I posted a clip of a spinning metal thing I found in the desert near Mojave, and one commenter told me to stop hyping the audio | Alien Tech True Or Fake - Free To Speak
I posted a clip of a spinning metal thing I found in the desert near Mojave, and one commenter told me to stop hyping the audio
About 3 weeks ago I threw up a 40 second clip of this little metal object I picked up on a dry lake bed outside Mojave. It spins on its own when you set it down flat, and I was sure it was something wild. I slapped a spooky soundtrack on it and added a whoosh sound when it moved, thinking it made the clip pop. First comment I got was from a guy who just wrote 'cut the music, let me hear the thing.' That hit me harder than I expected. I re-uploaded the raw audio version and you can actually hear a faint high pitch hum and a tick every few seconds, which is way weirder than anything I added. Turns out people in this community trust a clip way more when there is no soundtrack pushing them toward a feeling. Now I keep a rule for myself, no music, no zoom ins, just the object and the room sound. Anyone else get called out for dressing up a clip and end up with a better result after stripping it down?
Wait, a faint high pitch hum AND a tick every few seconds? That is wild. The tick is the part that gets me, because that sounds like something mechanical inside is moving on its own, not just some weird metal sitting there. And you only caught that after you killed the music, which proves your point way better than any argument could. Tbh that commenter did you a huge favor even if it stung at the time. Ngl I have done the same thing with clips of old coins I clean up, threw on some dramatic build up music, and someone just said let it breathe. Took the music off and suddenly you could hear the little scratch of the brush and it felt like you were right there at the table with me, way better.
Same thing happens with food pics and travel videos. People slather on dramatic music and over-saturated filters, then act shocked when nobody believes the meal was actually good. Strip it back and you get the real sound of the pan, the real light in the room. The fancy version feels like an ad, the plain version feels like a friend showing you something. Your tick and hum beat any soundtrack you could've picked.