Video Update #7 and Status of Move (Patreon)

As you can tell no schedule miracles happened so the video is on track for this coming Friday as I thought in the last post. There was luckily less to do in recording since I forgot how little choosing a camp affects the overall main story of the game so I've been able to begin some work in the editing timeline. The biggest challenge so far is simply organizing all the footage because there's a lot this time around. After the normal cutting down of the accidental half second junk clips and other unusable clips, I have around 550 video clips. While I likely won't end up using nearly that many, it's definitely the most I've ever recorded for a video. That's the nature of doing an RPG video and I can't say I'm shocked. How long the video itself will be is still up in the air since I'm the worst predictor of that, but I don't think it'll be breaking the Limbo of the Lost video in run time. When I get to Gothic 2 that might be an entirely different story with the game being nearly double the length even without the expansion. That'll be a big project to do justice on.

I'll hopefully know if the new place is going to work out in time for the next post. I ended up getting a pretty good deal on a place, but the caveat is that it was still being built and I could only check out a model room. I've put in security deposits and all that so that no one else can snag it, but I've yet to sign a lease. It's an apartment on the corner in the upper floor of a building which should be best for minimizing both noise in and out (definitely better compared to the current situation) though there are still some concerns.

The big issue is going to be acoustics. Apartments on top floors typically have a higher ceiling than ones on the lower floor, and there's no difference in this case. While I could do acoustic testing on the model room that sounded good, it's not going to be the exact same when the height gets stretched out. If you've ever played racquetball, or been in a room with nearly sharp acoustics, you can hear an almost metallic ring echo when you clap. This typically comes worst from the corners, and when recording audio the drawback is that speaking can cause nasty echoes and reverb that the microphone picks up and distorts audio. I already have that issue now that I try to reduce as much as I can, but I'd like for it to be much better rather than worse.

Luckily, this can be treated as seen in this video. 

The apartment will be in a state where I can enter it in the next few days so I can see what I'll be dealing with. I'm also awaiting the schematics of that specific room, so that I'll be able to send it off for consultation on acoustic treatment with a few companies. Fortunately nearly every treatment company will do consultation for free so I can get a rough idea of what I'll be needing, though I'll also need to get furniture roughly figured out since that can have some affects on sound. It doesn't need to be perfect since I'm not recording Billboard Top 100 tracks, but I don't want to have a single shelf significantly screw something up. 

The cost of the treatment for the office of that size could run anywhere between 200-600 dollars, which is another excellent area where you guys come in with Patreon. As I mentioned in the very first Patreon post I've been saving a lot of it away, and there's more than enough to cover a good sound treatment. While I could just order some more acoustic foam, slap them up in the corners and strategic wall points and pray, I think that going big dick on the treatment will be a better solution. The sound quality will be better overall, there will be less editing and recording time wasted on redoing takes or cleaning out echoes from audio, and the entire process should generally be faster and easier for video making. My Patreon goals have definitely surpassed expectations, so this is one of the areas where I can make a big improvement. While the landlord said that drilling for wall anchors should be fine as long as the holes are filled in and painted over perfectly on move out in the distant future, I'll look into command hooks and other adhesive solutions to see what parts I won't have to be nailing into anything with something like command hooks, though some of the bigger parts will likely need anchors. I take pictures of everything when it comes to apartment stuff since I don't trust landlords after living in Idaho for a while, so I'd rather not have to argue about the state of walls with the landlord on eventual move out. They seem pretty nice at least.

When I start the process of moving in and setting up, the YouTube channel will be quiet for a month or so, but I'll have a few progress clips and images here so you all get to see the office you helped build.

Thanks for all your help! Video soon, and more office updates to come.