A craiglist adventure!

For those of you that may not know, I'm in the process of putting together a bit of a home studio! I have this weird control-freak tendency with my music; basically I want to be in charge of everything that happens, from the songwriting to the mixing, and I've spent enough time in real studios and in recording classes to do it on my own, at least, well enough to get a good quality demo put together. The thing is, music equipment is SO expensive, if you want good quality stuff. I don't want to cheap out too much, but I don't have thousands upon thousands of dollars to spend. Luckily, I have a lot of the necessary components already, and a lot of the things I still need I can get at a huge student discount (ie, Pro Tools). That still leaves me with a  few things to find, however.
On a total whim, I turned to craigslist last night to see if anyone was selling something I could use. And lo and behold, a "retired" musician who once made electronic (read: dub step) music, was liquefying his studio. Among his listed possessions were a $400 microphone and $60 headphones. He was selling them both for a total of $300... and I talked him down to $250. And then he threw in some other stuff too!


For my $250 I received:

• One Audio-Technica AT4033/CL Microphone (and the original manual, shock mount, dust cover, and case!)
• One pair of Yamaha RH5MA Monitor Headphones
• One Pop Filter
• One XLR Cable
• About a dozen quarter inch to RCA converters

If sold at their retail price (with tax, not even considering possible shipping charges), the total for all of that gear would be: $543.75.


I saved almost $300! And all I had to do was go to this guy's apartment in the middle of the ghetto and pick it up... heh. (at one point the thought of possibly getting murdered crossed my mind, but who stalks their prey using audio equipment sales?!) Fortunately I emerged unscathed, and I saved more money than I spent. You can't beat that! (and these headphones, by the way, are DYNAMITE. I can't wait to test out everything else!)