Home Studio Tour for YouTube, Podcasting, & Streaming!

The brutal march of time continues on, and we have moved past March, so it is time for a tour-ific idea, which would be a studio tour video! That was a sentence that might not have made a lot of sense. I think it's really fun to do a studio tour video every year, and one thing I've learned after making three of these so far is that I think it's a law of nature that as soon as you make a studio tour video, even if you think everything is perfect and you don't want to change anything, everything w

ill change, or a bunch of things will change right after, because that's kind of what happened last time. A lot of what's changed this year is kind of below the surface, so you know, the basic layout of the studio is kind of the same. Even my cameras are all the same. Last year's studio tour video was filmed the day that I got my Sony a7IV. It showed up in the mail at the end of the studio tour video, but nothing else camera-wise has changed. But so much has changed in terms of organization and

even workflow a little bit. And really my goal this past year has been to eliminate every possible point of friction that I could within my workflow, so that things are just so much easier to do and everything is just much easier to use. And one of my favorite things about this space is that prior to having a YouTube channel, this was just my office/music room. And that means that it's not just a set that's a pretty backdrop, but I actually use everything in here and use all of the space here. T

here used to be a drum set over there. And I really like that. I really like that when you watch a video, you can see a space that somebody interacts with regularly, even when the camera's not rolling. But there is this very fine line between things that look aesthetically pleasing and things that are actually practical and functional. And I think, I think, I found a pretty good balance on that. So let's see, here's everything for my Version 4.0 Studio tour! We'll follow the old classic of light

s, camera, action. So starting with lights, my key light has not changed for like three years now. It's still the Nanlite Forza 200. It just works really well, even though I have a lot of other lights that might even work better over here. I really like this one, especially because of the way that this control unit fits specifically in this space, makes it easier to use, and then I've got it in the Aputure Light Dome Mini II. Same thing is always bouncing off the wall. Nothing has changed there.

It's on a C stand so that it can become a nice overhead light when I need to use it in this space here, my back light is still the FalconEyes flat panel light. I think it's the RX 818 or something like that, and that is mounted to the ceiling into a stud using a baby plate. And then there's also a metal lock just for safety. Some things that are different though are all of the other lights. So I have this iFootage 60 watttt light up here and a lantern. And this just provides some nice fill ligh

t for everything. And it's also really nice if I'm not using the Nanlite, this provides a nice light just for the room itself along with these market lights that I hung up here, which are just sort of for me to enjoy while I'm in here. They don't really show up on video that much. And then I've got another 60 watttt light here set to a warm color temperature. So that way when it's just me in here, I can kind of make it a nice little like cozy environment without all the big studio lights on. An

d then, oh boy, the tube lights, the tubular tube lights, which I know everybody kind of says it's not cool anymore to have tube lights in your shots, but I don't care. I have an eight foot tube light because it's awesome. And I have it set to do the color spectrum because that's not distracting at all. These are all Pavotube II's tubes. The tubes are the 'Tubes, and they're just, I like this color spectrum hue shift. But of course you can change that to anything. So I have two down here because

I think that looks really nice in the background over here. Got one kind of in the corner over there because it shows up in B-roll in a cool way. Of course, the big one that I mentioned, one down here to kind of add in some light. The two in the corner over here to brighten it up, they've been there forever. I even put one right here and one in between the guitars. And then this is the Nanlite Forza 60C, so it's another 60 watt light, 60 watt lights are just super fun. But it has this crazy mou

nt on it that then lets me throw projections on the wall. So I've been putting shapes and stuff in the background. I did a whole video kind of about these lights where I talked about that a little, but that has been really fun. This is an RGB light, so that can be any color, and I do change it sometimes when appropriate. And then I do have one more Pavotube back here. There's the window there, and then this just adds in some light, but it almost makes it look like the window is shining if I have

