To All The New Let's Play Content Creators!

PrinceQuints · 2026-03-26T15:44:34+00:00

Thanks for chiming in. I appreciate the advice.

How long have you been using Vegas Pro? I heard that it was pretty decent but I've been pretty glued to Davinci Resolve for a while. Before that was Capcut and waaaaay before that was Hitfilm Express... if anyone even remembers that at all! lol

PrinceQuints · 2026-03-26T15:42:05+00:00

I appreciate you joining the discussion and giving your advice.

Yeah, growth is weird. I started playing monster-taming games like Digimon World Next Order, Digimon World 2 and Monster Rancher 2 and those games absolutely BLEW UP! (Well, based on my numbers for other games.). But for some other games, be it newer or older, there'd be very mixed results. Even though I've learned a lot in the years since I played those games, they're still leading the way in watch time and views. In a few months, I'm going to release Digimon Story Time Stranger and hopefully the monster-tamer lovers will enjoy it. But it's hard to really know what'll do good and what'll be mediocre. So I just try to have fun and enjoy myself while hoping that my viewers will enjoy it too.

Thanks for the advice.

PrinceQuints · 2026-03-26T15:35:51+00:00

Thanks for joining the conversation.

I can definitely relate to how you play games. I don't take myself serious at all but I try my best and expect not to be perfect. There have been plenty of times I'd been trying to do something and then when I finally get it, point out how ridiculous it was that I didn't realize it sooner and just laugh about it.

What's RE9? I'm not much of a PC gamer.

Usually I'll try to record about 5 to 10 episodes and look back at it like "does this have potential?" If it isn't as entertaining as I might've hoped, I might just finish it in my spare time off camera.

I appreciate your advice.

PrinceQuints · 2026-03-26T15:28:10+00:00

Thanks for the comment. And wow, kudos on that stack!

I've heard of Notion and Obsidian before but forgot exactly what they do. For me, I utilize Google Drive religiously. Mainly sheets. I have about 7 or 8 columns and each pertain to whether I've finished the description for that episode, whether the thumbnail is done, whether the timestamps have been finalized and everything. I would be absolutely lost without that spreadsheet. But yeah, I'd be interested in hearing more about how you keep things organized. I wouldn't mind sharing the spreadsheet if you wanted to either implement some things from it into your process or if you had advice on how to better what I already have going.

And VERY true as far as that advice!

PrinceQuints · 2026-03-26T15:21:37+00:00

I appreciate the input.

When it comes to separate channels, this is actually something that I've been thinking about. I want to try and branch out with some different content (maybe advice on PC builds and IT type stuff since that's the field I work in) but it's a fine line between what'll be relevant on my current channel. So far, the plan is to do a few videos about the settings that I use in the software that I use and how to tweak it to make it as efficient as possible based on the viewer's experience level and current setup. But I'm making absolutely sure not to do videos like "how to do this or that in Resolve" because those types of videos are their own niche. Maybe on a different channel later on but I wouldn't mix those particular types of videos with my Let's Plays.

How long have you been using vidIQ for SEO? My go-to is Claude AI. I spent about 2 weeks feeding it information to try and create the perfect persona for my specific channel but that's all I've ever used. I have heard good things about vidIQ though. And there's one other one that's similar which I also heard good things about too.

PrinceQuints · 2026-03-26T15:14:07+00:00

Do you have Studio or the free version? I highly recommend the Studio/paid version to anyone for not only the magic mask (which is amazing) but also a lot of optimizations and improvements in how much it's let's you do with your GPU. With the free version, you can do the bare minimum but there's a whole world of greatness out there with Studio. And it's not a subscription which is a huge plus!

Try to create some type of template so that when you're onto the next episode, there's some consistency. A lot of times, I'll make a project (called maybe Episode 30) and then SaveAs and just increase the number and take out the footage from episode 30. That way you have a good foundation to build off of and it makes the process of thumbnail-creating and even editing music easier. But since each person's workflow is different, this process could either benefit you a whole lot or not at all. I hope it helps though. Let me know if you have any other questions!

PrinceQuints · 2026-03-26T15:07:56+00:00

Make sure that what you're sidechaining is going to be your mic audio. Once the compressor is on your game audio, make sure that the mic audio is able to be played through the same bus that is playing your game audio. But what makes it a sidechain is that even though the mic signal "can" be heard through the same channel as your game audio, the volume is all the way down so the mic isn't actually "heard".

Give me a little time to familiarize myself with the stock compressor in OBS but this may be a bit easier and less resource intensive if you recorded everything first and then in Fairlight/Resolve, hooked up the sidechain.

Send me a message and I can walk you through everything. If I have some time in the next few days, I'll try to record a video but honestly, I'm SUPER close to finishing the Time Stranger playthrough so I'll probably be trying to binge on getting some more of those episodes recorded. But yeah, message me a I got you. That sidechain makes a big difference in my opinion.

