@Eric-Elliott, @Gid

Hi

There is a list of tutorials here on getting started with Movie Edit Pro / Movie Studio here. though some are made with Movie Edit Pro, which was rebranded to Movie Studio, the principles are the same.

The location of your recordings should be in the folder indicated in the Program Settings. Folder tab as indicated by the yellow arrow, there is also a link to this folder in the Media pane as indicated by the magenta arrow in the image below.

. . . . I switched to timeline mode thinking that would do it, but no and what a mess that mode is! I will never use it. . . . .

Unless you have removed the recording, it should be on track 4 in timeline mode as you can see in the image above.

Working in Timeline mode, as @Gid commented is far better than Storyboard which as you have found is basic in what it displays.

Tracks, in principle are used as follows:

• Put the main video/images on track 1
   
• Titles, by default, go on track 3, at the Timeline cursor position - see note 1 below
   
• Recordings, by default, go on track 4, at the Timeline cursor position - see note 2 below

Note:

1. If track 3 is occupied by video, images or audio, the titles will be placed on the next available empty track at the position of the Timeline cursor.
    
2. If track 4 is occupied by video, images or audio, the recording will be placed on the next available empty track at the position of the Timeline cursor before you started recording.

HTH

John EB

@Eric-Elliott

Hi.

This is just a thought.

If you don't find videos useful because you can't watch a video and then remember what was on the video but you have a smart phone, you could try watching the tutorials on your smart phone so you can pause them while working on the program. That may help.

A lot of us (but not necessarily all of us) use at least two monitors so doing things like that is easy for us to do as we could put such a video o a second or third screen.

Also most of us never use the Storyboard mode due to its limitations so we help where we can but our experience of using it is possibly very low and only used to see what other people are experiencing when using it to see if we can help.

You seem to have a lot of anxieties on more than a few problems including using YouTube.

First I would say four months is nowhere near enough time to gain traction on YouTube unless you are very lucky.

@Gid is probably the most successful person on here with his video channel but he has been at it for at least ten years. I don't know how long it took Gid to get to the amount of subscribers he has but I would guess that it may have taken a few years before he got monetisation or more than a few followers. Maybe he can let you know that.

If you want to know the odds of being successful, the last census I can find on how many YouTube channels active there are was in 2022 when there was more than 51 million YouTube channels. How many of those ever come up on anyone's web browser is anyone's guess. But a lot of those channels will be private for friends and family or just a way for someone to store there video content.

As Gid said in your other post do not try to understand how YouTube works as they constantly change the goal posts.

I have never been bothered about views or subscribers but if I did I think it would take at least two videos a week released at regular intervals and times to get going. I think it may take at least two years to build any type of fan base unless you are very lucky. The name of your channel may be as important as the titles for each video and should reflect if possible the general content. But as Gid said, once you have gained a following it can get easier depending on what you want out of it.

As for the video side of things. Believe it or not that is the easier side of the whole thing. Most of us started out knowing very little and even those who know the most are still learning. It is an ongoing process, or should be.

We are still in the infancy of video creation for the masses. It is not impossible to be successful but requires an amount of work as with anything. It's easier if you enjoy the whole process. If you don't enjoy the whole process then it can be much the opposite.

Ray.

@CubeAce Hi, I've had my YT channel since 2012, I used to upload anything I like, I too didn't really care about subs etc, but I could monetise my videos even tho I only had 500 subs. Adsense is YT's money manager type thing, earnings from YT go into Adsense & when your balance reaches £60 they pay you. So even tho my views were pretty low I earned about £10 a month for uploading crap & Adsense then paid me roughly £60 twice a yr 🤸‍♂️🤸‍♂️🤸‍♂️

But in Feb 2018 YT decided you needed 1000 subs to monetise your vids, that was their attempt to weed out the undesirables, so my money stopped as I only had 500 subs, I had to make a choice, stop bothering uploading or start putting up better vids, I chose the latter, I deleted a lot of the crap from my channel which was a big part of it 😁 & started putting up better vids, it took till July 2018 to get to 1000 & monetisation started again.

