Adobe Audition Podcast – Simon Whistler (transcribed by Sonix)
Mike Russell: Hi, I'm Mike Russell from Music Radio Creative. Welcome to the Adobe Audition Podcast were I'm interviewing power users of Adobe Audition. We'll reminisce back to Cool Edit Pro and take you right up to date with Adobe Audition CC. If you'd like to learn about audio production – everything from vocal effects to radio imaging, commercial production to music mixing – join my next audio production course at mrc dot fm slash learn. That's mrc dot fm slash l e a r n, learn.
Mike Russell: My guest today is Simon Whistler who is a British YouTuber living in Prague. He wasn't always a YouTuber he started back at university eight years ago with a masters degree in law. No stranger to travelling the world he's interned in Sri Lanka obviously now living in Prague. He's tried his hand at voiceovers also podcasting as well but now has been a solid YouTuber for many years and makes YouTube videos for channels you may have heard of including Today I Found Out, Top Tens, VisualPolitik and Biographics as well. Combined these videos go out at two point seven million subscribers and get around 25 million monthly views. Wow I can't wait to dig into the knowledge that Simon has to offer today. Simon, a warm welcome to the show.
Simon Whistler: Mike, great to be here. Thanks for having me on. I got to say it's like I've followed your Music Radio Creative YouTube channel forever and it's like a little bit surreal to have your voice coming in my headphones because I'm just so used to watching it. It's like Hi I'm Mike from Music Radio Creative and now like it's a two way conversation it's a little bit weird but it is wonderful to be here. I so appreciate you having me on.
Mike Russell: Oh that's so cool yeah. Is very very meta in a way isn't it? So let's get straight into it then and find out how exactly you are using a piece of software like Adobe Audition for your YouTubing
Simon Whistler: I think like just let me start off by saying I used to do podcasts. You mentioned I used to do podcasts and I just recently started a podcast again so I've kind of got the both fronts going on right now. Mostly with videos I think the big thing for me is the fact that it comes as part of that Creative Cloud package so you can tie everything together. The vast majority of my stuff happens in Adobe Premiere Pro which I guess many people know is the video version of Audition but you know you've got that and then as you might imagine the audio features in that kind of stripped down version. So I think, I say I think because I don't use it, but I know there's like there's some audio stuff in there like you do some basics like normalization but it's basically kind of like sucky normalization. So but because of the, excuse me, because of the whole Creative Cloud thing you can process all of your audio in Audition and then basically just bring it into Premiere Pro so you can do all of the things that make it sound like really good with the professional Audition tools and then dump that into Premiere Pro. I guess the kind of way I work with it is you know we're producing. I don't know how many videos a week now but you know more than 10 at least. I mean daily videos on Today I Found Out and Top 10s. And so we've got like a producer who makes the videos and then making you know racks and all of this stuff that you can put in Audition and be like this is what sounds good in my studio. Run that through on the audio for you know different files and different audio tracks and it's just it just makes it incredibly easy to use. So that's in a very simple way that's what I did with Audition for videos. Podcasting is obviously a similar process just sans Premiere Pro. So basically I'm a big fan of racks. I think that's just something that makes everything incredibly easy because you know I'm not that guy with who's got the ultimate ears and can hear every little thing and you know when it's to something that people always brought up was you you just can't hear sibilance can you Simon? You know that psh-sh-sh because I'm like you really dude your audio is horribly sibilant if you like I just can't hear that. It just does not bother me. So I am not the audio master but I like racks because then you can make a rack you can get it right and then you can just run it every time or what I've done in the past just get someone else who has good ears to make the rack and then I can run it every time.
Mike Russell: Yeah, get an awesome rack made for you. And that's key yeah you're right. If you've had a rack made in the past it's important you get that rack made for you because everyone has a different voice different sound setup and everything else. And I love to hear how your using not just Adobe Audition but the whole Adobe Creative Cloud package which gives you access to edit your videos inside Premiere Pro and like you say hop over to Audition for a less sucky way of editing the audio.
