[Harp-L] low rent mic stand (longish)

[Garry Hodgson <garry@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

as i foray into the world of recording live music, my lack
of any serious budget has encouraged interesting solutions.
i've written before about my rig: a sony minidisc recorder and 
a nice pair of mics from microphone madness.  of interest to
this post is that the mics weigh almost nothing.

so, my first few recordings were made just plugging the mic
into the MD and sitting it on the bar, or a bar table.  works fine,
except for one thing: the mics can pick up more of the crowd
than you;'d like, even though they are cardioids (directional).
you want to get 'em up over peoples' heads.

a mic stand is clearly in order, but i don't have a lot of (any) 
spare cash these days, and i don't really want to lug a big
heavy mic stand around.  one of the things i love about my
rig is its portability.  it all fits in a little fanny pack.

but i was at a rummage sale recently, and got to thinking.
always a bad sign.  they had a couple of those cheap music
stands that kids use for band class.  way too short for a mic
stand.  but...they also had lots of old golf clubs.  so i picked
up a mic stand for $1, and a couple of golf clubs for $2
(graphite, a 5 wood and an iron, not that it matters).

so i took them home, threw out the music holder part of the stand,
and straightened the top of the stand that it normally attaches to.
then i cut off the head of a golf club, and drilled a hole in the handle.
voila.  instant mic stand.

you slide the club shaft onto the stand part and have a ~7 foot mic
stand.  tape the mics to the top, aim 'em, run a cable to the MD 
sitting on the table, done.  it's lightweight, portable, cost almost
nothing, and makes me chuckle every time i look at it.  i taped it
to the side of the bar table as meager insurance against it getting
knocked over.

works great.  it's way to flimsy if i was using big heavy mics, but i'm not.
and it's a lot less obtrusive so i don't feel bad for people sitting behind me.

so with many of you starting to play with microtracks and such,
you might want to give it a try.  it also makes the show more enjoyable,
since i'm not constantly worried about knocking into the mics, or having
them pick up table conversation or other noise.

----
Garry Hodgson, Technical Consultant, AT&T Labs

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