(10 hours) #15 Microphones - SLEEPY Boring Objects (Jason Newland) (3rd October 2021)

Hello and welcome to jasonnewland.com. My name is Jason Newland and this is Boring Objects. Please only listen when you can safely close your eyes. Now, today's boring object is going to be microphones.

Now just to let you know, there is a possibility that I will do more than one recording on the same boring object. The reason I'm saying that is because I forget what I've done. I do, I just generally forget what I've talked about in the past.

I don't think I've talked about microphones before, but there is a chance I have, but I don't think so. But I might talk about them again. Anyway, so as I'm sure you're aware that making podcasts requires using microphones.

And the microphone I'm using here is the Shure SM7B. That's the microphone that I'm using to record this podcast on. And I've got quite a few different microphones.

Yeah, I have. I've got two lapel microphones, but they're the ones that you clip on, you know, kind of your, your shirt or your jumper, kind of near the, you know, your neck area. But they're pretty, they're quite cheap and not, they're okay.

I don't use them anymore. But I used to use them with the iPhone. And I used to record on them a couple of years back.

Because the quality was, it was, it was, it was, it was all right. It wasn't perfect quality. But then I don't think perfect sound quality exists, at least not in my world.

But I do me best with what I've got. And over the years, I have had many, I say many, I'm just trying to think of how many different microphones I've had since 2006. Now, I, when I started, I didn't have a microphone.

I started off making videos on my laptop using a, an external webcam. It was a Logitech webcam. Logitech pretty much dominate the world of webcams.

And I do find it not amusing, but intriguing, maybe confusing as to why a laptop in 2021 would even need a webcam. Bearing in mind how good the cameras are on smartphones. Yet, a laptop camera, and I've had lots of laptops over the years, the laptop cameras just are never very good.

I've got a really, really good laptop that's up to date and the latest model. And the picture quality of the camera is not very good at all. The iPhone is way, way, way, way better quality.

So, you may be wondering why I'm talking about cameras, when I was supposed to be talking about microphones. Well, if you do have an issue or complaint, I'm happy to refund your money. Okay.

The reason I'm talking about my cameras is because I started off using a webcam in 2006, and I made videos to start with, using the webcam. And then I extracted the audio from the video file. And then added that to my podcast.

Then I started doing live group relaxation sessions at a couple of charities. This is 2006, and I decided to record them for my podcast, or for my, I think at that point it wasn't a podcast. I'm not sure if there were podcasts until 2007.

It's hard to remember. But I used to make the MP3 files available to download from my website. And also, MySpace allowed you to upload both video files and audio files for audiences to listen or watch.

So, I got myself a little digital recorder. And it didn't have a microphone. Like, I mean, I didn't have an external microphone.

It did have a microphone in the digital recorder, otherwise it would have been a bit pointless. I don't imagine it would have sold many items without an actual recorder. And I remember it now, it was silver.

And it fitted my hand nicely. It was just a little thing. Probably cost about £30, £40.

So, I used to, you know, I'd record the recordings, record the live relaxation group sessions. And then, because I'd sit down, and they'd all sit down, and I'd just start talking. And it was generally basic, I guess like a body scan.

And then relaxing the different parts of the body. And I'd just talk for about 40 minutes. And it wasn't just the patients or the, you know, the clients that would come.

It'd also be members of staff would sit in as well to relax. Because there'd be counsellors and therapists and key workers that would benefit from a bit of relaxation. So, this is 16 years ago.

Now, after that, I got a, I got a digital recorder, but it was like a little recording studio. So, it was a fairly, I say expensive, but it was probably over £200. I have a vague memory of it, but it's one of those things that was, it was expensive.

And it's supposed to be a good bit of equipment. But everything was so tiny. All the little knobs were tiny.

I felt like a giant with my fingers trying to control the different measurements and the different ingoings and outgoings and recording and sharing. And then trying to download the recording onto my laptop. And I didn't like it very much.

It was too little. Now, I'm not saying I wanted it to be huge. I didn't want to have to, you know, pull a trailer around with me all the time.