Simon Whistler: Yeah, I don't know how best to describe it because it's like Adobe stuff's generally great but you know you can even we use Photoshop for graphic design and stuff and I was just messing around in there. This is bit off audio but I was messing around in there the other day to do. Maybe you've seen a documentary where you get like an archival footage and then it does that cool zooming effect so it's like they've they've isolated the person in the frowns and then they kind of change against the background so it's kind of a cool way to basically animates still photos. And I was messing around with this and I was thinking do you need to bring this into like Premiere or After Effects which is After Effects which is like the visual effects software in Creative Cloud. And I'm like oh apparently Photoshop has a little video editor built into it and it's kind of like not Premiere Pro it's just kind of a really simple video editor that you have built into Photoshop like you have sound stuff built into Premiere into Audition getting all my programs mixed up but. They all have the little amount of compatibility so I guess you know Photoshop as well is like a big one for graphics obviously and our process thumbnails crazy important on YouTube so we've got a graphic designer who you know uses Creative Cloud Photoshop for all that stuff. And then I guess After Effects is the big other one because that's kind of where you can do more advanced text effects you can do basically get a green screen a chroma key isolation and so you know a lot of our stuff shot in studio in front of like a green screen or some people look like a blue screen. I guess it depends on what color you use. And so you just better stuff like that. I don't know if we use and other. I guess like Adobe PDF reader would be the other one I use for like documents.
Mike Russell: Everyone uses that!
Simon Whistler: I was like I didn't have like I didn't even realize it was kind of Adobe and then you know you've got that Creative Cloud thing I've never installed all the apps and I'm like ha I wonder if they're like PDF reader I did not realize that PDFs were an Adobe thing and I've been using like the freeware version I downloaded from like download dot com or whatever ages ago which is really not very good and now I've got like I just click this install button. Now it's awesome because I can fill out forms and I can attach my digital signature to beings. That was a pleasant surprise. Makes my 50 euros or whatever it is a month nicely extra worthwhile.
Mike Russell: Definitely definitely I love what you say about the cross pollination of software and the fact that you can do most things like now with Premiere Pro he can edit a Premier Pro project inside Audition now pretty much in the latest version. And yeah that's right which is really cool and you can do some like matching of audio to the exact frame of the videos. You can get sound effects and things to whoosh in and bang on to an exact frame in the video. So really cool stuff and I do believe they got someone from the Photoshop team to work on the scrub kind of tools inside spectral frequency display inside Audition. So you're kind of Photoshopping audio in a way so yeah there's a lot of that.
Simon Whistler: That spectral frequency is that is that the thing the big red and purple thing that you can have underneath?
Mike Russell: Yes.
Simon Whistler: Where you can like isolate like a car horn going by and just delete that? Blows my mind!
Mike Russell: It's amazing isn't it? Let's get into audio production advice specifically. I'm really interested to hear this from you Simon and you mentioned just a moment ago that you know you can't hear sibilance or find it difficult with that and having your rack set up so you must have over your years as a YouTuber are getting really into audio. You must have received some really good advice over the years and I'm curious what would be the best audio production advice you've had?
Simon Whistler: Oooh, difficult I can't say it's going to be on the production side because I really you know I just having someone and paying an expert to do that rack just I don't know if I can say that's the best advice I've ever received because that's like go get advice from someone else. But I think in terms of in terms of like actually recording by far the best was I don't know if this sounds silly because you're such an expert and I am such a not expert is get close to the mic was like a really important thing for me because I never really realized how important that was and it must sound stupid because I used to have you know Blue Yeti microphone? Yeah I used to have one of these. I guess this also relates because that's a condenser mic right and I built like these sound panels. I'd put it all around it. I'd be like trying to like doing it in a closet recording and putting like blankets down and over my head and all this crazyness and then I just I think I just I don't know if it was you. I'd like to give you credit but I can't promise it was that I just read this thing about someone was just like just by a dynamic microphone and put your mouth really close to it and I was like Okay I'll give that a go. So I buy this like super cheap 20 pound microphone off Amazon. I get it shipped and I'm like okay let's give this a go this is you know hopefully this will be you know it's one of those things. This will be amazing if it works then just total expectation for it not to. And then just you know I'm putting my mouth really close to it and I'm like this sounds amazing. I don't have any sound you know there's no super you know foam on the walls there's nothing like that. I can't hear the traffic going past outside. So I think it was just that combination of switching to the dynamic mic. I know condenser microphones have their place and if you're like in a full soundproofed studio with all of that stuff you need I think condensers are better right.
