Laura:
00:00:00
if you want the best sound, the closer you can get to your
Laura:
00:00:04
mic, the more it's going to pick up just your voice and nothing else.
Laura:
00:00:08
And when you're doing something like this, where spoken word is so
Laura:
00:00:11
important, you need it to be close.
Laura:
00:00:14
It gives you that depth and richness.
Laura:
00:00:16
I have three monitors, know, I have this light rig and I have these boom
Laura:
00:00:19
arms and this desk is just perfect.
Laura:
00:00:21
And it's a standup desk too.
Laura:
00:00:23
So I can push a button.
Laura:
00:00:23
It's like, and it raises up.
Laura:
00:00:25
So that has been very key.
Laura:
00:00:28
I have to have a situation where I can just sit down, boot up the computer, and
Laura:
00:00:32
hit record in as few steps as possible or else I'm just gonna get, my ADD is gonna
Laura:
00:00:36
take me off into 17 other directions.
Laura:
00:00:44
Welcome to the Confident Live Marketing Podcast with Ian Anderson Gray.
Laura:
00:00:49
Helping you level up your impact, authority, and profits through
Laura:
00:00:53
the power of confident live video.
Laura:
00:00:55
Optimize your mindset and communication.
Laura:
00:00:57
And increase your confidence in front of the camera.
Laura:
00:01:01
Get confident with the tech and gear.
Laura:
00:01:03
And get confident with the content and marketing.
Laura:
00:01:07
Together, we can go live!
Ian:
00:01:09
Hello and welcome to the Confident Live Marketing Podcast.
Ian:
00:01:12
I'm Ian Anderson Gray and in this season, we're We're going behind the
Ian:
00:01:15
scenes, seeing my guests studio setups to look at their tech and the gear and
Ian:
00:01:19
how they get started and how you can get started and level up your studio.
Ian:
00:01:24
Well, I'm very excited to bring in my guest today, who
Ian:
00:01:27
is Laura Davidson, who is.
Ian:
00:01:30
A singer, songwriter, mom, and podcaster.
Ian:
00:01:32
These are just a few of the hats Laura Clap Davidson wears on a daily basis.
Ian:
00:01:37
She also leads a market development team at Shure Incorporated, where
Ian:
00:01:41
she helps people learn about microphones and solve tech mysteries.
Ian:
00:01:47
And welcome to the show, Laura.
Ian:
00:01:48
It's funny, when I was reading your biography, Before the show,
Ian:
00:01:51
because I always like to make sure I, I'm not gonna say anything wrong.
Ian:
00:01:55
I read that as tech miseries not Tech Mysteries, so I'm sure there are a few
Laura:
00:01:59
is a very, that is also an accurate description.
Laura:
00:02:03
Yes, I solve those as well.
Laura:
00:02:05
Yes.
Ian:
00:02:06
Yeah.
Ian:
00:02:06
You, you turn the miseries into, I dunno, what's the, what's the
Ian:
00:02:09
positive in, into happiness.
Ian:
00:02:11
That's, that's what you are.
Laura:
00:02:13
I don't know.
Laura:
00:02:14
Cures?
Laura:
00:02:14
I
Laura:
00:02:14
don't, yeah.
Laura:
00:02:16
Find the cure for your
Laura:
00:02:18
audio miseries, technical
Ian:
00:02:19
like I've, I see that, uh, some, uh, tech support agents are now
Ian:
00:02:23
calling themselves happiness engineers.
Laura:
00:02:26
Oh yes, we have that at Shure,
Laura:
00:02:29
actually, but we've just changed the name of the department.
Laura:
00:02:31
I can't remember what it is offhand, but yeah, it was, yeah.
Laura:
00:02:34
Customer happiness, which is what you ultimately want.
Laura:
00:02:37
If you are a
Laura:
00:02:38
disgruntled customer and you're calling into a company, the
Laura:
00:02:41
company wants you to be happy.
Laura:
00:02:42
So yeah, I'm not, I'm, I'm not mad about it.
Ian:
00:02:46
No, no, no, I'm not too.
Ian:
00:02:47
It makes total sense.
Ian:
00:02:48
So thank you for coming on.
Ian:
00:02:50
We're going to be going behind the scenes with your studio set up.
Ian:
00:02:53
And I love the fact that you've got all these different hats.
Ian:
00:02:55
You know, who says you just do one that we're all confined to do one thing.
Ian:
00:03:00
And yes, you work with.
Ian:
00:03:02
For sure.
Ian:
00:03:02
I think pretty much everyone will have heard of sure.
Ian:
00:03:05
Um, uh, who makes the most amazing microphones amongst
Ian:
00:03:08
lots of other things as well.
Ian:
00:03:09
But you do all these other things as well.
Ian:
00:03:11
You've got a musical background.
Ian:
00:03:12
You sing.
Ian:
00:03:13
So that makes me happy because that's my background too.
Ian:
00:03:17
Um, so we might, you're going to come back onto the show.
Ian:
00:03:19
We'll talk a little bit more about your musical background.
Ian:
00:03:22
journey with communication and confidence in front of the camera
Ian:
00:03:25
and in front of the microphone.
Ian:
00:03:27
But can you give listeners and viewers like a brief introduction about
Ian:
00:03:30
you, highlighting your background that makes, that's kind of had an
Ian:
00:03:35
influence on your studio set up today?
Laura:
00:03:38
Yeah, absolutely.
Laura:
00:03:39
So I started off as a singer songwriter.
Laura:
00:03:42
I went to Berklee College of Music and graduated, moved to Nashville,
Laura:
00:03:47
was doing the singer songwriter thing.
Laura:
00:03:48
So playing gigs all the time, writing all the time, uh, and had a
Laura:
00:03:53
temp job here or there and started working for a music publisher.
Laura:
00:03:57
And then I got asked to demonstrate a piece of gear at something called the
Laura:
00:04:00
NAMM Show, which is this annual show for like, It used to be 90, 000 people in
Laura:
00:04:06
Anaheim in January, and I was flown out to sing and use this wildly complicated
Laura:
00:04:13
box that turned my voice into four voices of harmony, and I fell in love.
Laura:
00:04:18
I was demonstrating, uh, showing people how they could take their,
Laura:
00:04:22
um, you know, arrangement or their demo gig and really, you know, do it.
Laura:
00:04:26
or cover gig and kick it up several notches by having these multiple voices
Laura:
00:04:30
and making it sound very natural because you can kind of go the other side there
Laura:
00:04:33
and have it sound really unnatural but um, so I started doing that and because
Laura:
00:04:38
of that it led to all this other knowledge of gear and microphones and guitars.
Laura:
00:04:44
I got an endorsement deal from Alvarez when I was doing that and
Laura:
00:04:48
it just helped my musical career blossom in a whole different way and
Laura:
00:04:52
support me in a whole different way.
Laura:
00:04:54
So that I could continue to make music, but also kind of dig
Laura:
00:04:58
into this love of gear and tech.
Laura:
00:04:59
So that's kind of how I landed here.
Laura:
00:05:01
That was in 2006.
Laura:
00:05:03
So it's, it's been a minute.
Laura:
00:05:04
It's been a long
Ian:
00:05:05
Yeah.
Ian:
00:05:05
And I think that's great.
Ian:
00:05:06
Yeah.
Ian:
00:05:06
We were talking just before we started recording about the balance between
Ian:
00:05:11
being a musician and, you know, being a creator and, and, you know, working for
Ian:
00:05:17
a business or running your own business.
Ian:
00:05:20
There's something I'm sure you would say the same, like you can't
Ian:
00:05:24
not do the music side of things.
Ian:
00:05:26
It's something that's kind of part of you and it's a, creative outlet.
Ian:
00:05:30
And you're for podcast listeners who can't see Laura's setup,
Ian:
00:05:33
you know, she's got a keyboard.
Ian:
00:05:35
In fact, there's two keyboards there as I can see two guitars.
Ian:
00:05:39
You've got your lovely Shawn microphone, which we're going to come on to in a bit.
Ian:
00:05:42
So you've surrounded yourself with all this gear that helps you,
Ian:
00:05:48
which is part of your creativity.
Ian:
00:05:50
I'm going to ask you about that because in a minute because I love to
Ian:
00:05:54
hear about the space that you're in and how that helps your creativity.
Ian:
00:05:59
But let's dive into your studio setup.
Ian:
00:06:02
And, you know, the first question I always ask is microphone and your audio setup,
Ian:
00:06:07
because like that is in my view, in many people's views is the most important.
Ian:
00:06:12
Even if you're on camera, if you're, if you're, if you're microphone,
Ian:
00:06:15
if people can't hear you very well, they're going to switch off.
Ian:
00:06:18
So I assume you're with me on that.
Ian:
00:06:21
Tell us about your microphone setup and, and.
Ian:
00:06:23
Audio set up and why you chose that.
Laura:
00:06:27
Shure MV7 Plus, which we just launched this past year and, or this
Laura:
00:06:32
current year, I guess I should say.
Laura:
00:06:34
And it's the new variant of the MV7, which we launched in 2020.
Laura:
00:06:38
It's a USB XLR hybrid microphone, meaning I can plug in to a mixer or I
Laura:
00:06:43
can plug in directly to my computer, which is what I'm doing right now.
Laura:
00:06:47
So I'm actually monitoring myself at the same time too.
Laura:
00:06:50
I have my earphones.
Laura:
00:06:52
My bright green earphones plugged into the back of my MV7 Plus and then I'm
Laura:
00:06:57
running USB C up this gorgeous, uh, co branded Gator boom arm that I'm
Laura:
00:07:03
obsessed with, uh, into my MacBook Pro.
Laura:
00:07:05
That's it.
Laura:
00:07:06
So mic, earphones, boom arm, computer.
Laura:
00:07:09
Ta da!
Laura:
00:07:10
That's my setup.
Laura:
00:07:10
I don't even have to do a B roll shot because
Ian:
00:07:13
Yeah.
Ian:
00:07:13
Yeah.
Ian:
00:07:14
Yeah.
Ian:
00:07:14
Yeah.
Ian:
00:07:14
So you're not plugging it into a, like a fancy mixer or audio
Ian:
00:07:18
presses or anything like that.
Ian:
00:07:20
And it sounds great.
Ian:
00:07:21
I mean, the quality.
Ian:
00:07:22
Is really crisp and clear.
Ian:
00:07:24
You voice sounds resonant.
Ian:
00:07:25
It sounds natural, which is everything that you really want.
Ian:
00:07:28
And you don't have to play around with any of this kind of complicated stuff.
Ian:
00:07:31
Like I, I mean, I've, I've got mine into a red custard pro and that can, I mean,
Ian:
00:07:37
I, I, I love playing around with tech, but I'm always, I'm always reluctant
Ian:
00:07:43
to recommend that to people because it.
Ian:
00:07:46
Took me quite a while to set up what you really want.
Ian:
00:07:49
I think, and I'm sure you agree is good enough quality tech that just works.
Ian:
00:07:55
That doesn't get in the way of you creating your content.
Ian:
00:08:00
Um, I'd love to know a little bit more about the microphone though.
