As you know from my previous columns (or maybe you don’t know and this is the first column by me you have read, in which case, welcome! Glad to have you reading), I have a minor YouTube channel called Saturday Bush Live. Perhaps you should subscribe. By that, I mean, I’m begging you.

Anyhoo, last December I was pretty much set on getting the “normal” stuff for Christmas. Well, I shouldn’t say normal, because there is no normal. I was not expecting to get a microphone. Microphones are a big deal for YouTubers, because while you can record yourself using an iPad to get pretty great audio quality (and video quality for that matter, if you are using it right and have the right device), a microphone is your best bet if you want to do large-scale, scripted commentary or just commentary of any kind that you want to overlay over a video. This includes doing video game videos, opinion videos and more.

A microphone by itself is not going to make the giant leap from “Struggling Channel” to “Mediocre Channel” on its own. No, no, no! I use a Samsung Galaxy S for recording most of my video stuff. I also use the fantastic editing software Wondershare Filmora, which is great editing software for splicing together footage and doing all sorts of features that more expensive variants can. Wondershare Filmora costs around $60. I use Audacity for my audio editing, which, if you know anything about YouTube, audio editing is just as important as video editing and possibly more so. Here’s why: What if you want to bass boost something? For those of you who don’t know what bass boosting is, I will be the first person to define it for you: the most important part of YouTube by a long shot. Now, for those of you who do know what it is will now start laughing uncontrollably.

So there you have it! My current technological inventory right now, with the exception of headphones. By the time you are reading this, however, I hope to have an actual high definition video camera for my birthday to replace the Samsung S that I’m currently using. A message to my future self: Hope you’re having a lit time with that HD camera, and if you didn’t get it for your birthday, well, then, allow me to go curl up in a ball and weep for hours.

I have quite a few ideas for what I’m going to be doing with my new microphone and all of my equipment that I already have. I am planning on uploading a slew of YouTube videos over the summer, so be sure to be on the lookout for those. In case you didn’t already know, I do gaming videos, comedy, the occasional rap to appease my tiny fan base, and a heck of a lot of memes.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Liam Ulland-Joy, 12, enjoys making videos for his YouTube channel.