(00:02)
Mr. Dierkens, Mr. Selim. All right, that's good. Thank you. That's a good start. I was practicing, man. You did well. I always thought it was Seline. They both were, right? We've talked about that. But but then you would always say Salem when I first encountered you online and so now it's stuck and I can't go back to I can't you can't you know what? I cannot res in my mind.
(00:29)
Whatever works for you is good with me. You know, my pleasure bar is low. I know. I know. Saying a name right is like Friday, man. What a life. What a life you have. Not all of us can be you. I know. Thank God. I could handle too many of you. Good for you. Although, I do need to go to Quebec. Apparently, there's more of you there. We need to go. Yeah, let's go.
(00:53)
It would be fun. Let's go to Montreal. What if we did go? What if we did like a like a podcast remote live from Montreal in French? Oh, no. I've put the French part. Come on. You just be talking about me the whole time. Why do you keep pointing at me while you guys are talking and laughing and Of course. Of course. That's that's the fun of it.
(01:13)
That's the the the the brown American Canadian Albertan guy lost in Montreal. That that's the fun part. You know, when I'm surrounded with English people and you know and I'm with my wife or something. You do it all the time. But I think you're talking about me. Yeah, exactly. And some once in a while I'm just going to say this the word Steve, you know, out of nowhere.
(01:30)
It's the Oh, and you both glance. Oh, it's the worst. You said you said my name. It's the worst. I know. And everything just sounds so serious when you guys are talking. I know. French just sounds very serious. It's like, you know, Steve, he's just crying. I'm already sad like you're French thinging me. Yeah, it's the Quebec French.
(01:53)
That's right. Yeah, I imagine. Yeah. It's not the France. Oh, obviously French. The Canadian. The French Canadian. The Canadian for the Canadian. It's the best accent. That's the only one you have. Do Do French people have a fairly significant accent to you? Of course. Like it's like from France. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Like to you that's proper.
(02:14)
I would say it's a bit more clean. I I a bit like the British. Is it as far as British to American English? Is that Alabama accent? Alabama. You can't even say Alabama Obama. You You couldn't even say the word right. Get out of here. You're embarrassing all the people from the South. What's wrong with you? That's what we do. I'm so classy.
(02:37)
I can't even say certain words. No, but we do have like a, you know, kind of a more uh slang type of French. Casual. Yeah. What What are we talking about today? Not language. Well, we are. We did. We're not anymore. No, cuz we need to move on. We should. Okay. You're new at music production. You got yourself your laptop, little basic interface, you know, one or two channel interface that you purchase at 150 bucks or something, you know, out. Yeah.
(03:08)
I've got my And now you're ready to invest in my mixown subscription. Yes, of course. You know, obviously you need the courses. Why start anywhere else? Exactly. So, um, now you every other week when I mistak you for Joe Gilder. Hello Joe. Hey Joe. Sorry. Go on. Okay. And now you want my way up. You want to invest into, you know, your new pieces of gear. Okay.
(03:32)
So, maybe let's posture this whole conversation in. I have a crappy mic, some crappy cables, a crappy interface, a crappy preamp. All these things are bad. What do I upgrade first? You don't have a preamp. You're using the uh the interface as preamp. Okay. Pretend they're all bad. What am I going to make better first? What would you make better first? I would go with a microphone.
(03:52)
I agree. I would go the reason the reason why this is what is going to define the sound the most. Okay. You're going to get a way more difference in sound. Yes. Than a high quality preamp will give you. Yes. I would go with that first. Bad microphone into a good preamp is still a bad microphone.
(04:08)
It's still a bad sound in the end. Right. Okay. But a good microphone into your $150 interface. Yes, it's going to sound great. It's going to sound better than a cheap, of course. Yes. This is what I would go. I would invest into first. Okay. So, you are me and you're just starting out. You got your course and your thing and your stuff and now you're going to you've got some microphone money. Yes.