Ian:
00:08:03
So what, how's that compared with its predecessor?
Ian:
00:08:05
You, you mentioned it's USB, so you, uh, you can plug that directly into
Ian:
00:08:09
your computer, but it's also XLR.
Ian:
00:08:11
So if you do want to be fancy, you've got that option too.
Ian:
00:08:15
Tell us a little bit more about that.
Ian:
00:08:16
And I've assumed, you know, there's the, there's the whole dynamic
Ian:
00:08:18
microphone versus condenser.
Ian:
00:08:20
Tell us a bit more specifically about this.
Laura:
00:08:22
Yes.
Laura:
00:08:22
So, I'm gonna show you because I'm a big visual person.
Laura:
00:08:27
So,
Laura:
00:08:27
this is the
Ian:
00:08:28
can explain for podcast listeners as well, just so that they
Laura:
00:08:31
Yes, I will explain.
Laura:
00:08:32
So I'm, I'm holding my MV7, which is the predecessor.
Laura:
00:08:35
This is a custom variant, which I had, uh, done by Colorware, which you can do
Laura:
00:08:40
if you want to take your MV7, not the MV7 plus yet, but we're working on it,
Laura:
00:08:44
uh, and have it match your brand colors.
Laura:
00:08:46
You can do that with this awesome website called Colorware, uh, C O L O R W A R E.
Laura:
00:08:52
Uh, and so anyway, The MV7 has a micro USB on the back, which was kind of one
Laura:
00:08:57
of the things that people asked us to change from the jump, which we did.
Laura:
00:09:01
So now the MV7 plus has a USB C, which is super handy.
Laura:
00:09:07
Uh, and it also has a different, uh, LED panel and it's a little bit
Laura:
00:09:11
longer in terms of the windscreens.
Laura:
00:09:14
So my MV7 plus Because the MV7 kind of had some issues with plosives
Laura:
00:09:19
we heard from people, so we made it a more robust windscreen and
Laura:
00:09:22
made it a little bit longer.
Laura:
00:09:24
And now you can customize the LED panel, whereas on the MV7 you had some tactile
Laura:
00:09:31
controls of volume and mix and mic level, and the mute was kind of hard to reach.
Laura:
00:09:36
We've now made the whole LED panel tappable, so it's a cap touch
Laura:
00:09:40
sensor, so if you touch it because you have to cough or Mute real
Laura:
00:09:43
quick, it will mute the microphone.
Laura:
00:09:45
Uh, and you also can now use this wonderful piece of software
Laura:
00:09:49
called Motive Mix, which is why the mic is sounding so great.
Laura:
00:09:52
I have it in auto level mode right now, meaning it's going to constantly
Laura:
00:09:56
adjust my gain, so that if I get loud or soft, it will accommodate my
Laura:
00:10:01
voice, and I don't have to have an engineer or myself riding a fader.
Laura:
00:10:05
digital or otherwise to make sure that my levels are consistent.
Laura:
00:10:09
And there's also some great, uh, compression and EQ and de
Laura:
00:10:13
noising in that Motive Mix app.
Laura:
00:10:16
Uh, so that's kind of the differences between the MV7 and MV7 Plus.
Laura:
00:10:20
And the other benefit to using Motive Mix is that you can plug in
Laura:
00:10:23
multiple USB microphones into your computer, which a lot of people have
Laura:
00:10:28
accomplished before using something like Loopback, but that can be, um, A
Laura:
00:10:32
little confusing for those who aren't audio people and it's, it costs money.
Laura:
00:10:36
So the Motive Mix is free and you can have up to five USB sources in Motive
Laura:
00:10:40
Mix that you can then bring into your podcast or live stream without
Laura:
00:10:44
having to create an aggregate device.
Laura:
00:10:46
So that's the differences.
Laura:
00:10:49
In a nutshell,
Ian:
00:10:50
wow.
Ian:
00:10:50
And you said, you said an LCD screen.
Ian:
00:10:52
So like for people who haven't come across these microphones, why would,
Ian:
00:10:56
why would a microphone even have that?
Ian:
00:10:58
Like a lot of microphones, people are used to.
Ian:
00:11:00
They're just a microphone.
Ian:
00:11:01
So what are these fancy things that you can do?
Ian:
00:11:04
You mentioned
Laura:
00:11:04
Well,
Ian:
00:11:05
pressing a mute switch, but there's more than that.
Laura:
00:11:08
So, for those are watching, you can see this LED panel is
Laura:
00:11:12
kind of lighting up and pulsing.
Laura:
00:11:13
So, it's working.
Laura:
00:11:14
I have it in live.
Laura:
00:11:15
It's called live meter mode.
Laura:
00:11:16
So, it's it's working like a a clip.
Laura:
00:11:19
So, if I see it clipping or you getting too bright, then I know
Laura:
00:11:22
that I need to adjust my signal, but because I'm in auto level mode,
Laura:
00:11:25
I don't have to worry about that.
Laura:
00:11:26
Uh, but it's just a fun way to have your branded colors incorporated into the mic.
Laura:
00:11:31
You can make it solid to match your brand color.
Laura:
00:11:33
You can have it pulse slowly, or you can put it into live mode like I have it here.
Laura:
00:11:37
And there's 16.
Laura:
00:11:38
9 million color variant options.
Laura:
00:11:40
So it's really just fun.
Laura:
00:11:42
It's fun, it looks cool, you can customize it, and then you have
Laura:
00:11:45
that big, uh, whole surface area to tap, um, and mute your mic.
Laura:
00:11:50
So that's why.
Ian:
00:11:51
Love it.
Ian:
00:11:51
Love it.
Ian:
00:11:51
And this is, uh, a dynamic microphone.
Ian:
00:11:54
So you're having it fairly close to you.
Ian:
00:11:57
Presumably like, so some part where we had a talk about, I think somebody
Ian:
00:12:01
A few weeks ago, I had the blue Yeti microphone where you have to speak into
Ian:
00:12:06
the side of it, but with this microphone, you're speaking into the end of it.
Ian:
00:12:10
Can you tell us a little bit more about that for people who don't know the
Ian:
00:12:12
difference between dynamic microphones and other types of microphones?
Ian:
00:12:15
I figured you'd, you'd be a good person to talk to you about that.
Laura:
00:12:17
I do.
Laura:
00:12:18
Yes, I, that is my gig.
Laura:
00:12:19
So I hope I know the answer to this.
Laura:
00:12:21
Uh, yeah.
Laura:
00:12:22
So dynamic microphones, uh, work differently than condenser microphones
Laura:
00:12:26
because they require a little bit more physical energy to move a coil.
Laura:
00:12:32
around a magnet that then converts your acoustic energy into electrical signal.
Laura:
00:12:38
So that's why they're better in untreated spaces because it's not
Laura:
00:12:42
going to react and capture as many sounds like your HVAC, your dog that's
Laura:
00:12:48
laying on the floor next to you.
Laura:
00:12:49
Not that I have that right now.
Laura:
00:12:51
And, uh, you know, different sounds or reverberations around
Laura:
00:12:54
your room, whereas a condenser microphone is built for the studio.
Laura:
00:12:58
Uh, built for treated spaces, not to say you can't use a condenser mic
Laura:
00:13:03
on stage because this is my favorite vocal microphone that we make.
Laura:
00:13:06
It's called the SM86 and it is a stage condenser mic, but you just have to
Laura:
00:13:12
have a little bit more awareness.
Laura:
00:13:14
and technique to know that a condenser mic is going to pick up
Laura:
00:13:18
more, so you need to get close to it.
Laura:
00:13:20
And you just need to be aware if you're in a wildly loud or reverberant space,
Laura:
00:13:25
condensers are going to be that much harder to not pick up or to make not pick
Laura:
00:13:30
up all the things around you, if that
Ian:
00:13:31
Yeah, that makes sense.
Ian:
00:13:33
And like a friend of mine, Mike Russell, who's been on the show, he's, he spent
Ian:
00:13:38
a lot of money in his microphone.
Ian:
00:13:39
It's a condenser microphone, but he spent a lot of money on treating.
Ian:
00:13:42
His studio space.
Ian:
00:13:43
So it's like perfect audio.
Ian:
00:13:45
And so like, fine, that's great.
Ian:
00:13:47
But for most of us who don't have that luxury of, of treating our space, I think,
Ian:
00:13:53
you know, I assume you would agree a dynamic microphone makes a lot more sense.
Ian:
00:13:56
Uh, some people like struggle with the idea of having it in shot.
Ian:
00:14:00
Like both of us, we've got our microphones in shot.
Ian:
00:14:03
I love that from a branding point of view, you know, I've got a mic flag here.
Ian:
00:14:07
You know, you mentioned with your microphone, the shore microphone,
Ian:
00:14:10
you You can brand it as well with different colors, which is awesome.
Ian:
00:14:13
But not everyone is into the microphone and shot side of things.
Ian:
00:14:17
And I would say, well, And if this sounds very unkind, but you kind of
Ian:
00:14:21
have to get over that, but like, do you have a, what's your view on that?
Ian:
00:14:25
Do you, would you agree with that?
Ian:
00:14:26
Or do you, yeah.
Ian:
00:14:29
What do you think?
Laura:
00:14:30
Yes, I do agree with that, that if you want the best sound,
Laura:
00:14:36
the closer you can get to your mic, the more it's going to pick up
Laura:
00:14:40
just your voice and nothing else.
Laura:
00:14:43
And when you're doing something like this, where spoken word is so
Laura:
00:14:46
important, you need it to be close.
Laura:
00:14:49
It gives you that depth and richness.
Laura:
00:14:52
If I were to move this out of my shot, you know, auto level mode will accommodate.
Laura:
00:14:57
a little bit more, not out of my shot.
Laura:
00:14:59
My shot's too wide, but you know, move it away from me.
Laura:
00:15:02
You're hearing more of the reverberance in my
Laura:
00:15:05
room.
Laura:
00:15:05
So that's, I love this.
Laura:
00:15:07
I love being close to the mic and getting that richness and depth.
Laura:
00:15:11
And also I'm speaking off axis on the mic.
Laura:
00:15:13
I always tell people that.
Laura:
00:15:15
So you were mentioning with the blue Yeti that, you know, you have to address
Laura:
00:15:18
it from the side and not from the top, which a lot of people were doing.
Laura:
00:15:22
This one is a front address microphone, but if you do go straight on axis,
Laura:
00:15:26
you might have plosives, even
Laura:
00:15:28
though this has a digital pop or stop or two.
Laura:
00:15:30
I forgot to mention that.
Laura:
00:15:31
Um, I just, I just turn a little bit and it helps, but, um, yeah, if you're wanting
Laura:
00:15:37
the camera to not be in shot, you You have some options, but the real thing that
Laura:
00:15:44
you'd want to do if you're doing that is to use a lavalier mic, which is one that
Laura:
00:15:48
you would physically wear, and then you're just not as aware of it, which we do make.
Laura:
00:15:53
We make some really great lavaliers.
Laura:
00:15:55
I've got them all here.
Laura:
00:15:56
So, um, yes.
