and regular widescreen content
all at the same time without having to move a camera it's all just right there ready to go
when i'm done filming i've got both options now i do use different microphones depending on what
i'm doing right here i don't like having a mic in this shot when i'm making edited content so i have
the overhead mic for those situations but when i'm live streaming i'll use my shure sm7b right here
it sounds really good when it's closed to my mouth not so good when it gets pushed away the biggest
trick is trying to figure out how to get all these cameras and different microphones to all work
together in harmony so that when i film or when i live stream i've got full control of all of these
different pieces and can mix them and use them in any way that i want now on this desk i used to
have both a road caster pro and an atem mini pro iso i don't know if you know what each of those
pieces are but the road caster basically handled all of my audio signaling going into my system
and the a10 mini pro basically handled all of the camera signals the video signals that came into
my systems when i was filming or live streaming now the problem i have with them is sometimes
they didn't always sync up perfectly and there was some work to be done to make sure that they work
together in unison but they were also missing some features i really wanted to have like the
ability to take an audio signal and pan it left and right or the ability to take a stereo line in
and mix it into what i was doing when i might be recording some audio simple things like that you
would think these pieces handled but surprisingly they often didn't there were some weird things too
like the atem mini pro as much as i like it didn't have simple things like an on off switch so a lot
of times i had to leave it running when i wanted to shut my studio down but recently my friends at
sweetwater sent me out a roland vr one hd and it basically does most of the things that those two
other units did but combined it has audio inputs and video inputs that are easily synced together
it also has basic things like stereo ins and the ability to pan my audio so when i'm doing
things like recording guitars or doing audio and sounds for the backgrounds of my videos i have a
lot more control with this unit the other thing i like about it it has a lot of the onboard effects
like pitch changing and reverb and the ability to switch scenes between cameras nice and smoothly
it does picture in picture and split screen and all those kind of things that i would use
in different situations but one of the things i really like about this unit is it sits neatly on
my desktop and it's only about a third of the size of those other two combined it also works a little
differently i'm used to the road caster pro having a little display screen that allows me to get
into the functionality of the road caster the a10 mini pro i actually have to use a separate laptop
and software to actually get into the functions this unit has no display but i run a smaller mini
monitor right in front of it and that allows me to get not only into all the menu functions but
now i can see all the different camera angles right in front of me with the click of a button
no more trying to have to look at those little flip out screens that are half a mile away for
an old man like me i think the thing that really sold me on this was the price point too the road
caster pro is about a 600 unit the a-10 mini pro is about an 800 unit you're talking 1400 just out
of the gate without the other things you'll need to really effectively use those tools what i liked
about the vr1 hd is it's under a thousand dollars right out of the box and with the exception of
adding on the smaller monitor which i thought was the right choice for this unit it pretty much
has everything you need right in front of you but here's my favorite part it has an on off switch if
you're interested in learning more about this unit i'm going to leave a link down below where you
can check out more of the specs and see if it's something that might be right for you as we move
forward on the channel i'll be talking more about the different gear that might be important to you
as a creator trying to make content for youtube there's just so much i'll do my best to get to
all of that and if there's anything specific that you want me to cover be sure to shout it
out in the comments below now if you want to learn more about how to make better video content put it
onto youtube and grow a youtube channel check out the video that's on screen now or the one
i'll link down below thanks for hanging out in the studio with me today i'll talk to you soon peace