GoodBuyGuys Blog

My son and I have been involved in recording my wife playing the piano so she can make some CD’s for her Mother. It has been a fun project, but a lot more complicated than it ought to be.

I was able to provide a couple of professional quality microphones and a mixer, and we run the mixer output into my son’s MacBook Pro, record and edit, and then burn a CD with the Mac. This works very well, but requires a lot of equipment that most people don’t have. It doesn’t matter how great the software for recording and editing on the computer might be, as long as you have to use the microphone that is installed in the computer, your chances of getting a quality recording are very limited.

The MicPort from CEntrance makes this job a whole lot easier. The MicPort is a microphone preamp that lets you plug one or more professional grade microphones directly into your computer, no mixer needed.

The MicPort is a simple inline device that accepts a professional low impedance microphone into one end and delivers the ouput to a USB port on the other end. Now any microphone using a standard XLR connector can be hooked up directly to your computer. This handy little preamp even has a volume control and a headphone output so you can monitor the output of the mic without the annoying delay time you encounter when using a mic through the computer headphone jack. The MicPort even has the ability to apply phantom power so that professional grade condenser mics can be plugged into the computer without the use of an outboard power supply. The whole device is powered from the computer’s USB port, so you don’t even need batteries!

The addition of a MicPort from CEntrance will let anyone involved in field recording leave the mixer at home and get professional quality recordings with just a microphone and a computer. Or, it’s a great way to get an instant increase in audio quality for your podcast.

I’m looking forward to trying it out.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands. Look to us first to meet your recording supply needs.

It’s always interesting to stumble upon a new type of customer for our products, and I have noticed recently that we are getting more and more orders from lawyers and courts. I had not thought much about it until I stumbled on this blog posting.

More and more lawyers offices and courts are struggling with the technical demands of media coverage and the need for tech savy technicians in the courtroom. Many courthouses date back to the earlier half of the twentieth century and they are woefully behind when it comes to providing the kind of support that is now expected by the legal profession, the media and the public. Its not unusual to enter a courtroom now and find mic cables and extension cords held down with gaffers tape all over the room. If the proceedings are high profile, this tangle of cables may stream out the door, down the stairs and out into the street.

The need for audio visual supplies now often extends back to the attorneys’ offices as well. Many law firms have whole departments that are involved in preparing presentation materials for courtroom work. This now extends far beyond the realm of flip charts to include professionally produced videos, wireless mics, enhanced audio recordings and computer-based presentations.

While it is unfortunate that these technical demands may be overwhelming the courtroom, its a great thing that high tech tools are available to participants in the cases.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands. Look to us first to meet your audio visual supply needs.

I have written before about counterfeit Duracell batteries, but I had no idea how big the problem really was.

Gillette, the division of Proctor & Gamble that makes Duracell Procell batteries is involved in a daily struggle around the world to try and keep these products off the market. It’s a daunting task. Gillette reported recently that in a span of only one week they seized 1,000,000 counterfeit batteries in two provinces of China. In addition, they also found hundreds of thousands of razors and tooth brushes made with their brand names.

The problem with batteries is particularly vexing, as the problem of lost revenue is just the beginning. The safety concerns over unstable battery chemistry and the potential damage that can be done to the device in which the battery is used make it difficult to know the real cost of this problem.

The blog posting that referenced Gillette’s battle against counterfeit batteries made an interesting point that I had never considered. That is that the international sale of counerfeit goods is at least partially run by organized crime and terrorist organizations that are able to raise money through these sales. Apparently there have been seized Al Qaeda training manuals that recommend the sale of counterfeit merchandise as a funding source.

Our Duracell Procell products come directly from the manufacturer and we stand behind them with a “Satisfaction Guaranteed” promise.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands. Look to us first to meet your microphone accessory and battery needs.

If you carry a cell phone, you know how easy it is to receive calls, no matter where you are. Your phone number works all over the country. Folks who use VOIP phone services like Skype and Vonage can plug their internet phones in almost anywhere in the world and get calls on their local phone number.

Justin Timberlake’s Future Sex/Loveshow has taken the concept of staying connected to a new level. As reported in the July 2007 edition of PLSN magazine, the Timberlake summer tour is saving thousand of dollars on telco costs by carrying its own internet based phone system.

WANetics LLC is providing the hardware and technical expertise that lets the Future Sex/Loveshow skip the costs of having the venue provide expensive temporary phone service and hardware. Not only do they not incur local telecommunications expenses, but details like phone and fax number remain unchanged, regardless of where the tour is performing.