Ian:
00:15:59
But, but it's not, there's something about using a dynamic microphone,
Ian:
00:16:02
having it up close that I think it gives that more of that intimacy.
Ian:
00:16:05
Like if you're listening to the podcast now, as opposed to maybe watching it
Ian:
00:16:11
through speakers or through your phone.
Ian:
00:16:13
There's something about the fact that we're using these dynamic microphones.
Ian:
00:16:15
It feels like you're just here with us in the same room, even though
Ian:
00:16:20
we're not in the same room where, you know, thousands of miles apart.
Ian:
00:16:23
It has that intimacy because, because we're kind of close up to the microphone.
Ian:
00:16:28
I think I wanted to ask you, we will get onto other stuff too, but since you've
Ian:
00:16:32
said, no, no so much about microphones and audio, I want to ask you all these audio
Ian:
00:16:35
questions and you obviously do sing it.
Ian:
00:16:39
You do a lot of singing.
Ian:
00:16:40
Um, do you use that same microphone for singing.
Ian:
00:16:43
How versatile is it?
Ian:
00:16:45
Can you use it for, you know, obviously for podcasting for video?
Ian:
00:16:48
Can you use it for other types of content like singing and music?
Laura:
00:16:53
absolutely.
Laura:
00:16:53
People use the MV7 Plus and MV7 a lot to do, uh, multiple recording type scenarios.
Laura:
00:17:00
It's really great on guitar, uh, especially electric guitar, you know,
Laura:
00:17:04
cabinets because it can take a lot of what's called SPL, sound pressure level.
Laura:
00:17:08
Um, but when I do a live stream that's music based, I
Laura:
00:17:11
will use my performance stage.
Laura:
00:17:14
Microphone the sm86 or our new nexodyne, which I don't have right in front of me.
Laura:
00:17:19
Oh fail Uh, but you know that's I will use that because I want to have that
Laura:
00:17:24
same experience because i'm when I do my live streams and it's music based I run
Laura:
00:17:27
it into A vocal effects processor and then I have a little bit more control.
Laura:
00:17:31
So can I use this to do studio vocals?
Laura:
00:17:34
Yes, but I am spoiled and have you know schmancier side address condenser
Laura:
00:17:40
mics that I use I use for that.
Laura:
00:17:42
That's the technical term.
Laura:
00:17:43
Schmancier.
Ian:
00:17:44
I like that.
Ian:
00:17:44
And how just this is just my own kind of because I've I've really
Ian:
00:17:48
interested in the other microphone.
Ian:
00:17:51
The SM remind me of it the SM
Laura:
00:17:53
86.
Ian:
00:17:54
86.
Ian:
00:17:54
So how does that compare to like, the one that is loved all
Ian:
00:17:58
around the world, the SM 58.
Ian:
00:17:59
How, I mean, the SM 58 is.
Ian:
00:18:01
I'm assuming a dynamic microphone, but you have to excuse my ignorance.
Ian:
00:18:04
Yeah.
Laura:
00:18:05
No, you're not.
Laura:
00:18:05
You're
Laura:
00:18:06
fine.
Laura:
00:18:06
I mean, I don't have my, I don't have my 58, my SM 58.
Laura:
00:18:09
I have a beta 58, but I have the SM 57 here.
Laura:
00:18:13
And so this is a dynamic microphone.
Laura:
00:18:16
It is the industry standard because it's nearly indestructible.
Laura:
00:18:20
Sounds great.
Laura:
00:18:21
Sound engineers know how to make it work on spoken.
Laura:
00:18:24
Uh, word, vocals, instruments.
Laura:
00:18:26
You could put SM57 or SM58 on a number of different things.
Laura:
00:18:30
And if you look at the SM86 capsule, as opposed to, I'm going to do
Laura:
00:18:37
this one, I'll take my Beta 58 because it looks just like an SM58.
Laura:
00:18:45
Here's your differences.
Laura:
00:18:46
And for those who are listening, the SM58, the Beta 58, they use the same, uh,
Laura:
00:18:51
cartridge It has a much bigger design.
Laura:
00:18:55
This is using that dynamic technology where there's a diaphragm, a magnet
Laura:
00:19:00
in here, and a coil surrounding it.
Laura:
00:19:02
Whereas the SM86 is so much more delicate and small.
Laura:
00:19:08
This is a condenser microphone again.
Laura:
00:19:10
And the way condensers work is that instead of having the
Laura:
00:19:12
magnet and the coil, they have an electrically charged backplate.
Laura:
00:19:15
So if you've ever come across something called phantom power.
Laura:
00:19:18
That's providing that electrical charge to the back plate.
Laura:
00:19:21
There's a teeny space in between allowing the diaphragm to move and agitate
Laura:
00:19:25
that and create that, that signal.
Laura:
00:19:27
So totally different design and it responds so differently.
Laura:
00:19:32
And, and it's just, it's a beautiful mic.
Laura:
00:19:34
I love it.
Ian:
00:19:36
well, it does, it does look very nice too.
Ian:
00:19:38
So that's really interesting.
Ian:
00:19:40
I'm wanting to incorporate a lot more music into what I do.
Ian:
00:19:43
Um, you know, not sure unless I bring back my silly songs, but you
Ian:
00:19:47
never know if, if you enjoyed the silly songs in the past, let me know.
Ian:
00:19:50
But yeah, I've, I've been thinking a lot more about making this space that
Ian:
00:19:54
I'm in, not just for podcasting and video creation, but also bringing my
Ian:
00:19:58
music into what I do too, which is.
Ian:
00:20:00
Obviously what you're doing and I'm gonna definitely check out your life.
Ian:
00:20:03
Do you still do live streams with your me with your music making?
Laura:
00:20:07
Those are few and far between these
Laura:
00:20:08
days.
Laura:
00:20:09
It was happening a lot in COVID.
Laura:
00:20:11
I, I would do happy hours and just, you know, for my own sanity, uh, just do some
Laura:
00:20:16
stuff, but there's, you can see stuff.
Laura:
00:20:18
Um, one of the best ones I did was with the Women's International Music
Laura:
00:20:23
Network, and it was called the She Rocks Spotlight, and I got to do a really
Laura:
00:20:26
cool performance in this same room.
Laura:
00:20:29
So you can hear what it sounds like and it sounds like, um, you know, a live
Laura:
00:20:32
recording, but in a, in a home studio.
Laura:
00:20:35
So that was really fun.
Ian:
00:20:36
Awesome.
Ian:
00:20:36
Well, we've spoken a lot about microphones, but we need to quickly go
Ian:
00:20:39
through the other parts of your studio.
Ian:
00:20:41
So if you're watching, you'll be noticing obviously Laura's camera.
Ian:
00:20:46
Tell us about your camera.
Ian:
00:20:47
Do you have just one camera?
Ian:
00:20:48
Do you have multiple cameras?
Ian:
00:20:49
Tell us about what you, why you chose what you've got.
Laura:
00:20:52
Uh, so I have a Sony ZV E10 as my main camera, and I really don't
Laura:
00:20:57
have a ton of need to do, uh, other angles for the type of content that
Laura:
00:21:01
I'm creating, but I do have the OBSBOT, I always get that wrong, over here,
Laura:
00:21:08
the tiny.
Laura:
00:21:09
I love this little guy.
Laura:
00:21:10
And so that's on another boom arm over here, so I can do product
Laura:
00:21:13
shots, or I can have, you know, just another thing to switch to.
Laura:
00:21:16
And I use my Elgato Stream Deck for that.
Laura:
00:21:18
I haven't bit the bullet and upgraded that one, so I'm still
Laura:
00:21:21
using the OG with the, you know, USB, whatever it is, A connector.
Laura:
00:21:27
Um, but it works fine, and I love it.
Laura:
00:21:29
Uh, and so that's my, my camera setup, and my lighting is just a basic, uh, box light
Laura:
00:21:35
that I bought from Amazon a long time ago, probably seven or eight years ago.
Laura:
00:21:39
And I got a kit of four of them that came with the stands,
Laura:
00:21:42
the lights, and it's huge.
Laura:
00:21:44
And I need to change that as well, but it works.
Laura:
00:21:46
So
Laura:
00:21:47
until it doesn't,
Ian:
00:21:48
That's the thing.
Ian:
00:21:48
There's always, there's always this like never ending kind of list of
Ian:
00:21:51
things that we're going to get.
Ian:
00:21:53
You've also got, you've got like a, is it like neon lights or you got this kind of
Ian:
00:21:56
lit up text, but so tell us about that.
Ian:
00:21:58
Cause I'm really interested in that in the background.
Laura:
00:22:00
Yeah.
Laura:
00:22:00
So that, uh, we bought for a trade show called she podcasts live, and
Laura:
00:22:06
then the show did not end up happening, which was super sad because it's a
Laura:
00:22:09
great, uh, Great organization and I love that group of ladies, but um,
Laura:
00:22:15
I got to keep the sign, uh, because it just became part of my brand.
Laura:
00:22:19
So it says Sound Extraordinary, which is a Shore tagline and um, yeah, and
Laura:
00:22:25
then I have actually up a little bit.
Laura:
00:22:31
So those beautiful pieces of artwork on the top, my daughter's made.
Laura:
00:22:36
And they are acoustic panels
Ian:
00:22:39
Oh, cool.
Laura:
00:22:41
which when at Ecamm Creator Camp, I was teaching people that you can just
Laura:
00:22:45
go to Michaels, buy a basic canvas, paint it how you want, design it how you want,
Laura:
00:22:50
and put some foam batting behind it, and it'll help dampen the sounds in your room.
Laura:
00:22:54
So, my daughters made those and they're awesome, so they're up top.
Ian:
00:22:57
Awesome.
Ian:
00:22:58
Well, we're going to come back to like your, your studio.
Ian:
00:23:01
Um, and what the personalization of it in a minute, but I forgot to
Ian:
00:23:04
ask you about your, your boom arm.
Ian:
00:23:07
You mentioned that a little bit, but you also got another boom arm for your.
Ian:
00:23:11
camera.
Ian:
00:23:12
Um, and I want to ask you about like shock mounts.
Ian:
00:23:16
Do you need, just doesn't look like half a shot.
Ian:
00:23:18
My, do you need a shock mount or do you not?
Ian:
00:23:20
Uh, tell us a little bit about what you've got set up there.
Ian:
00:23:22
Cause I do love the look of your.
Ian:
00:23:24
Of of the boom.
Ian:
00:23:25
Mom.
Ian:
00:23:26
It looks cool.
Laura:
00:23:27
Thank you.
Laura:
00:23:27
Yes, this, I, I'm tapping on the desk and you really can't hear it.
Laura:
00:23:32
It has very good isolation because it has this great, uh, base on the bottom
Laura:
00:23:38
that kind of alleviates and buffers the tapping on the, the keyboard.
Laura:
00:23:43
So I have that.
Laura:
00:23:45
And, and, yeah, nothing else.
Laura:
00:23:46
This is kind of isolating it as well.
Laura:
00:23:49
Uh, and it comes with an extender for the SM seven DB so that you can put
Laura:
00:23:55
it on here and 'cause the SM seven db, which I also have right here, uh, has
Laura:
00:24:00
this guy that gets a little too close to it when you, when you plug it in, so.