Mike Russell: Generally yeah. Yeah.
I think just for someone who isn't you know I don't have a professional audio studio. I mean I'm looking at building one actually but right now I don't and I just think for the situation I was in that was just you know it was just such a revelation. Get closer to the mic like right now I'm super close to it and I've never moved away.
Mike Russell: That's it. Well yeah no you're right. I mean yeah generally condenser mics do tend to be a bit better and they are used in professional studios such as the I'm on a Neumann TLM103 but you know real voice over studios will spend about you know 2000 pounds or three thousand dollars on a Neumann U87 but you can get some really good dynamic mics now. So some really sort of thick chunky ones like the Electro Voice RE20 the Heil PR 40. The Shure SM7B and you're right the closer you get the more frequencies in your voice get picked up and if you get really close it gets all the bass and yeah it's a brilliant tip so I really like that.
Simon Whistler: I think it also gives me that ability like to do a bit of mic work where you can be like if you want to let off a really big laugh you could kind of lean back away from the mic so you're not like blowing everything out and deafening everyone you can you know kind of like a stage you can move away from it when you want to you know do something louder.
Mike Russell: Exactly. No that makes real sense. So what's your take on having like a microphone windscreen. So I know the SM7B comes with a couple of different screens doesn't it? One's quite thick, ones a little thinner or you can just remove it can't you and just have the kind of naked mic as it were. Do you have any preference there or do you just kind of go with the standard windshield. What do you do with that?
Simon Whistler: I go with the standard they had they had the chunkier one and my partner on our podcast. He he finds he gets it. I don't know if it does make a difference the voice he thinks he sounds better on the one that's a bit chunkier. I gave both of mine a listen and I felt I think that's just. I always like just being close to mic. And maybe it is those like bassy tones that I like hearing in my own voice when I when I listen back but I really like how the one in between sounds. I have to say haven't done it with the shield off completely so maybe I'll try that next. I guess I'd need a pop filter in front it then.
Mike Russell: Yeah some kind of thing or not necessarily. If you get your mic technique right and you're kind of speaking over it so the ph ph is kind of going over. Then you should be able to avoid it even without a shield. There is a debate particularly in the voice over industry should I have a shield or should I not and a lot of people in the voiceover industry instead of calling it a pop shield they call it a spittle shield. Because you don't want to get all those acidic saliva spittle bits that are coming out of your mouth as you're speaking into the internals of the microphone. So it's a big debate.
Simon Whistler: I would not want to be the person who's using this microphone after me. My lips are basically touching it.
Mike Russell: So cool we've covered how your using Audition and the CC the Creative Cloud some audio production advice you've had. I really want to get into projects you've worked on and where you're looking to in the future. So let's look at a challenging project you've worked on what was that and why was it so challenging?
Simon Whistler: On Today I Found Out which is the biggest channel I currently have. We've been working a lot on you know everything as I mentioned or like 99 percent of what we do is studio so it's me in there I'm laved up. You know there's the sound treatment and stuff and all of this. So it's a very you know controlled audio environment. I mean there's loud traffic outside but I got triple glazing so it kind of offsets it most of the time unless the police go past and then I just have to shut up for a few minutes. I think we've started doing these these kind of mini documentaries so were doing 10 to 15 minute things on location. We've shot a couple in Amsterdam where we met at VidCon while we were there. Me and my partner David on the channel we shot a couple of videos there. One was on the legality of marijuana which is surprisingly quite illegal in many ways and then another one about the tulip bubble which was one of the first financial crises and for people who are interested in my channels that's basically what we call a kind of you know that's a drastic sort of concept. I think the big challenge there was like I didn't really realize what it's like to be in a non controlled environment because you like you've got to lav people up it's like the lav doesn't I mean in every way of the production. There's much more complexity. You're like can I put where does this lav microphone go on my coat. Is it brushing against my scarf? Whereas normally I'm like it's just on my shirt I may never have to think about this because I sorted it out one day and it was fine forever and then you're like you can't plug the lavalier microphone or I'm sure you can but I don't have the correct gear to plug it direct into the camera so I am having to work out for the first time like how to sync this stuff up in Adobe Premiere and you're like I should really know how to do this by now. But just because you know you come across these new problems that you never had before and then I guess like a just waiting you know you're out there and someone will just like we were in Amsterdam it's a super busy city and it's like would just be like filming a bit and some like drunk tourist will just shout something and you're like. Ah okay lets just take that back to the beginning and start again so I guess like and then and then also like once you've got all those recordings you take them into you know Adobe Audition and your regular rack you have in your like nicely treated studio does not work at all and you need to play with all those little switches and buttons and all of those things that I learned from your channel in Adobe Audition to kind of make things sound nice. So that was way more time consuming than I thought and yeah that's that's my that's my latest challenge your challenge that continues as we shoot more of these things.