Each of the tours five departments (promoter, production, accounting, crew and tour management) has its own dedicated road case that accomodates phones, cables, a fax machine, batteries, wifi and an ethernet switch. All voice and data services are provided through a broadband internet connection and then distributed on a frequency that will travel well throughout the production area of the venue and will not interfere with WIFI frequencies.

According to the PLSN article, the tour reported that voice quality was excellent and that overall service was good even in venues where internet quality was less than perfect. Best of all, the whole system worked no matter what part of the world they were in. The system even provided special phone capabilities like voicemail and conferencing.

Personally, after having paid lots of these telco bills myself while working as a promoters rep, I’m not shedding any tears for the local phone companies that will lose this revenue stream. They consistently overcharged and underperformed.

Look for this service to become the standard for large touring organizations of all sorts in the near future.

Want to know more about WANetics tour support? Here’s the link!

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands. All the supplies a major entertainment tour needs.

I’ve never been a big sports fan, but I began to follow some major sports when we had a chance to supply some very high profile events like the Super Bowl, NFL Playoffs, and The Kentucky Derby, etc. Knowing that we might have gaffers tape on the goal posts or batteries in the referee’s wireless mic has made me more interested.

Along with this interest comes an interest in reading the sports page. Some of the best writers for our local newspaper, The News and Oberver (Raleigh, NC) appear in the sports section and I have found myself drawn there every day. That may be about to change.

Yesterday’s front page of the sports section was really incredible. Out of six lead stories on the first page, only one was really about playing the game, whatever that game might be. Every other story was about some level of corruption in yet another major sport. The dog fighting scandal involving Michael Vick, Barry Bonds steriod use, doping allegations in the Tour de France, and gambling by an NBA referee all stole space from scores, trades and activity by local teams. It was more like reading a tabloid than a major newspaper sports page.

I grew up idolizing big league athletes, but my children have little interest in big time sports. This may or may not be related to the level of scandal, but, regardless, it means that they, and lots of their friends, won’t be buying tickets and purchasing merchandise.

We’ll continue to work with our customers who are involved in supporting major league sports, but if things don’t improve dramatically on the front page of the sports section, this is an industry heading for a major fall.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands. Look to us first to meet your microphone accessory and battery needs.

Because our web site, buybattery.com, scores so well in Google search, many consumers assume, incorrectly, that we are actually Duracell, and they contact us about customer service issues- even if they did not buy batteries from us. Mostly, they email to relate problems they have had with batteries, regardless of who the manufacturer or vendor is.

Unfortunately, I now have my own battery problem to relate. I periodically blog about wireless microphones, since we are the host of wirelessmic.net and because we were in the audio visual equipment rental business for many years. We still occasionally rent wireless mics.

I was preparing a rental package for a local sound company and discovered that two of our wireless transmitters contained corroded batteries. These were Everready Energizer Industrials, not the Procell batteries we sell. The offending batteries were well within their “use by” date code but they had leaked acid all over the battery contacts. Fortunately, the damage was limited to the battery contacts, but there was damage nonetheless.

If you are a regular user of wireless mics, the Energizer Industrials certainly don’t get the GoodBuyGuys.com seal of approval.

If you are interested in some more tips about batteries for wireless mics, click here.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands. Look to us first to meet your microphone accessory and battery needs.

After working on it for almost a year, last summer we were finally able to get a dealership for MagLites. I have enjoyed using these flashlights for years (every stagehand has one) and I was confident that the would be a big seller. I assumed (obviously incorrectly) that lots of our customers would be familiar with this line of flashlights and if our prices were competitive and our selection was good, they would sell.

We registered the web site, buymaglite.com, built a good e-commerce and information site, linked to goodbuyguys.com and waited for the orders to roll in.

Nothing!

We can’t give them away. Our offer on flashlights is always “batteries included“, we were never “out of stock” (I wish!), and the other sites affiliated with goodbuyguys.com were generating lots of traffic and lots of sales.

The quality of a Maglite has never been in dispute and the company does lots of national advertising to support the brand. These flashlights are durable, bright, and have a great warranty.

After several months of working on the web site, it scores well with major search engines, so it seems that buymaglite.com should be easy to find if someone actually wanted to “buy a Maglite”.

We’ll keep working on the site, but this problem is a real mystery to me.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands. Look to us first to meet your flashlight and battery needs.