it set to daylight. And then down here adding a little bit of flood and this little light here are both Aputure B7c bulbs. Every light in this room is a video light, is a dedicated video light. And that means that no matter what the frame rate is, no matter what camera I'm using, shutter speed, anything, none of these lights will flicker. I've talked about this so many times. I am a very big believer in always using dedicated video lights for your setup. Even if they're cheap, that doesn't matt

er. Just use dedicated video lights, not NOT video lights. And if we're talking about lights, camera, action. We've already talked about lights. Let's talk about camera. There has been no action changing here. This is exactly the same as last year. Actually, all my cameras are, this is the Sony a7IV that I'm filming on right now with the Tamron 20 to 40 millimeter lens, because I love this lens. I still have the a7SIII. It's just put away safely over there. And my main camera, which has been the

case for a while, is the Sony FX3 in the Tilta cage. Usually for videos, I just run my audio straight into there and it works great. And then I've got the good old trusty Sennheiser, MKH50 as my microphone. And I've gotten questions about how it's mounted. I've talked about it a few times before, but this tripod is a big beefy Manfrotto tripod, and it has a little mounting point right here. So what I did was I took an iFootage quick release, and then an iFootage Support Rod, and that way this i

s mounted to the tripod. So now once I have the mic positioned where it's not in the camera's frame, I can move the camera and the mic will not get into the shot. Plus it doesn't add anything else on the floor. It's all one camera, audio, video unit. And if you do anything with bigger gear, I definitely recommend investing in at least one big beefy tripod that can support kind of anything like even these big cameras over here, I can fit those on this tripod and it can handle it really well, and

I've got this very old and not particularly amazing monitor on a friction arm going into the tripod head as well. As has been the case for a long time, my desks are just two Husky workbenches from Home Depot in an L configuration. They're super strong and super sturdy. The biggest thing that has changed here is the Rodecaster Pro II instead of the original Rodecaster, because this came out since I made my last studio tour. And because it has a VESA mount on the back. I've talked about this in a

couple other videos, you can just mount it on any VESA arm. I was using a regular arm, but I recently swapped that out for this really long articulating arm. So that way when I'm filming something from an angle like this, I can have the Rodecaster easily in the frame. And having the Rodecaster on an arm like this makes it very easy to set up a camera to film it if I need to do a tutorial or an explanation about the Rodecaster Pro instead of having to set up a top-down shot. I still don't have a

4K monitor, and honestly, I'm totally fine with that. This is a 34 inch curved LG ultra wide. It's the same, whatever their least expensive curved monitor is It, I think it's above the curve. And then I've got the ATEM Mini Extreme Pro ISO for live streams and monitoring stuff, and I love this. It works wonderfully. The only thing I don't like is I wish it weren't limited to 1080, so I'd love to have a 4K update. I still got the original base model M 1 Mac Mini as my streaming and office comput

er. Nothing has changed there. And the same, I think the brand was Hagabis, for easy card slot and everything, and I just mounted both of them under the desk with these Mac Mini mounts. So that's my main computer set up for podcasting, streaming, video calls, and all that kind of stuff. And then anything else, any editing and you know, Photoshop and more intense stuff I just use the 14 inch M1 Max MacBook Pro, which has held up great. I got this one when it was released. The only thing I don't l

ike is the way that MacBook Pro keyboards wear down and they look greasy, even though they're not. It's just the matte coating wears off really quickly when you get this. And it's silly because this keyboard, this Logitech MX keyboard is older than the MacBook and doesn't have anywhere near the amount of wear on it. So it always bothers me. This looks like I just ate a bunch of pizza and then went to type on the computer when I didn't, this is totally clean. Anyway, I've had the same desk mat f

orever. I like it because it brings in a bunch of color. The brand is GDBT on Amazon. I don't know if they make the same pattern anymore, but they have a whole bunch of other patterns. I'm one of the few people who uses and is happy with the Apple Magic Mouse, except that since it's very difficult to pair this with multiple things. The reason I like this keyboard is because I can easily change it from device to device. Can't do that as easily with the mouse. So I ended up using Colorware to do