Or maybe walk around with a wheelbarrow with it in. But just something that was manageable, you know. Something that didn't, didn't need a magnifying glass in order to find the on button.

So, I'm trying to think what other, if I get any, I think I might have got a microphone back in 2007. I have a vague memory of doing that. It's, I don't know why, but it's disappeared, that memory.

But what I do remember getting is, well I got a video camera in 2008. 2008 I bought a video camera. But it was very worry.

I don't know why I could never figure out how to shut it up. Because I'd be making a hypnosis recording using this camera. And it was just very whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

Maybe not quite that bad, but it was, wasn't how I wanted it to be. But the picture was pretty good. Especially in the light, I mean in the dark.

I guess nothing really is very good, is it? But I just sort of went along with it. And when I played music at the same time as talking into the camera, it didn't seem to make that noise anymore. So I did a few of those.

Then, pretty sure it was January 2009, I purchased from Amazon a podcasting kit. Which had a microphone, a little stand, like a desk tripod stand thing. And those headphones.

It was quite a big box. It reminded me of the size of a box that you'd get a Scalextrics in, in the early 80s. It was quite large.

And I just remember getting it because my landlord and landlady were away on a holiday in January on a cruise. Because I was at university at the time, I was living in, well, it wasn't really student accommodation, but it was. Because they only rented out to students.

And I remember getting the box and putting it down on the table. Because they had this big table that was flat. And they didn't really use that table very often.

Apart from sort of at Christmas. And the table was in this, it was like a room, but more like a big hallway, really. Like a wide hallway.

And it was near my bedroom. And it wasn't really a distance thing, it's not like, oh, I opened the box there because it wasn't so far to travel. I mean, I could have, you know, I could have, it wasn't a long distance, I could have gone into the kitchen.

But because the box is quite large, I wanted to spread the items out on something other than my bed. Which is why I opened it on the table. Anyway, the, there's also this little mixer.

Which I guess was going to get the volume and stuff. And I don't know what else, I think that was it. I think that was everything.

Well, you know, I set it up, tried it. And it just wasn't very good. I think it cost me about £199.

And it wasn't, it wasn't any good, I don't know, it just wasn't, I suppose I was just wanting perfect sound. I just wanted really good quality sound for my podcasts. Because at that point, I was, I had both YouTube videos.

And I was also making podcasts. And for, you know, like separately, the same, the same recordings. Not always the same recordings, sometimes I would just make an audio recording.

And not turn it into a video. Sometimes I'd make a video and not turn it into a podcast. But, you know, it's, I had both running at the same time.

I mean the first, the main podcast I had was, I think it was called Free Podcasts. Something like that, and it was, I had that. It's the first one I remember having, and it was in 2007.

I might have had a podcast earlier than that, but I don't think so. But I know I used to upload the audio recordings to MySpace. And then of course Facebook came in and MySpace kind of went away.

Which is a shame because being able to upload videos and audios and share it and get lots of views. I was getting a lot of views for my stuff. And it was brilliant, I loved it.

But then YouTube came along of course, and the videos then had a new home, a new home. So I didn't really like the microphone. I couldn't put my finger on why, although I did touch it with my finger.

But I didn't really know. It just, it didn't, it didn't fulfil my particular needs. Which was a little bit sad.

Yeah, after that, I, I got a, what did I get? I had a Blue Yeti microphone. I don't know if you've seen those. They're quite popular, they're USB mics.

I had a silver one, in fact I had two over the years. And they're quite heavy. And they can just sit on the desk, they come with their own stand.

Or you can attach them to a microphone stand. Now, if you're going to move the microphone stand and have it so it's sort of facing you. So the microphone's facing you and near your mouth.

And it has to be a very sturdy microphone stand. Because the weight of the microphone, it's the heaviest microphone I've ever dropped on my toes. It's very heavy.

And then, after that, I think, I'm pretty sure I've had other microphones as well. But then, about seven years ago, six years ago, yeah, about six years ago. I got two microphones.

And they were Rode microphones, very good ones. And I got two, one for either side of my mouth. Which doesn't really make sense.