Laura:
00:24:05
This is a great boom arm.
Laura:
00:24:06
I can't say enough good things about,
Ian:
00:24:09
What's the, what's the name of the boom?
Ian:
00:24:10
Mom?
Ian:
00:24:10
Just remind me the name.
Laura:
00:24:11
Oh goodness.
Laura:
00:24:12
It's, you would ask me that it's
Laura:
00:24:13
the Gator broadcast.
Laura:
00:24:17
Um,
Ian:
00:24:17
It's in the show notes.
Ian:
00:24:18
It's in the
Laura:
00:24:18
it is.
Laura:
00:24:19
I did link it.
Laura:
00:24:20
I
Laura:
00:24:20
linked it.
Laura:
00:24:21
I did.
Laura:
00:24:21
I linked it with a bundle on shore.
Laura:
00:24:23
com cause you can get the mic, the boom arm and some
Laura:
00:24:26
headphones, which are SRH 440 A's.
Laura:
00:24:29
These are great headphones.
Laura:
00:24:31
I see Anne's wearing some headphones right now.
Laura:
00:24:33
I'm an earphone kind of gal when I'm recording cause my hair, you
Laura:
00:24:36
know, but, um, These I use all the time when I record my podcast.
Laura:
00:24:40
So there's a sweet bundle in there.
Laura:
00:24:42
Save some money.
Ian:
00:24:43
that's, that sounds good.
Ian:
00:24:45
Yeah.
Ian:
00:24:45
And I would wear earphones.
Ian:
00:24:46
I just, I'm lazy.
Ian:
00:24:48
The, I just put these on
Laura:
00:24:50
Just throw them on there.
Laura:
00:24:51
I love it.
Ian:
00:24:51
short by gator, deluxe articulating desktop, microphone, boom, stand,
Laura:
00:24:57
I totally botched that one, Ian.
Laura:
00:24:59
Don't tell my boss.
Laura:
00:25:01
Okay.
Laura:
00:25:02
Our secret's safe with us, right?
Laura:
00:25:04
Mm
Laura:
00:25:04
hmm.
Ian:
00:25:04
it's all, it's all good.
Ian:
00:25:06
Computer.
Ian:
00:25:06
What computer or devices do you use?
Ian:
00:25:09
And have you got anything as special set up all that?
Ian:
00:25:11
Or is it pretty simple?
Laura:
00:25:13
It's pretty simple.
Laura:
00:25:13
You know, it's funny when I was going into the show notes, I was like,
Laura:
00:25:16
my computer, it's a work computer.
Laura:
00:25:18
I have over here a studio, um, computer, which is an iMac, which I never use
Laura:
00:25:24
for, I only use that for music creation.
Laura:
00:25:26
I, I purposefully bought it and I try to keep it off the internet and keep it safe.
Laura:
00:25:31
keep it, you know, clean as possible.
Laura:
00:25:33
Um, this one is a 2019 MacBook Pro.
Laura:
00:25:38
And I was like, wow, that's not a new one, but it's working.
Laura:
00:25:41
Sometimes she sounds like she's on fire, but you know, I do I
Laura:
00:25:44
do make her work pretty hard.
Laura:
00:25:46
So that's, what I'm using and that's it.
Laura:
00:25:48
That's
Laura:
00:25:49
why I love this.
Laura:
00:25:50
As creators, our lives are so easy right now.
Laura:
00:25:54
Like
Laura:
00:25:54
you could just go and I always use Ecamm Live.
Laura:
00:25:56
It's my, my choice for live streaming, um, because it's just so easy too.
Laura:
00:26:01
And the community is so great.
Laura:
00:26:03
So that's my setup.
Laura:
00:26:04
Uh,
Ian:
00:26:16
the, Opening up for the first time that it's it's great.
Ian:
00:26:21
Love it.
Ian:
00:26:22
Okay, we are running out of time But I did want to quickly before
Ian:
00:26:26
we get to the quick family round.
Ian:
00:26:27
I did want to ask you about Your space because of the personalization, I
Ian:
00:26:32
think matters a lot to how have you made your studio space uniquely yours
Ian:
00:26:39
to foster creativity and productivity.
Ian:
00:26:42
So you can do your best work where you are.
Laura:
00:26:46
the desk that I'm using right now, I wish I could show
Laura:
00:26:48
you, but it's such a mess.
Laura:
00:26:50
I would die.
Laura:
00:26:51
It has been such a game changer for me.
Laura:
00:26:54
It's from Amazon.
Laura:
00:26:56
It's in the show notes.
Laura:
00:26:57
I think, I hope I gave a link there.
Laura:
00:26:59
It's just the perfect workspace because I have, there's like
Laura:
00:27:03
this little shelf in front of me.
Laura:
00:27:04
I have all my mics here.
Laura:
00:27:05
So as you see me pulling them out like a magic show, they're all right there.
Laura:
00:27:10
And then I have my headphones hanging up on the wall right here.
Laura:
00:27:13
I have three monitors, you know, I have this light rig and I have these boom
Laura:
00:27:17
arms and this desk is just perfect.
Laura:
00:27:19
And it's a standup desk too.
Laura:
00:27:20
So I can push a button.
Laura:
00:27:21
It's like, and it raises up.
Laura:
00:27:23
So that has been very key.
Laura:
00:27:25
I fought it for several years.
Laura:
00:27:27
I just got this in December and I'm.
Laura:
00:27:29
So, so happy with it.
Laura:
00:27:31
But my biggest thing is that I have to have a situation where I can just sit
Laura:
00:27:35
down, boot up the computer, and hit record in as few steps as possible or
Laura:
00:27:39
else I'm just gonna get, my ADD is gonna take me off into 17 other directions.
Laura:
00:27:43
So that's, that's my key piece of gear is my desk, I think.
Laura:
00:27:48
Yes.
Ian:
00:27:51
I've been so with you on that one.
Ian:
00:27:52
You just get rid of all the all the barriers in the way.
Ian:
00:27:55
So you can just create it.
Ian:
00:27:56
And it's a cool desk.
Ian:
00:27:57
This is the, I don't know how you pronounce it.
Ian:
00:28:00
The air gear electric standing desk with double drawers.
Ian:
00:28:03
I won't go through the whole title, but it looks really awesome.
Ian:
00:28:06
And I, I love mine's a standing desk too.
Ian:
00:28:08
It gives you that flexibility to be able to either stand up or sit down.
Ian:
00:28:12
I'm currently sitting down, but sometimes I like to stand up.
Ian:
00:28:14
You've got all of all of that together.
Ian:
00:28:16
Wow.
Ian:
00:28:17
We've, we could, we could go on so much more talking about all this, but
Ian:
00:28:20
we are Time for the quickfire round.
Ian:
00:28:22
So you have a minute.
Ian:
00:28:24
You've got to go with your gut reaction with these.
Ian:
00:28:27
So let's cue the music and let's see how this is going to work.
Ian:
00:28:31
Okay.
Ian:
00:28:31
So number one, ring lights, good or bad?
Laura:
00:28:37
Bad.
Ian:
00:28:38
Okay.
Ian:
00:28:39
Stream deck, essential or optional?
Laura:
00:28:42
Essential.
Ian:
00:28:44
Love it.
Ian:
00:28:44
Okay.
Ian:
00:28:45
Next question.
Ian:
00:28:45
Microphone in or out of shot?
Laura:
00:28:48
And we covered this.
Laura:
00:28:49
In.
Laura:
00:28:49
It's gotta be in.
Ian:
00:28:51
Webcam or fancy camera?
Laura:
00:28:53
Fancy camera.
Laura:
00:28:54
100%.
Ian:
00:28:55
gotta be standing desk or sitting desk.
Ian:
00:28:57
We've already talked about this.
Laura:
00:28:58
Yep.
Laura:
00:28:59
Standing.
Ian:
00:28:59
Standing.
Ian:
00:29:00
Okay, one big monitor or dual monitors.
Laura:
00:29:03
Well, I got three, so I'm, I'm
Laura:
00:29:05
gonna go
Ian:
00:29:05
wow.
Ian:
00:29:06
Okay, three.
Ian:
00:29:08
Background music.
Ian:
00:29:09
Is it a mood setter or a distraction?
Laura:
00:29:11
Distraction.
Ian:
00:29:12
Yeah, I'm with you on that one.
Ian:
00:29:14
Coffee or tea while recording?
Laura:
00:29:17
Coffee.
Laura:
00:29:18
All day.
Laura:
00:29:18
Every day.
Ian:
00:29:21
Uh, sitting or standing?
Laura:
00:29:23
Uh, podcasting, sitting, singing, standing.
Ian:
00:29:26
Oh, cool.
Ian:
00:29:26
Acoustic panels, aesthetic choice, or acoustic essential?
Laura:
00:29:29
Acoustic essential!
Laura:
00:29:31
No.
Laura:
00:29:32
Not.
Laura:
00:29:32
I don't know.
Laura:
00:29:33
It's both.
Laura:
00:29:34
It's both.
Ian:
00:29:35
As I said, there's no right or wrong with these, but uh, you
Ian:
00:29:38
gotta go with your gut reaction.
Ian:
00:29:40
Um, I was gonna ask you so many other things, like, you know, what would
Ian:
00:29:42
be your dream setup and all this kind of stuff, but we are out of time.
Ian:
00:29:45
Trying to keep these short and sweet.
Ian:
00:29:46
Thank you so much, Laura.
Ian:
00:29:47
It's been great to have you on the show.
Ian:
00:29:48
You will be back with another episode, but tell us how listeners,
Ian:
00:29:52
viewers can connect with you.
Ian:
00:29:54
They want, if they have any questions, where do you tend to hang out?
Laura:
00:29:58
Uh, I hang out on Instagram a lot, so at Laura Clap Music, C-L-A-P-P.
Laura:
00:30:04
That's my artist name.
Laura:
00:30:06
Uh, laura clap.com or Song 43.
Laura:
00:30:09
Uh, that's my podcast so you can find me there.
Ian:
00:30:12
Awesome.
Ian:
00:30:12
Thank you so much, Laura.
Ian:
00:30:13
It's been great to have you on the show.
Ian:
00:30:15
We are out of time.
Ian:
00:30:16
Uh, thank you so much for plugging us into your ears and watching us on YouTube.
Ian:
00:30:21
If that's where you're watching us, do check out the website at IAG.
Ian:
00:30:25
me forward slash podcast, where you can see previous.
Ian:
00:30:28
episodes, listen to them, watch them, read the blog posts, but until next
Ian:
00:30:31
time, I encourage you to level up your impact, authority, and profits
Ian:
00:30:34
to the power of confident live video.
Ian:
00:30:36
See you soon.
Ian:
00:30:37
Toodaloo!
Ian:
00:30:39
Thanks for listening to the Confident Live Marketing Podcast with Ian Anderson Gray.
Ian:
00:30:44
Make sure you subscribe at iag.me/podcast so you can continue to level up
Ian:
00:30:50
your impact, authority and profits through the power of live video.