a second one for my MacBook, and I was able to get it in the perfect shade of blue. So this is the MacBook mouse and this is the Mac Mini mouse. Mac Minnie Mouse. I normally just use the Rode NTH 100 headphones whenever I'm doing anything that requires me to be paying attention to audio. But I do have these monitors here. They're really just speakers that I got for my record player over there several years ago, and I use them when I'm just listening to stuff without it needing to be perfect. I k

now these are positioned in an absolutely terrible location. I don't edit videos with them or anything. They're just reference monitors, and they work great for that. And that brings me to this area over here, which is really just covering up a window. So I just got some background paper in one of the three roller things and put it there to cover up the window. And then I can change background colors. And this area here works really great for thumbnails and product B-roll. I've got these two acr

ylic shiny black and white surfaces, so sometimes I set these down and then I put a product on top of it with cool lighting and everything reflects in a really fun way. And this is the Rode PSA1+ boom arm, which I really, really like. I did use some vinyl letter removal solution. I talked about this in my review for this. It comes with Rode logos on like 45 different places on this arm. So I use that to remove it so that way it's unbranded except for a nice little subtle logo there. But otherwis

e the arm is not distracting. And then on it, right now I have the Lewitt LCT240 Pro because it's a really fun microphone and I love it. And this little Audio Technica AT8459 that then lets me position the microphone in the shock mount exactly where I need it to be. I've got these three cameras here and I wish this area were used a little more practically, to be honest with you. But I don't know where else to put these big cameras and I do use them. So I have my old TV camera here. This is a sta

ndard definition. MiniDV camera or DV Cam from Sony. I did a whole 30 minute video about this. This is the RED ONE. This is a 4K camera that still works great. So I want to use this for more stuff. And then this is the Canon XL1. This is a MiniDV cam, not HD or anything. I've been meaning to make a video on that for like three years, because this was my dream camera growing up as a kid. Then I've got this little nixie tube clock here, which I think looks really cool, except when I do slow motion

, it flashes. So I had to position it where it's not super visible in frame. And the same old Dracast light, which I use as a fill to bounce off of this, probably not the best thing to do because it's bouncing off of blue, which then gives everything a blue tint. But I guess you could say I blue it when it came to my lighting. And then I did a whole video about these microphones, that I mounted most of my microphones on the wall just so they're cool and on display and they look neat and I like t

hem there. And they don't really get dusty. I just clean them and they're fine. Got the SM7B here and then four more over here and then all the rest that don't fit anywhere on the wall are in here. So let's talk about these. I did do a video last year on how I changed my organization for my equipment in here, and that's really been like the biggest change since I made my last studio tour video. But it is a really huge change. Even since I made that video, a lot has changed. So let's talk about a

ll these drawer organizers, or as I like to call them "Drawerganizers™". We live in southern California where there are a ton of earthquakes, and so I used to just keep all my equipment on these shelves over here, and I got really worried that it could fall during an earthquake. So then I got this cabinet here. So this first drawer is a very skinny drawer, so it's a lot of things like filters, I've got the YoloBox and some lights, just small, flat things that I need quick access to. Second drawe

r is audio, but I have a lot of audio drawers, so this is mostly video mics, so I have a lot of the Rode Videomic NTG's, Videomic Go II, the Deity V Mic, some wireless kits, my audio recorders, cables for all these mics. And of course a little 3D printed thing of adapters. If you want, if you have a 3D printer, I can put a link to this file if you want. A little adapter organizer if you would like to adapt your organization with these Drawergnaizers™. Anyway, this drawer is one of my favorites b

ecause it's grip gear, or at least what I'm calling grip gear. So it's all the bits and bobs that don't really fit anywhere else, but you can attach everything together and make really functional stuff. So having all kinds of mounts and connectors and friction arms and mini tripods and microphone holders and monitor mounts, it makes a really big difference. This next drawer is where I keep my drones. I have the original Mavic Mini. Or is it just the Mavic Pro? The original Mavic from like 2017 a

nd then the Mini 3 Pro, I guess it's not called the Mavic anymore, but I finally did upgrade my drone. And that way the shelves can be kind of reserved for stuff I need more frequently. Not necessarily figurines, but like pens, markers, NPF batteries, camera batteries, screwdrivers, tools, more and more adapters, spray can, all that stuff. And then I put a little charging station in here, which has been here forever. So that kind of powers a lot of stuff and charges batteries and everything. But

