Rich_S
Member
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:
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.
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.
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:
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.
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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