Whats wrong with Christian music.

This has kind of always been a burr in my saddle.  But yesterday while waiting on some wav files to import into a session at PureMix I decided to pop in one of my favorite artists in the CD player and put it up on the big Dynaudio M3A mains.  After all, I was just going to be writing some notes and waiting on about 50+ tracks of wavs to import into my Pro Tools session.

Cool Tools September 15th 2010

Audio Technica AT2035.
My Favorite Large Diaphragm Condenser with Shockmount for under $99
Ok, this category used to belong to a different microphone, and was actually a slightly different category.  It USED to be My Favorite Large Diaphragm Condenser under $99 and it belonged to the AT2020.  However, Audio Technica has now dropped the MAP price of their AT2035, and it streets for under $99.  It can be had on B&H site for $95 with free shipping.  The cheap asian condenser market area is flooded with products, and this one stands head and shoulders clearly above any others I have tried and liked, loved, or hated in the past.  Mainly because it adds a low cut filter, a 10dB pad, and a really solid shock mount.
(I should also mention that I have owned 6 of these for at least year that are used weekly.  They have proven to be durable as well as sonically excellent on a variety of sources.  Just purchased more recently)

AJA Ki Pro
We just got this last week. I'm blown away by how cool this thing is.  Its VERY convenient and compact.  Has all the I/O you could need and records in FCP friendly Pro Res 422 and 422HQ.  Menu is super easy to navigate.  The included 250g hard drive has bus powered FW800 connections, and eSATA with an included power supply when using the lightning fast eSATA option.  It even has a dummy proof channel that the hard drive slides in on to prevent wearing out the connectors, and locks into place for recording with a super convenient "eject" feature.  This piece of equipment was VERY well thought out.
But probably the MOST convenient thing about it has not actually arrived yet.  The AJA Ki Pro Exoskeleton.  It mounts to the camera at the bottom, and to the tripod between the camera and tripod.  Gives you the option to actually pick the camera up and move it to another location quickly and neatly.  Not only that, but you also have the option to pull the camera off the tripod with the Ki Pro still attached to shoot video without the tripod, or, or or...  way cool.

Mighty Bright LED Orchestra Light
OK, I haven't purchased one of these YET.  Instead we got 5 of their $20 dual LED clip on music stand lights to test.  AAA battery powered, so I got some Sanyo Rechargeables and some Powerex Chargers, which are also great by the way.  I will need to get a couple of the more expensive (under $70) Orchestra Lights because they will do a much better job for folks who don't have great eyesight.  The biggest value here is a very uncluttered orchestra area.
So, while you're thinking about lights, check out all the other cool tools Might Bright makes for battery powered LED lights.  There is a pedal board light, a roadie light, a cool book reading light (for those of you who don't read all your books from a Kindle or iPad these days).

New camera for Colonial - Panasonic HPX370

(Sorry for the lousy Blackberry cell phone pic)
Test driving our new Panasonic HPX370 tonight.  Thoughts to come later...  One bummer is that it didn't ship with a power supply - had one from our old SD camera that had the correct power specs and connectors, so we're in business.  We are also adding the AJA Ki Pro into the mix this week to capture the series on James that begins this Sunday.
Who doesn't love new toys?