Ian:
00:30:54
And until next time, Toodle
00:00:00
if you want the best sound, the closer you can get to your
Laura:
00:00:04
mic, the more it's going to pick up just your voice and nothing else.
Laura:
00:00:08
And when you're doing something like this, where spoken word is so
Laura:
00:00:11
important, you need it to be close.
Laura:
00:00:14
It gives you that depth and richness.
Laura:
00:00:16
I have three monitors, know, I have this light rig and I have these boom
Laura:
00:00:19
arms and this desk is just perfect.
Laura:
00:00:21
And it's a standup desk too.
Laura:
00:00:23
So I can push a button.
Laura:
00:00:23
It's like, and it raises up.
Laura:
00:00:25
So that has been very key.
Laura:
00:00:28
I have to have a situation where I can just sit down, boot up the computer, and
Laura:
00:00:32
hit record in as few steps as possible or else I'm just gonna get, my ADD is gonna
Laura:
00:00:36
take me off into 17 other directions.
Laura:
00:00:44
Welcome to the Confident Live Marketing Podcast with Ian Anderson Gray.
Laura:
00:00:49
Helping you level up your impact, authority, and profits through
Laura:
00:00:53
the power of confident live video.
Laura:
00:00:55
Optimize your mindset and communication.
Laura:
00:00:57
And increase your confidence in front of the camera.
Laura:
00:01:01
Get confident with the tech and gear.
Laura:
00:01:03
And get confident with the content and marketing.
Laura:
00:01:07
Together, we can go live!
Ian:
00:01:09
Hello and welcome to the Confident Live Marketing Podcast.
Ian:
00:01:12
I'm Ian Anderson Gray and in this season, we're We're going behind the
Ian:
00:01:15
scenes, seeing my guests studio setups to look at their tech and the gear and
Ian:
00:01:19
how they get started and how you can get started and level up your studio.
Ian:
00:01:24
Well, I'm very excited to bring in my guest today, who
Ian:
00:01:27
is Laura Davidson, who is.
Ian:
00:01:30
A singer, songwriter, mom, and podcaster.
Ian:
00:01:32
These are just a few of the hats Laura Clap Davidson wears on a daily basis.
Ian:
00:01:37
She also leads a market development team at Shure Incorporated, where
Ian:
00:01:41
she helps people learn about microphones and solve tech mysteries.
Ian:
00:01:47
And welcome to the show, Laura.
Ian:
00:01:48
It's funny, when I was reading your biography, Before the show,
Ian:
00:01:51
because I always like to make sure I, I'm not gonna say anything wrong.
Ian:
00:01:55
I read that as tech miseries not Tech Mysteries, so I'm sure there are a few
Laura:
00:01:59
is a very, that is also an accurate description.
Laura:
00:02:03
Yes, I solve those as well.
Laura:
00:02:05
Yes.
Ian:
00:02:06
Yeah.
Ian:
00:02:06
You, you turn the miseries into, I dunno, what's the, what's the
Ian:
00:02:09
positive in, into happiness.
Ian:
00:02:11
That's, that's what you are.
Laura:
00:02:13
I don't know.
Laura:
00:02:14
Cures?
Laura:
00:02:14
I
Laura:
00:02:14
don't, yeah.
Laura:
00:02:16
Find the cure for your
Laura:
00:02:18
audio miseries, technical
Ian:
00:02:19
like I've, I see that, uh, some, uh, tech support agents are now
Ian:
00:02:23
calling themselves happiness engineers.
Laura:
00:02:26
Oh yes, we have that at Shure,
Laura:
00:02:29
actually, but we've just changed the name of the department.
Laura:
00:02:31
I can't remember what it is offhand, but yeah, it was, yeah.
Laura:
00:02:34
Customer happiness, which is what you ultimately want.
Laura:
00:02:37
If you are a
Laura:
00:02:38
disgruntled customer and you're calling into a company, the
Laura:
00:02:41
company wants you to be happy.
Laura:
00:02:42
So yeah, I'm not, I'm, I'm not mad about it.
Ian:
00:02:46
No, no, no, I'm not too.
Ian:
00:02:47
It makes total sense.
Ian:
00:02:48
So thank you for coming on.
Ian:
00:02:50
We're going to be going behind the scenes with your studio set up.
Ian:
00:02:53
And I love the fact that you've got all these different hats.
Ian:
00:02:55
You know, who says you just do one that we're all confined to do one thing.
Ian:
00:03:00
And yes, you work with.
Ian:
00:03:02
For sure.
Ian:
00:03:02
I think pretty much everyone will have heard of sure.
Ian:
00:03:05
Um, uh, who makes the most amazing microphones amongst
Ian:
00:03:08
lots of other things as well.
Ian:
00:03:09
But you do all these other things as well.
Ian:
00:03:11
You've got a musical background.
Ian:
00:03:12
You sing.
Ian:
00:03:13
So that makes me happy because that's my background too.
Ian:
00:03:17
Um, so we might, you're going to come back onto the show.
Ian:
00:03:19
We'll talk a little bit more about your musical background.
Ian:
00:03:22
journey with communication and confidence in front of the camera
Ian:
00:03:25
and in front of the microphone.
Ian:
00:03:27
But can you give listeners and viewers like a brief introduction about
Ian:
00:03:30
you, highlighting your background that makes, that's kind of had an
Ian:
00:03:35
influence on your studio set up today?
Laura:
00:03:38
Yeah, absolutely.
Laura:
00:03:39
So I started off as a singer songwriter.
Laura:
00:03:42
I went to Berklee College of Music and graduated, moved to Nashville,
Laura:
00:03:47
was doing the singer songwriter thing.
Laura:
00:03:48
So playing gigs all the time, writing all the time, uh, and had a
Laura:
00:03:53
temp job here or there and started working for a music publisher.
Laura:
00:03:57
And then I got asked to demonstrate a piece of gear at something called the
Laura:
00:04:00
NAMM Show, which is this annual show for like, It used to be 90, 000 people in
Laura:
00:04:06
Anaheim in January, and I was flown out to sing and use this wildly complicated
Laura:
00:04:13
box that turned my voice into four voices of harmony, and I fell in love.
Laura:
00:04:18
I was demonstrating, uh, showing people how they could take their,
Laura:
00:04:22
um, you know, arrangement or their demo gig and really, you know, do it.
Laura:
00:04:26
or cover gig and kick it up several notches by having these multiple voices
Laura:
00:04:30
and making it sound very natural because you can kind of go the other side there
Laura:
00:04:33
and have it sound really unnatural but um, so I started doing that and because
Laura:
00:04:38
of that it led to all this other knowledge of gear and microphones and guitars.
Laura:
00:04:44
I got an endorsement deal from Alvarez when I was doing that and
Laura:
00:04:48
it just helped my musical career blossom in a whole different way and
Laura:
00:04:52
support me in a whole different way.
Laura:
00:04:54
So that I could continue to make music, but also kind of dig
Laura:
00:04:58
into this love of gear and tech.
Laura:
00:04:59
So that's kind of how I landed here.
Laura:
00:05:01
That was in 2006.
Laura:
00:05:03
So it's, it's been a minute.
Laura:
00:05:04
It's been a long
Ian:
00:05:05
Yeah.
Ian:
00:05:05
And I think that's great.
Ian:
00:05:06
Yeah.
Ian:
00:05:06
We were talking just before we started recording about the balance between
Ian:
00:05:11
being a musician and, you know, being a creator and, and, you know, working for
Ian:
00:05:17
a business or running your own business.
Ian:
00:05:20
There's something I'm sure you would say the same, like you can't
Ian:
00:05:24
not do the music side of things.
Ian:
00:05:26
It's something that's kind of part of you and it's a, creative outlet.
Ian:
00:05:30
And you're for podcast listeners who can't see Laura's setup,
Ian:
00:05:33
you know, she's got a keyboard.
Ian:
00:05:35
In fact, there's two keyboards there as I can see two guitars.
Ian:
00:05:39
You've got your lovely Shawn microphone, which we're going to come on to in a bit.
Ian:
00:05:42
So you've surrounded yourself with all this gear that helps you,
Ian:
00:05:48
which is part of your creativity.
Ian:
00:05:50
I'm going to ask you about that because in a minute because I love to
Ian:
00:05:54
hear about the space that you're in and how that helps your creativity.
Ian:
00:05:59
But let's dive into your studio setup.
Ian:
00:06:02
And, you know, the first question I always ask is microphone and your audio setup,
Ian:
00:06:07
because like that is in my view, in many people's views is the most important.
Ian:
00:06:12
Even if you're on camera, if you're, if you're, if you're microphone,
Ian:
00:06:15
if people can't hear you very well, they're going to switch off.
Ian:
00:06:18
So I assume you're with me on that.
Ian:
00:06:21
Tell us about your microphone setup and, and.
Ian:
00:06:23
Audio set up and why you chose that.
Laura:
00:06:27
Shure MV7 Plus, which we just launched this past year and, or this
Laura:
00:06:32
current year, I guess I should say.
Laura:
00:06:34
And it's the new variant of the MV7, which we launched in 2020.
Laura:
00:06:38
It's a USB XLR hybrid microphone, meaning I can plug in to a mixer or I
Laura:
00:06:43
can plug in directly to my computer, which is what I'm doing right now.
Laura:
00:06:47
So I'm actually monitoring myself at the same time too.
Laura:
00:06:50
I have my earphones.
Laura:
00:06:52
My bright green earphones plugged into the back of my MV7 Plus and then I'm
Laura:
00:06:57
running USB C up this gorgeous, uh, co branded Gator boom arm that I'm
Laura:
00:07:03
obsessed with, uh, into my MacBook Pro.
Laura:
00:07:05
That's it.
Laura:
00:07:06
So mic, earphones, boom arm, computer.
Laura:
00:07:09
Ta da!
Laura:
00:07:10
That's my setup.
Laura:
00:07:10
I don't even have to do a B roll shot because
Ian:
00:07:13
Yeah.
Ian:
00:07:13
Yeah.
Ian:
00:07:14
Yeah.
Ian:
00:07:14
Yeah.
Ian:
00:07:14
So you're not plugging it into a, like a fancy mixer or audio
Ian:
00:07:18
presses or anything like that.
Ian:
00:07:20
And it sounds great.
Ian:
00:07:21
I mean, the quality.
Ian:
00:07:22
Is really crisp and clear.
Ian:
00:07:24
You voice sounds resonant.
Ian:
00:07:25
It sounds natural, which is everything that you really want.
Ian:
00:07:28
And you don't have to play around with any of this kind of complicated stuff.
Ian:
00:07:31
Like I, I mean, I've, I've got mine into a red custard pro and that can, I mean,
Ian:
00:07:37
I, I, I love playing around with tech, but I'm always, I'm always reluctant
Ian:
00:07:43
to recommend that to people because it.
Ian:
00:07:46
Took me quite a while to set up what you really want.
Ian:
00:07:49
I think, and I'm sure you agree is good enough quality tech that just works.
Ian:
00:07:55
That doesn't get in the way of you creating your content.
Ian:
00:08:00
Um, I'd love to know a little bit more about the microphone though.