Mike Russell: That's really interesting yeah I can imagine that. Definitely. And like you say you're totally processing and getting audio sounding good that you've recorded on location somewhere so different to treating audio that's been done in a nice professional studio that already sounds good. Have you had a play at all with the automatic speech alignment feature where you can go ahead and say what you just said on location in a studio environment and then basically align it. So it's a better quality version of you speaking on location. Have you tried any of that?
Mike Russell: Back to the interview in a moment but if you want to win my perfect audio creator set up. Head over to MRC dot fm slash win
Simon Whistler: How weird is that yes I have. In fact that was the thing I learned I'm like I was doing all this clapping you know like the you know the clapboards that you get. I was just using my hands like… You know and then I'd match them up in the thing and then I think I saw either I saw a tutorial of someone like how to do it or maybe it was I just saw the feature inside inside Premiere and then yeah that works like 90 percent of the time which is perfect. And there were a few where it can because we do a lot of retakes on the same take so we would keep the camera rolling. We just take it back to the beginning and do like another take so we have a couple to work with and then we do just audio where I basically say everything again with audio just so we can do any pick ups you know just have a third bit of. Because then you can kind of dub it over me talking and it works pretty nicely if I make any flubs or if someone shouts something. So for like 90 percent of it it worked great and then you know obviously that saves me 90 percent of my time which I liked it a lot.
Mike Russell: Around two point seven million subscribers with 25 million monthly views. That's some amazing. Doing amazingly well in the YouTube space with your multiple different channels. Is there anything really cool that you'd like to work on that you haven't got started on yet or maybe you haven't told anyone about yet.
Simon Whistler: I kind of spoiled it already but I'm really excited about these these documentaries we're making. This is a whole new taking what we do in the studio you know it's scripted it's all very produced it's kind of I do it every day it's you know it's fun I don't get me wrong I'm never going to complain about what I do because it is the best thing in the world but like having a new challenge and going out to record these things and then coming back with you know hundreds of gigabytes of random stuff that you have to put into an order and then the first time we do it. Well the first thing we did it it was exactly that. And the second time I was like I'm never doing that again. So I put together like a shot list and a script you know like a loose script and all of this stuff so I could actually look at this once I'd shot everything label everything up and put it all together. This doesn't sound exciting this just sounds like me producing a video but this is maybe this is just what makes this just what's so exciting for me but that's what I'm excited about.
Mike Russell: Interesting. And yeah so you mentioned these these new sort of short documentaries that you're making and you know basically progressing your YouTube presence I mean your your just before we get into your memories of audio and how you are using Audition, YouTube. You've done an amazing job with that just maybe for someone listening right now who's into YouTube or wants to increase their presence would you have any tips in particular for growing a YouTube channel.
Simon Whistler: One hundred percent and it's probably a tip everyone's heard before but it's super important and it's just consistency I really like don't make it perfect it doesn't it really doesn't have to be perfect just go out and start making and you because I knew nothing about video when I got into this I was a total audio guy and I just was just I just got started. You really learn as you go and YouTube is super forgiving. Funnily enough not super forgiving when it comes to audio so if you're listening to this you're probably already into audio so you've got like a good a good start because that's one thing people on the video platform YouTube will not forgive but just go in and you know I find a course on Premiere or just and just crack on and I really think just get on a schedule whether it's once a week or twice a week or basically as often as you can as is my I think people often say like do as much as you can and it's a bit of a bit cliched but do as much as you can but do it on the higher end and the more you do the more practice you get and the better you get and then everything benefits and yeah you'll go back in like three years and you'll put your videos you can go into YouTube you click like sort by oldest and you'll be embarrassed by what you did but it's okay.
