Have you ever wondered how top creators design their content creation studios to boost productivity?

What must-have gear do the most successful creators swear by?

How can you transform your studio space to reflect your personal flair and maximise creativity?

🔗 Read / Listen more: https://iag.me/224

This episode is sponsored by Adobe Express

https://iag.me/adobeexpress

In this episode of The Confident Live Marketing Podcast, I'm joined by the marvellous Laura Davidson. We'll uncover the secrets behind her impressive studio setup and dive deep into the world of microphones, cameras, and personalised creative spaces. Laura brings her rich expertise from Shure Incorporated, along with her experiences as a singer, songwriter, and podcaster.

Laura's journey from music to tech is fascinating, and she shares invaluable insights on how to set up your studio for maximum creativity. Whether you're baffled by microphones or curious about lighting, Laura's tips and stories will leave you inspired and ready to upgrade your own space.

🎙️ In this episode:

00:00 Welcome to The Confident Live Marketing Podcast

00:17 Meet Laura Davidson: Singer, Songwriter, and Tech Expert

02:32 Balancing Music and Tech: Laura's Journey

04:52 Diving into Studio Setups: Microphones and Audio

19:34 Exploring Camera and Lighting Setups

25:20 Personalising Your Studio Space

27:10 Quickfire Round and Final Thoughts

🕺More about Laura Davidson

Singer, songwriter, mum, and podcaster - these are just a few of the hats Laura Clapp Davidson wears on a daily basis. She also leads a market development team at Shure Incorporated, where she helps people learn about microphones and solve tech mysteries.

Connect with Laura Davidson:

Website: https://www.lauraclapp.com

X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/lauraclappmusic

Instagram: https://instagram.com/lauraclappmusic

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYZZwkDO1gg-WfzO0eVtUBg

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauracdavidson/

What's your biggest challenge with setting up your content creation studio? Share your thoughts in the comments section below, and don't forget to subscribe and leave a review!

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy

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