Ian:
00:08:03
So what, how's that compared with its predecessor?
Ian:
00:08:05
You, you mentioned it's USB, so you, uh, you can plug that directly into
Ian:
00:08:09
your computer, but it's also XLR.
Ian:
00:08:11
So if you do want to be fancy, you've got that option too.
Ian:
00:08:15
Tell us a little bit more about that.
Ian:
00:08:16
And I've assumed, you know, there's the, there's the whole dynamic
Ian:
00:08:18
microphone versus condenser.
Ian:
00:08:20
Tell us a bit more specifically about this.
Laura:
00:08:22
Yes.
Laura:
00:08:22
So, I'm gonna show you because I'm a big visual person.
Laura:
00:08:27
So,
Laura:
00:08:27
this is the
Ian:
00:08:28
can explain for podcast listeners as well, just so that they
Laura:
00:08:31
Yes, I will explain.
Laura:
00:08:32
So I'm, I'm holding my MV7, which is the predecessor.
Laura:
00:08:35
This is a custom variant, which I had, uh, done by Colorware, which you can do
Laura:
00:08:40
if you want to take your MV7, not the MV7 plus yet, but we're working on it,
Laura:
00:08:44
uh, and have it match your brand colors.
Laura:
00:08:46
You can do that with this awesome website called Colorware, uh, C O L O R W A R E.
Laura:
00:08:52
Uh, and so anyway, The MV7 has a micro USB on the back, which was kind of one
Laura:
00:08:57
of the things that people asked us to change from the jump, which we did.
Laura:
00:09:01
So now the MV7 plus has a USB C, which is super handy.
Laura:
00:09:07
Uh, and it also has a different, uh, LED panel and it's a little bit
Laura:
00:09:11
longer in terms of the windscreens.
Laura:
00:09:14
So my MV7 plus Because the MV7 kind of had some issues with plosives
Laura:
00:09:19
we heard from people, so we made it a more robust windscreen and
Laura:
00:09:22
made it a little bit longer.
Laura:
00:09:24
And now you can customize the LED panel, whereas on the MV7 you had some tactile
Laura:
00:09:31
controls of volume and mix and mic level, and the mute was kind of hard to reach.
Laura:
00:09:36
We've now made the whole LED panel tappable, so it's a cap touch
Laura:
00:09:40
sensor, so if you touch it because you have to cough or Mute real
Laura:
00:09:43
quick, it will mute the microphone.
Laura:
00:09:45
Uh, and you also can now use this wonderful piece of software
Laura:
00:09:49
called Motive Mix, which is why the mic is sounding so great.
Laura:
00:09:52
I have it in auto level mode right now, meaning it's going to constantly
Laura:
00:09:56
adjust my gain, so that if I get loud or soft, it will accommodate my
Laura:
00:10:01
voice, and I don't have to have an engineer or myself riding a fader.
Laura:
00:10:05
digital or otherwise to make sure that my levels are consistent.
Laura:
00:10:09
And there's also some great, uh, compression and EQ and de
Laura:
00:10:13
noising in that Motive Mix app.
Laura:
00:10:16
Uh, so that's kind of the differences between the MV7 and MV7 Plus.
Laura:
00:10:20
And the other benefit to using Motive Mix is that you can plug in
Laura:
00:10:23
multiple USB microphones into your computer, which a lot of people have
Laura:
00:10:28
accomplished before using something like Loopback, but that can be, um, A
Laura:
00:10:32
little confusing for those who aren't audio people and it's, it costs money.
Laura:
00:10:36
So the Motive Mix is free and you can have up to five USB sources in Motive
Laura:
00:10:40
Mix that you can then bring into your podcast or live stream without
Laura:
00:10:44
having to create an aggregate device.
Laura:
00:10:46
So that's the differences.
Laura:
00:10:49
In a nutshell,
Ian:
00:10:50
wow.
Ian:
00:10:50
And you said, you said an LCD screen.
Ian:
00:10:52
So like for people who haven't come across these microphones, why would,
Ian:
00:10:56
why would a microphone even have that?
Ian:
00:10:58
Like a lot of microphones, people are used to.
Ian:
00:11:00
They're just a microphone.
Ian:
00:11:01
So what are these fancy things that you can do?
Ian:
00:11:04
You mentioned
Laura:
00:11:04
Well,
Ian:
00:11:05
pressing a mute switch, but there's more than that.
Laura:
00:11:08
So, for those are watching, you can see this LED panel is
Laura:
00:11:12
kind of lighting up and pulsing.
Laura:
00:11:13
So, it's working.
Laura:
00:11:14
I have it in live.
Laura:
00:11:15
It's called live meter mode.
Laura:
00:11:16
So, it's it's working like a a clip.
Laura:
00:11:19
So, if I see it clipping or you getting too bright, then I know
Laura:
00:11:22
that I need to adjust my signal, but because I'm in auto level mode,
Laura:
00:11:25
I don't have to worry about that.
Laura:
00:11:26
Uh, but it's just a fun way to have your branded colors incorporated into the mic.
Laura:
00:11:31
You can make it solid to match your brand color.
Laura:
00:11:33
You can have it pulse slowly, or you can put it into live mode like I have it here.
Laura:
00:11:37
And there's 16.
Laura:
00:11:38
9 million color variant options.
Laura:
00:11:40
So it's really just fun.
Laura:
00:11:42
It's fun, it looks cool, you can customize it, and then you have
Laura:
00:11:45
that big, uh, whole surface area to tap, um, and mute your mic.
Laura:
00:11:50
So that's why.
Ian:
00:11:51
Love it.
Ian:
00:11:51
Love it.
Ian:
00:11:51
And this is, uh, a dynamic microphone.
Ian:
00:11:54
So you're having it fairly close to you.
Ian:
00:11:57
Presumably like, so some part where we had a talk about, I think somebody
Ian:
00:12:01
A few weeks ago, I had the blue Yeti microphone where you have to speak into
Ian:
00:12:06
the side of it, but with this microphone, you're speaking into the end of it.
Ian:
00:12:10
Can you tell us a little bit more about that for people who don't know the
Ian:
00:12:12
difference between dynamic microphones and other types of microphones?
Ian:
00:12:15
I figured you'd, you'd be a good person to talk to you about that.
Laura:
00:12:17
I do.
Laura:
00:12:18
Yes, I, that is my gig.
Laura:
00:12:19
So I hope I know the answer to this.
Laura:
00:12:21
Uh, yeah.
Laura:
00:12:22
So dynamic microphones, uh, work differently than condenser microphones
Laura:
00:12:26
because they require a little bit more physical energy to move a coil.
Laura:
00:12:32
around a magnet that then converts your acoustic energy into electrical signal.
Laura:
00:12:38
So that's why they're better in untreated spaces because it's not
Laura:
00:12:42
going to react and capture as many sounds like your HVAC, your dog that's
Laura:
00:12:48
laying on the floor next to you.
Laura:
00:12:49
Not that I have that right now.
Laura:
00:12:51
And, uh, you know, different sounds or reverberations around
Laura:
00:12:54
your room, whereas a condenser microphone is built for the studio.
Laura:
00:12:58
Uh, built for treated spaces, not to say you can't use a condenser mic
Laura:
00:13:03
on stage because this is my favorite vocal microphone that we make.
Laura:
00:13:06
It's called the SM86 and it is a stage condenser mic, but you just have to
Laura:
00:13:12
have a little bit more awareness.
Laura:
00:13:14
and technique to know that a condenser mic is going to pick up
Laura:
00:13:18
more, so you need to get close to it.
Laura:
00:13:20
And you just need to be aware if you're in a wildly loud or reverberant space,
Laura:
00:13:25
condensers are going to be that much harder to not pick up or to make not pick
Laura:
00:13:30
up all the things around you, if that
Ian:
00:13:31
Yeah, that makes sense.
Ian:
00:13:33
And like a friend of mine, Mike Russell, who's been on the show, he's, he spent
Ian:
00:13:38
a lot of money in his microphone.
Ian:
00:13:39
It's a condenser microphone, but he spent a lot of money on treating.
Ian:
00:13:42
His studio space.
Ian:
00:13:43
So it's like perfect audio.
Ian:
00:13:45
And so like, fine, that's great.
Ian:
00:13:47
But for most of us who don't have that luxury of, of treating our space, I think,
Ian:
00:13:53
you know, I assume you would agree a dynamic microphone makes a lot more sense.
Ian:
00:13:56
Uh, some people like struggle with the idea of having it in shot.
Ian:
00:14:00
Like both of us, we've got our microphones in shot.
Ian:
00:14:03
I love that from a branding point of view, you know, I've got a mic flag here.
Ian:
00:14:07
You know, you mentioned with your microphone, the shore microphone,
Ian:
00:14:10
you You can brand it as well with different colors, which is awesome.
Ian:
00:14:13
But not everyone is into the microphone and shot side of things.
Ian:
00:14:17
And I would say, well, And if this sounds very unkind, but you kind of
Ian:
00:14:21
have to get over that, but like, do you have a, what's your view on that?
Ian:
00:14:25
Do you, would you agree with that?
Ian:
00:14:26
Or do you, yeah.
Ian:
00:14:29
What do you think?
Laura:
00:14:30
Yes, I do agree with that, that if you want the best sound,
Laura:
00:14:36
the closer you can get to your mic, the more it's going to pick up
Laura:
00:14:40
just your voice and nothing else.
Laura:
00:14:43
And when you're doing something like this, where spoken word is so
Laura:
00:14:46
important, you need it to be close.
Laura:
00:14:49
It gives you that depth and richness.
Laura:
00:14:52
If I were to move this out of my shot, you know, auto level mode will accommodate.
Laura:
00:14:57
a little bit more, not out of my shot.
Laura:
00:14:59
My shot's too wide, but you know, move it away from me.
Laura:
00:15:02
You're hearing more of the reverberance in my
Laura:
00:15:05
room.
Laura:
00:15:05
So that's, I love this.
Laura:
00:15:07
I love being close to the mic and getting that richness and depth.
Laura:
00:15:11
And also I'm speaking off axis on the mic.
Laura:
00:15:13
I always tell people that.
Laura:
00:15:15
So you were mentioning with the blue Yeti that, you know, you have to address
Laura:
00:15:18
it from the side and not from the top, which a lot of people were doing.
Laura:
00:15:22
This one is a front address microphone, but if you do go straight on axis,
Laura:
00:15:26
you might have plosives, even
Laura:
00:15:28
though this has a digital pop or stop or two.
Laura:
00:15:30
I forgot to mention that.
Laura:
00:15:31
Um, I just, I just turn a little bit and it helps, but, um, yeah, if you're wanting
Laura:
00:15:37
the camera to not be in shot, you You have some options, but the real thing that
Laura:
00:15:44
you'd want to do if you're doing that is to use a lavalier mic, which is one that
Laura:
00:15:48
you would physically wear, and then you're just not as aware of it, which we do make.
Laura:
00:15:53
We make some really great lavaliers.
Laura:
00:15:55
I've got them all here.
Laura:
00:15:56
So, um, yes.
