We’ve finally acquired the last pieces of our equipment. All in all we spent somewhere around $2,300. Here are some photos and information about what we ended up with:
Mackie 1402-VLZ3 Mixing Board
This board will allow us to input up to six mics directly, which will hopefully allow us to have lots of special guests on the show with little incident.
White MacBook w/upgrade of 2 gigs of RAM and 250GB HDD
This little guy should take care of all our digital needs. Now instead of using a complicated and old digital 8-track, we can record with the familiar old GarageBand software. This should also help us take recording on the road.
Alesis 3630 Compressor
We still need to try it out (some people were scared and say this is a crappy compressor), but we’re hopeful that this will help control the peaking we’ve experienced with vocals in the past.
Audio-Technica ATH-M45 Studio Monitors
We were told these headphones were the best for the price, so we went with them. Sure beats the hell out of the old ipod headphones we were using at Ziff a lot of times.
PreSonus Firebox
While a little more expensive than the original FireWire kit we’d thought about getting, this one is awesome because it has mic inputs built into it. Our goal was not only to get good equipment that’ll last us for a long time, but also to have an optional set up that will allow us to take the podcast on the road when we have special events or guests.
Four MXL 2006 Condenser Mics
Sure there are better mics out there, but these look like they are going to suit our purposes quite well. Hopefully these — combined with the two mics I already had — will allow us to accommodate multiple guests with ease.
Other Crap
These boom mic stands and mic cables round out the final supplies we needed. The goal is to have the mics in their shock mounts set up on boom stands, allowing us the swing them between multiple people when we need to, while also completely eliminating all the sounds of our hands rubbing the mics.
So there you go, that’s how we’ve been spending money so far. I hope the next show’s audio quality improves. Now it’s time for me to break it out and put it together.
Awesome. Must feel like Christmas all over again.
Awesome! I am so pumped for you guys. You have no idea how much it means to us fans to see you guys keeping our community alive and connected. Keep it up dudes!
Woot! Nice! I know nothing about that type of equipment but it seems good.
You guys rock! Keep it up – there’s ain’t no party like an ex-1UP-FM-podcast-members-with-occassional-special-guests-from-The-1UP-Show-1UP-Yours-and-other-various-industry-types party.
Excellent purchases guys! No doubt you’ll put them to the best use! I’m intrigued to know where your regular recordings will be taking place? Mainly at Anthony’s I assume, if so we need more car alarms!
Jasper
Great job guys! Looking foward to the next podcast.
Hell yeah! Looking forward to future episodes of rebelfm!
This is awesome, your really doing it. I cant wait for the next cast.
Woohoo! Higher quality audio for the highest quality podcasters on the internet
What are you guys doing to pay the rent?
Nice gear guys glad that you finally got your stuff through the donations from us. Can’t wait to hear future episodes while using the new equipment.
If the compressor doesn’t work out, just keep the gain low, and use the ones in garage band. The apple multi-band compressor is fine for podcasts. And no one would judge you if you used that stuff for recording music.
The equipment looks beyond awesome. Can’t wait to hear this week’s podcast.
i can’t wait for the next podcast. keep it up, guys.
This is sick! Legit microphones, instead of headset microphones I keep hearing on other podcasts are awesome.
Looks great, cant wait to hear the next podcast. You gonna have Skip come over and hook it all up?
From the little I know, that Alesis compressor is reliable and pretty easy to use, but only produces mediocre quality, which is more than sufficient for a podcast. Kind of like my Alesis Fusion . . . except for the ease up use factor.
All in all, looks like fun . . . if you can get it all to work.
damn it feels good to be a gangsta
Schwingin’! Love the show, keep up the good work!
Your can-do attitude and mic cables make me sooooooooo horny!
I am so freakin glad you guys have what you need to ease my hour in hour back drive to and from work. I wake up to your thoughts and comments and relax after a days work to them on the way home. Thanks for keeping me gaming when I’ve got the wheel in my hand instead of a controller.
Those mics will be great for podcasting. Sure, you could go for something with a little more oomph, but why bother? You’re looking for Podcast quality. The MXL’s will also hold up to travel and other incidentals better than some and won’t break the bank if you need to replace them.
