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You might try clipping a lavalier mic to your clothes, behind the 'harp, and see what you get. I find it really tough to get a good autoharp sound from any single mic; I usually get a combo of two mics and (generally) pan 'em apart. I use the built-in pickup combined with either an out-front mic or ...

This is astounding and awesome.

--K

EDIT oh, there's the other thread.

She's a contributor to the New York Times's "Measure for Measure" songwriting blog:

http://measureformeasure.blogs.nytimes. ... anne-vega/

Some neat stuff in there.

--K

I have a Copperphone mic and I am a big fan of how my vocals sound with it. It's not just the "old-timey" sound, it's also that (and here I apologize for not knowing the lingo) my vocals sound...smoother? warmer? than with other mics, with which I tend toward brittle. (Mostly I'm speaking here of th...

Okay, who here has a Cracklebox? http://www.crackle.org/CrackleBox.htm I recently picked one up and I'm not at all sure that it's working correctly. I realize that it's hard to tell what "correctly" means in this case, and that it depends on a variety of factors, but it's very difficult to get any s...

I like limitations: I was recently thinking about songs that are limited to one chord. I'm aware of, like, old-school blues, and noise stuff that is "chord-free" entirely. But my main interest here is pop, and I'm having a hard time thinking of any pop songs with no chord changes. (Songs that have c...

This is an idea I've been looking at a lot lately -- with the "Songwriters" book as inspiration, even. You know what, I'm going to pm you.

--K

I used to play drums but I haven't touched a kit in a decade or so, and I don't own a kit. I'd like to get back into it but have concerns about a) space and b) noise. I've been thinking about electronic drum kits for a while now. I don't really know anything about them, though, and I've been hesitan...

This has sparked my interest and I was wondering if anyone has that guide to the cheap reverb mod that uses one of them dollar store kid microphones? Anyone have it saved? Is this what you're thinking of? http://thesquarewaveparade.com/2dlrsprng.html (I bought my mics but haven't done anything with...

Brought home a big-ass Cecil B. DeMille-style megaphone and messed around recording vocals with it.

Sonic considerations aside, it makes a good deal of psychological difference. Fun.

--K

I cant believe someone asked a question about bul bul, by the way.... Heh. You actually gave me some recording advice about Marx Co. gadget zithers a year of two ago on these boards, so I'm not surprised that you're the one to chime in here. Yeah, I'm tending towards the "de-tuney" thing myself. I ...

Okay: I have a Bul Bul. If you imagine a mountain dulcimer that's fretted with typewriter keys, you'll be fairly close. My questions have more to do with how strings work with each other than with the actual instrument, and I'm pretty sure most everyone here knows more about stringed instruments tha...

Best of all, I went to high school in the same town and era as TOMB's own workshed, although apparently our paths never crossed too much (although maybe he came to the Fugazi show that my friends & I put on...?). --K Yes! I totally remember you and saw your old band play at least once. I know we ch...

My business partner's uncle played Emilio Estevez's dad in Repo Man . I did a zine in the '90s and interviewed TMBG, NoMeansNo, Beautiful South, Jonathan Richman, Billy Bragg and others. My college band recorded a cassette-only album with Conrad Uno. (This was probably around '91.) Somewhere, I have...

Yeah, I have one. I haven't used it on any recordings yet. I play Autoharp, so it's useful for working out chord progressions and such in the middle of the night when I don't want to be too noisy. It's basically a cross between an Autoharp and a cheesy Casiotone keyboard; clearly, I could not resist...