I was so excited when I got this cabinet that then I ended up getting this one and this one, I'm definitely saving the best for last. So this is a little bit more of the mundane stuff. A lot of just everyday things that I need when I'm sitting at my desk, I can reach over and grab notepads and tools. This is awesome. This is an an iFixit, I think it's called a "Pro Toolkit, but you can open it up, you have all of these tools, every possible connector and adapter you could think of. Everything's

held in with magnets. It has built-in organization. This is been a total lifesaver so that I can fix it. This drawer is a good place to put my turntable for product photography and then my motorized slider, my iFootage slider, which I really love and use all the time. And thenmy drawer of shame, which is a bunch of cables that look really disorganized, but it's not. It's a lot of power cables and USB cables of various lengths, and for some reason this has just worked out. I need to organize it

a little bit better. And then this cart over here serves two purposes: purpose one of course is storage. So this is where I keep my XLR cables because I'm constantly using them. And yeah, those that stay there. This, believe it or not, is an empty drawer. I don't really have any use for it yet. It's free real estate, which I'm excited about. I've got mic peripherals and still some other empty space down here, but if I need like a booster or a windscreen or a shock mount or something, or more ada

pters, I can put those there. The drawer below that has an oddly large assortment of boom arms and mounts, so there's the Elgato arms and more Rode arms. Anything that I don't keep set up all the time, but that I need for all kinds of different setups and projects, those stay there. And lots of headphones, mixers, sort of like "auxiliary audio gear" I guess you could call it. But my favorite thing about these carts, especially this one, is that it's on wheels. So I can easily, semi easily move i

t around and it's all metal. So I even just have some lights, magneted it to the side of it. And so what I do a lot is move this around the room and then I can put things on it and set up lights around it, and then it's a cool little product showcase surface. And I've even done some videos over here where I just move it and then I can just sit here and talk about stuff over here. So I've really been trying to set things up in a practical way that makes the most use possible out of the space. Th

is is a 12 foot by 12 foot room, which is 144 square feet. In meters that would be, what, three meters? No, four meters by four meters- 16 square meters. I think. Math. It's enough space to do some cool stuff with, especially if you use it practically. So that's what I've been trying to do really hard, because it's really, really nice just to have a home office, home studio where I don't need to go anywhere to do work or to set stuff up. I'm jealous sometimes when I see people that have these r

eally cool, huge warehouse studios and offices, and aside from never being able to afford anything like that, it's also the idea of like having to drive, I don't know, 15, 30, 45 minutes or more just to get there to start working. It's really nice just to, even if this is a smaller space, it's really nice to just have it here all the time. And this last cabinet is what changed things the most visually because for the first time in like five years, I changed my background a little bit. I had to g

et rid of, I had a bigger cabinet that kind of looked like this, and it wasn't really doing much besides just sort of showcasing stuff that I never actually used. So I moved that out, moved this in, which has a very practical purpose. So I do have my original Rodecaster here. Oh, shocked me. It's so shockingly good audio. My Rodecaster here. But there are quite a few things about this cabinet that bring me immense joy, like being able to open up this drawer and just see all of these microphones

just ready to go is, it's just so nice. That's like the coolest thing ever. We've got these little tiny drawers here. So this one has like, it's a very, very thin drawer. This is the thinnest drawer ever. So it basically just holds memory cards and batteries, and some of these, I think they're cookie called "cookies" for lights. And down here some taller things an Intellytech light and just some smaller stands and supports. I've got some music things. Sampler, synthesizer things. I used to use