Why can’t weeks go by faster so we can have our podcast fix quicker?
Can’t wait to listen to the next one with all this tech behind it. 
I know that this information must be somewhere but I’m having trouble figuring out where. I have an idea, (granted it is a cheesy one), for a RebelFM shirt. Is there an email address or somewhere to which I can send my idea or a link to it?
P.S. I’m amazed at what is being done with RebelFM and eat.sleep.game, you guys are kings.
Hooray! Way to go guys, look forward to hearing what you do with all this stuff
Reminds me of “How to build a Bomb.”
Can’t wait to hear the next podcast. Keep up the amazing work guys. Inspirational stuff.
yall are gods among men, keep up the work, i still cant believe tht yall got all this up and running so fast. amazin so amazin!!!!
Great gear, guys! I’m damn sure that next podcast will be crispy clean. BTW, Most ppl complained about ep2′s quality… i just adjusted the EQ on iTunes (i use SRS iWOW) and the quality was pretty good.
Keep up the good work!!!!
P.S. You guys don’t have fans. You have friends. And friends help each other out when in need.
wicked.
Wicked! Can’t wait to hear it (even though I love the grungy style of the band equipment).
As far as the peaking goes, you might want to look into a limiter instead of a compressor, though a compressor can act as a limiter in certain situations.
Good luck!
Nice gear guys!
$2,300 for all that? Really? Surely the Macbook alone costs that much. Anyway, glad our donations were put to good use. Really looking forward to hearing the result. Keep up to good work.
Awesome guys! Looking forward to the next episode!
That’s some fine looking gear. Mac’s look nice, that’s the only good thing I can say about them.
Awsome work,the surport and donations just go to proove that people care so much about you all.So happy you have decided to carry on the legacy of your work at 1up!I was thinking a huge chunk of my life had disapeared overnight!
But now i know my weekends will be something to look forward to once again!So thank you to you all!
Nice work guys. It’s awesome to watch all you ex-1up you guys turn the spectacular fail by UGO into a massive win for yourselves and us, the listeners. I really enjoyed the first 2 casts and I am expecting to continue enjoying the ever-improving RebelFM shows.
Definitely more car alarms.
Damn, i was forgetting… more car alarms!!!!
I don’t have any idea what any of that does, but I am so happy nonetheless. Looking forward to good quality podcasts.
Do us all a favor and spend the rest on videogames. Unfortunately even the bad ones cost money and I’d rather you guys spend it, so I know what to buy. Keep up the good work.
Sweet can’t wait to check out the next pod cast ! so happy for you guys.
I’m glad everyone’s getting set up to podcast in style. Honestly you guys deserve the donations and more for the work you already put in at 1up. Plus a top quality podcast will help pull in more new fans and hopefully more donations too. Good luck with the equipment and thanks for the updates!
You guys need to have a unified hub site together with talkingorange and geekbox. With an amazing layout, I would completely emigrate from 1up.com
Lookin’ at all of that stuff it seems a lot more expensive to me, but I don’t buy audio equipment so congrats on getting some new equipment =D
Where did you get the mac? cause I thought the mac would be as much as you spent, especially since its upgraded. wouldn’t mind knowing cause I have been wanting a mac for a while… its just way more expensive that I wanted to pay.
Yeah a hub site would be pretty cool. I imagine everyone is figuring out their own plans and are still seeing how they want to go forward but I would like to see that.
Thank God… its not just me that uses Garage Band for podcasts, it is really easy to make ‘em in Garage Band, and the ability to put chapter points etc in easily is the thing which keeps me using garage band, and the rest of your stuff is bloody good too!
Looks like you got some pretty good deals on some of that equipment if the grand total was only around $2300. Can’t wait to hear the results!
took time out of re run through HL2.
Nice to see u gettin some nice stuff.
Look forward to lots of new podcast stuff.
J. UK
Awesome, I love pictures of new, fresh out of the box electronic gear. I can almost smell that new technology smell from here, almost…
Kickass! Looking forward to the next episode. Keep it up, dudes!
Glad to see you guys are all over this stuff getting ready to get right back on the boat.
it seems like all of that would’ve costed more then $2300 gotta be atleast 3.5 grand.