I now have 27,770 subs but that is small compared to some who put out videos of a sort of similar nature, they're not pro joiners & don't give half as much info or even the correct info but they have the personality. bs counts in the western world it seems, educational videos like mine where I don't ponce around in front of the camera are only interesting to those that want to learn & not be entertained.

As I wrote in the OP's other post I have a full time job but without going into £ no's for me the effort I put in on a night into making these vids, which can go beyond midnight on more than one night a wk is worth it. A big part of that is that my videos are roughly 20mins long & consist of 20-50 clips that are several hrs of footage, the majority of the clips will be seconds or a minute or two/few but some I set the camera recording & then get on cutting or whatever, I'll then trim n cut those clips as I see appropriate, sometimes speeding bits up, but as you know you still have to watch pretty much ever clip. & then at the end there's export time & reviewing (& again if there's a mistake or a bit I don't like)

All of this time spent has nothing to do with time spent with YT, it's about making a video which is what the OP is talking about doing, so when I read something like -

That is why I admire anyone that has a YT channel.

----

I have a channel with over 400 videos, it really isn't that hard https://www.youtube.com/c/Gidjoiner

-----

It is when you have a fulltime job in the first place leaving very little time to work with it

it's a little confusing or... because the biggest effort is in making the videos,, If you don't have time to make videos why bother, YT has nothing to do with it & as I said dealing with YT is a tiny amount of the time spent in this whole process, once I've finished editing I upload & go to bed, job done.

Spending time editing is just part of the process of making videos whether it's going to YT or not.

@Gid

Hi Gid.

But in Feb 2018 YT decided you needed 1000 subs to monetise your vids,

That is what I partially meant about moving goal posts. They have also steadily reduced the amount of money paid out per view as the advertising revenue has dwindled compared to the amount of content which has risen across YouTube. This is one reason some have opted to start merchandise and the 'buy me a coffee' options.

I also found out there are now over more than 113.9 million active content channels as of March this year which represents only 4% of all YouTube accounts across 60 languages.Watched by 2.49 billion monthly logged-in users. There is still room for people to be successful if they wish but it gets harder each year. Producing shorts seems to be the best and easiest way to get noticed at present.

Ray.

@CubeAce Hi, it's hard to work out YT's pay per view, mine is fairly constant but my type of vids are bottom of the barrel, I can't really explain it but my vids get lets say 0.01p per view while other's of a different nature can get 0.03.

Some of my videos will get a decent number of views & earn half as much as others with the same amount of views.

I think it's more to do with what ads are put on, I made a BBQ room at the spring.summer time a couple of yrs ago, I got well paid for that & the ads were from bigger companies who get charged more by YT like B&Q who were promoting their BBQs, right vid at the right time 👍

I discussed Shorts with someone a little while ago, we both had tested them to see if they were worth it. His videos are sort of similar to mine except he is 100% a self taught DIYer & occasionally stands in front of the camera to discuss bits, he has 262K subscribers so gets a lot more views than I do. He's a nice honest lad who has no pretences in his vids about what he knows, I think that down to Earthiness is appealing to the masses, he occasionally asks me for advice & has promoted my channel on more than one occasion.

My Shorts were mainly not worth it - but one got 18.5k views & earnt me £17

He has one that has 493k views but has earnt him only £46 😂🤷‍♂️

His words ref Shorts -

Yeah they're bloomin useless for money. I've done 3, my last one went a little bit viral but has earned me 46 quid

Wow that's interesting, your 18k one has earned nearly half as much as my 493k one !

@Gid

Hi Gid.

I think of shorts as advertising and really about getting another way to promote the rest of your content as most of the shorts I see don't have that many views compared to the ones I get to see that are normal video content. I wasn't thinking of monetary return for the shorts themselves. I have myself subscribed to lesser known channels due to seeing shorts content whereas sometimes looking at a video from a channel, if it doesn't grab me in the same amount of time I will often skip it.