Ian:
00:15:59
But, but it's not, there's something about using a dynamic microphone,
Ian:
00:16:02
having it up close that I think it gives that more of that intimacy.
Ian:
00:16:05
Like if you're listening to the podcast now, as opposed to maybe watching it
Ian:
00:16:11
through speakers or through your phone.
Ian:
00:16:13
There's something about the fact that we're using these dynamic microphones.
Ian:
00:16:15
It feels like you're just here with us in the same room, even though
Ian:
00:16:20
we're not in the same room where, you know, thousands of miles apart.
Ian:
00:16:23
It has that intimacy because, because we're kind of close up to the microphone.
Ian:
00:16:28
I think I wanted to ask you, we will get onto other stuff too, but since you've
Ian:
00:16:32
said, no, no so much about microphones and audio, I want to ask you all these audio
Ian:
00:16:35
questions and you obviously do sing it.
Ian:
00:16:39
You do a lot of singing.
Ian:
00:16:40
Um, do you use that same microphone for singing.
Ian:
00:16:43
How versatile is it?
Ian:
00:16:45
Can you use it for, you know, obviously for podcasting for video?
Ian:
00:16:48
Can you use it for other types of content like singing and music?
Laura:
00:16:53
absolutely.
Laura:
00:16:53
People use the MV7 Plus and MV7 a lot to do, uh, multiple recording type scenarios.
Laura:
00:17:00
It's really great on guitar, uh, especially electric guitar, you know,
Laura:
00:17:04
cabinets because it can take a lot of what's called SPL, sound pressure level.
Laura:
00:17:08
Um, but when I do a live stream that's music based, I
Laura:
00:17:11
will use my performance stage.
Laura:
00:17:14
Microphone the sm86 or our new nexodyne, which I don't have right in front of me.
Laura:
00:17:19
Oh fail Uh, but you know that's I will use that because I want to have that
Laura:
00:17:24
same experience because i'm when I do my live streams and it's music based I run
Laura:
00:17:27
it into A vocal effects processor and then I have a little bit more control.
Laura:
00:17:31
So can I use this to do studio vocals?
Laura:
00:17:34
Yes, but I am spoiled and have you know schmancier side address condenser
Laura:
00:17:40
mics that I use I use for that.
Laura:
00:17:42
That's the technical term.
Laura:
00:17:43
Schmancier.
Ian:
00:17:44
I like that.
Ian:
00:17:44
And how just this is just my own kind of because I've I've really
Ian:
00:17:48
interested in the other microphone.
Ian:
00:17:51
The SM remind me of it the SM
Laura:
00:17:53
86.
Ian:
00:17:54
86.
Ian:
00:17:54
So how does that compare to like, the one that is loved all
Ian:
00:17:58
around the world, the SM 58.
Ian:
00:17:59
How, I mean, the SM 58 is.
Ian:
00:18:01
I'm assuming a dynamic microphone, but you have to excuse my ignorance.
Ian:
00:18:04
Yeah.
Laura:
00:18:05
No, you're not.
Laura:
00:18:05
You're
Laura:
00:18:06
fine.
Laura:
00:18:06
I mean, I don't have my, I don't have my 58, my SM 58.
Laura:
00:18:09
I have a beta 58, but I have the SM 57 here.
Laura:
00:18:13
And so this is a dynamic microphone.
Laura:
00:18:16
It is the industry standard because it's nearly indestructible.
Laura:
00:18:20
Sounds great.
Laura:
00:18:21
Sound engineers know how to make it work on spoken.
Laura:
00:18:24
Uh, word, vocals, instruments.
Laura:
00:18:26
You could put SM57 or SM58 on a number of different things.
Laura:
00:18:30
And if you look at the SM86 capsule, as opposed to, I'm going to do
Laura:
00:18:37
this one, I'll take my Beta 58 because it looks just like an SM58.
Laura:
00:18:45
Here's your differences.
Laura:
00:18:46
And for those who are listening, the SM58, the Beta 58, they use the same, uh,
Laura:
00:18:51
cartridge It has a much bigger design.
Laura:
00:18:55
This is using that dynamic technology where there's a diaphragm, a magnet
Laura:
00:19:00
in here, and a coil surrounding it.
Laura:
00:19:02
Whereas the SM86 is so much more delicate and small.
Laura:
00:19:08
This is a condenser microphone again.
Laura:
00:19:10
And the way condensers work is that instead of having the
Laura:
00:19:12
magnet and the coil, they have an electrically charged backplate.
Laura:
00:19:15
So if you've ever come across something called phantom power.
Laura:
00:19:18
That's providing that electrical charge to the back plate.
Laura:
00:19:21
There's a teeny space in between allowing the diaphragm to move and agitate
Laura:
00:19:25
that and create that, that signal.
Laura:
00:19:27
So totally different design and it responds so differently.
Laura:
00:19:32
And, and it's just, it's a beautiful mic.
Laura:
00:19:34
I love it.
Ian:
00:19:36
well, it does, it does look very nice too.
Ian:
00:19:38
So that's really interesting.
Ian:
00:19:40
I'm wanting to incorporate a lot more music into what I do.
Ian:
00:19:43
Um, you know, not sure unless I bring back my silly songs, but you
Ian:
00:19:47
never know if, if you enjoyed the silly songs in the past, let me know.
Ian:
00:19:50
But yeah, I've, I've been thinking a lot more about making this space that
Ian:
00:19:54
I'm in, not just for podcasting and video creation, but also bringing my
Ian:
00:19:58
music into what I do too, which is.
Ian:
00:20:00
Obviously what you're doing and I'm gonna definitely check out your life.
Ian:
00:20:03
Do you still do live streams with your me with your music making?
Laura:
00:20:07
Those are few and far between these
Laura:
00:20:08
days.
Laura:
00:20:09
It was happening a lot in COVID.
Laura:
00:20:11
I, I would do happy hours and just, you know, for my own sanity, uh, just do some
Laura:
00:20:16
stuff, but there's, you can see stuff.
Laura:
00:20:18
Um, one of the best ones I did was with the Women's International Music
Laura:
00:20:23
Network, and it was called the She Rocks Spotlight, and I got to do a really
Laura:
00:20:26
cool performance in this same room.
Laura:
00:20:29
So you can hear what it sounds like and it sounds like, um, you know, a live
Laura:
00:20:32
recording, but in a, in a home studio.
Laura:
00:20:35
So that was really fun.
Ian:
00:20:36
Awesome.
Ian:
00:20:36
Well, we've spoken a lot about microphones, but we need to quickly go
Ian:
00:20:39
through the other parts of your studio.
Ian:
00:20:41
So if you're watching, you'll be noticing obviously Laura's camera.
Ian:
00:20:46
Tell us about your camera.
Ian:
00:20:47
Do you have just one camera?
Ian:
00:20:48
Do you have multiple cameras?
Ian:
00:20:49
Tell us about what you, why you chose what you've got.
Laura:
00:20:52
Uh, so I have a Sony ZV E10 as my main camera, and I really don't
Laura:
00:20:57
have a ton of need to do, uh, other angles for the type of content that
Laura:
00:21:01
I'm creating, but I do have the OBSBOT, I always get that wrong, over here,
Laura:
00:21:08
the tiny.
Laura:
00:21:09
I love this little guy.
Laura:
00:21:10
And so that's on another boom arm over here, so I can do product
Laura:
00:21:13
shots, or I can have, you know, just another thing to switch to.
Laura:
00:21:16
And I use my Elgato Stream Deck for that.
Laura:
00:21:18
I haven't bit the bullet and upgraded that one, so I'm still
Laura:
00:21:21
using the OG with the, you know, USB, whatever it is, A connector.
Laura:
00:21:27
Um, but it works fine, and I love it.
Laura:
00:21:29
Uh, and so that's my, my camera setup, and my lighting is just a basic, uh, box light
Laura:
00:21:35
that I bought from Amazon a long time ago, probably seven or eight years ago.
Laura:
00:21:39
And I got a kit of four of them that came with the stands,
Laura:
00:21:42
the lights, and it's huge.
Laura:
00:21:44
And I need to change that as well, but it works.
Laura:
00:21:46
So
Laura:
00:21:47
until it doesn't,
Ian:
00:21:48
That's the thing.
Ian:
00:21:48
There's always, there's always this like never ending kind of list of
Ian:
00:21:51
things that we're going to get.
Ian:
00:21:53
You've also got, you've got like a, is it like neon lights or you got this kind of
Ian:
00:21:56
lit up text, but so tell us about that.
Ian:
00:21:58
Cause I'm really interested in that in the background.
Laura:
00:22:00
Yeah.
Laura:
00:22:00
So that, uh, we bought for a trade show called she podcasts live, and
Laura:
00:22:06
then the show did not end up happening, which was super sad because it's a
Laura:
00:22:09
great, uh, Great organization and I love that group of ladies, but um,
Laura:
00:22:15
I got to keep the sign, uh, because it just became part of my brand.
Laura:
00:22:19
So it says Sound Extraordinary, which is a Shore tagline and um, yeah, and
Laura:
00:22:25
then I have actually up a little bit.
Laura:
00:22:31
So those beautiful pieces of artwork on the top, my daughter's made.
Laura:
00:22:36
And they are acoustic panels
Ian:
00:22:39
Oh, cool.
Laura:
00:22:41
which when at Ecamm Creator Camp, I was teaching people that you can just
Laura:
00:22:45
go to Michaels, buy a basic canvas, paint it how you want, design it how you want,
Laura:
00:22:50
and put some foam batting behind it, and it'll help dampen the sounds in your room.
Laura:
00:22:54
So, my daughters made those and they're awesome, so they're up top.
Ian:
00:22:57
Awesome.
Ian:
00:22:58
Well, we're going to come back to like your, your studio.
Ian:
00:23:01
Um, and what the personalization of it in a minute, but I forgot to
Ian:
00:23:04
ask you about your, your boom arm.
Ian:
00:23:07
You mentioned that a little bit, but you also got another boom arm for your.
Ian:
00:23:11
camera.
Ian:
00:23:12
Um, and I want to ask you about like shock mounts.
Ian:
00:23:16
Do you need, just doesn't look like half a shot.
Ian:
00:23:18
My, do you need a shock mount or do you not?
Ian:
00:23:20
Uh, tell us a little bit about what you've got set up there.
Ian:
00:23:22
Cause I do love the look of your.
Ian:
00:23:24
Of of the boom.
Ian:
00:23:25
Mom.
Ian:
00:23:26
It looks cool.
Laura:
00:23:27
Thank you.
Laura:
00:23:27
Yes, this, I, I'm tapping on the desk and you really can't hear it.
Laura:
00:23:32
It has very good isolation because it has this great, uh, base on the bottom
Laura:
00:23:38
that kind of alleviates and buffers the tapping on the, the keyboard.
Laura:
00:23:43
So I have that.
Laura:
00:23:45
And, and, yeah, nothing else.
Laura:
00:23:46
This is kind of isolating it as well.
Laura:
00:23:49
Uh, and it comes with an extender for the SM seven DB so that you can put
Laura:
00:23:55
it on here and 'cause the SM seven db, which I also have right here, uh, has
Laura:
00:24:00
this guy that gets a little too close to it when you, when you plug it in, so.
