Empat puluh empat
Presonus Eureka Microphone Preamp (USD 320)
You know that feeling you have that things just weren't meant to be? Here is a story that all started in 2008 in a quiet town called Loughborough. It ended today as I type this post.
As you might know, I buy studio equipment. I go far and wide looking for the best deals around and do research on equipment constantly. As proof here is a pile of Sound on Sound magazines, which is a magazine all about music production and equipment. I won't be surprised if I'm one of the few bruneians who buy them.
Anyways last year, I found an online deal for a Presonus Eureka mic preamp. The only catch was its from the US and they don't do shipping to the UK, but I had a plan so I decided to spend what little money I had and get it. Just in case you're wondering, a mic preamp is simply something to warm up a condensor microphone, except the Eureka comes with other nifty bits where I can manipulate (eq and compression) the signal coming from the mic, something I could've only done on software. This is th Eureka:
I have a contact that time in New York, a good friend Murad from Malaysia, who I call M. He helped sell some Micbandits' RnP album in NY which was pretty cool. Anyways, I arranged for the preamp to be sent to M, and he would send it to Loughborough. After a couple of weeks, this letter came:
I had to pay 600+ pnds to collect it! To this day I still wonder why this was, and concluded that its because some companies are just plain evil. So having had an argument with the courier service, I told them to just send it back to sender, which was free of course. By this time I had already gone back to Brunei, and M on the other hand went back to KL for good, bringing the preamp along with him. This was summer 2008.
This year I'm living with two malaysian students. I had this crazy idea that maybe M could just hand it one day to their family, who would be coming for their graduations. So I asked for M's address, who lived in Petaling Jaya, and it turns out was a few blocks away from one of my housemate's place. And by sheer luck, his girlfriend, who studies in London, was heading back to KL for a while. So I arranged for the preamp to be with my housemate's significant other and expect it to arrive in british soil safe and sound.
While in London, I picked up the preamp from her and brought it to Leeds to test it out with Kro. It didn't come with any cables or booklets so I had to find someway to make it work. Having a bit of experience with US equipment (another item from the states is my Stanton CD turntable), I knew I just had to buy the UK voltage adaptor. However being the impatient person I am, I used my friend's bass guitar amp cable, since it had the same connection, and used it to power the preamp. This was a mistake from the start. It lit for a split second and went kapoot.
Now I'm back in my place, having all the adaptors and cables for the preamp. And it doesn't work. It can't, not until I find someone to fix the fuse inside. And now I've decide to blog about it, just to recollect all the events that have happened. This is the story about the preamp that went across the world.
New York - Loughborough - New York - Kuala Lumpur - London - Leeds - Loughborough - and Brunei soon.
I waited a whole year just to break it with my own hands. Life, apparently, is full of ironies.
Salam.
You know that feeling you have that things just weren't meant to be? Here is a story that all started in 2008 in a quiet town called Loughborough. It ended today as I type this post.
As you might know, I buy studio equipment. I go far and wide looking for the best deals around and do research on equipment constantly. As proof here is a pile of Sound on Sound magazines, which is a magazine all about music production and equipment. I won't be surprised if I'm one of the few bruneians who buy them.
Anyways last year, I found an online deal for a Presonus Eureka mic preamp. The only catch was its from the US and they don't do shipping to the UK, but I had a plan so I decided to spend what little money I had and get it. Just in case you're wondering, a mic preamp is simply something to warm up a condensor microphone, except the Eureka comes with other nifty bits where I can manipulate (eq and compression) the signal coming from the mic, something I could've only done on software. This is th Eureka:
I have a contact that time in New York, a good friend Murad from Malaysia, who I call M. He helped sell some Micbandits' RnP album in NY which was pretty cool. Anyways, I arranged for the preamp to be sent to M, and he would send it to Loughborough. After a couple of weeks, this letter came:
I had to pay 600+ pnds to collect it! To this day I still wonder why this was, and concluded that its because some companies are just plain evil. So having had an argument with the courier service, I told them to just send it back to sender, which was free of course. By this time I had already gone back to Brunei, and M on the other hand went back to KL for good, bringing the preamp along with him. This was summer 2008.
This year I'm living with two malaysian students. I had this crazy idea that maybe M could just hand it one day to their family, who would be coming for their graduations. So I asked for M's address, who lived in Petaling Jaya, and it turns out was a few blocks away from one of my housemate's place. And by sheer luck, his girlfriend, who studies in London, was heading back to KL for a while. So I arranged for the preamp to be with my housemate's significant other and expect it to arrive in british soil safe and sound.
While in London, I picked up the preamp from her and brought it to Leeds to test it out with Kro. It didn't come with any cables or booklets so I had to find someway to make it work. Having a bit of experience with US equipment (another item from the states is my Stanton CD turntable), I knew I just had to buy the UK voltage adaptor. However being the impatient person I am, I used my friend's bass guitar amp cable, since it had the same connection, and used it to power the preamp. This was a mistake from the start. It lit for a split second and went kapoot.
Now I'm back in my place, having all the adaptors and cables for the preamp. And it doesn't work. It can't, not until I find someone to fix the fuse inside. And now I've decide to blog about it, just to recollect all the events that have happened. This is the story about the preamp that went across the world.
New York - Loughborough - New York - Kuala Lumpur - London - Leeds - Loughborough - and Brunei soon.
I waited a whole year just to break it with my own hands. Life, apparently, is full of ironies.
Salam.
posted by Zed Peace
on 21 May 2009
2 Comments:
Poor sod.
indeed. thanks for dropping by the site btw!
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