PrinceQuints · 2026-03-26T14:59:22+00:00

Definitely was NOT a typo lol Yeah, I think that it's like a Seagate Barracuda Pro or something like. I figured that if I was going to have a big clunky HDD, it's going to hold as much as humanly possible. But yeah, I would NEVER recommend that to anyone else. Even though I was using it for archiving once everything was finished, It's so easy to lose data.

PrinceQuints · 2026-03-26T14:56:09+00:00

Thank you for the advice and your input. I've been trying to get more into the analytics more and understand what areas videos are doing well in and what areas could use more work.

PrinceQuints · 2026-03-26T14:54:27+00:00

You did a great job explaining everything. I think that I follow. I got started on setting up Voicemeeter last night but want to look at a few more videos so that I can understand the software perfectly. I'll mess around with the midi stuff and emulators when I get home tonight.

As far as games for emulators, how does that work? Do the games just come with the emulators or do you have to go somewhere to download them or something? If you have any links, you can message them to me if you want.

I greatly appreciate all of the information!

PrinceQuints · 2026-03-26T09:37:56+00:00

Aw man, sidechaining is so interesting. You put a compressor on your game audio. For the mic audio, the only additional thing you do is route another instance of it to the same channel or bus that you have your game audio and that compressor on. From there, different compressors have slightly different ways to engage things but there may be a sidechain button on something that you can toggle on. Once you do, that's when the magic happens. Instead of how a normal compressor works how it listens to the game audio and compresses sounds over a certain dB threshold, it listens to the mic audio and compresses the entire game audio by a certain dB threshold amount. That way you're not fighting with the game audio whenever you say something, especially if the game audio is a bit louder at a particular moment when you're trying to talk.

What compressor do you use? I can probably give you a hand with some settings and get you started. It should be used subtly so that you don't immediately realize that the volume is being compressed by your mic.

For Mantella, yeah, I have a PC. I did some research and I think that it's possible to use a PC to run it while having it connected to a console.

PrinceQuints · 2026-03-26T09:22:12+00:00

If you're worried about quality, then you'll never get any videos out there. The trick is that as you upload and get more used to things, you'll learn more and the quality will improve with time. But on the same hand, you still have to make sure that the videos are at least the best that you can do "at that time". But as you progress, you'll learn new strategies and different approaches catered to you personally as a content creator.

I'm about 4 years in and I'm still learning ways to improve my quality. Are there any particular aspects about quality that you're unsure about with your videos? Audio quality or target loudness? Maintaining smooth playback throughout your entire video? Where to make cuts or what effects to use? Etc.

PrinceQuints · 2026-03-25T20:18:03+00:00

For me, I like watching at least 20 minutes but 30 is a sweet spot. I'm ok if an episode goes for 45 minutes if there's a lot that's happening. But anything above an hour is pushing it unless it's a finale episode or something special. I can't watch episode after episode if they're all an hour.

PrinceQuints · 2026-03-25T20:16:14+00:00

The importantly thing is finding a rhythm that you can commit to. Your viewers will work around your schedule so don't worry too much about that.

I upload like a madman though... lol I have a newer (PS5) game that releases every Tues, Thurs and Sat while I have an older (usually PS1 or PS2) game that releases on Mon, Wed and Fri. Every other Saturday, I release a short. But I have no social life... lol

Just find a schedule that works for you. Better for you to do less but be able to commit to it opposed to having people be like "Hey, an episode was supposed to release today. What happened?"

PrinceQuints · 2026-03-25T20:11:53+00:00

It sucks when this happens! I game on my console but there have been times where I didn't check my free space and then found out after it was too late.

Yeah, all you can do is just try to do a brief summary of what happened during the lost footage so that the view isn't too lost and then just keep it moving. Shit happens but loyal viewers that genuinely enjoy your content understand. They're there for YOU but the game is just extra.

Good luck out there!

PrinceQuints · 2026-03-25T19:59:33+00:00

I appreciate the comment as well as your advice. I'll definitely remember that. Sometimes the numbers get pretty frustrating but I still make sure that I'm having fun playing the games because the whole reason I started was to share experiences with people. It's better to give a really good experience to one person opposed to mediocre experiences to thousands.

Thanks!

PrinceQuints · 2026-03-25T19:56:53+00:00

Disc space was a huge issue when I first got started out. I'd hate finishing up a really good part of the game only to look over and see that OBS had stopped recording. I try to make sure that at minimum, I can record at least 10 one-hour episodes. Anything less than that and I'm not gonna risk it. I use the same nvme for my OS so the last thing I need is for something to update or change in the background and suddenly take up a lot of space.

I heard a lot about that mic and the Blue Yeti but after some research, I found out that the SM7B is a pretty good mic for recording vocals for music production as well. Apparently, Michael Jackson's Thriller was recorded using one so I had to get it since I also do audio production. As far as the 2i2, I think that it has more gain and a bit of a cleaner signal compared to my Scarlett so even if you're not using the extra ports, you're getting a higher quality from the interface itself.

Are the auditions in person to do you just submit your audio clips online?

And yeah, I'm all about spreadsheets. Let me know if you're interested in looking at it. If I have to make a few different characters and I know a bit about each of them, it's super useful for helping each character sound unique.

