Do It Yourself: Tech Stuff


We get a fair amount of e-mails from people asking what kind of equipment and software we use to make The Pinky Show. If you're into technical stuff like that, the lists below are for you. If you're more curious in the conceptual aspects of our production process, click here.
I don't consider us 'technology geeks' in the sense that I don't think any of us really enjoy fiddling with equipment - we're more interested in education, research, and art, and tend of think of computers and electronic gadgets as necessary evils (I mean 'tools'...). But mainly I put the following lists together so that if there's anyone out there with an urge to 'do it yourself', you won't have to start from zero as you research what kind of equipment might be useful for doing this kind of work. Good luck! Long live underground media! ~ Bunny

[ note: The following lists are what we're using as of April 2010. ]

Equipment:
Sony DCR-TRV18 miniDV camcorder (awful but somehow still alive)
Canon HF S10 camcorder
Nikon D300 camera w/ 17-55mm lens
Tiltall tripod (old and apparently indestructable)
Bogen-Manfrotto monopod (sucks)
Bogen-Manfrotto mini fluid head
tiny 5" tall Bogen tabletop tripod (very handy!)
AKG C4500B microphone for recording vocals
Sennheiser MKH60 shotgun microphone
AKG D230 ENG microphone
Shure SM57 microphone for recording everything else
Rycote zepplin w/ fuzzy wrapper for the shotgun mic
Sound Devices 702 Digital Audio Recorder
Symetrix 528e preamp/gate/compressor for 'cleaning up' vocals (2)
Telos One Digital Hybrid, for recording phone interviews
Mackie 1220 12-channel mixer w/ firewire mod
KRK Systems active monitors (Rokit 6" version)
Sony MDR-V6 headphones (2 - 1 for me, 1 for Pinky)
various musical instruments (bass, electric guitar, etc.)
Peterson Tuner (gotta keep everything in tune...)
Tech21 PSA-1 SansAmp for guitar and bass
TOTA lights (2)
a bunch of mic and light stands
lots of cables, blankets, and foam

Computer Hardware:
Macintosh G5 computer (2003) and a bunch of external drives
WiebeTech eSATA external RAID
La Cie Optical Drive
Wacom drawing tablet
an ancient Hewlett-Packard desktop computer
Epson 2450 scanner for the occasional scanning job

Software:
Adobe Photoshop, for editing photos & drawing cats
Aperature, for editing photos
Adobe Lightroom, for editing photos
SlideShowPro, for making Flash Galleries
Pixen, for pixel art fun
Apple Final Cut Pro, for editing video
Apple Garage Band, for recording & editing audio, and making 'music'
Audacity, for changing audio pitch or length
Macromedia Flash, for 'animation', etc.
Intaglio or Illustrator, for making the occasional vector graphic
Ambrosia Software Snapz Pro X, for video captures
SnapNDrag, for screen captures
Apple QuickTime 7 Pro, for all kinds of conversion stuff
VLC player for playing back all kinds of video files
Apple iDVD, for making DVDs
Apple TextEdit, for writing
OmniOutliner & OmniGraffle, for organizing thoughts
BareBones Software TextWrangler, for coding
Adobe Acrobat, for making all kinds of PDFs
Toast, for backing everything up

Stuff We're Currently Saving Up For:
a microphone boom (~$250)
compact, leveling tripod (~$800)
sneaky, piggy-back mic, for podium work (~$300)
a couple of lavaliers (~$950)
two RAID drives (~$2,000)
studio lights (crazy expensive)
a sturdy camcorder (~$5,000)
travel cases for everything (~$1,200)
a laptop computer (~$2,500)
big fat computer for editing audio & HD video (~$5,000)
fur coats for everyone (just kidding)

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[ see how we make The Pinky Show ]