Ray.

@CubeAce Yeap, I'm sure you're right, gets you out there in the quick time viewing platform, the man I mentioned above did say in relation to his Short 'Decent subs tho', I've had a few subs from mine but my Shorts really aren't worth watching. maybe if I made better ones.

For this comment below consider Shorts & short videos (a couple of minute vids) the same -

My dilemma is when I'm uploading regularly or if I've uploaded quite a few longer ones recently I don't mind throwing a short video in, but if I've had a gap of more than a wk I don't want to just put up a few minutes long video or a Short. I get comments 'Excellent, got a notification you've posted, I'll watch that in the morning 👍' but twice that I can remember I've got a comment saying 'I was excited to get a notification you've posted a video only to find it's just 3mins long 😒'.

Shorts - This comment on Reddit sticks n my mind & is what I'm thinking anyway, I've only ever really got the clips I'm making a video out of & I don't really want to start uploading 'stuff' for the sake of uploading or gaining subs. Ya can't win sometimes ..-

I really like quick science facts and bits from comedians I like but notifications from channels I'm subscribed to are basically just snippets of videos I'm going to watch. It's redundant, but unfortunately creators have to bend to the will of the algorithm and will be whores for money.

Thank you guys for all your help, but I think I better give up. I just wrote a reply giving explanation that may help and everything and when I went to submit, the hour of typing got erased and I got a 403 error!
I can't replicate what I wrote. What a waste of time!

@Eric-Elliott

I'm really sorry if we have put you off in any way but producing successful social media is just as demanding as any job.Think of it as being in a band in the 70s. There were lots about but few succeeded and carried on anyway.

Audio blogs are still popular I think. I will often download one to listen to in the car if the subject appeals to me.

The forum isn't that kind to long replies. I tend to select all and copy my reply and then open a new window and paste and send it from there if a reply has taken me a long time to write.

@Gid

YouTube can be easy for a few but I think most struggle. My Son's channel had enough subscribers in under six months and currently has 44.7k subscribers even though he no longer does regular uploads. It's history based but he gets a regular monthly income from it and merch.

For me it's too much like work and put up stuff when I have the time. In the past it has been mainly festival coverage but more recently it has been about lectures and talks I've attended. I have one at present I have been working on for ages now. It should have been straightforward but ended up not being.

Ray.

@Eric-Elliott

I'm really sorry if we have put you off in any way but producing successful social media is just as demanding as any job.Think of it as being in a band in the 70s. There were lots about but few succeeded and carried on anyway.

Audio blogs are still popular I think. I will often download one to listen to in the car if the subject appeals to me.

The forum isn't that kind to long replies. I tend to select all and copy my reply and then open a new window and paste and send it from there if a reply has taken me a long time to write.

@Gid

YouTube can be easy for a few but I think most struggle. My Son's channel had enough subscribers in under six months and currently has 44.7k subscribers even though he no longer does regular uploads. It's history based but he gets a regular monthly income from it and merch.

For me it's too much like work and put up stuff when I have the time. In the past it has been mainly festival coverage but more recently it has been about lectures and talks I've attended. I have one at present I have been working on for ages now. It should have been straightforward but ended up not being.

Ray.

No, you guys have not put me off at all, quite the opposite. Computer errors put me off (error 403). I'm cooling my jets and I think I will try to re-write what I wrote for information so you guys know exactly what I am trying for, I think it may help. I also want to somehow show what I see on my screen, which would also help.

Apparently there is a hard limit to message length. What I wrote was no longer than the longest response I got, but ok. I'm going to write in a different program being mindful of length and then paste it or something.
Suffice it to say, what I am trying to do won't work as an audio only format. I'm also not trying to be successful in social media and I don't go anywhere near facebooks and twitters and all that. I won't even go near Ebay.

@Eric-Elliott

Suffice it to say, what I am trying to do won't work as an audio only format. I'm also not trying to be successful in social media and I don't go anywhere near facebooks and twitters and all that. I won't even go near Ebay.

