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The Rode NT-USB Mini is a $99 desktop microphone for voiceovers, YouTubers and streamers

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Rode’s NT-USB microphone has become one of the most popular microphones out there over the last few years (although, personally, I’m a big fan of the Podcaster). Now, though Rode has shrunk it down into the new Rode NT-USB Mini, a $99 microphone that plugs straight into your computer.

Aimed at YouTubers, podcasters and streamers, the new microphone plugs straight into your computer via the USB port. Rode says it’s been designed to provide “warmth and presence” in your audio for the most pleasing sound straight out of the microphone without any processing.

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How to make your own DIY HDMI teleprompter from an old laptop screen

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Since we posted about Manny Ortiz’s use of the Parrot 2 Teleprompter a few weeks ago, I’ve been developing my own that I can 3D print (more on that in a future post), but I’ve also been keeping an eye out on YouTube to see what others have done with their own DIY teleprompter solutions.

Then, this morning, I spotted this video from Electronoobs on my feed, where he builds his own teleprompter from scratch. It’s a pretty simple build that plugs straight into a desktop or laptop’s HDMI output, allowing for some level of easy remote control.

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YouTube flags famous photo “Napalm Girl” because it “violates Child Safety Policy”

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Facebook has gone under fire a few times so far for censoring “nude” images that are artistic, iconic, or merely show nude statues. And after Facebook censored the famous Nik Ut’s photo “Napalm Girl,” it looks like YouTube followed the same footsteps. Martin Kaninsky of All About Street Photography recently uploaded a video that tells the story behind this iconic photo. However, it was soon flagged for violating YouTube’s Child Safety Policy.

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This is the easiest way to stop screwing up your lines on-camera

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Speaking to a camera is rarely an easy thing. Even for seasoned professionals, it can take several takes to get all the words out without screwing something up. Most YouTubers understand this problem intimately. But there is an easy tool to help you stop flubbing your lines, shoot in fewer takes and ultimately take less time to shoot your videos.

In this behind the scenes look at how he shoots his videos, YouTuber Manny Ortiz walks us through the gear he uses to create his videos, including his favourite tool to stop him messing up his lines, the Parrot Teleprompter 2.

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How to build the YouTube dream studio of the future

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I always enjoy seeing other peoples recording setups and studios for shooting videos. I don’t want to copy somebody else’s studio, but they often can inspire us when working on our own. It might be something that helps us to be more efficient, or allows us to cause minimal impact on our space if we regularly shoot at home.

When Josh Yeo at Make Art Now was looking to set up a studio for shooting YouTube videos, he based his around a “time machine” he built and took to Burning Man. But he had some conditions for his new studio.

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How to set up a complete YouTube studio on a single desk

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Recently, Caleb Pike showed us his studio on a stand. Now, he’s back with a new video, showing us how we can set up something a little more permanent for YouTube or other content creation by setting up a complete studio on a desk. If you’re regularly shooting at the same location, perhaps doing tutorials, or even just spoken pieces to camera, having a more permanent, efficient setup often makes more sense than one you can wheel around.

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How to build a full YouTube studio on a single light stand

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One of the big excuses I hear for people who want to do YouTube but don’t is that they don’t have the room. There’s just not enough space where they live to be able to set up lights and cameras and microphones and everything else. Well, Caleb Pike to the rescue!

In this video, Caleb shows us how we can create a complete recording setup for YouTube which includes the camera, light, microphone and other doohickies on just a single light stand in order to be able to shoot whenever we want, wherever we want, and have it take up as little space as possible.

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This is the most well thought out DIY overhead camera rig I’ve ever seen

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For most of us, when we want an overhead camera rig, we set up a light stand with a boom arm or stick a modified TV bracket on the wall or something. Then we’ll throw up an LED panel, or maybe some Spekulars. But that’s not good enough for YouTuber GreatScott!. Oh no, he built his own custom design using PVC pipe, plywood, aluminium sheets and stuck a computer monitor to it to see the camera viewpoint and made his own LED control circuit to light the scene below.

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Maximising space – A tour of our new not-huge studio

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We moved to our new studio a few months ago and we have been gradually building things as we go. This will be the first of several videos in this series where we will try and give a look at what we tried to accomplish with our studio.

Our new studio isn’t big, it is actually about the size of a mid size room (close to 40 square meters which is just over 400 square feet). It has quite low ceilings which isn’t ideal for photography in many respects but we tried to get the best out of it and it does have some advantages for what we have been doing as you will see later on.

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YouTube finally appears to be helping small content creators with new “Explore” feature

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Getting started on YouTube these days is a struggle for most people. There are so many new YouTubers putting out a lot of really great content that just never gets seen by any significant amount of people. And it’s not really their fault. YouTube doesn’t make it easy for new YouTubers to figure out how to get their content seen, and its algorithm typically favours those who already have a huge audience.

But that looks like it might be about to change as YouTube starts to roll out the “Explore” feature. It was originally released as a test to just 1% of iOS users last July, but now TechCrunch reports that it’s being pushed out to more users across iOS and Android device, and even to the desktop.

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