(04:33)
How much microphone money do I need to borrow from my mom to get into the microphone game? So, um, yeah, if you borrow from from your mom, she's a nice lady and she's been saving up for this. Okay. She knows this day is coming because I've got dreams. But if you have Damn it. Yeah. But if you can borrow from your grandparents, maybe you'll have more.
(04:55)
Ah, that's true. Uhhuh. That's true. It's later. Okay. Well, let's stick with the mom. Mom, she's with the mom. Wonderful lady. Like, like where's the entry point for Okay, so let's Okay, let's break mics into two chunks. Sure. Right. Right. You got your like your dynamic collection. Yeah. Of things.
(05:12)
And then you've got your other you've got your like large diaphragms, your ribbons, all the other stuff they talk about on your website. Yeah. That sound nice. I I think the first mic someone should or maybe could purchase. Mhm. Is a very good dynamic microphone. Okay. Okay. Like a 58 or something. Okay. Or a 57.
(05:33)
But a 58 is maybe a bit more versatile. You can use it on vocals. You can use it on almost anything. It's a dynamic mic. It's a different, you know, it's a bit more. So, for conversation sake, could we say I had the 120 bucks laying around to buy a 57? Yes. Now, that's covered. Like, that's a that's a Swiss Army.
(05:54)
I would go assume you have that now. Okay. Assuming I have fair enough. Now, what? Now, I've got mama money. Do I need 300 bucks or two grand or what do I need from mama? What I always recommend is a good condenser microphone. maybe a large diaphragm kind of condenser microphone lit um you know a pure uh I forgot the uh the model but you know there's some at maybe at 200 bucks or something you know um that are going to be good to you know as a good starting microphone you know to to start with um cheap microphones like these usually u MXL also makes some maybe a
(06:27)
hundred bucks microphone that are actually decent they do tend to sound a bit bright okay this is what you you get a lot with cheaper microphones with condenser mics. Uh, but still very good micro still very good mics. Uh, but a step above that in the 300 to $400 range, I would go with Roswell Pro Audio.
(06:50)
Um, you know, something like a mini K47 or a mini K87, which is a bit more neutral. works well on pretty much everything, you know, vocals, an acoustic guitar, a guitar amp, um, you know, so so that could that would be a very very good choice. Or an NT1 road NT1. This a classic. It's what, like 250 bucks or something, you know. Uh, same thing.
(07:15)
It's a large diaphragm um, cardioid condenser mic. Works well. It's a classic for for vocals. It's been around like since forever. And I love the uh and you lent it to me the Austrian a bit more a bit more pricey. Yes. As the next step up when you get into that kind of 414 shaped kind of they do have a cheaper version but yeah of that kind of stuff like there's something there to me.
(07:42)
Um you know like without jumping you know if you want to look at the camera and tell my mom I need large diaphragm nymans and stuff that would be great. Mom Chris said, "Yeah, I actually sold my two Noyman microphones in." Right. And so that's my that's I guess that's my question is where does it then top out, right? Like there's, you know, like like I've got some beautiful mics and beautiful mics sound beautiful. Yeah.
(08:04)
If you close your eyes and swap mics without anybody knowing. Yeah. Like it it's getting better. Do you know what I mean? Over the years. Oh man. Big time. Honestly. Like it used to be this huge gap. Yeah. For sure. You got a 57 and you've got a $5,000 mic and there's not that stuff in the middle that now just tucks right in there.
(08:24)
Honestly, people I know that still invest into like expensive mics like Noyman or you know these types of microphones um they have commercial studios. Yeah. You know, and if they list that on their website, they're going to rent the space. That's a very So, and they don't lose value most of the time. So, it's an investment.
(08:43)
Sometimes they even gain value. So it's kind of part a friend of mine in Montreal. That's that's his mindset. So he invests into like I have a couple of these friends too. Yeah. No mics and you know can he could buy like a 15,000 microphone. Doesn't care like pairs. Yeah. And that's just kind of part of his retirement fund or something, you know.