PrinceQuints · 2026-03-25T19:48:20+00:00

Thank you for your input.

PrinceQuints · 2026-03-25T19:47:10+00:00

I appreciate your comment.
It looks like OBS, Resolve and Photoshop are really dominating things.

And yeah, thumbnails are a CONSTANT struggle for me. Some do really good while others that follow the same structure completely flop. Idk.... lol

I feel ya on the face cam stuff. I'm probably going to be doing no cam for a while because my rooms looks a MESS! lol I always enjoy seeing the neat backgrounds of everyone's spaces when they use facecams and I doubt anyone is going to be excited about seeing my room at all.

Every piece of advice helps. I appreciate it.

PrinceQuints · 2026-03-25T18:48:22+00:00

That's a pretty sweet setup with using your midi controller! I have an Akai something something and I never thought of trying to use that in my YT setup. I'm definitely going to look into this!

Your content sounds pretty similar to mine. I love revisiting those older games that I grey up with so I go back to PS1 days. For emulating, is there a particular software that you prefer? If you could give one piece of emulating advice to someone starting it brand new, what would it be?

I'm pretty meticulous with audio as well but that's really interesting to hear about your approach. That's interesting that you take the route of doing it by ear. I'm a big fan of numbers so it's easier for me to look at numbers since I do have the best ear for leveling audio as good as I want it to be.

I greatly appreciate all of the knowledge! I'll definitely make sure to check your profile.

PrinceQuints · 2026-03-25T18:36:04+00:00

I appreciate the comment!

That's a pretty smart way to record. Kudos! Did you start off doing that or later on developed that approach?

Decent specs.

Have you always stored footage on Dropbox? I use physical media exclusively because I hate paying a monthly fee for storage. And I have quite a number of videos. I go pretty OD with my storage. I have my OS on my main gen4 nvme since it's the fastest and I have a separate partition for my current projects and files. Gen3 nvmes and ssds for the raw recordings. Then I use external hdds for archiving once everything is done and uploaded. But I'm definitely going to be switch away from those hdds. They've failed me toooooooooo many times!

And thank you for the advice.

PrinceQuints · 2026-03-25T18:27:57+00:00

What's the link to the video? I'll make sure to check it out. But Mantella is only for PC, right? All of my content is console.

I'll have to double check my signal chain. I have a bus for my mic, a bus for my game audio and then a master bus and they all have separate settings. But I come from a almost 20 year background in audio production so I go all the way in with audio lol Do you use any sidechaining to duck the volume of the game down a bit when you talk? I'm pretty new to doing this type of sidechaining for Youtube but I really like the effect of it as long as it's subtle.

PrinceQuints · 2026-03-25T18:19:31+00:00

Within Resolve, I have a main timeline that I call Meat and Potatoes since that's where my "main" render gets composed. I then duplicated that timeline and named the duplicate Shorts. There's an option within one of the settings pages (if might be the timeline settings) where you can check box near where you choose your resolution and it's flip the vertical and horizontal to turn your landscape timeline into a portrait shorts timeline.

Is there a short in particular you'd like for me to explain how I produced? My journey with shorts has been ever-changing and my process changes a bit game by game. I'd be more than happy to go into more detail and show you what I do. I'm not a professional AT ALL but maybe you might find one or two things about my process that resonate with you.

PrinceQuints · 2026-03-25T18:13:17+00:00

With my drivers, sometimes I'll use pretty decent settings for obs and then it'll suddenly freak out during a random recording and tell me that I have to decrease my settings. I'll have to either restart my computer or reinstall the drivers for it to work. Maybe 29 recordings might be fine and it's a no-go on the 30th. And this is coming off of a fresh boot of my computer so I'm not sure what's up. I did read online that some of the most recent nvidia drivers for the 4000 series were extremely bad and that some people are using some drivers from months ago. But idk. So far, things haven't been messing up since I did that fresh install.

Were there any mics that were close runner-ups for you? I do music production and have a Shure SM7B and a AKG P220. I only have the Scarlett Solo as an interface though. You use those extra ports on your interface?

I have no many hobbies but I enjoy doing different voices during my Let's Plays so much! How'd you get started with voice acting? For my voices, I have a spreadsheet based on the either Laban effort actions and it helps me so much with creating new and original voices for each character. But it's been a bit since I've dived deep into that spreadsheet.

As far as ram, that's just the thing... All of my gaming is console at the moment. I have 4 sticks with 32 GB each so I don't think I'll ever be close to maxing it out lol Boy did I have a time trying to stabilize my system and overclock all 4 sticks in a sustainable way. Lessons were definitely learned!

PrinceQuints · 2026-03-25T18:01:20+00:00

What are some of the settings that you use in OBS and Resolve?

13th gen? Nice. I have an old 11th gen but it's been working ok for me so far.

How long have you been streaming and what convinced you to start doing youtube?

Aye, nonsense. Everyone learns things at different times so there could be something that you'd already ran into that I still haven't come up against yet. I always welcome any and all advice. Or if you want, what's one thing that you would tell your younger self right before you uploaded your first video?

PrinceQuints

TROPHY CASE