Kartakou Cobblestone Power Amp - YouTube video review

[Zaulkin]

Hi guys,

I decided that I would give YouTube a go so here's my first video demo of a tiny little power amp pedal I found.

Constructive criticism / advice welcome, I'm still learning how to be infront of a camera. I know I could have made it better and there was a glitch I couldn't get rid of, but it was my last few hours of my premiere pro trial (haha). Need to figure out how to turn on face detection so I'm not blurry.

I've got a few other pedals lined up but it will primarily be stuff I buy/sell or borrow. I may need to call on a few people to borrow some cool gear. Hopefully I can keep to interesting stuff and topics. Maybe lessons and so on later?

I guess they say if you're perfectly happy with your first one then you took too long, so here it is!

[Danger Mouse]

Cool! Actually a very good effort for a first attempt.

Constructive criticism (which is only my opinion):

Too much close-up on your face, more of a wider body shot would allow you to be more physically expressive, which will keep the viewer interested.
More dynamics in your voice would help too, but that is hard to do at first (having done some piece to camera stuff a long time ago it does take time to get used to it).
Also the band bit went on too long and didn't really convey what you wanted because the audio made the guitar sound quiet and like it was struggling, I assume it was just a room mic though.
Beard is far too well groomed ( )

Other than that, good review and an excellent starting point!

[Zaulkin]

Cool! Actually a very good effort for a first attempt.

Constructive criticism (which is only my opinion):

Too much close-up on your face, more of a wider body shot would allow you to be more physically expressive, which will keep the viewer interested.
More dynamics in your voice would help too, but that is hard to do at first (having done some piece to camera stuff a long time ago it does take time to get used to it).
Also the band bit went on too long and didn't really convey what you wanted because the audio made the guitar sound quiet and like it was struggling, I assume it was just a room mic though.
Beard is far too well groomed ( )

Other than that, good review and an excellent starting point!

Thank you! All of those things are great feedback and pretty much what I was thinking. Definitely agree on the hands in the shot, will do that in the future.

The guitar vs drums sounds alright on my laptop but it was just a camera mic. Noted.

Also learning how to beard.

[Slowy]

Nothing to add. Wot DM said.

Actually, something to add; study Brian Wampler. Don't try to be Brian Wampler but look at his mix of dead straight and zany and how he does it.
All the best presenters are slightly larger than life.

[Bg]

where was chappers? or the captain?

[StratMatt]

Good first effort. I found the track playing while you were talking a little distracting. But other than that and the camera shot, nothing else to pick on. Have you tried propping the mic up with a Teddy bear?

[Zaulkin]

Good first effort. I found the track playing while you were talking a little distracting. But other than that and the camera shot, nothing else to pick on. Have you tried propping the mic up with a Teddy bear?

Cheers, I'll keep that in mind. I am one of those weird people who likes either complete silence or busy hard rock in the background while I do stuff.

What mic are you referring to? I used a cheap lapel mic for my voice.

[StratMatt]

Good first effort. I found the track playing while you were talking a little distracting. But other than that and the camera shot, nothing else to pick on. Have you tried propping the mic up with a Teddy bear?

Cheers, I'll keep that in mind. I am one of those weird people who likes either complete silence or busy hard rock in the background while I do stuff.

What mic are you referring to? I used a cheap lapel mic for my voice.

Just a lame attempt at humour. I think it's Greg's Guitars videos that always seem to have a teddy bear for a mic stand.

Pretty good beard coverage too BTW.

[Bg]

It looks like you're reading from a card or something, a bit stilted? You probably aren't. If you are it might be an idea to add a few topics on a card to riff on, just the bits you want to get across. Don't have to look at the camera all the time.

Hey what do I know, I'm just an oscar winning actor and stuff.

[Zaulkin]

It looks like you're reading from a card or something, a bit stilted? You probably aren't. If you are it might be an idea to add a few topics on a card to riff on, just the bits you want to get across. Don't have to look at the camera all the time.

Hey what do I know, I'm just an oscar winning actor and stuff.

I wasn't, but I took lots of takes because I wanted to eliminate the 'umming' and 'ahing' that I do normally. I've learnt that it's good to use cut shots and keep the segments relatively short. Will get better and faster with the improvisation as I go. It's actually quite a lot of work!

It will look more natural with a wider shot too.

[Bg]

All good mate, wondering whether you should keep the umms and ahhhs in, or at least some.

[Zaulkin]

All good mate, wondering whether you should keep the umms and ahhhs in, or at least some.

I think you're right actually. I should aim to reduce them but still keep a few so that it doesn't seem sterile.

All good feedback for the next one

Just need to get premiere pro now hah.

[Bg]

I'm sure the first ones by Captain and Tennille were a bit stilted too... might be worth checking out. I'm sure its practice, like anything else, to be natural.

[jeremyb]

Get some lights to shine on your face, even if it's a couple of desk lamps, will reduce the shadowing and make you look more pro

[Starfire]

Obnoxious guitar intros pretty much guarantee I won't continue watching, but at least it's consistent with the way the pedal is used throughout the clip. Good to make the intro actually relate to the content, I think, rather than apply a stock riff/motif across all videos like some channels do. The PGS approach where the product is demoed in anger for a minute or two before the talky explanation bit is good. I always find it an uncomfortable mental gear change when the intro is some kind of heavy riffage but the demo itself is all shimmery reverb plinky-plonky bollocks. Or vice versa.

And yeah, even though the delivery was a bit cardboardy I thought your more leisurely pace was actually a positive. Can't stand demo-ers who deliver a load (IBJB) of info in a single unpunctuated stream.

Good job!