This gear makes my pants tight.
this gear also makes my pants tight
glad you guys are back on track with new equipement.
cant wait for the good sounding show
Christ. I bought a cool SD reader yesterday…
Good to see money well spent! I’m looking forward to some awesome podcasts!
P.s
This gear makes my pants tight too…
I hope that you can put the 360 achievement sound clip in the next rebel fm when you talk about the equipment
Excellent purchases. Those headphones are great. My bro bought them for music stuff and from what I’ve heard they’re a good buy for the money. And I just want to say how happy I am that you guys are continuing with podcasts. I look forward to whatever comes next.
Awesome! Haha! You all are my heroes! Your love for gaming and talking about gaming is a passion I am happy to share with you all
Look forward to listening to your future podcasts!
sweetness. look forward to hearing more podcasts from you guys!
I’d be interested about when you guys are going to start posting news stories RE: games, industry stuff on the site on a regular basis. I know you’ve had to throw things together pretty quickly, but I think if you want to keep a large group consistently hitting the site, you need more than pics of your new recording equipment and scoping out whether or not people will buy t-shirts with your website on them.
Love you guys, but honestly, if the only thing going on is a podcast once a week, most people are only going to visit once a week.
I’ve been a little busy since the holidays and the 1up collapse… just found you guys here and am so excited. Keep it up!
At first I was shocked at the price. Then I saw the Mac Book and was like, “well there goes like $1500 right there”
If you guys were looking for ultimate portability, I would have dropped the mixer and gone for a nice firewire audio interface. You could have gotten one with like 8 mix inputs and preamps for about the same price as the mixer + firebox. Plus you could record each input into a separate audio track. Some of them even have built in effects that you can put on the tracks like compressors and noise gates.
Outside of the mac (i’m a PC fan) Nice pickups!
Nice..! Thanks for the pics guys
The equipment looks great guys, minus thhe mac(im a hater I know, but I hope the software is worth the tremendous bump in price). It great to see that you guys are doing right by our donations and doing every thing you can to keep the show going. Thanks alot for all of your work.
Make sure you take pictures of the final setup! Can’t wait to see it all.
I’m still wondering if someone donated a large amount of money, because I only donated 20.
VERY glad to see this is a pro thing guys.
Great gear.
I’m gonna miss the car alarms.. =(
Congrats guys
glad to see you picked up some new gear, i hope to see some reviews on it all after you’ve used it for a couple episodes so i can get a better idea of what i might want to migrate my setup to in the future.
rock on. \m/
Take it easy with that compressor. In ep2, you guys were definitely leaning on it wayyyy too much. If your signal is peaking… turn down the preamps, and just set the compressor to only kick in if someone yells or something. That being said, glad you guys are making podcasts, and I can’t wait to hear more.
I look forward to hearing the podcast with the refreshed equipment. Keep up the good work guys. Always a pleasure.
Ah no, does this mean no more car alarm/barking dogs? But that’s what rebelfm was all about! Nah really, thanks for showin off the goods, and good luck, love the new podcast
Good choice on the mics. I’m an audio engineer and MXR’s, for how cheap they are, produce an excellent sound. The compressor I’m not sure about, but anyone telling you it’s a crappy compressor might have been trying to “spit their mad rhymes” and really didn’t know what they were doing to begin with. You can make any compressor work. I have to say I’m excited. Cant’ wait for the next Rebel FM.
I’m sure it’s already been mentioned or else you’re probably already on top of it, but how about some pop filters? That was the only real problem with the last show.
Soooo stoked you guys are doing this. goodluck!
Wow! I had no idea who you guys were. Now I’ve added you to my Podcast Directory. Hopefully you’ll be an interesting/entertaining hear.
You know I made the decision that if I win the lottery I’m totally going to start my own magazine and will hire every single one of you guys….completely serious. Now we just need to wait on that impossible thing, the lottery. Fingers crossed
I’ve had an Alesis 3630 in my recording rig for years and it’s uses are many. It has a variable ratio from 1:1 to *:1 (limiting), making it useful in any situation.
It’d definately be worth seeking to understand the compressor’s role in shaping the sound, see if you can find an ex-audio school student to give you the lowdown.
The worst thing about the podosphere IMHO is the over/under-use of compression!!