Mike Russell: That's really good advice. I like that and it's a perfect segway actually you saying before YouTube I was a total audio guy. Of course we were talking just earlier about how you were in the voiceover industry you're a podcaster. You did those press one for this press two for this voiceovers for on hold so this must go back to your childhood when you think back to your childhood. Maybe you've got a memory around audio when you first heard audio in a certain way and you thought oh this is something I want to do it made you smile any memories like that from your childhood around audio?
Simon Whistler: Man you know what. I don't think it was. I don't think it was listening to audio. You're British you must've been to The Science Museum, right?
Mike Russell: Oh yeah.
Simon Whistler: I don't know maybe this wasn't The Science Museum maybe I'm mixing my memories because I must have been I don't know nine or 10 years old. And my voice definitely hadn't broken because I remember being very self-conscious about how like I sounded. I think before I started doing audio and I didn't know if this was the way for you. But does everyone find their voice weird when they hear it played back to them I think that's a thing right? Yeah okay. I thought my voice sounded like horribly weird and I'm fairly sure it did but so anyway at The Science Museum there is this get back to the story Simon. I mean keep on track. There was a fake booth so it was like a radio studio and there would be people set up and there was a producer in there there was the board with all of the switches and I'm sure it wasn't like as a professional studio would be but to my 10 year old brain I was like wow look at this thing all these switches and these microphones and theres a big cube and they'd take in two kids at a time just like random pair you up with some random other 10 year old and they pop you in and they sit you down and they bring the microphone in and they're like and then they start playing and then they just you know do you know pretend you're on the radio and they'd play this intro and it'd be like hey you're listening to ten oh one point seven FM or whatever and then you just have to introduce it and you'd have like some papers printed out and you'll be like read the news. And I was like I was super in to it it was great blah blah blah blah blah and welcome to the news and all of this stuff and then they come out and I'm like this was amazing. And the other kids were so quiet and I came out kind of very self-conscious I was like did I do that badly because the other kid was like so quiet and my dad was like you did a good job that was like that was good and I'm like well good cause now I'm just embarrassed about like you because you hear the playback and it's they are you know there I am shouting like a like an idiot. Apparently I think that was. That was a lot of fun and not really a memory of listening to something but a memory of audio production in the early days like of my life and it took me a long time to come back around to that world I guess. But here I am today although my mixer is a lot smaller than the one they had in that studio.
Mike Russell: The Internet has democratized or maybe turned it into a meritocracy. Where if you're creating great content and you know how to do it and anyone can do it low barrier to entry then you can rise to the top and be found. You actually reminded me of. Obviously I have many memories of listening to the radio and admiring the jingles. When I was a kid but then going to my first it was like a Capital Radio Roadshow which you'll know if you're from the UK Capital FM in London and I went to one of their early roadshows they had like a whole exhibition I seem to remember it was at Earls Court or something like that and they had this little booth where you could walk in and be a deejay and you've reminded me of that memory. I completely forgot about it. I walk in there and you have a producer and you put the headphones on and fire off a jingle and then do an intro. I must have been like 11 or 12 years old and you talk over the intro and you had to shut up before the vocals come in and it's like yeah that was a moment.
Simon Whistler: I'm glad you have a similar memory.
Mike Russell: Let's talk more about Adobe Audition. We're here to celebrate the 25th birthday of this awesome piece of audio editing software and I'd like to know from you Simon what's your favorite feature in a Adobe Audition if you had to pick one thing?
Simon Whistler: I can answer this one super quick because I have been using it like intensely lately. And I learned this from you. Delete silence. Do you know this obviously you know this one but this is like for a podcaster who takes time to think or like does my cohost is over in in The States so theres kind of a lag always and you'll have this you know finished audio file everything's mixed together and it will be kind of there'll be pauses as Skype catches up or like as you stop to think delete silence it makes it sound like you're in the same room assuming you've grabbed both sides of the audio and mixed it together and it also makes you sound super smart because it just removes any thinking time and so I will ask you like a question you like. Well the answer is this and it's like I don't need to think about what I say. I'm just that brilliant and it really is like the greatest thing. And you just hit that fine levels button and I mean I got from you. You're probably best to talk about this but like your video of that. How to use delete silence to punch up a podcast or whatever it was called. I go back to this like all the time to be because theres the settings you don't want it to be like immediately jumping on top of each other all the time. You've got to introduce those little spaces in between like I think it is 150 milliseconds is my usual gap so just grab everything over 300 milliseconds or something and bring it down to 150 and it just punches that up super nicely.
