Self-defeatism

I think the reason I haven't been able to sleep well since I started actually getting recording equipment (out of the blue and way ahead of plan) is inexorably tied to self-defeatism and fear of failure.

As I said in my first post to start this thing, I know I don't have all this talent. But something happens when you step up to a microphone to amplify or record yourself in a critical setting. It doesn't happen to me at all at open mic nights, or just hanging out with friends. But when the power is turned on, the tracker is ready to go, I freeze up. My stomach tightens, and I think: "Wow, you really suck. You are wasting your money." It's fear that if I truly give it my best shot, it will still suck even worse than my self-deprecating disclaimers profess, and that will be disappointing. So, to prevent this, I give myself an out. I don't try as hard. I back off. I engage in self-defeating behaviour like buying things I don't need, to make things overly complex. Like not sleeping.

I've got to get in the mindset that I'm doing this for fun, not for profit, or posterity, or pride. [More]

Help is on the way

On the way home, I emptied the contents of my wallet on some final close-out items from my local music shop. (And I wonder: where am I going to go for gear and guitar tech help now?) A couple of XLR microphone cables and an el-cheapo (as in $10) microphone stand. They had a couple of really interesting-looking microphone stands, really solidly-built boom stands from Germany, but even at closeout they were $50. (For a microphone stand. Yes, really.)

And then reaching home I realized that, once again, I am an idiot.

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Microphone shuffle

Out with the old, in with the new. Luckily I hadn't opened the Shure PG57 yet, because a glance at its online user's guide showed it wasn't recommended for acoustic guitar. (That's saved for the 81.) So, it safely back at its place of purchase, I picked up an Audio-Technica AT2020 from eBay to replace it. So, sometime next week or so, hopefully I'll be able to put together my first home recording of any decent fidelity. Hopefully I won't need to pick up the microphone's shock mount because that would just about double the price. But at some point, I need to pick up some kind of mic stand...

Everything I read about the SM81 makes me very, very interested. But it's still a bit beyond my budget reach, at least for now. [More]

It's concert time

This fall is just an amazing time to be a fan of "modern folk rock" music (or whatever you want to call it) in Durham, NC, or parts nearby. Even just the upcoming shows you can find on Etix for the area (Carrboro, Chapel Hill, and Raleigh -- are there really no Durham venues at all?) reads like a "who's who" of the genre.

Mason Jennings (mrs. montsamu's favorite) and Jose Gonzalez are the two shows we've decided to get ourselves together to go and see -- and if I had unlimited time I would definitely see a few more. Sufjan Stevens plays the same day as Jose Gonzalez, but unfortunately for me he sold out in minutes. This makes me sad, because he came through a couple of years ago and I made a "mental note" to get tickets, but as things tend to do it got overlooked until it was just too late. Ah well. At least I've managed to catch Alexi Murdoch down here, and a great show with Ben Arthur, Abra Moore, and Vienna Tang that was supposed to also feature Teitur, but he was called away at the last second to play the Prince of Denmark's birthday party or something.

So, without further adieu, my picks for shows to see if you're in the area (bold for the ones we're ticketed to see):
19 September: M Ward; Mason Jennings
20 September: Calexico
21 September: Sufjan Stevens; Jose Gonzalez
22 September: Eric Bachmann and Richard Buckner
3 October: Serena Maneesh (ok, so this is a completely different genre -- sue me.)
13 October: Shawn Colvin
19 October: Amos Lee
22 October: Old Crow Medicine Show
4 November: Carbon Leaf
8 November: Edwin McCain
14 November: Califone

If I weren't heading out of town on the 22nd, I would absolutely catch Bachmann (of Crooked Fingers) and Buckner, who is another one of those artists who I've loved for years, and the last time he came to town I made the mistake of the "mental note, down the drain" trick. [More]

Labour Day weekend is a doozy

Leaving the house on Saturday morning, heading out for some errands, I did not expect to see people wearing breadboards announcing that my treasured local music shop, Pearson Music, was going out of business. On a whim, I headed inside to see what might remain on the shelves. Sadly, no microphones, but they had three Mackie mixers to pick from, all at fairly steep markdown: a DFX-12, a 1202-VLZ Pro, and my eventual choice, a 1402-VLZ Pro.

So, I've been spending some time trying to figure out how to use it. So far, so good.

But unfortunately the upgrade from my previous microphone pre-amp (if a Radio Shack Karaoke Mic Adapter can be named as such) didn't alleviate my issues with the damaged goods that are my Akai DM-13 microphones. And, worse yet, my Dean Markley Acoustical Transducer decided that this would be the day it finally gave up the ghost for good. So I picked up a new microphone, a Shure PG57, but so far I haven't had a chance to take it out of the plastic wrap and put it to any kind of test.

So, quite a weekend. Maybe with the mixer and a new microphone, I'll get my butt in gear and put something together in the next couple of weeks. We'll see how it goes. [More]