You are not alone. 👍😂

Ray.

@Eric-Elliott OK, lets start again just with editing & forget Youtube for the moment 👍

You said

 I switched to timeline mode thinking that would do it, but no and what a mess that mode is! 

 I also want to somehow show what I see on my screen, which would also help.

Perhaps if you did show the screen it could be explained.

---------------------------------

To show what you see on screen -

• Press the Windows key + Shift + S all at the same time.
• 
• The screen will go dark & these buttons will appear at the top of the screen
• 
• Choose Windows Snip & click on the top of the screen, a picture of the screen will be captured & will appear in Notifications bottom right of your screen, click on it to save it somewhere
• 
• You can then upload that picture on here using the arrow button at the top of a new comment
• 

--------------------------------

As for long comments - If I write a long comment before I click Comment I select all the text, Ctrl+C will copy it, if for some reason it doesn't upload or gets lost for some reason the Windows key+V will show the last 25 copies you've created, click the one you want, that will get loaded back into 'Copy' so you can paste it in the comment box & try again.

@Eric-Elliott OK, lets start again just with editing & forget Youtube for the moment 👍

You said

 I switched to timeline mode thinking that would do it, but no and what a mess that mode is! 

 I also want to somehow show what I see on my screen, which would also help.

Perhaps if you did show the screen it could be explained.

---------------------------------

To show what you see on screen -

• Press the Windows key + Shift + S all at the same time.
• 
• The screen will go dark & these buttons will appear at the top of the screen
• 
• Choose Windows Snip & click on the top of the screen, a picture of the screen will be captured & will appear in Notifications bottom right of your screen, click on it to save it somewhere
• 
• You can then upload that picture on here using the arrow button at the top of a new comment
• 

--------------------------------

As for long comments - If I write a long comment before I click Comment I select all the text, Ctrl+C will copy it, if for some reason it doesn't upload or gets lost for some reason the Windows key+V will show the last 25 copies you've created, click the one you want, that will get loaded back into 'Copy' so you can paste it in the comment box & try again.

You read my mind as I was cooling my jets. As I said, it isn't you guys that triggered me, it is computers errors.

I will indeed do a screenshot and describe what I run into as soon as I can. It may be in a couple of days or on the weekend. I think it would be very helpful.

I like your idea of copying text before submitting. I'm going to try to remember that. (I have steered clear of forums since 2013, so I'm rusty).
 

I thought it may also help in some way for you guys to know what I am trying to do with YT. To be brief:
I was an audio print journalist for 4 years (2013- 2018). I started out writing for a forum trying to be the voice of reason in the sea of audiophile BS.
In 2014, I transitioned to having my own blog/E-mag, which launched in Jan 2015. At peak I had just over 300 subs and a lot more readers. No monetization  and zero marketing. I just wanted to let it grow organically (I don't do marketing). I had a small few audio and other companies wanting me to do "Payola" reviews, but I don't do fake reviews for payment or anything like that so I turned them down flat. Amazon contacted me to try affiliate links at one point, so I did it for a month and shut is down because I lost 100 subs and half my readers. People do not understand what affiliate links are or what they do. People think it is a grift. I did eventually get about 50 subs back and about 75% of the readers I lost.
At the same time in 2014 through 2016, I deep studied custodianship of vinyl records. I also became somewhat a historian. I grew up with vinyl records as well since the late 60s. I'm waiting for them to come out with a certification I can apply for.

In 2021 I started thinking about going back in to that, but realized that nobody really reads anymore, video is all the rage. So I started thinking about YT. Now here in 2024 I decided to give it a go. 

