Feedback Wanted!

[RocketMusic]

We're gearing up to start producing some professional quality videos, and we've been checking out lots of other sites to see how they do it. There are a handful of sites that are a cut above the rest, and my personal favorite is Sound Pure Studios in NC. They have an interesting business model: I think recording is their main thing, but they also sell some boutique gear, too. Their excellent skills at recording and video production are obvious in every video I've seen from them. Here's a fer instance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPIayfjaVi4

One of the cool things we really dig is they start and end every video with a quick audio/video montage. It's like a little signature bit that lets you know it's them (in addition to the obvious black and white clues in the video text).

We're in the process of producing our own little video intro segment. I started on the audio this morning and just finished a rough mix of it. Our's is a little busier, but it's us. It's Danny doing his trad blues thing and me putting some heavy bass on top of it.

I'll probably have Danny add one or two tasty electric fills tomorrow, but for now - what do you guys think? Could you stand hearing this every time you see a video from us?!?

"Rocket Music Video Intro"

[Ryan L.]

I could. Just don't make it any longer than that, or I would lose interest and be on to the next thing. Nice short intro, and then jump into the subject of the video.

[nostatic]

The "theme song" is fine, but you need to figure out what you're selling and how you're selling it. Fat Sound does videos and they often have Greg V doing the demos. In contrast to the video you linked to, Greg V is a "personality" and he talks about what he's doing. I think that personalizes the approach and makes you want to listen - if you bond with him. He's a kick ass player so that helps you want to.

So what are you selling with the videos? The particular product? imho that isn't really the overal gestalt of these types of videos, but if that is your goal then you'll produce them a certain way. Are you selling Rocket Music? If so, that is another way to frame your message. Are you selling Greg and Danny? That is yet another way to go.

You could write a thesis on this, but it is interesting because interwebs video is a relatively new genre and the "rules" are still being sorted out. As luck would have it, I taught a course on portable/web video at USC Interactive Media division back in '06 . But the reality is that you're selling, so traditional marketing is also at play. Figure out what exactly you're selling, what the strengths and weaknesses are, what your message is, and how to get it across.

With that said, does that track jibe with your message and what you're selling? I can't tell out of context.

[JOME77]

Sounds great Greg! I definitely felt the music building up/leading into some form of a presentation. Just the right length too.

[LightGroove]

Greg...you so need a Mac man...computer that is..we all know you have the other Macdaddy thing taken care of.

I like the music intro ..to critique yours I would have started to fade things out at 10sec or so and then begin to talk around the 12-13 sec mark...Hello this is Greg, Danny etc.

As others have aked what are you hoping to achieve in the vids,,selling gear, lessons, your store front or all of the above..

Gear - I like a nice 3-4 min or so of gear explanation...I like the nuts and bolts but keeping it short(ala Roscoe, this is made with this top these pickups etc) but then give a nice explanation of the sound,, here is flat, here is panned to bridge , neck,, bass boost...Same with amps....heres flat...heres boosted cut etc.

I would avoid opinions... ala I like this sound dont you.. vs. as you can see this sounds killer flat or boosted..listen to that growl. You can potentially sell lessons based on your gear videos

Lessons - I always like testimonials ...but as stated perhaps your talent will come through demoing gear. Perhaps get other teachers to play as well. This could lead to online lessons I spose..but thats really involved stuff.

Storefront - Id give a nice store tour..maybe a short bio on you guys

Lastly I will say be VERY clear when your talking... There are other bass stores doing similar things and I cant stand the stutters or pauses with them trying to figure out what they wanted to say etc... sorry this is anal but I think professional is where its at.

Sorry if this is not what you were looking for..just what came to mind.

Peace

[RocketMusic]

Yep, Fat Sound is definitely one of our other favs. And the Pure Sound guys do more personal, in-depth reviews for generic pieces of recording gear. There are 2-3 guys there that you "get to know".

That's definitely a big goal with the videos. TalkBass has been really great for letting a bunch of us get to know each other, and the videos should take that to another level (although that's more of a one-way street, which is too bad).

We envision the big production videos being done mainly for commodity sorts of things (amps, cabs, pedals, etc.). The amount of time required to produce a professional quality video means you can't really do it for every one-off instrument, you want to do them for something that you can sell repeatedly. The video like the one I linked is about all we'd do for an individual instrument, too (a quick performance piece with some flyover text calling out the specs).