Laura:
00:24:05
This is a great boom arm.
Laura:
00:24:06
I can't say enough good things about,
Ian:
00:24:09
What's the, what's the name of the boom?
Ian:
00:24:10
Mom?
Ian:
00:24:10
Just remind me the name.
Laura:
00:24:11
Oh goodness.
Laura:
00:24:12
It's, you would ask me that it's
Laura:
00:24:13
the Gator broadcast.
Laura:
00:24:17
Um,
Ian:
00:24:17
It's in the show notes.
Ian:
00:24:18
It's in the
Laura:
00:24:18
it is.
Laura:
00:24:19
I did link it.
Laura:
00:24:20
I
Laura:
00:24:20
linked it.
Laura:
00:24:21
I did.
Laura:
00:24:21
I linked it with a bundle on shore.
Laura:
00:24:23
com cause you can get the mic, the boom arm and some
Laura:
00:24:26
headphones, which are SRH 440 A's.
Laura:
00:24:29
These are great headphones.
Laura:
00:24:31
I see Anne's wearing some headphones right now.
Laura:
00:24:33
I'm an earphone kind of gal when I'm recording cause my hair, you
Laura:
00:24:36
know, but, um, These I use all the time when I record my podcast.
Laura:
00:24:40
So there's a sweet bundle in there.
Laura:
00:24:42
Save some money.
Ian:
00:24:43
that's, that sounds good.
Ian:
00:24:45
Yeah.
Ian:
00:24:45
And I would wear earphones.
Ian:
00:24:46
I just, I'm lazy.
Ian:
00:24:48
The, I just put these on
Laura:
00:24:50
Just throw them on there.
Laura:
00:24:51
I love it.
Ian:
00:24:51
short by gator, deluxe articulating desktop, microphone, boom, stand,
Laura:
00:24:57
I totally botched that one, Ian.
Laura:
00:24:59
Don't tell my boss.
Laura:
00:25:01
Okay.
Laura:
00:25:02
Our secret's safe with us, right?
Laura:
00:25:04
Mm
Laura:
00:25:04
hmm.
Ian:
00:25:04
it's all, it's all good.
Ian:
00:25:06
Computer.
Ian:
00:25:06
What computer or devices do you use?
Ian:
00:25:09
And have you got anything as special set up all that?
Ian:
00:25:11
Or is it pretty simple?
Laura:
00:25:13
It's pretty simple.
Laura:
00:25:13
You know, it's funny when I was going into the show notes, I was like,
Laura:
00:25:16
my computer, it's a work computer.
Laura:
00:25:18
I have over here a studio, um, computer, which is an iMac, which I never use
Laura:
00:25:24
for, I only use that for music creation.
Laura:
00:25:26
I, I purposefully bought it and I try to keep it off the internet and keep it safe.
Laura:
00:25:31
keep it, you know, clean as possible.
Laura:
00:25:33
Um, this one is a 2019 MacBook Pro.
Laura:
00:25:38
And I was like, wow, that's not a new one, but it's working.
Laura:
00:25:41
Sometimes she sounds like she's on fire, but you know, I do I
Laura:
00:25:44
do make her work pretty hard.
Laura:
00:25:46
So that's, what I'm using and that's it.
Laura:
00:25:48
That's
Laura:
00:25:49
why I love this.
Laura:
00:25:50
As creators, our lives are so easy right now.
Laura:
00:25:54
Like
Laura:
00:25:54
you could just go and I always use Ecamm Live.
Laura:
00:25:56
It's my, my choice for live streaming, um, because it's just so easy too.
Laura:
00:26:01
And the community is so great.
Laura:
00:26:03
So that's my setup.
Laura:
00:26:04
Uh,
Ian:
00:26:16
the, Opening up for the first time that it's it's great.
Ian:
00:26:21
Love it.
Ian:
00:26:22
Okay, we are running out of time But I did want to quickly before
Ian:
00:26:26
we get to the quick family round.
Ian:
00:26:27
I did want to ask you about Your space because of the personalization, I
Ian:
00:26:32
think matters a lot to how have you made your studio space uniquely yours
Ian:
00:26:39
to foster creativity and productivity.
Ian:
00:26:42
So you can do your best work where you are.
Laura:
00:26:46
the desk that I'm using right now, I wish I could show
Laura:
00:26:48
you, but it's such a mess.
Laura:
00:26:50
I would die.
Laura:
00:26:51
It has been such a game changer for me.
Laura:
00:26:54
It's from Amazon.
Laura:
00:26:56
It's in the show notes.
Laura:
00:26:57
I think, I hope I gave a link there.
Laura:
00:26:59
It's just the perfect workspace because I have, there's like
Laura:
00:27:03
this little shelf in front of me.
Laura:
00:27:04
I have all my mics here.
Laura:
00:27:05
So as you see me pulling them out like a magic show, they're all right there.
Laura:
00:27:10
And then I have my headphones hanging up on the wall right here.
Laura:
00:27:13
I have three monitors, you know, I have this light rig and I have these boom
Laura:
00:27:17
arms and this desk is just perfect.
Laura:
00:27:19
And it's a standup desk too.
Laura:
00:27:20
So I can push a button.
Laura:
00:27:21
It's like, and it raises up.
Laura:
00:27:23
So that has been very key.
Laura:
00:27:25
I fought it for several years.
Laura:
00:27:27
I just got this in December and I'm.
Laura:
00:27:29
So, so happy with it.
Laura:
00:27:31
But my biggest thing is that I have to have a situation where I can just sit
Laura:
00:27:35
down, boot up the computer, and hit record in as few steps as possible or
Laura:
00:27:39
else I'm just gonna get, my ADD is gonna take me off into 17 other directions.
Laura:
00:27:43
So that's, that's my key piece of gear is my desk, I think.
Laura:
00:27:48
Yes.
Ian:
00:27:51
I've been so with you on that one.
Ian:
00:27:52
You just get rid of all the all the barriers in the way.
Ian:
00:27:55
So you can just create it.
Ian:
00:27:56
And it's a cool desk.
Ian:
00:27:57
This is the, I don't know how you pronounce it.
Ian:
00:28:00
The air gear electric standing desk with double drawers.
Ian:
00:28:03
I won't go through the whole title, but it looks really awesome.
Ian:
00:28:06
And I, I love mine's a standing desk too.
Ian:
00:28:08
It gives you that flexibility to be able to either stand up or sit down.
Ian:
00:28:12
I'm currently sitting down, but sometimes I like to stand up.
Ian:
00:28:14
You've got all of all of that together.
Ian:
00:28:16
Wow.
Ian:
00:28:17
We've, we could, we could go on so much more talking about all this, but
Ian:
00:28:20
we are Time for the quickfire round.
Ian:
00:28:22
So you have a minute.
Ian:
00:28:24
You've got to go with your gut reaction with these.
Ian:
00:28:27
So let's cue the music and let's see how this is going to work.
Ian:
00:28:31
Okay.
Ian:
00:28:31
So number one, ring lights, good or bad?
Laura:
00:28:37
Bad.
Ian:
00:28:38
Okay.
Ian:
00:28:39
Stream deck, essential or optional?
Laura:
00:28:42
Essential.
Ian:
00:28:44
Love it.
Ian:
00:28:44
Okay.
Ian:
00:28:45
Next question.
Ian:
00:28:45
Microphone in or out of shot?
Laura:
00:28:48
And we covered this.
Laura:
00:28:49
In.
Laura:
00:28:49
It's gotta be in.
Ian:
00:28:51
Webcam or fancy camera?
Laura:
00:28:53
Fancy camera.
Laura:
00:28:54
100%.
Ian:
00:28:55
gotta be standing desk or sitting desk.
Ian:
00:28:57
We've already talked about this.
Laura:
00:28:58
Yep.
Laura:
00:28:59
Standing.
Ian:
00:28:59
Standing.
Ian:
00:29:00
Okay, one big monitor or dual monitors.
Laura:
00:29:03
Well, I got three, so I'm, I'm
Laura:
00:29:05
gonna go
Ian:
00:29:05
wow.
Ian:
00:29:06
Okay, three.
Ian:
00:29:08
Background music.
Ian:
00:29:09
Is it a mood setter or a distraction?
Laura:
00:29:11
Distraction.
Ian:
00:29:12
Yeah, I'm with you on that one.
Ian:
00:29:14
Coffee or tea while recording?
Laura:
00:29:17
Coffee.
Laura:
00:29:18
All day.
Laura:
00:29:18
Every day.
Ian:
00:29:21
Uh, sitting or standing?
Laura:
00:29:23
Uh, podcasting, sitting, singing, standing.
Ian:
00:29:26
Oh, cool.
Ian:
00:29:26
Acoustic panels, aesthetic choice, or acoustic essential?
Laura:
00:29:29
Acoustic essential!
Laura:
00:29:31
No.
Laura:
00:29:32
Not.
Laura:
00:29:32
I don't know.
Laura:
00:29:33
It's both.
Laura:
00:29:34
It's both.
Ian:
00:29:35
As I said, there's no right or wrong with these, but uh, you
Ian:
00:29:38
gotta go with your gut reaction.
Ian:
00:29:40
Um, I was gonna ask you so many other things, like, you know, what would
Ian:
00:29:42
be your dream setup and all this kind of stuff, but we are out of time.
Ian:
00:29:45
Trying to keep these short and sweet.
Ian:
00:29:46
Thank you so much, Laura.
Ian:
00:29:47
It's been great to have you on the show.
Ian:
00:29:48
You will be back with another episode, but tell us how listeners,
Ian:
00:29:52
viewers can connect with you.
Ian:
00:29:54
They want, if they have any questions, where do you tend to hang out?
Laura:
00:29:58
Uh, I hang out on Instagram a lot, so at Laura Clap Music, C-L-A-P-P.
Laura:
00:30:04
That's my artist name.
Laura:
00:30:06
Uh, laura clap.com or Song 43.
Laura:
00:30:09
Uh, that's my podcast so you can find me there.
Ian:
00:30:12
Awesome.
Ian:
00:30:12
Thank you so much, Laura.
Ian:
00:30:13
It's been great to have you on the show.
Ian:
00:30:15
We are out of time.
Ian:
00:30:16
Uh, thank you so much for plugging us into your ears and watching us on YouTube.
Ian:
00:30:21
If that's where you're watching us, do check out the website at IAG.
Ian:
00:30:25
me forward slash podcast, where you can see previous.
Ian:
00:30:28
episodes, listen to them, watch them, read the blog posts, but until next
Ian:
00:30:31
time, I encourage you to level up your impact, authority, and profits
Ian:
00:30:34
to the power of confident live video.
Ian:
00:30:36
See you soon.
Ian:
00:30:37
Toodaloo!
Ian:
00:30:39
Thanks for listening to the Confident Live Marketing Podcast with Ian Anderson Gray.
Ian:
00:30:44
Make sure you subscribe at iag.me/podcast so you can continue to level up
Ian:
00:30:50
your impact, authority and profits through the power of live video.
Ian:
00:30:54
And until next time, Toodle