(09:01)
So he's going to get his money back even more because these little like old vintage gear are going to gain value over time. Okay. So but that's something else, you know. Let's get back to to the initial question about okay, what is next? What is available out there that sounds good that could give you very high quality results like yeah like I we named earlier you were talking about we're talking about the NT1 talking about the Roswell Mini K87 for example or the 67 um which like below under 500 bucks there's a lot of of selection.
(09:34)
All right. So, so my mom gives me 500. Mom's feeling crazy. Mom gives me 600 bucks. Yes. US. Yes. So, I can actually buy something. Yeah. Not Canadian. 600 bucks Canadian. Not Canadian. I get like mixdown mug. And even then, And even then, you know, you're lucky if you have one of these. Throw in a hat.
(10:00)
Uh, so she went crazy, gave me 600 bucks. M am I better served to buy one really nice mic or two $300 mics? What do you record? Bands and stuff. I record people. I record humans. I don't know. I'm I'm setting up my studio. Sometimes my friend comes by and adds some guitar to something. Sometimes I've got a singer.
(10:22)
Sometimes we're putting a room mic up to record sign of this cool drum kit idea. I just need I just need stuff. I'm recording my friends and we're making songs. We're building songs. I don't have a big studio set up yet. I have a bunch of I don't have a bunch of channels. I'm just recording stuff as my friends come and I'm recording my own stuff. Okay.
(10:38)
So, there's a lot of like me and I play my MIDI thing and then I want to sing on it, but then I want to add some acoustic and then I might add some brush snare because that's all I can play at once. Yes. If I do my feet, I drool. Listen. Um, do I want two different mics for two different flavors? Because then the female background vocalist comes over and she might sound different than me.
(10:56)
like am I better served to get more small or one big my 600 bucks? I would go with too small. Okay. Okay. Maybe like one I'm going to I love Rosswwell Audios mics. Yeah. At the price it's hard to beat. So let's say a mini K uh 87. Yeah. 450 or something like that. So now there's 150 bucks left. Yeah.
(11:24)
So you can get at this I think like LUIT has a microphone at this price range. It's going to sound way different than the 87. So okay. One like the 87 is a bit more dark, a bit more neutral. The other one a bit more bright and stuff. So variety. Yeah. So that gives you two different tones. Are there mics if I wanted to spend my 600 bucks on one thing? Are there mics that are very Swiss Army in your mind where they cover Yeah.
(11:48)
things or do I want to just keep getting more in my locker? I'm just torturing you with questions. You're probably you're going to get abused on forums for these answers, which is bad. I love this because everything you're saying is wrong. It's a personal thing. That's why it's fun to ask you. It's a personal thing. It all depends on your needs.
(12:07)
If you only record vocals, that's one thing. You know, you could go with a condenser mic. And then this guy, an SM7 also that can work for a guitar amp, could work for a bass amp, a snare, even toms. This sounds great on toms, by the way. Um, and high hat, of course. Amazing how these things sound. I've heard I've heard I I don't know anything for this conversation.
(12:28)
Yeah, that was last week's podcast couple weeks ago. And the one before vocals, you know, it's like it's this like the SM7 is actually pretty versatile. It's a dynamic mic. Amazing. But it is versatile. I to come out of character for a minute, I 100% would just have a row of microphones personally rather than like one or two nice ones personally.
(12:53)
Like I I could go so much further. And the more mics you have, the more stuff you can record at once. Like there's something to that right now. I'm like, "Oh, I've got seven mics. I can record a drum kit." Yeah. Right. But usually, you know, someone asking this question is probably going to be in this bedroom recording music.
(13:07)
So that's a situation. Yes. But but even then, more affordable mics is what I'm saying. Yeah, I can do $150 mics all day versus just blowing it all on the one the guy said I need when I was at the store. Yeah, definitely. It's going to give you way more choice of colors. Yeah.
(13:24)
You know, in between those mics and different characters and stuff like that, you know, and that's interesting be character to me. Categories is the word that comes to mind. So, I've got my SM57 flavor, right? I've got my SM7 flavor. I've got my U87 flavor. So, right. So, even if you broke your little pie chart into like five groups that you may need in a session or throughout a weekend, that would be the way to do it.
