If you hadn't noticed, I've been having problems with my mixer. (The saga so far: part 1, part 2.) Well, I didn't have time to play with it more over the weekend -- I went to Darllington for the NASCAR race. Instead, madkawa was kind enough to take my mixer home and try it with his set-up. We chatted a little earlier this evening and he had a report for me which I'm still not sure how I feel about. You can probably guess -- the mixer worked just fine with his set-up.

On the one hand, that's great. It supports the reports I've read about the mixer and falls right in line with the great reviews it's been getting from other podcasters. On the other hand, it still doesn't work with my set-up, so there's something else going on. On Friday, madkawa and I pretty much eliminated everything in my set-up except for my mixer, my computer, and the cable that connects the two. Since madkawa took the mixer and the cable, it pretty much reduces the possibilities to my computer. (Actually, I guess the iMic mini-jack to USB converter I use is still a possibility -- madkawa's laptop has line-in. I'll try using the iMic with my computer at work tomorrow to definitively eliminate that possibility.)

So, the good news is that the mixer is fine. Which, of course, brings us to the bad news -- there's still noise in my recordings, so it's probably my computer. My laptop is pretty noisy, so maybe it's creating some sort of interference. Possibly some sort of interference that only shows itself when connected with my mixer. *shrug* I'd be tempted to say that the microphone was picking up laptop noise and running it through, but the noise still manifested itself even when the microphone was not connected to the mixer. Well, eventually I'll get either a new computer or another device that can be used to capture recordings (a mini-disc, e.g., would go a ways to helping me realize my dream of taping the live concerts I attend). Until that happens, I guess my mixer will go on the shelf and I'll stick with the lapel mic.

In the mean time, the cheap lapel mic works fine. I'd like to step up to a better sounding rig, but until I do, my current set-up is certainly adequate.

In other news, I really enjoy the movie Carlito's Way. It's running on SPIKE right now (Carlito (Al Pacino) just made Benny Blanco from the Bronx (John Leguizamo) pay for his stuff at the club), but I'm too tired and it's too late for me to stay up to watch the whole thing. Maybe I'll pick up a copy of the DVD for my collection some time.