I want to do something a bit more earthy. All I am trying to do basically is mostly just share my music collection with the community and demo care and maintenance of media, share tips, talk about music, etc. The idea is to encourage others to get back to listening to their music and explore it. I want my channel to just grow organically like my magazine did. I don't do marketing and such. I don't care about getting subscribers or "likes" or a million views and will not be asking folks to do so.
I am doing it faceless as well for safety reasons. (It may be easier to do YT on camera, but I can't). I am also not looking for fame or success. It is about the music, not about me. I don't go near social media like facebooks, twitters, etc. 
I have nothing to offer for stuff like Patreon and such. I don't need the headaches that come with that and other paid stuff. Not only do I believe that information should always be accurate and free, but I also have no way of receiving funds anyway. (I don't do Paypal and the like).
I am willing to try affiliate links again provided they are not a liability, but that's about it. None of that stuff is aligned with my goals.

I just want to keep things very simple, no big productions or fancy stuff.
I just want to do it all for giggles and nothing more.   
 

@Eric-Elliott It is not unusual to loose a comment for whatever reason, that is why I got into the habit of Ctrl+C 👍

I understand some of it can seem daunting, I've had Magix for 20yrs but I still remember how I felt at the beginning, but honestly to edit using Timeline is easy, it only requires 6-8-ish things to do the basics & after that everything else is also easy. 👍

I think once you've done the basics the hardest part will be the voice-over you mentioned, but I believe you've said you're more into audio & there's people here more than willing to help you combine the two.

I think some have stayed away from this post because it drifted into 'YouTube', My fault partially, sorry, but that's why I suggest at least for now we drop that part of the discussion 👍

@Eric-Elliott It is not unusual to loose a comment for whatever reason, that is why I got into the habit of Ctrl+C 👍

I understand some of it can seem daunting, I've had Magix for 20yrs but I still remember how I felt at the beginning, but honestly to edit using Timeline is easy, it only requires 6-8-ish things to do the basics & after that everything else is also easy. 👍

I think once you've done the basics the hardest part will be the voice-over you mentioned, but I believe you've said you're more into audio & there's people here more than willing to help you combine the two.

I think some have stayed away from this post because it drifted into 'YouTube', My fault partially, sorry, but that's why I suggest at least for now we drop that part of the discussion 👍

I hope I will eventually be able to see it that way. I can't do voiceover separately and then try to sync it up, that is impossible. I need to do it while the image or video is on screen otherwise I'm talking about apples while oranges are showing.
As for YT, I only mentioned it because that is what I am doing this for, to have a channel, otherwise what is the point? Certainly not for my health. I also agree that it drifted into that, but I don't know why. At this point YT is not the discussion indeed and I already posted separately my purpose of what I want to do, so that should put that to bed for now. Sometimes a bit of background helps.

@Eric-Elliott

Hi Eric

. . . .  I can't do voiceover separately and then try to sync it up, that is impossible. I need to do it while the image or video is on screen otherwise I'm talking about apples while oranges are showing. . . . . .

A change of tactics may be in order - when I create a 'talky' which is rare, or want to edit the images/vidoe yo synchronise with music, I edit the 'vision' to the audio not the audio to the images/video, this does mean working in timeline mode.

1. Put the images/video on the track 1 in the order you want them, do not edit them at this point, save the project.
    
2. Write down what the images and video represent as they appear on the timeline
    
3. Write your script and record it, at a constant pace.
    
4. With the audio on the timeline, edit the duration/position of the images/video to match the audio, for images you change the image length (time displayed).
    
5. If the video is too short, I use the Insert a still image at playback marker option available on right click of the video clip to add a still image, the length of which can be adjusted. The image is copied from the frame where the timeline cursor is positioned

An example 'talky' using this method is here. In this example at 20 secs into the video you will see the mouse pointer freeze for the next 40 secs - this is the still image inserted as above.

John EB

@Eric-Elliott I can't do talk overs, I can't write down what I'm going to say either & I need to be watching what is on screen, So I watch the video on screen & use my phone camera to record my voice, I then add just the audio from the phone clip to the timeline..

PS. I'm sure a separate mic hooked up to the PC would be better, I have one but it picks up the hum from the PC so I never use it 😒😂🤷‍♂️

@Gid

Hi Gid

Do you work entirely with video, no images?