(13:48)
Yes. Right. And so, companies like Roswell and some of these companies have done that. Yes. Each of their mics kind of covers I've noticed that if you look at these companies, they cover the different chunks. Yes. With a product. And so maybe that would be a way to even look at it is to then just pick a collection like a Roswell or something and just like do their lineup because then you're kind of covered.
(14:09)
That's I've never I've never thought of that in my life that you could you could pick Right. Yeah. Like they've already done the work. They've broken it Yeah. into It's like some of these clone companies. They've picked the like five compressors that you would ever need and then cloned them. And so now you got all the flavors, right? Yeah.
(14:28)
JC microphones is the same with the 67, the V67, which which sounds great. By the way, that's the one you you tried when uh we made that uh was it the um the channel one? Yeah. Mark III video. So, you used the Roswell and you also used the V67 by Jay-Z. Yeah, I remember on your voice. I think the Jay-Z was like I I wrote a hit song that weekend. I remember. I know.
(14:50)
It was amazing. It was amazing. That's worth checking out if you want to see some good video. Oh, this is awesome. I'm going to leave the that link in the show. You should. Yeah. Oh, the songwriting. Hit wonder. The performance, the heart, and the emotion. You have a nice heart. The emotion. I do have a good heart.
(15:08)
And the emotion through that mic. It was awesome. We could just end the podcast now. You've proven the point. Would it be 67? So, we've got a we've got a little mic locker going now. Yes. Uh, next. Depending on how much money your mom gave you. And now mom's giving me some money. I think we've I think the conversation that started this entire podcast for us was us complaining about how much people may or may not spend on cabling.
(15:35)
Okay. Plug a mic in. We didn't talk about cable, but it was a breakfast conversation that I think we fell in love with the conversation of how much do you spend on cabling? I Yeah, go ahead. Right. And like at what point does mom's money just not matter? like just plug the thing in, right? So, you want my answer? Yeah. Oh, okay.
(15:56)
And probably Yeah, I can already hear people typing comments and stuff. I don't care. That's where we live. The cheapest like honestly I don't spend I keep man I bought so many cables like cheap cables online and uh since I needed a lot. Yeah. And uh I couldn't care less. Uh, and I know that there's a debate, you know, some high quality cables, they sound better, you know, what they say, you know, connectors, honestly.
(16:25)
But the sound itself, I don't believe a notch, okay, that it affects the sound quality or the tone or whatever. That that's that's what I think. I don't think it it's Yeah, it's wiring and stuff. It's like, you know, it just it's moving it's moving the sound around. The difference is going to be with the quality of the connectors, you know.
(16:46)
So, if I was doing some live shows all the time and I was like bringing cables along on the road and stuff, I would invest more on cables to have better quality connectors so they can last forever. You know, the cables that are always going to stay connected in on my rack on, you know, microphone setup on my drums and stuff.
(17:05)
No, the cheapest the better, the cheaper the better. I don't want to spend a lot of money on that. Address all your complaints to him. Yeah, it's me. I'm new. Oh, I'm gonna get like sued by Moami. Oh, you are. You are. Uh, so, uh, so we've gone from the mic through the cable. Um, and now I've hit my preamp phase. Yeah.
(17:35)
Pre listen, I'm listening. There's nobody else talking. But honestly, you know, I love a good sounding preamp. This is how I was raised into the music production. Yes. Thing because the first one of the first investment I made apart from the mic just a good preamp and I went with the Drummer 1960 and I bought it on eBay from a guy living in Texas back then, you know, and that was back in 2004 or something.
(18:06)
Uh, and prior to that point, I just rented a lot of gear. I always worked with high quality gear from day one. Rented renting like Noyman mics and all that good stuff. But renting—that could be actually pretty good option if you live near a town that has a rental store or something, you know. And I was near Montreal.
(18:26)
So actually, I was an hour away from Montreal, but I still traveled just to get the gear, you know, just to work on the projects I was hired to work on. Um, and uh yeah, so I just was used to recording to nice preamps and stuff. The next phase after getting a nice mic was getting a, um, yeah, just a nice preamp.
