Hella Solutions blog: "Document. Share. Inspire."

I was a little late in getting my immunization shots but at last AND at least I did (Thursday of last week…almost a week before I set down…which should give me a few antibodies, eh?). It wasn’t procrastination either. Honestly, I think I was being a bit naïve and wasn’t really thinking about contracting diseases as I was getting my equipment and mind ready for the trip. But wow, if you haven’t read the travel immunization content on the CDC site you are lucky! Sheesh. It really doesn’t get you too psyched up for travel – as the world appears to be one large disease from their perspective. I reckon that’s their job, though. “Be cautious but don’t be afraid”…I think they need to push that message out front a little more. See for your self (http://www.cdc.gov/travel/destinat.htm).

Above is my final equipment check. The Sony ECM-MS957 has been the mic I’ve used most in my audio work and will be my central one for this trip. I find it to be the most flexible and is great for interviews as well as collecting ambient sound. I will also be carrying with me:

1. Sennheiser with a K6 power supply and 12v phantom power pack. I haven’t used this one a lot but Ira Glass, of This American Life, seems to tought “shotgun” mics as good all around interview mics. I just think it’s a bit difficult to get a good sound if you don’t have a lot of experience using this type of mic for interview settings. There’s a nice discussion of “shotgun” mics over at this site: http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/review_shotgun_mics.html.

2. A lavaliere (I forget the brand at the moment). I generally use these for my more formal sit down in an office interviews. You just have to make sure you explain the basic dynamics of the mic to the interviewee so that they don’t go fiddling with their shirt during the interview or talking off to one shoulder.

3. I’ll be using a Crown PZM30D Boundary Microphone for the first time. This is the flat rectangular item in the picture (to the right side). I think these are generally better for capturing really solid sound but I’m going to use it in the background as I do individual work with a different mic. I’ll leave this one hooked up to a second MD recorder in various locations. I probably won’t use this a lot but I’m curious about it’s application in audio documentary.

4. I’ve borrowed a second Minidisc recorder, a Sony MZ-B100 (an earlier incarnation of my MZ-M100). This is decent little recorder and I’ll have this mainly as a back-up. The biggest difference between the two models is that the MZ-M100 is what they call a Hi-MD recorder. That is, it can recorder in totally uncompressed linear PCM mode (a much higher quality level than your average MD recorder).

That’s my gear! Feel free to use the “comments” link below to ask any questions or leave your comments.