Our New Mobile Rig

I think I mentioned in the previous post that we used that Audio-Technica AT835b shotgun with the Marantz flash-rom recorder for the Nick Mason interview. Chris and I had been discussing where we want to go for our own mobile rig.

Chris did some digging (such as talking to some peeps at Alice) and I read some interesting articles about what other audio journalist use out in the field. We found out that most people use a decent mic with a crappy mini-disc player. In fact I saw an article on boing-boing were Xeni did a spot for NPR and from the pic it looks like she was using the 835b with a mini-disc.

I though, awesome, I own a mini-disc and we can get a simple XLR to mini-jack cable and there we go. One small problem… it seems that I left my mini-disc player out when my house was broken into and I just now found out it was missing. Do’h! Since we had get something, we looked at the mini-disc market and Sony just released their Hi-HD minidisk.

Chris decided to purchase the new Sony and I would run out and get the mic. This all came to ahead one of our guest for the show got back to us to schedule an interview ASAP (I will announce who it is once we have it on tape). Chris rushed to Sony store to pick up the MD and I called the always awesome Leo’s Pro Audio in Oakland.

A sec on Leo’s. Imagine, if you will, a Guitar Center that has all the most bad ass shit in the world, replace all the fucking wing nuts and asshole sales people with courteous and extremely knowledgeable people and you will be half way to how cool Leo’s is.

So, I call Leo’s to see if they have the 835b in-stock and they are fresh out, but wait… Mike informs me that they do have the new 897 in. Its half the size, only $20 more, and is Audio-Technica’s answer to the $1000 Sennheiser shotguns. See, Mike made the sale. He knew what I wanted and was able to make the sale right there on the phone. 20 min. later I am at the store with the new mic in hand.

That evening Chris gets in from the office and we try out the new rig. After fiddling with the Mini-disc we get it all set up and holy shit does it sound sweet. I was expecting an okay signal but this was FRESH. Clean, great focus on the speaker, I can’t wait to try this baby out for real. Aight… out for now.