(18:45)
So I don't remember—my first mic I think was a Noyman TLM 103. Yeah, I said it at the same time. Yeah, the classic one. I sold it and the 170. Yeah, I sold it a few years ago, but it was—it's a great mic, you know. I always thought it was a bit too bright, you know, but I ended up selling it. Uh, but it served me well for so many projects.
(19:06)
But I remember, you know, I used to rent a Noyman—the M149. It's like a six grand microphone, tube mic and stuff. Oh, that crazy sound, man. You know, so I would never buy that mic. Never. But to rent, I don't mind, you know. So, um, then that guy did Drummer 1960.
(19:38)
Friend, you know, before I went to production, the band I was playing with—we recorded demos in a home studio near Ottawa back then. And that producer, that guy, the studio had a 1960. And I always liked the sound of, you know, the tubes and stuff. And it's a tube preamp and compressor at the same time. And it's just like, I don't know, it had a tone, a sound that I was used to. So that's the first preamp I purchased—used on eBay.
(19:57)
And I still love it. Still here. Yeah. Yeah. And I love it. So that brought me a different color than the interface's preamps, but back then—that's back in 2004—interfaces and preamps part of an interface didn't sound as good as they are today. So I'm going to say that. Yep. So at the time it was a good investment for me to jump into the preamp phase right after I got a good mic.
(20:26)
So that was—and then I purchased more microphones afterwards, you know, and then I invested in more preamps for my drums. So okay. Vint 47 473 to get the Neve sound. So, whatever. Yeah. So, that was my process back then.
(20:46)
It's interesting, like as you're telling your kind of origin story thing, I'm reviewing mine. And it's amazing how much things like pre and even mics—how much it's what you hear, what you encounter. So for me, it was—you know, I was doing the LA film TV thing. So I was around all the greatest things that money could buy sitting in these rooms with these things and then certain ones resonate with you.
(21:09)
And so it's an interesting thing—like when you—and so I bought my first, and it happened to me. I fell in love with certain sounds, and then I went and bought one—a very high-end preamp back in the day for my Orange County studio. It’s very expensive and it’s an active company right now, so I won’t name it.
(21:30)
And I got it to my place and I did not like it. No way. I just—I worked with it and I tried and I tried, and any mic I put into it—it just didn’t connect. For whatever reason. Once I got it—it’s like the clothes you get home and you’re like, this is awful. It was one of those things that looked so good in the store.
(21:48)
I thought this was a different shade of blue or whatever. Yeah, cuz you know I’m super clothing-centric. You know I’m all about the fashion. Look at this. Look at this hours. So I spent a couple years with this thing and I made records with this thing and it was the main—because that’s all the money I had.
(22:06)
That’s what happened. Ah that’s where my career went astray. That’s why you’re stuck. That’s why you’re stuck with me here in Canada. Okay. Doing a podcast. So I finally—I finally sold this thing to somebody happy to buy it. Like, “This is like—oh yeah, I’ve always wanted this.” I’m like, “Take it.” Sure.
(22:25)
And I bought it. And you bought it. This—this thing you’re talking about over there. I still see it anyway. And I changed, and the day I changed I immediately was like, “Oh, this is my sound.” You know what I mean? Like there’s something about it—it’s a weird thing. And one guy’s thing is not my thing and vice versa.
(22:43)
Like I might trade with you and you’d be like, “Ew.” And it’s really weird. So all that to say—to your point of renting and trying things—it’s super important. And even then, if you have the chance, it’s awesome. I did try it and I brought it home and I didn’t like it. So there’s something even there, right? So all that to say—it’s—it’s—there’s no right answer.
(23:01)
And there’s preamps that are 300 bucks that I hear are fan-freakin’-tastic, amazing. And then I’m plugging into these $7,000 things and I’m like, “Meh,” all the time. Like, you—you get sent all kinds of neat toys and I then I take them home and it’s amazing how often I’m like, “This is the greatest thing I’ve ever heard.”
