GoodBuyGuys Blog

We know that Edward R. Murrow never filed a podcast, but if he had, this is what he would have used.

The Sony Retro Wireless USB  has a great classic mic look, but is designed to be used with a USB interface on your computer.  Not only is it designed to be used with a USB port, its wireless!

You can use this mic anywhere within a 10 foot radius of your computer without any cables to trip over.  It uses RFI technology and is designed to work with all current Windows and Mac operating systems.  Best of all no special drivers are needed for use with Windows computers.  It even has an on/off switch.

If your podcasting has advanced to the point where your computer’s onboard mic no longer gets the job done, or you just love the idea of “walking the walk while you talk the talk” then this mic is just what you need.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Enterainment 1 extension cords , OnStage Stand mic stands and quality speaker cables.  We’ve also got cables for “Wired” microphones!

I try to blog at least once a week about some new innovation or clever device in the pro sound industry.  I spent 30 plus years as a “knob twister” and I try to keep up with new ideas.

Leave it to the British to bring us a decidely “low tech” solution to handling sound mixing for those interminable 8 hour corporate meetings or all night rehearsals.

Its the Canford Wine Rack, a 3 space rack mount module, designed to store up to four bottles of wine in an audio rack.

Apparently this is not a joke (even though I first came across it on “boingboing“).  It appears that you can actually order it.

Obviously cooling might present a problem if you prefer a Chardonnay or Reisling, but we are going to get to work right away on a nitrogen chilling system.

Check back here for updates.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords , OnStage Stand mic stands and quality speaker cables.

Neutrik, the maker of a broad line of audio connectors, has a great new product that every sound person ought to know about.  Its a new style of XLR connector called the Convertcon.

How many times have you gotten to the end of a long XLR cable run, only to discover that you had the wrong gender connector in your hand?  The Convertcon makes that a thing of the past.

By simply sliding the connector barrel forward or back, a male XLR3 connector can become a female XLR3, or vice versa.  No more coiling and rerunning the cable or digging through your tool box for a turn around.

While the cost ($12.00 or more) keeps this connector from being practical to use on all mic cables, those special long run control cables or the ones you use to interface with someone else’s equipment are where this innovative connector shines.

The problem of running a long interface cable “blind” to a remote patch bay, an outboard production truck, or an unknown facility interface just got a whole lot easier.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords , OnStage Stand mic stands and quality speaker cables.

When asked about the invention of the automobile, Henry Ford said “If I’d asked people what they wanted, they would have asked for a better horse.” Ford realized early on that a potential purchaser of his invention had no way to conceive of what an automobile was. They were thinking about how to make their current reality better.

Digital audio is quickly bringing live sound to the point where Ford stepped beyond his customer’s reality.

Up to now, the design theory behind bringing digital audio to live sound has been to make the sound person’s reality better. Give them more powerful tools while keeping them in charge of deciding how something should sound.

Now that digital mixing consoles have come way down in price and complication, they are being embraced at every level of the live sound industry. It’s common to see them in churches and schools. Digital microphones are next. When this new mic technology is embraced (sooner rather than later) by the live sound community, the digital signal chain will be almost complete.

I say almost, because there is one giant analog bump in what is otherwise soon to be a complete digital signal path. If you mix sound, that bump is YOU!

How far are we away from the digital live sound reality that doesn’t include the sound guy?

Here’s what I’m talking about.

Take the latest Dave Matthews Band album. It’s recorded digitally and everything on the album can be reproduced and analyzed in the digital domain. Stick with me here. I’m not talking about how a song is actually played, but rather the volume, tonal quality and relationship of all the sounds on the album to each other.

If the band wants to closely reproduce the sound of the record (the “mix” if you will) in a live performance, then why not have the person who used to mix the sound be replaced by a computer that knows what the song is supposed to sound like. Every instrument on stage will soon be introduced into the live sound system either by a digital direct box or a digital microphone. Instead of a human moving faders and twisting knobs, the computer doing the mix will maintain the tonal integrity, relative volumes and dozens of other parameters analyzed from the recorded sound. There will be no problem if the arrangement on stage changes from night to night, because the mixing computer doesn’t really care about how the song is played, only about how it sounds.