Mike Russell: So it still sounds natural but it keeps the flow going I love that delete silence very awesome.
Simon Whistler: Delete silence.
Mike Russell: Especially for a podcaster. I love that. So what about. You've already given us really an amazing workflow particularly for podcasters listening now who want to sound tighter and sharper and like they know what they're doing and what they're saying. But do you have any other amazing workflows or timesaving short cuts that you're using inside Audition.
Simon Whistler: I thought about this. I used to use and I checked it out because it was amazing and I was like why am I not using this anymore? It was an application and this is this is not a great pod because or whatever you're calling this because it's not available anymore it was an application called Actions and you'd punch it into your you'd plug it into you'd put it on your iPad you'd connect your iPad to your computer and it would allow you to run macros so you could make macros in Adobe Audition and I would have one and it would be like gold. It was like a golden colour and it would be like sweeter and I'd press it and it would run my favourite racks just all automatically one little tap and then it was and then they'd be another one you'd hit save and I haven't looked into whether there's an application that does this now that works so neatly with Audition but Audition should make one of these for their software because it was amazing. But if there's something like that or just setting up macros and I know you can do racks in Audition and that this is a super similar thing I just love that. It also made me feel a bit like I was on Star Trek which was also cool. Just do just kind of punch that button and but it's you know just set up racks, racks are the best you know and if you're like me you know you've not got the best ears in the world go get a professional to listen to your audio make you a rack and then just download it to your computer and then you could just be like favourites and just boom easy.
Mike Russell: We've spoken about your favourite feature some good time saving shortcuts for Audition as well. And we've already alluded to the microphone you're using the Shure SM7B which is a solid dynamic microphone but what are your go to resources and in particular gear like. Have you got any favourite headphones or audio interfaces or mixing boards or mic processers or any resources you use for your YouTube videos maybe for music and sound effects. I'd be interested to know what you're using.
Simon Whistler: The Rode Lav Plus is a little microphone that you can. It's like a lavalier microphone it's great. I think it's kind of the default YouTube lavalier microphone that people get. It's like 40, 50 quid. With an adaptor you can plug it straight into the Panasonic range of cameras which is what a lot of YouTubers use and I'm sure you can plug it into any other camera as well. That thing is great. It also works on your phone and if you. I've got a Zoom H1 a couple of those I think and then you can plug it into their as well as you just pop that in your pocket so I can use it on location. I use it in my studio. I use it plugged into the camera plugged into the phone wherever you are and it sounds for the price. It's an amazing little lavalier microphone. Only problem is they don't last brilliantly well I think it's probably because I'm an extremely heavy user but only lasts like a year or two in my experience but I'll forgive them because Rode make good stuff generally and I am using that thing for hours every day so I'll forgive them for not making it. Kind of where I like. And then and then I guess on the other side of things I've obviously got the Shure SM7B. I've got this mixer this is this is a very small Xenyx is that.
Mike Russell: Oh yeah. Behringer?
Simon Whistler: Yeah a Behringer Xenyx 302 USB which is a little mixer thing it just does one in. I'm actually I alluded to setting up a little studio space I'm moving into a new and larger office shortly so I am planning to build like a little podcast studio there get a bigger mixer put a few mics in so I can have people in studio to come and podcast with me which will be fun and… Other resources what else have I got? I recently bought a pair of monitor speakers which was a great buy. I was using headphones and not the most brilliant of headphones for the longest time and I think that was maybe why you know I wasn't hearing the sibilance and all this stuff so I bought like a nice pair of studio monitors which I can see but I can't see the branding on them and if I move away I am not going to have enough distance on my mic so they are green. There's a little running man on them I don't know what brand that is?
Mike Russell: Oh yeah Mackie Mackie.
Simon Whistler: Yeah that sounds familiar as a YouTube person and if you're a podcaster listening to this there's the YouTube music and sound effects library which is like a huge collection of sound effects and music that you can use for free 90 percent sure. Obviously legal matters so do check that you can use that on anything like YouTube paid for all of this music for YouTubers to use and then just like anyone can use this go nuts and so there's this huge like finding good stock music before this came about without paying like AudioJungle like twenty dollars or 30 dollars for a track.