these a lot, obviously for music because that's what they're for. But I really, really want to figure out a way to use these with the Rodecaster and streaming and stuff. And this isn't a weird serial killer thing. This is a glove for, I use it when I play bass sometimes. So it's specifically a musician's glove, sometimes if you're building up calluses on your fingers and it's nice to have there. So it looks weird to just, "Here's my murder glove!" But it's not. I promise... I think they bought

it. And these last two are my two favorite drawers. This is my camera drawer. So we've got the a7SIII. I'm using the a7IV right now. There's a spot for the FX3, Canon EOS R, some point and shoot cameras, 360 camera, GoPros, wireless transmitters, GoPro mounts. And then I made these DIY TrekPak dividers, which came out honestly kind of okay, better than I expected. I have a video on my second channel about how I put them together if you want to try it yourself. Then I put more in my bottom drawe

r, which is where all of my lenses are, that I'm not currently using at least. So we've got my anamorphic Sirui lenses, the Batis 85, the Sigma 24, the Sony 50 1.8.. A couple of adapters, a Canon 50 1.8, Canon 24 to 105, and the adapter to use the Canon lenses with the Sony cameras. This is like the best little vlogging tripod, the PGYTech MantisPod. I know they have a new one. This is the original one. I love this thing. One of the biggest and best changes I've made is getting my guitars off th

e floor and onto the wall. I've never done this in the 20 plus years that I've had some of these guitars. They've always just been on a rack on the floor and they take up space and you can't see them. And they're really pretty. So how bought these Hercules stands, these lock when you put the guitar in it, it locks down. These are all mounted into studs and anchored into studs in the wall. And now the guitars take up no space on the ground. They're safely hung up here and they look great. I don't

know about the Nanlite there, but the guitars look great on the wall. They look great in the background. Got the bass hung up, got my Squier over there, and I've even got two more over here, and I do not need any more guitars. And since the guitars didn't need a rack anymore, I took one of my old guitar racks and made it the tripod rack in the closet. So it keeps things very easy to access and organized and stuff off the ground. As far as other fun things go, I've got this AutoPole here sometim

es called a VariPole, depending on which brand you get. This has been here for a while, but it's a great way to easily mount stuff without taking a lot of space. So this is where I've got these lights mounted to. I've got this big clock mounted to it. I've got my monitor that I use when I'm recording videos mounted to it. And anything else. Sometimes I'll attach a GoPro or whatever, and then I've got these two things here. These are the iFootage, Cobra monopods, and these are awesome because the

y have really great tripod heads that they came with, but they have really nifty bases that let them act as monopods and kind of tripods, and they're super sturdy. I really love all of the support stuff that iFootage makes. I support their support stuff. Like this little iFootage articulating arm, right? Look at these gears, these teeth, they're locked in. This thing will never go anywhere once you tighten it down. Same thing with my support rod that I use for a boom. This will never move once i

t's locked down. I love their stuff. It's awesome. And at the time I'm recording this video, my channel recently just passed the 14 million view mark, which is crazy to me that you can just make stuff and then it can be seen 14 million times, which is a number that I can't wrap my brain around. I'm hugely appreciative of that, and it's really cool to be able to share my world and this space- my space. I'm Tom and this is MySpace. To share all that with with you and with everyone who comes in her

e and hangs out with me through these videos. And so hopefully by seeing what I do, you can kind of cherry pick things that work for you or even find things that you do not like, and then you know that you DON'T want to do those things or use those things in your specific setup, because that's also a really important thing to know. So I really appreciate all the support and I hope that you know that it's so far beyond anything that I could have ever imagined. And speaking of things that I apprec

iate more than I could imagined, thank you to everyone who helps support my channel through Patreon and YouTube Channel Memberships. And if you want to dive a little bit deeper into some of the nooks and crannies of this studio setup, check out these videos right here.