Hi,
This is my first tutorial about VCV Rack. I choose quite simple modules to start with. The motivation for making this was really to point out some specificities of the groove recorder. When I first used it, I was quite sure that it didn’t work at all.
Thanks for watching.
Since it is my very first tutorial, please feel free to give some feedback, critiques or simple comments. It will be much apreciated. I wish to express all my gratitude to Omri Cohen and Artem Leonov (Rack ideas) for all their inspiring stuff they share on YouTube. And of course thank you Andrew Belt and all the developpers behind this amazing project witch is VCV RACK.
Another particular thanks to @Alessandro Petrone who is behind the aP-modules and to Ben De Groot (a.k.a. @Ablaut) for hosting weeks after weeks the Very Cool Patch Challenge that made me discover this little pretty collection.
As a first tutorial attempt … it is okay and I actually learned something about the modules.
However it took considerable effort on my part to actually get through the tutorial … and yes this is criticism (hopefully constructive). The lack of spoken words explaining everything meant I needed to read really quickly and I lost track more than I’d like to admit.
I can understand that you don’t have a microphone or just don’t want your voice or possibly your foreign accent on the internet. This will require people to read and will make adoption of the information that is trying to be conveyed in your video more difficult. Especially if you don’t actually time the text popups correctly. The first text pop up in the video (after the title) is on screen just long enough to read half way through the text … making it so that people will have to pause, 10 seconds into the video. With a 22 minutes of video this will nearly double the amount of time it takes to consume the information. Furthermore the text is way too long in many places (kinda like this text) and should in a tutorial format be condensed and simplified as much as possible. Then there is also the information or “distractions” that just shouldn’t be in a tutorial (bugs or referencing/showing bugs, building of the patches). On top of all of that … there is stuff happening on the background while the text is being read … this is highly distracting and people won’t be able to both read the text and see you perform the actions at the same time.
Here are some suggestions in list form:
Spoken words are better than text on the screen
Make the information short and concise.
Reduce information overload
– Small patches with as little as possible
– Use one patch or as little as possible
– Don’t jump around in the patches, explain one completely before moving on to the next.
– Don’t demonstrate the actions while information is being displayed (keep information and demonstration separate).
Be prepared
– Do a practice run before actually recording the tutorial so that your patching is perfect and clean
– Prepare your patches completely or know exactly how you are going to patch something
If you find bugs report them to the author but leave them out of the tutorial
Try to keep your tutorial as short as possible.
I can probably nit pick a bunch more but I’ll leave it at this. If you want a good example of some nice tutorials check out @Omri_Cohen’s tutorials, they are sometimes a bit long but have a decent balance between information and demonstration.
THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH for your comment and your criticisms. It will be very helpful for a possible next one. I really appreciate your effort. I’m very grateful.
I know the Omri’s stuff quite well. He’s very gifted I think tutorial making. He learned me a lot about modules. I chose written comment for the video since I’m quite bad in English speaking. Maybe I’ll write and read what I wrote for the next time
Thanks again. I’ll previously conserve your advices.
I wouldn’t let your English speaking voice put you off - people aren’t going to ignore your tutorials just because you have an accent.
That said, if you really don’t want to speak in your videos, you could use Google’s online text-to-speech converter at https://cloud.google.com/text-to-speech/ to create and record the voiceover.
Their voices are really quite impressive these days - here’s the first paragraph of your last post, read by the default Google voice:
Nice one Denis!
If you don’t want do it with you voice - you don’t have to do that. I really understand this as a text-based youtube tutorial maker) I feel better with writing English, becauce I can’t think as fast as I can do patching) So I can’t speak in that speed.
Just one advice - you did too much text at one slide. It’s better to do step by step, sentence per sentence slides while you tweak knobs or drag cables.
Otherwise it’s a really good start!
i would strongly urge you and artem both to do voice overs to go with the text, even if you have a strong accent. having text only is a lot harder to watch.
I have to say, I find it difficult to follow text tutorials as well. I watched maybe 5mins of this but I got lost. I think I am mildly dyslexic so reading a sentence with concepts that might be new to me, as a new rack user, means that I have to pause the video each time new text comes up to understand what is written and what is meant in the complex context.
I have the same trouble with vcvrackideas but perhaps it’s more a reflection of me rather than a general problem but just throwing out a bit of (hopefully) constructive criticism.
I am very interested in the video topic though so I will revisit this video and take the time to absorb it properly.
Even a robot voice would be cool for me if speaking isn’t appealing.
Thank you for your comment. I think that everybody prefer spoken words. Me too actually. But for a first tutorial, I had neither the opportunity nor the confidence to do that way. Maybe next time. I’ll also consider to take more time to be better prepared regarding patching before recording for the next time.
Thanks again and take care!
Have a nice weekend.
there is nothing to forgive! people making tutorials for the community is great, and we thank you for that!
and just as you are trying to help us by making videos, we are trying to help you with suggestions on how to make them even better! take on what is useful to you, and don’t worry about the rest.
i know there is a lot i could do to make better videos, but i can’t be bothered with editing. feels too much like work to me… to each their own, i guess.
Thanks again. I’ll previously conserve your advices.
… You’ve to forgive me! I’m a bit shy 
. More seriously, I’ll try to speak in a possible next one… But not for now!