YouTuber Rules

CELINA - Since kicking off his Launchpad-based YouTube music channel in 2014, Gabe Walls has amassed a following large enough to land one of the most-coveted awards a YouTuber can attain - a Silver Creator Award from YouTube.

Walls said he began playing the violin when he was younger, but then a friend showed him the Launchpad. Now the 18-year-old recent high school graduate creates and performs his music under the moniker "OmegaVibe" with the digital keyboard-like Launchpad, which has become ubiquitous with the evolution of electronic music.

The grid is programmable to play different instruments or sounds, such as drum racks or Walls' favorite violin strings and can be programmed to create light shows that pair with the music.

Over the years, Walls has amassed more than 172,000 subscribers on the video-sharing social media platform. Walls was presented with the prestigious YouTube Silver Creator Award early in 2018.

YouTube presents the Silver Creator Award to creators who reach more than 100,000 subscribers. The award comes in the form of a silver play button plaque, which features the large "play" button that is synonymous with the video-sharing platform.

"It was really exciting," Walls said. "It was awesome."

The YouTuber also received a 20 Under 20 Award in April with the help of his education partner Lisa Sheppard of Tri Star Career Compact. Although Walls was homeschooled through high school, he attended classes at Tri Star.

Walls said he enjoys covering songs that are fast-paced, and often posts covers of songs that come from movies and video games. His most popular video, "He's a Pirate," is a Pirates of the Caribbean-themed cover that has garnered more than 23 million views since it was first posted two years ago.

More recently, his orchestral Launchpad cover of the "Avengers: Endgame" main theme song posted four months ago has more than 5.1 million views.

The YouTuber said the video-sharing website's algorithm "likes" videos that feature popular or trending topics and themes. His "He's a Pirate" cover received a ton of views after the algorithm featured it on its home page.

While Walls isn't quite anonymous on the site, he usually shows only his hands as he plays the multicolored buttons on his Launchpad.

The musician said he uses his iPhone XS Max to shoot his videos, QuickTime to record his audio and Final Cut Pro on his Mac computer to edit the video and audio. Walls added he has a studio where he records, which gives him an advantage by being able to record audio with little interference or echoing.

It usually takes the teen one to two weeks to learn a song by ear or transcribe it into piano sheet music for the Launchpad to understand. It then takes roughly two to three hours to get his video edited and exported to YouTube.

Walls tries to upload one or two videos a month as he balances taking IT classes and his YouTube channel. His channel is monetized, which allows him to gain revenue from Google AdSense, which optimizes ads for content creators online.

For newcomers to his YouTube channel, Walls would recommend viewing his Gourmet Race - Kirby, Deltarune OST - The World Revolving Launchpad performances, as well as his "Carol of the Bells" cover.

To check out Walls' videos, visit OmegaVibe at youtube.com/channel/UCld6XEqj5s3uFxHpMNdVu_g/featured. For more information, visit his website at omegavibe.net or email him at omegavibe.email@gmail.com.