Hi Digit.

It's a Rode NT1-A mic, made right here in Australia. It looks like a Neumann, costs $350 down here... that's Aussie dollars, so somewhere about $300 US. I thought it wasn't working when I first tried it, it was so quiet.

How could anyone NOT like Randy Newman? Every song he writes is a parody of something or someone. He reminds us all through his songs of what bigotted, ignorant, prejudiced, big-headed, red-necked, sinful, stupid, greedy and fragile souls we are. I love him. Have a listen to Shame, shame, shame one day.

He does get a lot of work in movieland. I believe his uncle was Alfred Newman, another film score writer. No, not Alfred E Newman ("What, me worry?"), of MAD magazine fame, just Alfred without the E.