I have periodically written in this space about the problems with using rechargeable batteries in wireless microphones. My primary concern regards being able to accurately predict the discharge rate for this type of battery and the problems they can cause in wireless mic use. These batteries use lithium technology, and it now turns out that there may be a much more significant problem when using rechargeable lithiums.

Information Week, a highly regarded technology publication, reports in the latest edition about exploding batteries in Chinese cell phones, including one that killed a Chinese welder. This was reported to be a Motorola phone, but Motorola’s response has been that the phone and/or the battery may have been counterfeit. If so, then Motorola might not have responsibility.

However, problems with counterfeit batteries or counterfeit Chinese products could easily invade the audio-visual market. There are many Chinese made wireless microphones on the market and lots of users think that they can save money buy buying offbrand lithium rechargeables for their mics.

Information Week is not the only source of info on exploding cell phone batteries. According to Engadget.com The Consumer Product Safety Commission reports 83 complaints on this matter in the last two years. They also point a finger towards suspect third party battery quality.

Furthermore, the problem seems to be made worse by overcharging the batteries, something that happens regularly with wireless mics, as they are often left in charge mode long after they are fully charged.

We don’t know of any reports of exploding AA, 9Volt or AAA lithium rechargeables, but the high number of reports about problems with all sorts of Chinese products gives me pause when thinking about any battery powered device that I might hold in my hand or close to my face.

For the time being, this would appear to be one more reason to wait for better future developments on rechargeable batteries for wireless mics and stick with alkalines.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords, OnStage Stand mic stands, and lots of other useful production supplies.

I periodically review both good podcasts and random pieces of interesting audio equipment. This posting is about both, or neither, depending on your point of view.

The podcast is GearMediaTech, one of the many podcast enterprises run by Leo Laporte of TWIT.tv. This particular podcast deals with audio equipment that might be of interest to podcasters who might want to learn more about audio or to improve the sound quality of their podcasts. But, like I said, this posting is not really about the podcast.

The particular podcast I am referring to is a discussion about the dbx166 limiter/compressor. I spent many years as a live sound technician and, without a doubt, the limiter/compressor wins the award for combining the most important functionality and the most confusing learning curve of any component used on pro audio. Knowing how to use a compressor/limiter properly can dramatically improve the quality of a live or recorded mix, but these things have enough knobs on them make your head swim. They use really confusing terminology like “threshold” and “expander” and incorrect use can really wreck a mix.

Proper use of a compressor/limiter is a lot like gaffers tape for audio. It holds the signal (as opposed to the cable) exactly where you need it to stay and then comes off clean (no distortion or audio coloration) when it is no longer needed.

Over the years I have owned lots of these units and would never want to do a loud or complicated show without them. But, this posting is not really about the dbx166.

What I am really writing about is good inherent design, and I was stunned to learn that a piece of gear that I have owned for years might have been a lot easier to learn to use than I realized. Scott Bourne, who partners with Leo Leporte on this podcast, points out in introducing the dbx166XL that you can get the classic dbx compressor sound by simply setting all the controls in the 12 o’clock position. Who knew? While this may oversimplify the use of this component, knowing now that you can have a good starting point for compressing your audio by simply setting all the knobs in the straight up postion is a great piece of info. Wish I had known about this in 1988!

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords, OnStage Stand mic stands, and other tape products.

My son and one of his friends have started podcasting. They record audio only to a digital camcorder and then transfer it to his computer for uploading. This works pretty well and I applaud him for coming up with a creative recording solution. Unfortunately, this creates huge file sizes which complicate editing and uploading.Most of what they do is in an interview or discussion format and this can make it pretty tough to get good audio quality just using the microhone from the camcorder.

I recently came across a solution that would allow him to record directly to his computer using a handheld mic and its a pretty neat device. The LightSnake USB intelligent microphone cable will allow you to plug a regular microphone (the kind that use standard XLR connectors) directly into a USB port. This means that you can use any type of microphone connected to the LightSnakes 10′ microphone cable without a mixer or any other sort of audio preamp. The circuitry for converting audio signals into USB is built right into the cable. It even has led’s in the cable that glow when the LightSnake is installed properly.

The Lightsnake is not cheap, at $70.00, but when you consider the price of a good mic preamp, a USB interface, and the hassles of cabling the packge,  the price seems reasonable. The “plug and play” simplicity is what really makes this a device worth considering, as converting audio to USB can get pretty complicated.

Need just a regular mic cable? Click here.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape, MagLite flashlights, Procell Batteries, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Entertainment 1 extension cords, OnStage Stand mic stands , and, now, Hosatech microphone cables.