We could do a fairly generic video for something like the Roscoe "Standard" basses where there aren't so many variable specs that you can almost do a "one-size-fits-all" video.

Thanks for all the feedback. It sounds like you guys have really thought about this, too!

[CrashClint]

Yeah Stewart at Fat Sound has always had a website a step above other retailers considering he doesn't have the backing of a mega store. I think you are heading in the right direction. You should really house all your clips on your Website, both video and mp3 and link back to your website from TB so it opens a new window so people are actually on your website when they are listening to any of the clips. Talk Bass should just be a tool to get people to your Website where they can easily click a big Buy button.

Just my opinion.

Oh, you have a nice slap tone so you may want to figure out how you can add both finger and slap tones to that short segment. Keep up the good work!

[LilRay]

Only thing I'd differ with the Sound Pure Clip, is I'd do less "playing" and more "selling", if your goal is to move gear. Showcasing your chops is one thing, but grabbing attention is what I think you're after, and to be honest, I lost interest in the Sound Pure Clip about a minute in.

All the info was at the end of the clip, visual only. Swing the bat early, dont wait until a 4 minute video is ending to make the pitch, IMO. I think it should be spoken and written. Old guys need glasses to see small print, and hearing assistance from years of playing. Do both and no one is left out, or having to struggle.

I'd also disagree with the "headless" demonstrator. I want to see the face of the guy I'm buying from. I want to feel like I'm standing in store getting similar "personal" attention as one who walks into Draper St.

To make things easier, I'd do a "base video" for each manufacturer. Ie; Roscoe is from Greensboro, they have three body shapes, differences in models etc. Then you can get specific on individual items without being redundant.


Be personable, and descriptive. Not used car sales like, and not Eeyorish either. Interact as though the camera is literally a customer sitting in your store with cash in hand.

EDIT; The clip is perfect in length IMO.

Hope this helps!



God Bless, Ray

[nostatic]

Like Ray said, you've got to hook them early. The interwebs is short attention span theater, so if you don't get to some point within 45 seconds you're toast. Our anecdotal studies indicate that you have at most 90 seconds of someone's attention unless they are already "sold" on wanting to know about what you're talking about, and I think that is closer to 30-45.

Consider the commercials that now get put in front of youtube videos - how many times do you just hit the back button instead of waiting?

Also for a full length video that is designed to inform someone, I look at 3 min as a target. Pop songs were that length for a reason. I also do not like narration if you can avoid it, but with product stuff it is hard to do without.

[RocketMusic]

Excellent thoughts, I appreciate it all, fellas!

I broke out my fretless today to create the outro audio. I used the same guitar part to keep it familiar, but it's a little stripped down and different.

Here's the full audio:
"Rocket Music Video Outro"

I imagine we'll fade it in as the video content ends, then flash our contact info one final time as the outro peaks. So you'll probably usually hear it more like this:
"Rocket Music Video Outro (Faded In)"

Have I mentioned lately that I LOVE my job? It's such a treat to record some bass against Danny's playing...

[dDaddybass]

Originally Posted by RocketMusic

Excellent thoughts, I appreciate it all, fellas!

I broke out my fretless today to create the outro audio. I used the same guitar part to keep it familiar, but it's a little stripped down and different.

Here's the full audio:
"Rocket Music Video Outro"

I imagine we'll fade it in as the video content ends, then flash our contact info one final time as the outro peaks. So you'll probably usually hear it more like this:
"Rocket Music Video Outro (Faded In)"

Have I mentioned lately that I LOVE my job? It's such a treat to record some bass against Danny's playing...

Oh yeah, sounds great!

[LilRay]

Originally Posted by dDaddybass

Oh yeah, sounds great!

+1

So whats the ETA on a beta version (no not Betamax) of one of these?



God Bless, Ray

[RocketMusic]

Originally Posted by nostatic

I also do not like narration if you can avoid it, but with product stuff it is hard to do without.

Oooh - that's new and interesting info to me! Can you expand on that for me?

Just a guess, but I imagine narration can make things generally NSFW. Your boss will KNOW you're not working if he hears you listening to someone talk?