(23:20)
Like—and I’m sitting in my beautiful thing on these beautiful speakers with this $300 doodad and I’m like, “This is great.” Anyway, so all that to say, the price is becoming less and less relevant to this conversation I guess is where I was going with all of this. And I think where you were going too—is just find the thing you like and plug your stuff in and carry on. Try it out.
(23:40)
So So mom's mom has sold more. Yeah. Yeah. But I'm just going to add something. But I would never tell someone to invest into a high quality preamp before investing into a high quality cables. Cables. Yeah, of course. I was about to say cables. He said it. Cables. He said it. So microphone is first in my book. first.
(24:03)
Okay. Cuz let's let's face it, you get a good like, you know, we we're recording into an audience interface. Mhm. You know, and these preamps, they come from their uh console. Yeah. Forgot which one, but the the console they have. So nice. The big one. Yeah. The big console. So good high quality pre not super clean.
(24:23)
They're still very clean preamps. Yeah. Uh but if you uh you're used to the sound of that console. Yeah. We're going to be in your, you know, in your shoes, you know. Um so I don't know that sounds. Oh, I'm just pretending I know. She just made up a saying. It's something that we say in French. Is it? Yeah.
(24:39)
You going to be in their shoes? Yeah. I like it. Yeah, that's a Yeah, that needs to also Anyways, it's kind of a thing. I like it. Maybe I'm the only one who said even in French. I don't know. All the French people are like, "What? He's making up watching in your own shoes." Yeah, that makes it. Yeah, you're messing up two languages now.
(24:58)
There you go. And you're an overachiever. I know. That's what I Yeah. Sorry. I don't sing, but I That's So, you're you got your audience shoes on. Yeah. So, so basically, you know, the the difference in sound from a clean interface preamp to a ne preamp. Yeah. Is it going to be like a that huge of a difference that will justify the amount of investment? So, you know, I think there's going to be like way more difference in tone and sound, right, with a good mic or several different mics than going from a an interface preamp to uh to an Eve or an API preamp.
(25:38)
Since we're following I'm not saying there's no difference in tone, correct? There is. Yeah. But in my opinion, less significant compared to the difference in the microphone. So yeah, mom has sold off something else and has got more money for me. Am I taking sweet Nancy, my dear sweet mom, am I taking Nana's money and and buying two different flavors of preamp or am I buying one nice preamp? Again, it depends what you're doing.
(26:15)
I would start with just one preamp. You know, I'm just a guy. I'm recording my own songs. I'll just go with one preamp for now. Then, you know, depending if you're a drummer, uh, that's a whole another thing, but just getting started. Yeah, go with I got my few little mics now and I got my one good pre. Yeah.
(26:29)
Decide you want something a bit more clean, a bit more colored, you know. Um, and some of them are really good now transitioning. Yeah, of course. Yeah. From clean to color as you push them. I noticed that that's somehow very capable now. And if you're you're ready to invest like you know put in a bit of a bit more uh daughters you I would look for a preamp where you have Could you talk to my mom here? This is her money.
(26:51)
Steve's mom. Yeah. Listen listen. Her hearing is amazing. Problematically bad even at her age. It's bad. Um you know try to go for this is what I would do. I would go for a preamp that I have control over the input level and the output level so I can drive the preamp a bit, you know, get the different color, you know, the more you drive it, you know, the more you have a bit more color coming out of the circuit and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
(27:27)
So, more set light saturation, you know, and stuff like that. So, now our preamp is or isn't part of the interface, but now the interface comes into play. Okay. the quality of the interface. Um, let Okay. So, for conversation sake, because the the main I imagine or or I see as a beginner as I'm looking around and reading my forums is that the a big price point on the interface is preamps.
(27:54)
If I've got an 8 pre interface, that same technology in a box this big with one pre suddenly goes from 100 bucks to a,000 bucks, right? So, if we take the pres off, right, or whatever, or if just got one preamp or whatever, am I spending a lot on an interface? You can sound into the box.
