aight so, for the 2nd half of my birthday present i wanted to get a microphone. ugh. ok. the mic. ya see, i have a desire to make music for the Lord. now, i dont even know if ive been given the talent for it quite yet
, but im praying for it, i must be krazy huh? but things are movin along. ok the story of the mic. like, in the world of recording, the mic is waaaay important, whether ur miking up ur amp for ur guitar or for your human vocals, its mad important if u wanna get nice pure clean vocal tones. i had my eye on this legendary mic, a shure sm58:
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it looks generic, but its what all the others copy. artists like bono from u2 always record with this mic and its by waaaaay far the most popular mic for live performances in the world. now, mics can cost hundreds, even thousands of bones, but this one is normally priced at like 100, which is pretty good, but im poor...so what do i? i try to find one used on craigslist (which is getting way shady). plus, there are thousands upon thousands of fake mics out there that are made in china, and u cant tell the difference unless u know what to look for.
ok long story short.....got the guy off craigslist down to 30 bucks, drove to l.a. to a semi-hood, this huge scary guy comes out and says, "yo man, the mic is across the street." so we go, he quietly unlocks the door cautiously looking back and forth, quietly creeps in, comes out, im thinking, "oh my Lord what did i get myself into?" i examine the mic, its fake, i tell him its important that i dont have a fake mic (or a stolen one but i didnt dare mention that), he says, "yo man u dont gotta tell me, i watched hustle and flow!" i was like, "ah dude i didnt see that movie, but ill see it now." and i had the feeling he was gonna pull out a gun and shoot me, it was that shady of a vibe. so i very very politely declined, turned around and started walking to my car. he followed behind me, there was a gangsta looking girl parked in front of me, they started arguing about something, he looked back at me with a rilly scary face like, "imma kill u sucka," i punched the car in reverse and made my turn in reverse so i didnt have to drive in front of them to make a u-turn, and left them in my exhaust. lol? sigh.
so like....blah. i felt so stoopid driving home. i was like, "Lord, what am i doing?" and getting a used mic is kinda gross anyway, cuz ur lips touch the grille sometimes with ur breath and saliva, and ya know with all that swine flu goin around.... but i was locked into getting that mic, cuz music without vocals isnt all that christian (theres a whole debate about that in the christian electronic music scene, but i wont get into that here), and if i wanted to record a simple vocal sample saying, "Jeeeesus," i want it to sound pure and clean and silky smooth for my Lord!! so i ponied up for a new mic and ordered it today.
but the thing is, i got soooooo many things for about the price of the one mic. ive been working on this for like a week. its a mini-miracle really. with the help of price-matching another place's bundle, a rebate, a 20% off on anything deal that they rescinded due to vendor pressure but i complained and they got back to me saying theyll do it for me, some heavy negotiating on the phone (which i have to say i think i learned from my trip to india), and a lot of praying for guidance...also included with the mic i got:
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the mic stand is important cuz when u record, if u hold the mic u can record ur handling of it, this is 20 bucks by itself. the mic cable is way key, if u get a super cheap cable ull get buzz in ur recordings...this one is like 20 bucks too (its the minimum, u can spend hundreds cabling up ur professional studio). i need the guitar case to protect my axe, that strap is leather and 2.5 inches wide which i need cuz it dissipates the weight of my heavy solid body guitar on my shoulder and back, the spray i cant do without to glide my fingers across the fret board and neck of my guitar smoothly, and the picks i need...and it was all basically
FREE!
so i prayed thanking God, but also apologizing if my priorities are too focused on material things. its tricky. but hey, it really helps to pray!!!! and i found favor with the girl on the phone and her supervisor for some reason, she even started calling me "hun" and stuff lol. it was almost an emotional experience parting off the phone, really. honestly, it felt like God was involved supernaturally.
so when the stuff gets delivered in about a week or so, my home recording studio will be pretty much good to go. this phase mainly wrapped up the vocal recording aspect of it all, but guess what....
I CANT SING!!!!! lol. what in the world is going on? i dunno. ive been praying for a loooong time for the ability to sing, and tho i have improved slightly, since i started with sounding like a dying dog, its still very very baaaaaad. ah, maybe im supposed to get someone else to sing. we'll see. its all good. if God is directing this then He'll have an answer. if He's not, then ill just fail, no worries. ill be just like all those other people that i knew in the candy trance/psychedelic trance scene that had all the gear to make music, but never produced even a single song. like i said before, just because u want to make music doesnt mean u can. God has to give u the gift that only He can give to make music (good music). so i have the gear now. God, ok im ready, can U please give me the talent?
ah but ya know, playing my guitar while spending time with Him and thinking about all this stuff has helped to keep me from going insane these past weeks, so even if i dont produce anything, at least that good came from it all.