It wasn’t long ago that most of us believed that cost, reliability and user-complication would keep digital mixers from ever being accepted in the live sound world. We’re over that.

Look for this to happen with spoken word first.

A presenter will simply read a couple of sentences into a digital recorder that interfaces with a digital mixer. When the speaker steps up the podium, the sound system will already know what he or she is supposed to sound like. When this info is combined with the digital analysis of the output of the sound system (we’ve had this software in common use for years) then the true sound of the presenter’s voice can be delivered directly to every seat in the house.

Will the future of live digital sound need us at all? Let me know what you think.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords , OnStage Stand mic stands and “value added” customer service.

After a year of swimming upstream in a effort to sell our products on ebay, we’ve decided to hang it up. Thru an ebay store called buy mic stand, we have been selling microphone stands using their “buy it now” auction process. The actual selling went pretty well, but dealing with constantly changing ebay policies and pricing was just way too complicated. The harder ebay tried to improve their seller interface, the worse things got. Between listing fees, monthly fees, selling fees, relisting fees, and PayPal charges, there was not much left for the seller at the end of the tranasction.

The final straw for us came because a change in the ebay policy for posting feedback about customers. There is a lot of scamming going on by ebay buyers, and sellers have been able to use a system for posting feedback about difficult transactions. This lets sellers warn merchants about problem customers. Feedback is one of the most important things keeping ebay transactions on track, as neither sellers nor buyers want negative feedback.

We are mystified about ebay’s decision to stop allowing sellers to post negative feedback about customers who cause problems. It seems like ebay would welcome input from sellers (ebay’s customers) about members of the ebay community that make things more difficult for everybody. Apparently, protecting sellers is of no real interest to ebay. Posting in lots of ebay-oriented forums would seem to indicate that we are not the only merchants jumping ship.

While we were trying to make ebay work for us, our search results for mic stand and microphone stand in major search engines have risen to solid page one returns (thank you, Dale), so ebay doesn’t really fit in with our plans anymore anyway.

Meanwhile, everything we offered in our ebay store (and a lot more) continues to be available at buymicstand.com. See you there!

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords , OnStage Stand mic stands and “value added” customer service.

We’re considering producing some “how to” videos to add to goodbuyguys.com, so I did a Youtube search to get a sense of what might be out there. Not a lot really, so I am hoping that we can put together some simple, but informative instructional videos for those interested in building their production skills.

I did, however, come across one microphone stand-realted video that you really ought to see.

Blacklie Lawless, the guitar player for W.A.S.P. has a mic stand that might qualify as a state fair ride. Take a look at this:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=tJbNLu3QDrU

Overall, I’m not a big fan of heavy metal, but you’ve gotta admit that no musical genre does a better job of turning a simple piece of sound equipment into a prop. Something as simple as Jon Bonjovi’s white mic stand or Korn’s female figure stand add a lot of visual interest to the set.

W.A.S.P. ’s combination mic stand, motorcycle & pogo stick somehow manages to make the microphone stand a part of the show. It even takes a bow at the end!

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.

For the last couple of weeks we’ve seen a huge spike in microphone stand sales at buymicstand.com and our ebay store “buy mic stand“. We had no idea why. I should have asked my kids!

It seems the must-have item for this year’s Christmas is an XBox 360 game called Rock Band. Growing on the popularity of Guitar Hero, Harmonix has released a game that includes not only a guitar, but a drum set and a microphone as well. What it doesn’t include is a microphone stand.

Suddenly, every gadget and gift giving blog I come across talks about Rock Band and about the accessories you’ll need to play the game correctly. A mic stand is one of the accessories that the game maker doesn’t offer.

I hadn’t checked our Google search ratings lately, but currently we are number 1 for the search term “microphone stand” and number 2 for the term “mic stand“.

Maybe we’ll sell enough stands for me to be able to put Rock Band under our Christmas Tree.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands. Count on us to meet your mic stand needs.

