Pronoia

[banjoplayinnerd]

Yesterday I came home from work and found a package waiting for me. I expected a package – I'd ordered a high-capacity battery for my new phone. This package was much larger than you'd ship a battery in, though, unless it was a car battery.

The return address was cryptic. "The Conflikt Fairy, c/o Conflikt" with a PO box number here in Shoreline. Curiouser and curiouser. I had no idea why I would be getting anything from Conflikt. I don't have any official affiliation with the con and hadn't won any trophies or anything.

So, I opened the box, and . . . oh my flying spaghetti monster. The box contained a Blue brand Yeti model USB microphone.

About three weeks ago Woot.com featured one of these on their Tech page. I liked the look of it. It looked like a throwback to the big bullet-shaped microphones from the Golden Age of Radio. It looked like R2-D2 on stilts. The specs were pretty sweet, and Dara Korra'ti (who knows these things) said it was a pretty nice microphone. Certainly much better than the condenser microphone I blogged about a year or so ago. The price was a bit steep, though, so I figured I'd just wait until I had a better handle on the rent and the bills and could afford to buy one the next time it came around on Woot.

And here it was, in my possession, ready for me to hook it up and start recording.

There was a note attached, telling me the microphone was a gift from the Conflikt Fairy, who did not want to be otherwise identified. Actually, I'm fine with that. Anonymous giving is one of those things that makes the world go 'round. I did want to say "Thank you," though. This is something I would never have dreamed of, and it is a beautiful gift, and I thank you, whoever you are.

We're all familiar with the idea of paranoia, the thought that someone is out to get you. Less well known is the idea of pronoia, the opposite of paranoia. The idea that someone, somewhere, out there wants to do good things for you and make your life better. Today, I am feeling very pronoid. They really are out to help me!

Comments

[thnidu]

AAAAAUUUUGGGHHHH!!!!! I googled "pronoia" and just spent 2 or 3 hours fiddling with the WP article on it.

Supper. I need supper.

[catsittingstill]

What a lovely thing to happen! Congratulations and I hope your new microphone is working out well for you and I beam gratitude at the Conflikt Fairy.

[banjoplayinnerd]

Thanks. It took a while for my main machine to recognize it as an input device so it would show up in Audacity. I don't know why that would be, but it's sorted itself out and I've made a couple of test recordings. Plus, my lovely assistants love sitting in front of it. Igor the Older makes (so far completely imaginary) YouTube makeup tutorials; the younger one just likes the sound of his own voice, although he prefers to run it through an Android app I found that makes him sound like a squirrel.

I didn't know Blue made anything this low-cost

[solarbird]

Well, more specifically, Blue is a good maker. I haven't used this particular mic model of theirs, but they make some really fantastic units - particularly their ribbon mics - and no bad ones that i've ever heard of. (Tho' before forwarding news about it around, I did check all reviews I could find, and saw that the sound quality commentary on this one was just universally fantastic for price. The only knocks against it is that it seemed a bit more fragile than most. But as long as you're keeping it in studio, that doesn't matter. ^_^ )

You may want to look at my video on making cheap (as in: nearly free) sound baffles. The space in which you record is really important too, and you can improve it for very little money.

Making sound baffles

How I use them in my studio. I've blogged a lot about this too, on my band blog, which echos here, so if you read it here you've seen it.

Also, if you start doing vocals: how to make a cheap double pop filter. Change out the hoops for coat hangers (the more traditional hax0r approach) to make it nearly free. But you don't need that for banjo.

Oh, and never blow into a microphone. Not to test it, not for anything. Some can be damaged by that. (Dynamic mics are safe, which is where that came from, but ribbons and large-can capacitors? You can actually break them.) Tap the grill instead.

Anyway, yay! Good luck with the new toy. ^_^

Re: I didn't know Blue made anything this low-cost

[banjoplayinnerd]

Thanks for all the info. I need to go back and digest it and figure out how to set everything up, starting with finding a space to record. I can practice just fine sitting in front of the computer but I doubt the acoustics of the bedroom/office make it a good candidate for recording (my ears aren't yet trained to know what to look for). Maybe I can borrow the youngun's bedroom when he's away at his dad's for the weekend.

I don't know if it's strictly necessary, but at least for the time being I think I'm going to stick an old tube sock over the mic when it's not in use. The youngun's cousin destroyed one of my condenser mics by refusing to not suck on it, and while this mic is too big to suck on, as you say blowing into it or other behaviors that come naturally to a five-year-old might cause problems.

Re: I didn't know Blue made anything this low-cost

[solarbird]

Oh, very, very definitely protect it from the five-year-olds of your world. Best is to put it out of reach or otherwise away. I keep all my mics in padded pouches or (if they came with them) the foam-lined storage containers they came in.