Simon’s Cat, Bones Mello, Alex Day Does ‘Dr. Horrible’, King of the Web – Weekly Vlog!

In our ever improving and evolving weekly Tubefilter video blog of online video news worth knowing, this week it was all about improving the audio setup. Can you notice the difference?

To get technical for a second, I was using the RODE VideoMic mounted on the camera—a Canon 7D—but for various reasons this just wasn’t going to cut it. The 7D, like many DSLR cameras, is stuck with automatic gain control (AGC) that was adjusting sound levels dynamically based on my levels of speech. After talking with several cost-conscious video creators, I settled on the $299 Zoom H4n external recorder, using a Sennheiser shotgun mic hooked up through an XLR cable.

Weekly Tubefilter video blog for the week of October 10, 2011:

This week’s video features two stories from the UK to start off, with Alex Day grabbing a few friends to cover one of the more under-appreciated original songs from Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog—”A Man’s Gotta Do.”

And one of my all-time favorite animated series on YouTube, Simon’s Cat, released a new episode this past week, “Double Trouble.” With over 167 million views across the series, and not a single episode performing under 1 million views, it’s pretty certain I’m not the only one who feels this way.

Also making the cut this week is a tribute to Apple founder Steve Jobs who passed away, leaving a legacy of technology that unlocked creativity in all of us. While YouTube and others may get heaps of praise for the video renaissance we’re in right now, it’s the software and hardware that Jobs pushed forward—Final Cut Pro, iMovie, Macbooks and iPhones—that gave everyone the keys to start. We’ll miss you Steve.

And I share some thoughts on the King of the Web contest going on this month. In full disclosure, they are running an ad on Tubefilter, but from my side of the editorial fence, I actually find the site useful in spotting new and upcoming video creators, like FouseyTUBE and his wacky middle eastern family.

Finally, Halloween costumes are the topic of conversation right now practically everywhere, and this Bones Mello the AT-AT Walker dog costume just might be going a bit too far. Agree?

If you have something you’d like to see featured in our weekly video blog, just shoot us an email at tips[at]tubefilter.tv, or better yet, leave a comment on the video on YouTube. We want to hear from you. (And don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE on YouTube.)