My experience with using personal computers goes back to the early 1980’s, so I’ve had more than my share of opportunities to set up, take down, reconfigure, and generally wander around computer peripheral cabling. The more I handle this stuff, the more mystified I get.

I began my career as a an audio techncian, and spent many years building, setting up, configuring, and repairing concert sound systems. People who design computer peripheral wiring could learn a lot from the audio industry.

While the performance and compatibility of computer peripherals continues to improve, the interconnections between these devices never catches up. I can’t think of a single data-type connector that comes close to matching the performance of the lowly audio XLR connector, a design that is well into its second half-century of use.

I just spent 15 frustrating minutes trying to replace a computer monitor in the office, only to be reminded that there are at least three (if not more) different pin configurations for a D-sub connector, even though they all have the same physical shell. Maybe, it’s just me, but I almost always have to try to plug in a USB connector at least two times, as there is nothing visible on the outside of the connector to indicate which end is up. I guess there are savings involved in making ethernet connectors with with almost useless plastic locking pins, but the savings quickly evaporate when you spend a half-hour trying to pry one out of a computer port after the release tab snaps off. The list goes on and on.

Audio connectors, on the other hand, are designed to be patched in the dark, repaired (when necessary) in the field, and to be common to hundreds and hundreds of different manufacturers equipment. The Shure SM57 microphone ( probably the most popular and common in the world) uses the same connector now as when it came to market in 1965. A 40 year old SM57 works with a brand new Chinese-made microphone cable right out of the box.

We’re depending more and more on computer-based devices all the time, and the portability designed into these items means that they are constantly having to be cabled and uncabled. Hopefully, manufacturers will consider adopting some connector standards that are up to the task.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands. Count on us to meet your cable needs.

Having been a sound man for many years, I got used to dragging around lots of specialized tools necessary to get a complicated audio job done. If I had to give up all but one, here’s what I would keep.

The Nady CT6 Cable Tester is a wonderful tool and a really great value. Its a quick way to take the guesswork out of cable testing and a “must have” for on-the-go trouble shooting. This pocket-sized device has ports to test cables with all the major audio connectors, inclucing XLR, Speakon, 1/4 inch (both 2 and 3 conductor) RCA, banana plug and 5 pin Mini-DIN. It also has connectors for test leads so you can test a cable that can’t be plugged directly into the tester.

Finally, it has a test tone that will let you determine continutity without even looking at the tester’s LED display.

This rugged device packaged in a tough metal case with good quality screened labeling will work for months on a single 9v battery.

We keep one in our rental department to make sure that every cable with an outgoing rental gets checked.

Got an audio tool you can’t live without? Share it with us!

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands. Count on us to meed your audio needs.

My son and I have been involved in recording my wife playing the piano so she can make some CD’s for her Mother. It has been a fun project, but a lot more complicated than it ought to be.

I was able to provide a couple of professional quality microphones and a mixer, and we run the mixer output into my son’s MacBook Pro, record and edit, and then burn a CD with the Mac. This works very well, but requires a lot of equipment that most people don’t have. It doesn’t matter how great the software for recording and editing on the computer might be, as long as you have to use the microphone that is installed in the computer, your chances of getting a quality recording are very limited.

The MicPort from CEntrance makes this job a whole lot easier. The MicPort is a microphone preamp that lets you plug one or more professional grade microphones directly into your computer, no mixer needed.

The MicPort is a simple inline device that accepts a professional low impedance microphone into one end and delivers the ouput to a USB port on the other end. Now any microphone using a standard XLR connector can be hooked up directly to your computer. This handy little preamp even has a volume control and a headphone output so you can monitor the output of the mic without the annoying delay time you encounter when using a mic through the computer headphone jack. The MicPort even has the ability to apply phantom power so that professional grade condenser mics can be plugged into the computer without the use of an outboard power supply. The whole device is powered from the computer’s USB port, so you don’t even need batteries!

The addition of a MicPort from CEntrance will let anyone involved in field recording leave the mixer at home and get professional quality recordings with just a microphone and a computer. Or, it’s a great way to get an instant increase in audio quality for your podcast.

I’m looking forward to trying it out.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands. Look to us first to meet your recording supply needs.