Beginner's Luck (and good luck with that)

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Rich_S

Rich_S

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I posted this for my buds over at my usual on-line haunt, the TDPRI, but thought you guys might appreciate it, too. Looks like I might need to start hanging around here more in the near future.


Tonight at dinner I got wind of my youngest (13 y.o.) daughter wanting a microphone to record something or other. Apparently, my wife had heard about this but I, the musician/gear geek in the family had not been consulted. My daughter has apparently decided that recording cover songs and posting them on YouTube is the short path to stardom. So, Step 1 in her plan: obtain a microphone. Off to Amazon.

Here's what she picked out:

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Amazon.com: Rode NT1-A Cardioid Condenser Microphone Recording Package with Presonus Audiobox USB, Studio One Artist Recording Software, Sennheiser HD 202-II Closed-Back Around-the-ear Studio Headphones and a Tripod Base Microphone Floor Stand - Blac

I've been playing guitar, building gear, mixing live sound, and messing around with home recording for 40 years. When I'm looking for gear, I analyze, research, ask around, compare, and invariably freeze with indecision in the face of the nearly unlimited choices we have today. And can't justify the expense for my has-been's hobby anyway.

Her? She spends 20 minutes on Amazon.com and hits a bullseye. :rolleyes:

The bad news is, there's no way we're spending four hundred bucks to get her started on a project that might last three weeks.

The good news is, I already have most of what she needs, in the form of a Zoom HD8 all-in-one mixer/recorder and several dynamic vocal mics. And, I'm more than happy to help her set it up and figure out how to use it. (The Zoom has been in its box downstairs since a buddy who didn't need it gave it to me a year ago, so we'll be climbing the learning curve together.)

I explained to my future diva that all we had to do to get started is to make space for the gear. There's a table I've been trying to reserve for the studio, but it got buried several months ago when this same daughter decided it was time to clean out her room of all the little-kid stuff, but didn't bother to sort it out and get rid of it. She just carried it six feet from her bedroom door to the table and dumped it. I don't think she was too impressed when I told her the next step on the road to pop stardom was "clean up the family room".

She's seen enough "teenage pop star" movies on Disney and Nick to know that real recording studios have those big gold microphones with no ball on the end and that little round black screen in front, so purchasing a LDC may be unavoidable, if only for appearance's sake. I tried explaining to her that large diaphragm condensers are very sensitive, and that the room comes into play, and a plain dynamic (I have SM58, SM57, and e840) may work better in a crappy room (like our family room) but I don't think she was convinced.

I almost laughed when she said she'd need a "crew". She has in mind two brothers from school who to my knowledge have no musical skills at all (though one of them is a gifted computer geek), but apparently share her delusional under-estimation of how much time & work are needed to become stars. I think perhaps her bassist brother and I would be better choices, crew-wise. (Good luck with THAT, Dad.) On the other hand, her tastes are modern pop, R&B, and hip-hop, so maybe I'd better start studying up on MIDI sequencing and in-the-box recording. This should be interesting.
 
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LOL - good story... but let her work MIDI out on her own... or persuade one of her existing "crew" to do it, before you make the offer!
 
Keep us posted. This thread should probably be a sticky. :D
 
Great story... Makes me smiles. Sure more will follow in times ahead.
 
I wonder if Homer was reading this thread when he wrote "The Odyssey"?
 
These stories always make me smile!

Best of luck in your endeavours and PLEASE keep us posted
 
Baby steps.

First, clear all the crap off the table that will eventually be "the studio". Halfway through this endeavor, Nigel stopped by to offer his project-management skills.



The next day, while getting the cat box out of the closet for cleaning (I suspect Nigel will remain deeply involved in this project) I found a second 18" leaf for the very same table. Score! Mo' space is mo' better. It's now a full 7' x 4'. Then, I got my son to move the computer over to the newly-enlarged table and we found....

...no electrical outlets. When we built the addition that includes the family room five years ago, I spec'd out a bunch of extra outlets on this wall for homework space/computers/music gear. Unfortunatley, when the time came to rough in the electrical, I was out of town and Mrs_S disagreed with my layout for the room. She deleted the homework space and ALL the outlets that went with it. My plans and the NEC be damned. So, I spent the last few days adding a total of 5 duplex receptacles to this 8-foot section of wall. (Note: I am an ex-electrician and now electrical engineer by trade.) Now we have places to plug all this stuff in.

Next step.... assemble all the miscellaneous crap I have around the house and see how much of a "studio" I can make of it. Then, the fun begins - shopping!
 
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Indeed-- 'Cat no doubt will contribute to many future unexplained ‘mystery entries into the DAWs!
 
He was a big help with the wiring job, too, chewing on the pigtails hanging out of the wall while I was trying to splice the boxes together. I had visions of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.
 
Man, this story moves slowly.

The 13 year old is now 15. She took up piano a while back, is dedicated, and has "it" - that musical something-or-other that adds polish to her performances. She has "feel".

So, now she's serious about recording some stuff she has written, in the vein of the new-agey music she hears in video games and Japanese anime films. Today, we loaded Reaper onto her laptop, and I gave her a brief overview of what DAWs are about. Tomorrow, I'm slated to put up some shelves in her room to clear space on her desk. I'm going to give her my Scarlett 2i4, because it has a MIDI port for her Yamaha keyboard. (I'll get a 2i2 to replace it.)

I'm hoping she'll crack the Reaper manual and/or join this or some other forum and learn the whole MIDI/virtual instruments thing on her own. More likely, she'll come to me with every little question, then I'll have to crack the book or inquire here, since all my (limited) experience has been with audio sources, rather than MIDI.

It will be interesting to see what she comes up with.... Stay tuned.
 
Such fun!
If you are going to replace that 2i4 anyway I suggest you look at the NI KA6 for her instead? Not only will it beat the pants off the F'riTe for latency but comes with Kontakt Player and a shedload of downloadable samples. Cubase A1 as well, might as well start her off with the "inventors" of the sequencing DAW?

Dave.
 
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