You know those websites that automatically start talking to you when you land on them? I definitely do hate that, I'm always diving for the volume knob if I come across a site like that just after I was recording...

Also, do you make a distinction between "voice-over" narration and someone speaking while on camera?

[RocketMusic]

Originally Posted by LilRay

+1

So whats the ETA on a beta version (no not Betamax) of one of these?



God Bless, Ray

Oh, it could be a couple weeks. We've added a new computer that can handle Avid Media Composer, and we only just got that up and running this week. Danny got the software installed yesterday, and he's been working through some tutorials. The learning curve is pretty steep, especially given that neither of us has any video production experience at all. Of course, I had no audio recording experience, either, and that has worked out just fine

So I say "a couple weeks" having absolutely no idea if that's true...

[LilRay]

Originally Posted by RocketMusic

Oooh - that's new and interesting info to me! Can you expand on that for me?

Just a guess, but I imagine narration can make things generally NSFW. Your boss will KNOW you're not working if he hears you listening to someone talk?

You know those websites that automatically start talking to you when you land on them? I definitely do hate that, I'm always diving for the volume knob if I come across a site like that just after I was recording...

A video link from a music store trying to sell music related items without audio would be useless, would it not? I'm confused here.

Not being employed, I don't understand the theory? Bosses are ok with Bow Chicka Wow Wow playing for everyone else in the office to hear, but the voice over/narration would get you busted?

I don't care for the auto start sites either, but when I click a video link, I'm prepared to listen to audio too. Headphones if needed, but sound nonetheless.

Unless you're gonna go Charlie Chaplin

Originally Posted by RocketMusic

Also, do you make a distinction between "voice-over" narration and someone speaking while on camera?

If you'd rather keep it to a minimum, thats fine, but I envision an elderly gent with poor eyesight struggling to read text.

You don't need great eyes to play an instrument.

But your target market being a boutique instrument buyer, will more likely not be in his 20's with good vision, but a professional in his 40's-90's looking for better quality.

That's a fine line to walk.

As of yet you ain't selling Hello Kitty Squires or starter packs.



God Bless, Ray

[RocketMusic]

By the by - here are the details on the signal chain that I used on the bass parts on these clips.

For the "Video Intro" clip, I used my Roscoe Century Sig V, and it was all neck pickup.


For the "Video Outro" clip, I used my Roscoe Century Sig V Fretless, and I was biased slightly towards the bridge pickup.


On both clips, I decided to go all out and mic a cab. Here's what I used:

• Alembic F1X preamp (set 4-10-3, which is a slight bass and treble boost)
• Crest CA4 power amp
• Bergantino HT112ER
• MXL Genesis (large diaphram condenser mic) placed 6-8 inches away & straight on the cone
• M-Audio FastTrack Ultra 8R USB interface
• Sonar Producer 8.5 software

[Darkstrike]

Very cool sounding stuff, dig it.

[RocketMusic]

Thanks, Bill!

Man, this sound effect needs to be incorporated somehow. I'll have to play around with trimming it down. I hate to lose that voice counting down, but most of that has to go...

"Titan III Rocket Launch"

[RocketMusic]

Oh, I crack myself up. Who knew that a good old boy from 1960's Texas could be so fonky?

And can you hear the rocket go from right to left (across the sky). Yeah, I did that.

"Rocket Music Video Intro 2"

If we keep it, we'll fade the rocket sound more quickly, or at least we'll start the actual video content on top of it. We definitely don't want this intro bit to get any longer than it was originally...

And all of this brings to mind my favorite store tagline from when you guys were suggesting taglines way back when: "T minus $3500 and counting"

[LilRay]

Originally Posted by RocketMusic

Oh, I crack myself up. Who knew that a good old boy from 1960's Texas could be so fonky?

And can you hear the rocket go from right to left (across the sky). Yeah, I did that.

"Rocket Music Video Intro 2"

If we keep it, we'll fade the rocket sound more quickly, or at least we'll start the actual video content on top of it. We definitely don't want this intro bit to get any longer than it was originally...

And all of this brings to mind my favorite store tagline from when you guys were suggesting taglines way back when: "T minus $3500 and counting"

Greg, That sounds awesome!

Savings.......We have a problem.



God Bless, Ray