Although I’ve been recording podcasts for fifteen years now, I never really got into creating videos. The last time I tried, I found the process to be a time consuming nightmare. I thought creating videos would be as simple as turning on a camera, pressing record, and uploading the results to YouTube. In reality it’s a lot harder than that. For starters, it’s almost impossible to get great audio from the microphones build into most cameras — doubly so if you’re trying to match audio levels with insert shots. This led me to recording my audio from a separate microphone, which meant syncing audio and video tracks in a video editing suite followed by lengthy rendering times. Things like pick up shots and overlaid graphics added more complexity and more time. It didn’t take long for me to lose interest in all the work required to create free videos to go with my free podcasts.

Recently my friends Boat (John) and Aaron, the hosts of the popular Amigos Podcast, asked if I wanted to add my Commodore 64 podcast Sprite Castle to their network of retrocomputing-themed shows. I’ve been a fan of their podcast since it started, and jumped at the opportunity. Boat also suggested I add some videos to their YouTube channel to promote my show as well.

I’ve spent the past month playing with Open Broadcaster Software (OBS), a free program that more or less turns your computer into a video broadcast station. OBS allows you to set up multiple “scenes” using different inputs from programs or cameras, and control everything on the fly. It’s definitely been a learning curve, but I’m getting the hang of it. My favorite aspect is that everything can be done in real time — you hit record, do your show, and when you’re done, you have a video file that can be uploaded directly to YouTube without the need for lengthy post-production rendering.

To accompany my Sprite Castle podcast, I’ve added a new series of videos on YouTube called Sprite Castle Plays. These videos are not meant to replace my podcast, but rather supplement it with video footage of the games being played. As someone who grew up in the 80s it is hard for me to remember that not everyone has seen games like Yie Ar Kung-Fu or Lode Runner in action. Uploading the videos is a way for my audio listeners to check out video game play footage, and hopefully lead YouTube viewers to my audio podcast.

The audio quality of the Sprite Castle Plays videos has not as good as I would like. I recorded one episode using my webcam’s built-in microphone that was so bad I had to delete it. On the first three episodes, I used the microphone built into my headset. Yesterday, I made some modifications to my setup that will greatly improve the audio quality in future episodes.

Since jumping back into the world of podcasting I’ve also picked up a few Patreon supporters. These are people who support my shows financially for either $4/month or $10/month. I wanted to do something above and beyond for my $10/month supporters and so I created a new series of videos called “Rando Rob.” (One viewer thought they were called “Randy Rob,” which I’m afraid is a different type of video.) In Rando Rob, I pick one random item from my room and talk about it on camera. As anyone who knows me can tell you, just about everything I own has a story attached to it. The Rando Rob episodes are 100% spontaneous. So far I’ve created videos about my handheld radio scanner, a box of 8″ floppies, and a can of Dr. Pepper with a secret! These shows contain no editing at all — it’s just me talking into my iPhone which is mounted to a tripod, showing off different things and telling (I hope) entertaining stories. I only have a couple of $10/month supporters at the moment, but as long as I have at least one I will keep making these videos because they are so fun to make. Each time I start one I think “well this will only be two minutes long.” The last one was 20 minutes in length.

Even though the “Rando Rob” videos were intended to be a reward only for my top-tier Patrons, I decided to make the second one (8″ Floppy Disks) publicly viewable in the name of advertising. I don’t think anyone has watched it and immediately signed up to support me, but it was worth a shot. Plus, it’s me talking about a single box of floppy disks for almost half an hour. How fun is that?

For my birthday this year, Susan bought me a new tripod, a “Ring light”, and a scissor-arm mic stand. Yesterday evening, I hooked up the scissor-arm mic stand on my desk and attached my Blue Yeti to it. The results were incredible — it’s so good, in fact, that I will be able to record my video and audio podcasts from the same place. Going forward all of my videos should sound much better, and it’ll be a more comfortable location for me to record my audio shows. Win/win!

My videos will never get 100 million views on YouTube (I’m happy to just get 100), but I’m certainly enjoying it.