(28:12)
Now, some will argue that, okay, now you're talking about interfaces at this point. It's going to be converters. Okay. So, is it going to be the quality of converters more than, you know, Yes. Yes. Um, so that that that's a good question. You know, I think in today's age, the converter chips are cheaper than they used to.
(28:30)
And we talked about that on one of my videos, you know. Um, I don't think it matters that much as much as it did 10 years ago, 15 years ago. Okay. Uh, now we can get like a decent interface with good quality converters for nothing. For nothing, you know, because you're buying the pres. No, a lot of times I'm saying so like it's like it's like this audient box all the pres are what really drive it up and the features of the dim buttons and the control room buttons and all the other things besides the little It happens to convert. Exactly. Yes.
(29:05)
Right. There happens to be a hole to go into your computer amongst all the other holes in the back and it does the job pretty well as far as conversion goes. You know, it's high quality. It's like lots of range. It's like that's all you need. Yeah. So, okay. I wouldn't invest into a like an interface just because of the converters, you know, saying that, oh, they're high quality converters.
(29:25)
I think it'll, you know, I would I would look for an interface according to my needs as far as input goes, you know, like if you you're a drummer, you're going to need more inputs. Yeah. So, this guy like the uh we're into the uh the ID48, you know, so it has eight preamps. That's perfect for a drummer.
(29:44)
If you're just a singer songwriter, there's no need to get like to invest into a an interface that has like so many preamps. I want to use all my mics at once when I sing. I won't write them all. But, you know, so um and then there's also the the the latency issue when you want does the the interface has a DSP chip also to monitor straight with plugins like UAD has, you know, without any latency.
(30:09)
So that's all those are the kind of features I would look for in an interface more than the quality of conversions and and converters and now it seems that a lot of the interfaces are the control room. You know what I mean? It's like my monitor controller and my talk back button and my like it's all in the same little desktop box. Yeah.
(30:28)
Or rack thingy, right? Like these little desktop boxes are amazing. It's an entire studio in a box. Yeah, an entire massive studio in this little like one foot box with volume knobs and everything. So those to your point, what do you need? Yeah, exactly. The features are more important than the conversion chip. For sure.
(30:47)
Quite possibly. Yeah, for sure. Even the qualification. I'm not saying for sure. I'm saying maybe. So he said for sure. I'm going to say for sure. He's taken for sure hits on this one. I'm a maybe guy. I'm new. I'm new. You complain to me. I'm new. So, now we're into our DAW, which we've talked about.
(31:08)
Again, just what DAW do you like? Because they all kind of do the same versions of the same. It's it's Yeah. What DAW makes you most happy? What jaw did you learn on what DAW, etc., right? Aka Qbase. Aka Qbase in your case, Qbase Guy. Yes. So, now I'm in my DAW. I'm chunking away. Now we're into another world of importance which is hearing what you've done.
(31:32)
We did the episode on headphones. We did. That's a great one. At some point we may do an episode on speakers. Yes. But somehow you need to really hear what you're doing. And in my book, even as a new guy, it has to be very important to hear what you're doing. Otherwise, it's all for not.
(31:51)
You've got the best everything else and you're sending crap when you export, right? Yeah. And and and now it just doesn't matter what you've done up until then. So yeah, now we're into Mom, sell something else. I need to hear the rest of your investment. Yeah. Cuz now I'm recording, but I don't know what I'm doing in my career. And then we get into like room acoustics and we go down we go down that rabbit hole, right? Yeah.
(32:19)
Again, it depends on your situation. If you're in the bedroom in an apartment, maybe a good set of headphones, good set of headphones is going to do the trick. And you don't need to spend a lot. You know, there's a lot of good headphones in, you know, under 500 bucks, you know, that are going to do the trick for uh for lots of tasks you're going to do in the studio.
(32:35)
It will get you through the battle. Yeah. And I would start with a uh a closedback headphone because you're going to be recording. Yeah. Usually, you know, if you record vocals, go with a with an open back headphone. Go with a closedback headphone. That's true. Okay. So, and those can, you know, you can buy those at 150 bucks. Yeah.
