Microphone bargain

A clear night and a cold bright start to the day, but it clouded over later in the morning and rained for most of the afternoon - definitely autumnal now. After breakfast Clare's study group arrived and I worked on preparing Morning Prayer for next Thursday, and wrote a reflection to go with it. Clare cooked mackerel fillets with veg for lunch. 

When we'd eaten I searched on-line for a local retailer stocking microphones, as Rachel and Owain have both encouraged me to buy a decent condenser mic for making audio recordings. The PMT music store in Lower St Mary Street looked like the most likely place to visit. I braved the rain and took a 62 bus to town and went straight there. I explained I was looking for something for podcast audio and was shown an 'own brand' entry level mic which would connect to a laptop or a phone via USB. It was discounted from £40 to £22.50, an irresistible offer, given that my needs aren't sophisticated.

I returned home and assembled the device for testing. It has a USB-C port and a 3.5 jack plug for listening to audio output if needed. It attaches through the USB-B cable provided or using a double ended USB-C. It works with a Windows laptop, or a Chromebook, or a phone. Although a Plug & Play device, setting it up to use on Windows was more fiddly than the Chromebook, which shows attached devices and lets you swap between them straight from the initial settings menu. No need to dig around. The Chromebook uses the Twisted Wave cloud app for recording and editing. I habitually use Audacity on Windows and Linux, and that was what I used for a trial run to record the reflection I'd written earlier in the day.

The sound quality is a great improvement on my digital dictating device, recording output is in stereo, but in effect it's two identical mono channels. It's sensitive, but the sound file captured directly by Audacity is immediately editable. The recording volume seems low with the mic a foot from my face but amplifies well so background noise can be cleaned up leaving only bumps and pops to be taken out. That's the tricky part. I spent most of the evening editing files I created, and was satisfied the end product was worth both the effort and outlay. I re-recorded and edited the poem I wrote for Rachel and set it to her. Then I realised I'd only walked for an hour so far today. Thankfully it was no longer raining. I went out and walked in the dark in Llandaff Fields for an hour, and didn't see a soul. Very calming after an evening of concentrated  effort. And so to bed.