General My first motovlog - Why I Bought The Kawasaki Z900 2020

[BikeFather]

Just started my youtube channel a few weeks ago. This is my first motovlog.

Any feedback is highly appreciated.

Currently working on improving my audio, switching back and forth between recording directly to gopro or using an external recorder. And also trying to get a 2nd camera, that way I can keep the viewers slightly more entertained by having that 2nd angle.

And to top that up, learning Davinci .. hehe

 

[HippoDrone]

I very much look forward to watching this after work tomorrow Alex

 

[Drakhen99]

Dude, your engine noise in that video is awesome - those new 900s sound fantastic!

I see how many people are watching your videos, what is your CTR and AVD like? I surmise that there are a lot of people interested in the Z900 based on your view/sub ratio.

Keep up the good work - I am always doing testing & adjusting things. And if you have Resolve questions, feel free to ask

-John

 

[BikeFather]

Dude, your engine noise in that video is awesome - those new 900s sound fantastic!

I see how many people are watching your videos, what is your CTR and AVD like? I surmise that there are a lot of people interested in the Z900 based on your view/sub ratio.

Keep up the good work - I am always doing testing & adjusting things. And if you have Resolve questions, feel free to ask

-John

Thanks.
For the audio - that was recorded using the mic wired directly into the camera, which at lower speeds, picks up a good balance of voice and engine noise, however, at higher speeds picks up too much noise, so I'm also now and again testing directly recording into a Zoom H1n.

Stats - Yes, I'm trying to focus on keywords that people are actually searching for, starting with the model of the bike.

CTR is about 12% I think. The average video duration is only about 18%. That's why I'm thinking of a 2nd camera angle, to keep views slightly more entertained.

But overall, considering I've also started a few weeks, I'm quite happy with the views and subscribers I got so far.

Thanks for watching, and thanks for your feedback.

 

[Drakhen99]

You're welcome... and those are very impressive stats! Good job on the SEO.

Let us know how the Zoom goes. I use a lav mic plugged into one of my GoPros through its Media Mod, and I wear a half helmet, and then I process the audio in Resolve in order to get what you hear on my vids. It may add a bit of time, but I like the results.

As for your CTR, that's really high The AVD could be due to people clicking on the video expecting one thing but you're serving up something else, or they're skipping around on the video looking for something specific. I see this in my own vids from time to time when I'm talking about different things and the viewer isn't in tune with my personality. In those cases, I find chapters to be quite helpful. I've seen distinct spikes and dips in YT's analytics page on those chapters.

-John

 

[BikeFather]

You're welcome... and those are very impressive stats! Good job on the SEO.

Let us know how the Zoom goes. I use a lav mic plugged into one of my GoPros through its Media Mod, and I wear a half helmet, and then I process the audio in Resolve in order to get what you hear on my vids. It may add a bit of time, but I like the results.

As for your CTR, that's really high The AVD could be due to people clicking on the video expecting one thing but you're serving up something else, or they're skipping around on the video looking for something specific. I see this in my own vids from time to time when I'm talking about different things and the viewer isn't in tune with my personality. In those cases, I find chapters to be quite helpful. I've seen distinct spikes and dips in YT's analytics page on those chapters.

-John

Thanks. This will be a long term test I guess. I've done a video on it already. and the sound clearly sounds better, but I'm still trying to see/ figure out whether there is a good way of making it work directly plugged into a GoPro. I'm using a media mod as well.

I have no issues, syncing the audio in post, it's fairly straight forward, its just that it's an extra gadget I need to take with me, whenever I go and ride.

I've just ordered myself a new mic. Previously I was using a SmartLav+ from Rode, and literally, just now my Purple Panda arrived. I've heard that even though pretty much all lavalier mics are the same, apparently the Purple Panda is slightly more tuned to remove a bit of that noise and focus more on your voice. So I still have high hopes I might be able to make it work without using the Zoom H1n. We'll see.

But there are too many variables when it comes to this, helmet, wind direction, device, etc.. lol..
My way of comparing the audio was more on the lazy side, as I was comparing two different videos, in 2 different scenarios. Next I want to actually create a video having 2 mics in a helmet, 1 wired to the gopro, 1 to the Zoom H1n, that way, I'll get a more accurate comparison.


AVD - I agree. These videos were NOT planned at all. That's why I even called them moto vlogs, so people expect that some stranger dude is just randomly talking about some stuff. But I know even myself when I search for something, something I'm looking for straight to the point videos with no fluff.

E.g. the other day a video came on my feed called "why you should not use a full system exhaust".. Oh .. interesting I thought.. Let's see what it is.. And then I get this guy talking for like 10 minutes about completely different things, and then at some stage briefly makes some comments about the topic itself. I skipped the video a few times and eventually I left as I lost interest.

So that's my other plan, to start creating more to the point videos.

It's all a learning process.

 

[Drakhen99]

I agree on all those points. @Moto Mengy recently put out an audio test video wherein he had 2 mics on the same ride.

I typically modify my audio setup and then do a quick ride around the block. Similar time of day, traffic patterns, and I call out the speed [you can see this in some of the audio test vids on my channel].

I am usually quite to the point, but then I end up with a lot of really short videos LOL. I try to make them longer without fluff, and I've started doing testing and such as part of a vlog section in the hopes that someone who came to me for info will find my personality likeable and subscribe and watch the vlogs too. I'm not sure how well that's working out, but it's worth a shot.