John EB

@johnebaker Hi, yep 90%+ video, I only add pictures as overlays or they're inserted in some how, quite often it's an online pic of a tool or maybe an afterthought while editing & all i've got is a picture...

YT has an 'End Screen' option where my logo pops up to subscribe & a link/s can be added to the end of the video, maybe Pt2 etc. These can cover the end of the video, I try to allow for this but that isn't always poss so sometimes I just freeze frame the last frame, I find it easier to just create a png of the last frame, Vegas has 'Save snapshot to file' that auto puts that png in the project folder & just needs dragging in, so no exporting as 'Single frame .... ' or adding envelopes/keyframes/curves or whatever needed.

Or like this I used a pic of the tool I used in the vid & where to buy one, also to extend the end of the video to allow for the end screen, I then placed the End Screen link so it doesn't cover the picture.

------------------

Vegas has Freeze Frame at cursor & can be dragged out to whatever length just like MMS's Insert Still Image, but I still prefer to add a captured PNG, can't really explain why 🤷‍♂️

@Gid

Hi Gid

. . . . I only add pictures as overlays or they're inserted in some how . . . .

Thanks for the info, that is what I suspected from looking at some of your YT videos.

John EB

@Eric-Elliott

Hi Eric

. . . .  I can't do voiceover separately and then try to sync it up, that is impossible. I need to do it while the image or video is on screen otherwise I'm talking about apples while oranges are showing. . . . . .

A change of tactics may be in order - when I create a 'talky' which is rare, or want to edit the images/vidoe yo synchronise with music, I edit the 'vision' to the audio not the audio to the images/video, this does mean working in timeline mode.

Put the images/video on the track 1 in the order you want them, do not edit them at this point, save the project.

Write down what the images and video represent as they appear on the timeline

Write your script and record it, at a constant pace.

With the audio on the timeline, edit the duration/position of the images/video to match the audio, for images you change the image length (time displayed).

If the video is too short, I use the Insert a still image at playback marker option available on right click of the video clip to add a still image, the length of which can be adjusted. The image is copied from the frame where the timeline cursor is positioned

An example 'talky' using this method is here. In this example at 20 secs into the video you will see the mouse pointer freeze for the next 40 secs - this is the still image inserted as above.

John EB

Hi John,

The thing is what I am trying to do right now is that I am strictly using stills. In this case I take stills of my CDs I want to show and then a couple of images of the artist from the internet. I then put those in the order I want in "storybook mode". I then have what I want to say (a little bit about the artist and then each album=CD individually) and I go to each image and increase the time it shows as a guess of what I need (I try to make it a little longer than I think I'll need). I then record my audio in MS or (Video Easy as before). Then I go back and edit the length of the time the image shows.

The way I was first doing that was I was lining them up and doing all of them with the voiceover and such as they showed up. I just figured out that it may be easier to do each one separately and then put them together, lining them up and throwing transitions in-between and calling it done. Why I did not think of this before is beyond me. In my defense, I will say that these video editing programs are very overwhelming and frightening at the start.

I will be posting here a screenshot of the "Timeline" mode I see so you guys can see what I see. I have very poor eyesight and "Timeline" mode is far too small and light for me and I don't understand why the images don't show with audio underneath so I can edit them. I can't see the preview window and timeline together, they are too far apart. I don't understand how one can sync "voice over" audio done separately. It seems impossible especially for someone like me who has no clue what they are doing.

I think the screen shots I will post may help clear some things up though. I will get around to doing that in the next few days or this weekend. My health is not the best currently due to heat (I have a condition - a residual byproduct of multiple heat exhaustions some years ago, not to mention age) that kind of wipes me out as I get home from work. Weekends are good for getting things done in the morning before it gets nasty.

I think all this may be easier when I show my vinyl records and demos and such because I will be video filming that instead of using stills and everything will be real-time and embedded. Less editing needed. (It just did not make sense to video my CDs). If I mess up on the video stuff I will just need to re-film instead of trying to fix it. There is likely a way to do that, but that is for the advanced students and I have no plans to go that far.