I didn't really, I didn't need to. But, the audio was good. The only problem with those microphones was they picked up a lot of background sound.

Because they were so, the microphone was so good, they picked up the background sound. And that was the opposite to what I wanted or needed. But I used them for a while.

And I had a setup where I made videos. And also had the microphones plugged into the laptop. And using, I think, a video camera.

So, I forget how I did it all, put it all together. But, it worked well. There's a lot of, a few little teething problems trying to figure it all out.

But once I did, I had my, I had a chair in the corner. And I just sit on the chair, have a microphone either side of me. And, yeah, it's pretty good quality.

The, the camera was good. Because it was a new camera that I got. And the audio was good.

But since then, so... I think that's when I got the lapel microphones. A while later. Because, and the thing with the lapel microphones.

Is the lead, the wire between the microphone. And the little plug thing that goes into the, the phone. Or, it was an extension actually.

Because it was the iPhone it was going into. So it needed to go into an extension, or a converter, or... I forget what they call it. And the lead was about six miles long.

Very long. Very, very long. Very, a bit in the way if you know what I mean.

It's, why? I mean, how far away are you ever going to be from the phone? Or from the device you're attached to? It's going to be at least in the same room. Why would you need a wire that, that long? And then, I started using the Rode microphones again. For a little while.

And then I got this SM7B, is it? But in the meantime I also got a little microphone for the, for the iPhone. And it didn't work very, particularly great. It works OK.

But not great. And I used it when I was on holiday earlier in the year. Because I didn't have, I didn't have the setup that I have here.

And it was OK. But it wasn't great. You know, it was very, it wasn't, it wasn't great.

A bit more, I think the, the lesser the microphone, the more editing is required. And a fair bit of editing was needed for that microphone that I was using then. But that might be more to do with this.

And different things I suppose. But then I got these Rode microphones. Little ones.

One that you attach to your lapel. One that attaches to a camera. Or something else.

And I've not used them yet. But they're quite good if you're outside recording. Because I haven't done any recording outside.

I've not sort of got around to using them. And I've now got another mic, the MV7 Shure podcast microphone. And I'm going to be using that.

That's going to be connected to my iPhone via a iRig preamp. And I'm going to be making videos. And maybe streaming as I make the podcasts.

To do some live streaming. So that not just the picture is good, but also the audio will be good as well. So that's like a new addition to the setup.

Because, I mean technically I could use the microphone I'm using here. But I'm doing this, the podcast is being recorded separately on the iPad. And I've got the whole setup here for the podcast.

So when I'm on camera I'll literally will have two microphones aimed at me. It might look really strange. I don't mind.

I'm just trying to think of what other microphones I might have had. Like when I was a kid, I had a little tape recorder. You know, I don't know if you know, the ones that you, it's very like an original thing.

But, like the original tape recorder that you would have. And you'd have the buttons and they were big, big, big buttons. And I think you'd have to press down play and record in order to record.

And you'd have an audio cassette in there that would record. And then you'd be able to play it back. And I had, I had at least two of those.

Maybe three in my life. And I would record the, I had this little microphone that I could hold. And it was quite little with a wire that connected to the tape recorder.

So that the, because it did have an inbuilt microphone as well. But the quality was just a bit clearer. It wasn't great, but it was a bit clearer.

And I used to sing into it and write songs. That was one of the things I used to do when I was younger. And then I had a, a dicta digital, no it wasn't digital.

It was a little dicta machine, a dictation machine I guess. Or a dictaphone or whatever. And it had like a mini tapes.

And I used to use those back in from 1991 onwards. For a few years when I was on stage I'd record my performance. And I could just leave the, so I was using it as a microphone.

I probably had access, well probably there was a microphone that I could have got on to connect to it. I'm not sure. But I used to use a microphone in all the different performances I did as well.

Yeah. But I don't know what those microphones were. But they were good ones, really good ones, professional performance microphones.

But they weren't mine. They were heavy though. And that's, that's pretty much all I can think to say about microphones.

Cheers. Bye.