FWIW, any time I go to a destination, instead of a regular vlog I call them "short films" and I throw music, effects, all sorts of stuff at 'em to make them more fun to watch without leaning on poetic prose to keep a viewer's attention.

There's just so many ways to be creative with video, I'm just loving it, and learning along the way is super fun too.

Also also, there's a guy on YT whose channel is "Cycle Fanatix" and during the winter he had some videos wherein he was using a snowblower for 3 or 4 minutes, time lapsed and all. I was like WTH is this doing in a motorcycle video, but I watched because I was jealous we had no snow and my snow thrower sat unused. I still don't understand how 45m videos with all that kind of stuff gets watched thousands of times, but my longer vids [15-30m] get dozens of views and a poor AVD. And, just to be clear, I'm not badmouthing Cycle Fanatix, just using his style as an example. He's got like 45k subs now, so he must be doing SOMETHING right!

-John

 

[HippoDrone]

Brill vid, and well done on that view count, mightily impressive!

My only constructive feedback would be to maybe move the mic a little away from your mouth to avoid the Darth Vader moments (I get them even with the mic buried when I get out of breath, is hard to eliminate entirely). And also, at the end you put some writing on the screen, and then hid it with the suggested vids, so maybe add a little black screen at the end for the suggested vids and put the words up before they show. Umm, only other thing would be to try not to record too close to home, especially if you need to blur the speedo so close! ;-)

 

[Drakhen99]

Brill vid, and well done on that view count, mightily impressive!

My only constructive feedback would be to maybe move the mic a little away from your mouth to avoid the Darth Vader moments (I get them even with the mic buried when I get out of breath, is hard to eliminate entirely). And also, at the end you put some writing on the screen, and then hid it with the suggested vids, so maybe add a little black screen at the end for the suggested vids and put the words up before they show. Umm, only other thing would be to try not to record too close to home, especially if you need to blur the speedo so close! ;-)

All good points, herr Hippo!

The only thing I'd add to that is to try to even out the audio levels so that your off-bike and on-bike stuff is close in volume, otherwise the viewer has to turn on closed captions or raise/lower the volume throughout your vid.

-John

 

[MachKneel]

Just watched, great video!

 

[BikeFather]

Brill vid, and well done on that view count, mightily impressive!

My only constructive feedback would be to maybe move the mic a little away from your mouth to avoid the Darth Vader moments (I get them even with the mic buried when I get out of breath, is hard to eliminate entirely). And also, at the end you put some writing on the screen, and then hid it with the suggested vids, so maybe add a little black screen at the end for the suggested vids and put the words up before they show. Umm, only other thing would be to try not to record too close to home, especially if you need to blur the speedo so close! ;-)

I know. The mic wasn't even front, yet was picking up every breath I would take.. Annoying.. That's why I became obsessed with improving my audio. There are so many more videos I've recorded but in the end, I decided to ditch them because I wasn't happy. Even this one I think it was actually the 3rd take.

But in the end, I thought.. you know what.. let me at least post something, start getting some views, and then slowly slowly improve..


I've got a different mic now, I haven't yet tried it. all wired up ready to go for my next ride.

Good point about the end of the videos, and recording too close to home.. lol

Thanks for your feedback.

 

[BikeFather]

All good points, herr Hippo!

The only thing I'd add to that is to try to even out the audio levels so that your off-bike and on-bike stuff is close in volume, otherwise the viewer has to turn on closed captions or raise/lower the volume throughout your vid.

-John

That makes sense. Thanks.

 

[Drakhen99]

I've got a different mic now, I haven't yet tried it. all wired up ready to go for my next ride.

Good point about the end of the videos, and recording too close to home.. lol

Thanks for your feedback.

You and I are in the same boat [obsessed with audio], for different reasons. I'd suggest trying out your setup while walking or running around the house. Just press record and go, and then check the audio. This test won't help you with wind noise, but can be a quick way to suss out what mic placements are going to get rid of the Darth Vader breathing noises, as Hippo called them

-John

 

[Moto Mengy]

I know. The mic wasn't even front, yet was picking up every breath I would take.. Annoying.. That's why I became obsessed with improving my audio. There are so many more videos I've recorded but in the end, I decided to ditch them because I wasn't happy. Even this one I think it was actually the 3rd take.

But in the end, I thought.. you know what.. let me at least post something, start getting some views, and then slowly slowly improve..


I've got a different mic now, I haven't yet tried it. all wired up ready to go for my next ride.

Good point about the end of the videos, and recording too close to home.. lol

Thanks for your feedback.

I've honestly enjoyed the trial and error aspects of motovlogging. Testing new things, trying to improve others, that stuff makes me happy, LOL!

 

[Drakhen99]

I've honestly enjoyed the trial and error aspects of motovlogging. Testing new things, trying to improve others, that stuff makes me happy, LOL!

Ditto. Except I don't usually have a lot to talk about, so I post up my testing videos too.

I only recall seeing ONE Moto Mengy testing video

-John

 

[Moto Mengy]

Ditto. Except I don't usually have a lot to talk about, so I post up my testing videos too.

I only recall seeing ONE Moto Mengy testing video

-John

Yeah, a couple of my testing motovlogs ended up in the recycle bin!

 

[Drakhen99]

Yeah, a couple of my testing motovlogs ended up in the recycle bin!

Haha, I've only had a couple go in the bin... most have enough tests in them that succeed that they're worth posting.

-John

 

[SighBored]

Nice