Simon Whistler: So wow what a cool show this has been it's been brilliant. So we've covered obviously your experience with YouTube how you've been growing your presence on YouTube your advice to other YouTubers and potential YouTubers. Your experience with audio and obviously Adobe Audition and how are using that fantastic piece of software. So just to wrap up now for someone listening right now and I'm sure there will be a lot of people listening right now who are in this position. They're young they're aspiring possibly audio producers or certainly in this age as you mentioned earlier just aspiring creators online so you can very much merge you between video and audio and everything now. So what would your advice be to someone like that listening right now who wants to get into the industry and do this for for a living or for work in the future?
Simon Whistler: It really ties into my into my previous point about consistency and that's it's easy it's easy to see things going slowly and I think it is easier to see things going quickly because you look at these YouTubers or these these podcasters and you know it seems like overnight suddenly they have a huge channel or they have some viral video or they have some they get the attention of some huge creator and that kind of just explodes their channel. And I think there's a couple of things there. One it doesn't you know those people can have been working at something for years before they have their overnight success. And I think on the other hand it's most people who are successful don't have that kind of overnight success it's just that slow kind of grinding away and making more stuff and like I mentioned in the consistency thing just just slowly getting better at everything. Just really the idea of repetitions is something I really like and the idea that you just do something over and over again and but you do it consciously you're always thinking about what could be bad what could be you know it just just incremental improvements. Lots of repetitions over incremental improvements and gradually over years you'll have something really good and I think just accept that it can take years. But I think the first time I started a YouTube channel. We didn't see really anything for like six months. It was like nothing really happening and then we got you know we got a little bit of traction it was a video about Bruce Lee it was a Top 10 list about the Top 10 you see how unimportant it was I can't remember the full name of the video now but this was the thing that kind of took it all off. But after six months of making daily videos and all of that stuff I think my message would be just stick with it and just a assign an amount of time that you're really happy to spend taking the risk you know because this creative stuff these days you know it's very accessible and all of this but it is a business and it is an investment if not in money in your time certainly. So just just kind of accept that it's going to take a while. I think the good thing is that time does go pretty quick. Like feels just you know I started a few years ago and the time has really flown by and I'm just glad that I put in all of the effort over those years to get it done and I'd recommend that other people just stick with it. Don't expect that this sounds super cliche doesn't expect that overnight success. Just keep on grinding it out and getting better slowly over time.
Mike Russell: That's really good stuff this really good stuff because yeah it's about being consistent. It's about like you said. Not giving up it's about you know you can be grinding out content daily for six months and not see any movement on the needle whatsoever. But just keep on going so great stuff. Simon This has been a really really good chat I've really enjoyed it. And for anyone now who's heard you and thought yeah I want to find out more about Simon Whistler. Where would be the place you'd direct them to online to find you.
Simon Whistler: There's all those YouTube channels you mentioned. I also started recently a podcast which is basically you know I mentioned a couple of those videos we did like is weed actually legal in Amsterdam and that the tulip bubble which was like the first economic crisis. Me and my partner we've actually started a podcast called Brain Food where we sit down for about an hour twice a week and we discuss something like this so we kind of take you through all the history of something. It's kind of like our Today I Found Out channel just in the podcast form and that's kind of that we also do a bit of news like what we've been up to so if you want to get to know me rather than presenter Simon on YouTube have over it it's called Brain Food if you punch it into iTunes it'll come up. Just Brain Food like food for your brain. And so iTunes or Stitcher or whatever podcasts you do or Twitter @SimonWhistler and yeah that's me.
Mike Russell: Amazing. Simon thank you so much for joining me.
Simon Whistler: Mike such a pleasure I mean I've followed your stuff for so long. Like I said at the beginning it was surreal like getting to talk to you after hearing your voice telling me what to do for so long. So real pleasure and I'm honored you invited me to be on.
Mike Russell: That concludes this episode would you like an extra chance to win the awesome audio gear give away. Hit subscribe and review this podcast. Then email the details to podcast at MRC dot fm for an extra entry into the awesome audio gear giveaway. Good luck.
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