I Hit 'Record' So You Can Hit 'Play', But I Went Through 'Beginners Hell'
Published: November 6, 2025 • 8 min read
Remember my last post where I talked about the lagging issue and how I resolved it? Well, little did I know that was the beginning of the issues I was going to face.
The Horror of Muffled Audio
You see, I had already recorded a video and all I had to do was edit it. By the time I resolved the lagging issue on the night of November 3rd, I thought I was ready, you know. The next day, all I'd have to do was simply edit the video... and I did, all right. I edited the video, delivered it (this basically means I exported it), and then played it.
Behold my horror: the sound around the middle parts of the video was muffled with cracks and a slight buzzing sound, making it difficult to hear me. I thought I was going to go insane... you know what, I think I actually did go insane. It just lasted for a brief moment, and now I'm back to normalcy.
So What Was the Issue This Time?
You see, the fix for the lagging issue I had with DaVinci Resolve was to create proxies of my original video. A proxy of a video is essentially the same video but with lower quality. You create them because it makes editing easier. You sacrifice video and sound quality temporarily while editing, but the final video will be a high-quality video matching the original video clips edited.
So while I was editing, I obviously noticed that the sounds were a bit muffled in certain parts of the video, but I thought: It's fine, it's just the proxies. The final video will sound perfect.
Oh, how gracefully wrong was I.
The Cascade of Realizations
When I started recording my video clips with OBS Studio (I usually have to record them in segments and then put them all together in the editing phase), I played the first part of the first recording and the sound quality was good, so I assumed it would remain that way across all other video clips.
Again, how splendidly wrong was I.
The worst part was when I realized it, after I had already spent hours working on this 10-minute video.
Then I thought: You know, it's just a small part of the video. I can simply rerecord the audio. Then I did, and as I kept playing the video, I noticed that there were more and more muffled parts. The worst part? I started thinking of better ways to "express my thoughts," better than what I had already recorded. Then all of a sudden, the work I had put so many hours into appeared "mediocre."
There was no way I was going to put out anything I considered mediocre on the internet. This meant I had to record the entire video again.
The Temptation to Give Up
I contemplated giving up. I contemplated getting rid of all video placeholders I have across projects and case studies on this site. Does anyone even care that I record a video? Why am I even doing all of this? No one even knows about it now, so I can technically just remove it and it'll be fine.
I started pacing around my room again. It was already close to my bedtime, so I knew no more work was going to be done that day.
Remembering the Why
In that moment, pacing around my room, I had to remember why I made this decision. The goal was to become so invaluable that getting a job simply becomes a byproduct. That is not an easy goal, just like learning French wasn't easy, but after staying strong through beginner's hell, I'm reaping the fruits of intermediate heaven, hoping to reach proficiency paradise someday.
I obviously have experience working with and editing videos in the past, but the problem I made this time was that I was trying to brute force my way through. Simply recording a video, any video, and then just putting it out there. By using this approach, I put myself at the risk of creating mediocre content.
I had to think back to when I was recording videos at Cambium Inc. I had a system, one I created to help me record good-quality videos at the time. Now I was going back to video recording and even introducing a new tool to my toolkit, and I did not implement a system.
I took deep breaths and went to bed. I was going to try again tomorrow, but this time, no brute forcing. I would create a toolbox and implement a system with that toolbox.
My Refined Toolbox and System
Download a noise-cancelling software: I had Krisp downloaded in the past but uninstalled it after not using it for years. I reinstalled it this time.
OBS Studio remains my video recording tool: I tested multiple combinations of audio input devices to see what works best when combined with Krisp until I found the perfect audio quality (better than the audio of the mediocre content I almost put online).
Rekindled my love with Canva: Canva is great for recording slides to show when speaking. The video I recorded talks about the motivation behind the French Writing Playground. I wanted to show something that was not my browser when talking about this. I even tested a cool way to create slideshows with Claude (it wasn't perfect, but I need to develop a good prompting strategy for communicating my plans to Claude. When I do, I'll create a case study on that).
Created scripts of what I was going to say: I reread them over and over again until I was sure I liked what I heard.
DaVinci Resolve for editing: Creating the final product.
The Day I Stopped Brute Forcing
So when I woke up on November 5th, I was no longer brute forcing the video recording process. I took my time and even discovered why the video sounds were muffled in some parts of the video. Apparently, when I have my browser open while simultaneously recording videos, the audio quality suffered significantly. I plan to look deeper into this issue and resolve it, but I had to make do this time by recording the video and audio clips separately.
So why did it take me the whole day to get this done? The beginner's hell of DaVinci Resolve.
What I Learned About DaVinci Resolve
You see, editing tools on DaVinci Resolve are a lot more sophisticated than other applications I've used in the past, like ClipChamp. There were some behaviors I expected when applying editing tools, but I had to learn that things work a bit differently here:
Having to create proxy videos: I already talked about this above. I don't think every user of DaVinci Resolve has to create proxy videos. I would probably need to have a laptop dedicated to video editing and nothing else to be able to work without having to create proxies. However, editing videos that look and sound not so great (even though I know it's only temporary) isn't fun.
Deleting clips: I already unsynced the video and audio of the clip. I just wanted to press the delete button on the audio and have it get deleted without affecting other clips on the timeline. Well, surprise! I just triggered a ripple delete by doing that. A ripple delete is when deleting a clip automatically closes the gap by shifting all subsequent clips on the timeline to fill the space. Using the delete key was my default, and it still is, but the behavior I wanted was to only delete the selected clip without affecting other clips in the tracks above and below it. So I had to keep reminding myself: "Hit the Backspace Key, Prisca!" Or right-click and select "Delete selected clip." It will probably take me a while to get used to this.
Cutting a clip and having to make it a compound clip: Before I am able to apply certain functionalities like changing its speed without affecting other clips on the track, I have to make the clip a compound clip. I'm not sure why this is even a thing, but I believe I will learn as I keep using the application.
There were other minor issues that popped up here and there, but the three above were the major ones.
Remembering: Everyone Started Somewhere
You see, as I was going through this, I had to remind myself that people like Casey Faris from the 5-hour tutorial video I watched did not start out that way. As hard as it may be to believe because of how much progress they've made, they also had to go through beginner's hell, like I am right now. I'm glad I'm documenting my 'Beginners Hell'.
The Result: Version 1.0
The video is done. It's ready. You can even watch it here.
It's a good video. It's not great (especially when you think about all the cool features that DaVinci Resolve has to offer), but more importantly, it's not mediocre. It's the first of many more videos to come, so check again at my 10th video, at my 50th video, and at my 100th video to watch the progress I make as I continue to explore this tool.
This turned out to be a lot longer than I originally planned, but thanks again for reading!