Blue Kiwi Condenser Microphone

I have recently been looking into purchasing a condenser microphone for vocals that would fit my needs. While researching professional condenser microphones, I stumbled upon a Blue Kiwi. It's been a while since I have seen one and it just so happened that it fit my requirements. The Blue Kiwi is known for it's unique sound that is built directly into it's hand crafted large diaphragm capsule and provides a rich low end, beautiful airy highs and a countered mid-range. The Blue is a great sounding microphone that works well in the professional setting. The microphone picks up frequencies from 20Hz to 20kHz, which consists of the entire frequency range that can be heard by a human. The microphone also features 9 different polar patterns including Omni, Cardioid, Figure of eight and several in between.

Bellow are some of the specifications for the Blue Kiwi Microphone:

- Transducer: Pressure Gradient Large Diaphragm Condenser
- Polar Pattern: Omni-directional, Cardioid, Figure of 8 with variations of each pattern for a total of 9 patterns
- Frequency Response: 20Hz to 20kHz
- Dynamic Range (Typical): 75dB
- Signal-to-Noise Ratio: CCIR468-3: 76dB
- DIN/IEC 651: 87dB-A
- Maximum Input Sound Level: 0.5%: 133dB
- Power Requirements: 48V Phantom
- Output Impedance: 50 Ohms
- Output Connectors: XLR-3M Type
- Pad: None
- Low Frequency Roll-Off: None
- Dimensions: 8.66 x 2.36" (220mm x 60mm) LxD diameter
- Weight: 31.74 oz. (900 g)

Although a low frequency roll-off would have been nice, the Blue is an exceptional choice for a vocal condenser microphone. It will bring any professional recording to life. In the hyper link provided both on the words Blue Kiwi and at the bottom of the blog, there are examples of what the recording would sound like on both male and female vocals and an instrument. And as you can see in the picture bellow, the Blue Kiwi is also visually appealing and would be a great addition to your studio, home or otherwise.

The only down fall of this microphone is that it is on the more expensive side of vocal microphones. It typically runs around the $1,999 range and it does include a shock mount specifically designed for the microphone called "the shock" and a cherry wood case for storage.

http://www.zzounds.com/item--BLUKIWI

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Kiwi/?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=PPC&utm_campaign=recording&utm_term=blue_kiwi&adpos=1t1&gclid=COGiy6rt-qoCFY9S7AoddF9-1w

http://www.bluemic.com/kiwi/

Pottermore

I actually did a presentation about this in class but I thought that it was newsworthy enough to include in my blog. I am a huge Harry Potter fan and since this website opens up to the public by October 31st, I figured it would be worth a mention.

Pottermore is an interactive website that brings the Harry Potter book to life with animated inserts to the book while you read and actual game play that goes along with each chapter and book of the series.

When you first enter the site, your first task would be to answer a few questions that would let you be sorted by the sorting hat in to your house.

The website also provides tasks that needs to be completed by the reader/player to be able to continue with the series. For example, you have to earn money to place in to gringotts bank so that you can purchase books and robes for your year at Hogwarts. You can also purchase your own specialized wand. The shopping will take place in a virtual Diagon Ally. Readers will also learn spell as they go along and progress through the books.

The website also includes Character bios that are not available in the book or anywhere else for that matter (ex. how Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon met and fell in love and Professor McGonagall’s childhood)

The website also offers the Exclusivity of eBook purchases for the entire Harry Potter series. This will give the website traffic for many years to come seeing as it is also the only exclusive place to purchase future works for the series if Rowling decides to write a continuation.

The site will also serve as its own social media site because it includes online chats within the houses called the common room and online chats that span all the houses called the great hall.

Below is a video from author J.K. Rowling herself explaining what to expect from Pottermore that leaves you wanting more.

http://www.pottermore.com/

Is pirating music really worth it?

I have decided for this post I would not be reviewing any equipment or providing information on music copyright. Today in class we had a presentation on how Jay Z and Kanye West have come out with an album that has not been leaked. Well this presentation started a discussion about pirating music. I actually got really frustrated because it got me thinking. I am about to finish my master’s degree in entertainment business and I am about to head out into the industry. The music industry, incase you didn’t know, is dying. Customers, well I can’t really call them that, so I’m just going to refer to them as robbers. Robbers are going online, purchasing one copy of this album and then distributing in through torrents. Now a days, this is such a common thing that it doesn’t really make anyone think twice about downloading this stolen material.

What these robbers don’t realize is what they are actually doing is de-motivating these artist from creating music at all. These robbers are starting a slow downward spiral for the entire music industry.

It costs a lot of money to create an album and with out sales of these albums, those artists that you love so much are soon going to be unable to afford going into a recording studio.

Eventually, what is going to happen is that these artist are going to get fed up with the whole industry and its “customers” that they are just going to lose the will to actually create music for greedy music robbers who don’t deserve these artist to spend their lives creating music that they are not going to get reimbursed for.

The real question is… if you created something that took you months to create, something that you poured your whole heart and soul into, something that cost you possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars to create, would you be happy if people where taking it for free?

           

I have provided some videos that show exactly what can happen to people who pirate music.

What could have cost you 99 cents on iTunes can cost you millions of dollars from a pirating lawsuit. Do you really think it’s worth it?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQzbY7FB98k&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgbGhbrYbuY&feature=relmfu