Kevin Felipe Tabares
10+ years editing long-form YouTube. 1,233 videos delivered for creators from 9K to 15M subscribers, with 146.9M+ views tracked on YT Jobs. 19 YT Jobs reviews from 18 client channels, 16 of them a perfect 10/10. Founder of Umbrella Creators. Bilingual EN/ES.
What I do
I edit long-form YouTube videos. That's the core: full-length 8 to 30 minute videos where retention, watch time and revenue are the metrics that matter. I run Umbrella Creators, and I personally lead every project: pacing decisions, hook engineering, style match, retention review.
The work spans gaming and Roblox channels (the bulk of my book) and faceless documentary channels: The Interpreter, and a spy-history documentary series for The Spy Show. The common thread isn't the niche, it's whether the creator actually cares about retention, not just views. If you're chasing virality, I'm not the right fit. If you're building a business on YouTube, I am.
The track record
Numbers that exist on a public, verifiable record (not a marketing slide):
- 1,233 videos delivered over 10+ years
- 146.9M+ views tracked on YT Jobs
- 3.64M+ likes on those videos
- 19 reviews from 18 client channels, 16 of them a perfect 10/10, on YT Jobs
- 9K to 15M subscriber range across the client roster
The clients who let me name them publicly include:
- Mud (1.26M subs), Roblox Rivals news, went from about 30K to 100K+ avg views per video. Full case study →
- ashlele, Dress to Impress Roblox simulation. Increased upload cadence to daily without quality loss
- Swaylemc, Minecraft horror-mod full movies, 100K+ avg views per long-form upload
- DakBlox (dakblake's second channel), 0 to 2M+ views in ~6 months (50K+ avg views per video), five-star review
- Puff, Rex (RexandAlexa), BloxWorld, HyperCookiie, Boffy, long-form clients
Work you can watch
Videos delivered per client on YT Jobs: ashlele 322, Mud 258, Puff 158, Rex 126. What they wrote is on the reviews page.
How I got here
I started editing YouTube videos in 2015, which is a generic biographical fact. The interesting one is what I learned while YouTube kept changing what it rewards: Shorts arriving in 2020, recommendations becoming ever more personalised, and, in August 2026, views counted from the very first frame. Each change rewarded a different editing instinct. The editors who plateaued tied their identity to "what worked last year." The ones who stayed hireable kept measuring retention graphs and adjusting.
I'm in the second camp. The framework I use today is a refinement of editing systems I've broken and rebuilt many times over the last decade. The 30-second rule isn't an opinion, it's a measurement I make on every channel before I edit a single second.
Why retention-led editing
"Retention-led editing" gets used as a marketing phrase by editors who don't actually look at retention graphs. To me it means something concrete: before any creative decision, I look at the channel's last 10 videos in YouTube Studio and identify the drop-off patterns. Where does retention break? At the 30-second hook? At the 4-minute slump? At the 7-minute wall? Then I edit specifically to defend those points.
That's why I publish a definition of the phrase instead of just using it. I'd rather work with creators who hold me to that definition than with ones who don't know what it means.
The single most useful thing I've learned in more than ten years: retention is built backwards. You don't write a hook to "grab attention" abstractly, you write it specifically against the drop-off pattern of the audience that already exists on this channel. Generic hooks fail. Hooks engineered against a specific retention graph hold.
What I work on
Long-form editing
The flagship service. Full 8 to 30 minute videos built around the retention graph. Hook engineering, pacing, B-roll, sound design, color grading. Quoted per project; the first video takes 1–5 days, then usually 1–2.
Hook engineering
Standalone or as an add-on. The first 15 seconds rebuilt and checked against the retention graph. The single highest-leverage edit on any video.
Channel audits
Before I commit to an editing engagement, I run a channel audit. Retention graphs across the last 10 videos, top-performer analysis, drop-off pattern recognition. Quoted as a one-off service.
Channel management
For creators who want the entire YouTube operation handled. Strategy, uploads, end-screens, analytics, growth benchmarking, thumbnail design. Quoted per channel, based on scope.
Shorts and thumbnails
On request, alongside the long-form work: Shorts cut from your long-form videos and thumbnails for the uploads I edit. Long-form stays the core of what I do.
FastClip
I also built FastClip, an AI tool that turns a long video into Shorts in minutes, for creators who want clips from their long-form uploads.
Niche specialisations
I'm strongest in Roblox, Minecraft and general gaming creators, and in faceless and documentary channels. The full niche directory is here.
Languages
English and Spanish, fluently. I have worked with English-speaking creators for over a decade. Briefs, revisions, Discord pings, answered in whichever language you sent them. Many of the articles and landing pages on this site also exist in Spanish.
For Spanish-speaking creators specifically, I work with Spanish-language creators too. The Spanish version of that page: editor de YouTube para creadores hispanohablantes.
The studio
Umbrella Creators is the studio name. I personally lead and review every project, and capacity is planned around your upload calendar rather than taken on and queued behind other work. When a client's volume needs it, I have a small team of editors I trust to help, working to my style guide and checked by me before anything is delivered. Communication is single-point-of-contact through me, not a slack soup. The first video takes 1–5 days depending on the edit; after that, usually 1–2 days. Discord is the working surface for daily revisions; email handles binding decisions.
The studio is remote-first. We work with creators worldwide, primarily the United States, plus the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. We work hours that overlap the US Eastern working day, and coordinate async via Discord with the UK, Europe and Australia.
Original research
I measure what big channels actually do instead of repeating rules of thumb, and publish the numbers with the method and the limits:
- How loud are YouTube videos? Loudness, speech pace and length of 50 videos from 25 large channels, plus a check of what YouTube's player does with loud and quiet mixes.
- How often should you cut in a YouTube video? Three narrated documentary channels measured frame by frame.
- How loud should background music be under a voiceover? Music-bed levels on three narrated channels.
- YouTube editing statistics 2026: every measured number in one list, with sources.
What I write about
I publish long-form essays on YouTube editing, retention engineering, hiring, and case studies. Many are in both English and Spanish. The pillar piece is the complete 2026 hiring guide. The rest of the blog index is here.
Short question-and-answer versions of the same topics are in the answers section, for example who is Kevin Tabares, the YouTube editor? and I just hit 100K subscribers: which editor fits?
Recent ones I'd point you to first:
- Best long-form YouTube editor in 2026: how to evaluate and pick
- Your YouTube channel isn't growing, and editing is probably part of why
- How Mud scaled from 30K to 100K+ views per video
- YouTube retention graph explained
- The 30-second rule: engineering YouTube hooks that hold retention
Where to find me
- Email: , fastest reply, usually within an hour
- YT Jobs: profile with 19 reviews, 16 of them a perfect 10/10
- LinkedIn: my profile and the Umbrella Creators page
- YouTube: @kevintabaress1
- X: @kevintabaress · Instagram: @kevintabaress
- Discovery call: contact form, share your channel link and goals, I send a tailored quote within 24 hours
What I won't do
Brevity beats cleverness here:
- I don't take on Shorts-only or TikTok-only channels. Shorts come cut from the long-form videos I edit.
- I don't take on more channels than I can personally lead. Capacity gates the roster.
- I don't promise virality, view counts, or specific subscriber growth. I promise the retention work itself.
- I don't ghost. If a channel isn't a fit, I tell you within 24 hours and recommend an editor I trust.