Travels with Plink and Rolly [part 4: gear]

[mdlbear]

I'm still not really satisfied with my travelling gear, but I don't think a whole lot of changes are needed to make it work well for me. But let's go through it piece-by-piece.

Plink: My little Vagabond travel guitar worked just fine, of course. It fits easily in the overhead compartments on most planes. The only problem would come about if the plane is very crowded -- it really has to go in back. It does not really fit in Delta's box, though it used to when they had an extension for garment bags. I lied and told them "it fit the last time I checked." I brought a little amp intended for MP3 players, but never had occasion to try it. (update 1/14 it doesn't work. Not really surprising) One of the tiny guitar amps would probably be smaller and would actually work better.

On the way back I found that Plink's side compartment holds a thick paperback, and that it's convenient to wrap my coat around it and hold it on by tying the arms. Provides a little extra padding.

Rolly: My Travelpro rolling briefcase just barely fits under an airplane seat. And it has to, because Plink doesn't. In most cases it has to go sideways, too, which makes it harder to get at. On the way out it actually didn't fit until I pulled out the phones, my shoulder bag, and the Science magazines. Things fit much better on the other two legs of the trip, but it was still a bit marginal. I think that if I get a bigger suitcase and take all of the miscellaneous cables and other electronic gear out when travelling, it will work OK.

Plink and Rolly go well together -- wrapping Plink's strap around Rolly's handle results in a convenient stack, though it makes it a little difficult to get at the computer.

Headphones: My Vic Firth headphones performed admirably in the air, blocking most of the engine noise. Delightful. The only real problems are that they're uncomfortable to wear for more than 45 minutes or so at a time, and that they're very bulky. I usually dealt with the latter by pulling them out of the rolly and putting them in the literature pocket in front of me. Not entirely satisfactory.

Recording gear: I brought the Edirol UA25 and a couple of microphones, but never used them. Still too much trouble to haul them out, set them up, find a place to perch the laptop, and fiddle with settings. For circles and audience-recorded concerts, I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and get a recorder. Or build one. The little Zoom H4 flash recorder is starting to look tempting again. It was probably a mistake to pack the UA25 in the Rolly for travel.

Suitcase: I probably need a bigger suitcase. Everything fit, but it was pretty tight, especially going out. A little more space would let me pack things like the UA25 and a lot of the other junk that I had in the Rolly but didn't need on the plane.

Comments

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

The little Zoom H4 flash recorder is starting to look tempting again

Gollee, that looks cool! I especially like that it can do compression--that can save your recordings in an intermittantly noisy environment like a filkroom. I do wonder if the operator's fingers pressing the record and stop buttons will tend to make touching-the-mic noises, though.

[mdlbear]

The thing I don't like is that it only records at 24 bits when you're recording two tracks to flash, and not when you're multitracking or recording to USB. So it won't replace a regular USB audio interface and a laptop. But it sure would be nice for recording in filk circles and from the audience in concerts.