Lewie's Blog

I drove up to Mars today.  I was there about five years ago and knew generally where it was.  After driving around for a half hour, I came to the conclusion that the Big K-Mart is where the music store used to be.  I figured I would drive back home and lookup where they may have moved to.

Searching the net, I found the website for Mars Music.  Only, it wasn't Mars Music.  It was Musicians Friend.  On the homepage, they stated that Mars Music Bankruptcy is your gain.  Well, that explained a few things.

Still, I wanted a pop filter - today.  I did a search for "DIY Pop Filter" and plenty of results came back.  One gave me instructions of how to build your own pop screen for under $10 .

I went around to Wal-Mart and picked up a 6" embrodery hoop, some zip ties, and a cheap set of panty hose.  I picked up some split flex tubing, 2' of 10-2 wire, and a 1 1/4" compression fitting.  It all came to $9.88.

I felt funny having to get someone to cut me 2' of the wire.  The first thing that the guy said was, "Oh, one of those jobs".  One of the customers standing around mentioned that he had to use it for a hot tub.  I'm still clueless about what I was getting. 

Here I was in front of four other people with a request that sounded like I was working on a touch electrical problem.  When asked, I just told them I needed the wire for support of a pop-filter.  Of course, no one had any idea what that was.

I got home and found that the nylon was pretty tough to get on the embrodery hoop without an extra set of hands.  I went to my wife and asked her to help me get my hose on.  She giggled and said sure.  I held it tight and she put the hoop over it and screwed it tight.

From there, everyting else was a snap.  I had to pick up some wire cutters to cut through that wire.  I found a set of Aviation Snips for sheet metal cutting for $7.  Clueless, I purchased them anyway and they did the job just fine.

The kit now stands together and looks good.

When I got home from work, I saw a large package on my front door step. I was relieved. I knew it was coming, but I didn't know if anyone would be available to receive the package.

I opened the box and found all kinds of goodies. My initial reaction was that things appeared smaller then I had expected. I'm new to all of this professional audio hardware stuff, so I guess it's just my ignorance in the field.

The microphone was a different color as well as the box it came in. I was kinda shocked when I opened the box for the compressor and saw that it was even smaller and didn't have much depth either. I expected it to be the size of the box it came in.

The only thing that didn't show up was the mixer that the microphone plugs into. That comes tomorrow. I looked at all the patch cables I got and realized they were 1/4”. I thought I had ordered 1/8” patch cables. Looking back, I see it was my mistake. In fact, I was having a tough time trying to find a bunch of the smaller ones on there site. I'll have to look around the house and see what I can dig up.

I was able to setup the mike pretty easy. Just connect it to the desktop stand and plug in the cable on the bottom. It couldn't be any more simpler then that. I set the condenser on top of my desk within easy reach and plugged some 1/4” to 1/8” adapters in the back for the moment until I get the mixer.

My wife came in and saw everything and was a bit shocked. She didn't realize what I meant by professional when I told her what I had done the other day. I think all the knobs on the compressor confused her. I understand a little what a compressor does, but I feel like I know nothing about it. I need to wait for that mixer before I can experiment.

I started to read the docs on the microphone. It wasn't really a manual, but more of a guide to getting better results. Along with the guide there was a giant pink note. It appears that condenser microphones are very sensitive to moisture. It recommended some accessories to prevent permanent damage to something called a “transducer”.

From there, I started educating myself what a “pop filter” was. Certain sounds that we make when talking produce a lot of wind, snaps, or saliva spitting (small enough that we don't realize it). These are sounds with “p”, “d”, “s”, “t”. A pop filter reduces the strength of these sounds and also guards the microphone from any unintentional spitting. It's about a six inch disc that sets 4 inches in front of the microphone. So guess what I'm going to be looking for tomorrow? They start at $20 and go up from there depending on quality.

So I have some digital audio equipment comming tomorrow.  It is the basics for starting toward professional podcasting.  A condensor microphone, a mixer, and a compresser.  There are a few other accessories comming as well such as a mic stand, patch cables, XLR cable, and some adapters for the patch cables.

Imagine the fun.  So many steps.  First, there is the grand opening of the packages.  Then setting it all up and hooking them together.  Finally there is the part where I get to start using the stuff and figure out what exactly I can do with it.

I feel way out of my league here.  I feel like I am audio hardware illiterate.  I keep hearing about how a friend in the family is all out for wanting an amp.  I'm still a little clueless as to what it is except that it is for a guitar.  My guess is that it's just a loud speaker.  Knowing my ignorance, it's probably just some expensive piece of hardware that leads to the speaker.

So anyway, in preperation for tomorrows delivery, I purchased some large containers with wheels on that to slide under my bed.  My room is a mess, and I figure I can just move the mess under my bed in an easy access kind of way.

I got a message in my inbox from the number 2 show over at podshow . It seems they are looking to upgrade there hardware used in podcasting. They were calling out for help to a number of people asking for advice and sent some links along with it. I checked out all the links and found one to be very informal about upgrading on a low budget. The others were in regards to links for hardware and kits.

Desktop Recording Kit: http://www.mxlmics.com/condenser_mic/condenser_index.html

Under $200 Kit: http://www.jakeludington.com/gadget_envy/20050313_upgrade_your_podcast_for_under_200.html

USB Kit: http://www.alesis.com/product.php?id=99

Musician Friend's Kits: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/rec/navigation?q=podcasting+Production+Kit
Rite now, I have a digital voice recorder. It's great. It is for a specific need. Podcasting while just waking up - because I need something handy to record my dreams. For everything else that I do with the podcast, I have what most podcasters start with. A headset with a boom mic.

The Under $200 kit is a bit out-dated. However, it was informal enough to actually educate me on the basics of what to look for as well as price range. The only thing I could find was the microphone for about $40 on Amazon.com. As I searched the internet for a lot of the equipment, Musician's Friend kept popping up. The store is having a sale, so I went ahead and searched for the basic parts that I needed.

I found a nicer looking microphone for $60 (Retail @ $200) that looked more professional. It even comes with its own case and a shockmount. I could care less about the case. I'm not doing any traveling with this setup. The price advertised was $10 more then the price of the original microphone ($40, Retail @ $50) that the article had suggested.

I found a small mixer for $40 (Retail @ $65) that was less then what the article had suggested ($50). The main thing I was after was this "Phantom Power". It seemed that all mixers had it when I started comparing them against each other. It's just something that comes standard I guess. I hadn't heard of it until I read that article.

The Compressor was hard to find. Originally I was looking for the smashup compressor from Alesis . I found one on ebay that still had 5 days of bidding left. Another place had it for $49 but sold out. Two other searches lead me to a prices of around $100 and reviews, but nothing for sale. I went to the source and found out that Alesis didn't sell the product any longer (or at least, it wasn't listed). I found something similar called a 3630 Dual-Channel Compressor/Limiter with Gate . It wasn't portable. Heck, the thing was rack-mountable. I found it on Musicians Friend for $100 (Retail @ $199). I tried to find a few other things to compare it with, but they were just way out of my price range. Well, that's a hit against the so-called "under $200 kit".

From there, I found a few accessories that I was going to need. Microphone stand ($7, Retail @ $15), adapters ($2, Retail @ $3), patch cables ($10, Retail @ $19), and a microphone cable ($4, Retail @ $14). In the end, I only went $25 over budget. If I paid retail for all of this stuff, I would have spent $519. At only $225, that is a savings of 57% on recording equipment. Here is a small summary of what I spent, and the difference in the "Under $200" Kit.
Microphone: $60 (+10)
Mixer: $40 (-10)
Compressor: $100 (+61)
Accessories: $25 (-20)