(32:51)
Yeah. You know, and and as as your needs grow in any of these areas, that's when you start picking up things. If you're recording really high quality singers and you've got one client that's that's or whatever, like that's your next purchase is their mic. You know what I mean? It's that and like that's how I did it. I I literally just chased Yeah.
(33:09)
Of course. Back when I started last week, I started chasing jobs. But you you Yeah. Yeah, you just come from long and then people are paying you to mix a lot. So now you need better because you can go all the way up to Odyssey's for your apartment headphones, right? Like so it things can go as far as you want.
(33:24)
If you're recording orchestras, you're a different microphone setup than somebody else. And so that's it's an interesting now you're now you're in the game and that was a busy week for you. That was a busy week that one week, man. For first week. Oh, I was busy. It's almost like it was 25 years ago and everything.
(33:42)
It was almost like I was 19. At the same time, how far can you go before you start really investing? Like you can go far. So like your MCC crew, like the some of these guys are sending mixes in that are hurting my brain and then we're like, "What'd you do on?" And they give you their like gear list and you're like, "This is fantastic." Yeah.
(34:08)
It was positive by the way. Yeah. Yeah. Like it's fantastic some of this stuff. Like you it like it's it's amazing and and these are people that are just learning their tools and and and sending things and guys like us are going that sounds great, but what if you tried this? And they try it and they're just moving down the road with this amazing bedroom setup.
(34:30)
And so you know that, you know, does that negate a lot of this conversation? In some ways, in some ways it validates it that if you just get these mics and these tools and learn them, learn how your preamp drives, learn how these things do things. Yes. And then we get into plugins and skill and mixing and gain staging and all the other stuff that you make videos about.
(34:51)
Uh I try anyways. You try. Some of them are very good. I've heard I've heard too and some of them but you know we'll pass. Some of them are questionable. the ones where I show up. Yeah. Unfortunately, these are kind of bombers. But anyway, I was think if if everything was amazing, nothing would win. Yeah, I know.
(35:14)
So, is that it? Have we covered the the journey? I think so. Can I say one thing that I've learned in my recent week of learning all this, which is the source of your advice is really important. And if I go on the internet and say, "Hey, I need a new microphone." Like, the world is going to rain down on me, everything from you need this $40,000 matched pair of U67s from 1901 all the way up to just do it on your MacBook, Mike, right? And everything in the middle.
(35:49)
So, there is something about the source of information that that I've learned is super important. And if you find, you know, in my case, I've got my sales guy that I I know and love in the States. And he and he like I just go, "Here's what I'm trying to do with this." And he's just like, "All right, here here's everything that's come in in the last year, and I've tried them all, and here's what I think.
(36:06)
Trust me, and if you don't like it, send it back." And there's something to that. When the guy goes, "Trust me." And so there's something to, you know, a group like yours or something where you can kind of speak to a group of people and they go, "Oh, I did the same even on these MCC things." Yes. Where somebody's like, "Man, I tried that and I put my bass into this and did this.
(36:22)
" and the guy's like, "I have the same thing. I'm going to try that." And so, there's something to, you know, all that to say, sourcing info beyond us going is really important. Oh, for sure. Definitely. And there's also a resource website, the uh audio test kitchen. Yes. For microphones where you can actually hear them. That's very well done.
(36:41)
It's super cool. Yeah. Super cool. That's from our good friend Alex. Hello, Alex. I don't know, Alex, but hi. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you again. I met so many people in N. I'm always so used to N. But it's a crazy website, you know. You go there, you can test a bunch of microphones. Um, so there's a technology behind it.
(37:03)
I'm so I'm not going to talk about that, you know, but but basically you can like test out an NT1 mic um versus a TLM 103 Noyman on the same vocal. It's like it's cool. I see the name everywhere. It's cool. Like every time I'm on a forum, they're like, "Go here and try it and I just forget." So, at least it gives you an idea on how these microphones are going to sound like, you know. Um, so that's it.
(37:26)
That could be a good a good way to start. [Music]
