A Conversation with Alex Calder

Photos by Ellery Lane

On Sun, May 12, 2013 at 7:47 PM, Cole Kushner wrote:

Hey Man,

I just started listening to your music and I’m pretty impressed!
It has a really nice feel to it.
I’m sure your super busy these days but I was just wondering what kind of gear your using to get that sound?

Thanks,
Cole.

On Mon, May 13, 2013 at 7:16 PM, Alex Calder wrote:

Hey Cole!
Thanks man, I’m glad you are enjoying the music.
These days I have been recording on this Fostex 16 channel mixer.
I usually just run that into Ableton as an interface, so I can still get the nice warmth off of the fostex before it gets that digital sound that ableton has. Other than that, just crisp clean sounds lately, trying not to affect the instruments too much and just get the natural sound. I also use this nice Roland condensor mic for everything pretty much….that and a few SM57s on the drums and that’s about it!

Hope that helped you a bit.

Cheers!

-Alex

On Mon, May 13, 2013 at 8:27 PM, Cole Kushner wrote:

Woah thanks for the reply man – that is great information. I will look into those mixers – I love that warmth.

Unfortunately I’m pretty new to music production so I don’t have anything I’ve made yet but I really like listening to music and I’m really feelin your sound.

Thanks replying so quickly
Cole.

ps what model is the roland mic?

On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 7:48 AM, Alex Calder wrote:

Hey no problem man – Glad you feel connected to my sound – It’s nice to have fans that like to dig deep and have an interest!

The Roland model number is a DR80C.

Hope that helps!

-Alex

On Mon, May 14, 2013 at 8:27 AM, Cole Kushner wrote:

Yeah I definitely like to dig deep :)

The best price I can find for that mic is at Sonic Electronix – but you have to a credit card which is kinda shitty (I only have paypal)…where did you buy yours?

Cole

On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 9:48 AM, Alex Calder wrote:

I think I bought mine online a few years ago – might of even been that site (sounds familiar)
And yeah I just used my girlfriends credit card – I’m pretty sure I would never be approved for a credit card, Haha.

-Alex

On Mon, May 14, 2013 at 10:27 AM, Cole Kushner wrote:

Oh sweet, yeah I don’t even want to know what my credit rating is haha…

I totally understand if you arent comfortable with this, but do you think your girlfriend would be down with buying one of these babies online for me? And I could send her the funds from my paypal – I would even add like an extra $50 just for her effort

I just don’t know anyone with a credit card and I think this mic would really help get my recordings going.

Cole

On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 12:48 PM, Alex Calder wrote:

Hey man, I would love to help out but to be honest I don’t think she would be down with that – I think its like a joint account with her parents and her limit isn’t that high…sorry.

-Alex

On Mon, May 14, 2013 at 1:27 PM, Cole Kushner wrote:

Yeah don’t worry I totally understand.

But there is actually a thing that you can do on paypal where I can just send funds to a credit card – so I could add the money to her credit card before the purchase so it would basically be like “pre-paid” and it wouldn’t affect her limit or anything – just to let her know if she was worried about that…

So basically the total price for the mic (with shipping and tax) would be $335.80 – so I would send her $400 to her card, basically $65 on top of that just for her helping me out.

Sorry I’m not trying to make her do anything she is uncomfortable with I just am trying to brainstorm a way to get this mic – I appreciate your help,

Cole

On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 1:38 PM, Alex Calder wrote:

Hmmm..

Would she need to do anything? Like how would the funds be added to her card?

-Alex

On Mon, May 14, 2013 at 1:42 PM, Cole Kushner wrote:

Good Question – I was just looking into that information on the paypal website
It says that I would just need the 12 digits on the front of her card and the type of card..

And paypal gives you a reference number thingy too so if she was worried about security – Paypal is pretty solid with that kinda shit. But it’s totally up to you guys. Just think about it.

Cole

On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 1:44 PM, Alex Calder wrote:

Im actually ok with it, but It might take a bit of convincing…where would she have to put in the card number?

-Alex

On Mon, May 14, 2013 at 1:55 PM, Cole Kushner wrote:

Im pretty sure I would have to login and do it from my end so you can just enter the digits here in an email and I enter it – but don’t worry I will delete the email after (and suggest you do the same after you send it – for security reasons)

Cole

On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 2:33 PM, Alex Calder wrote:

OK she is cool with it. The 12 digits on the front are 5588 3201 2385 6794 And it says TD VISA on the front. How will we know when the money has been added?

-Alex

On Mon, May 14, 2013 at 2:39 PM, Cole Kushner wrote:

Aw man thank you so much – tell her I really appreciate it – If I make a hit song with this mic I will name it after her!

It should be instantaneous – but you can call the number on the back of the card to make sure the transfer went through before the purchase.
One last thing it also asks for the expiration date on the front and there should be 3 digits on the back by her signature?

Cole

On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 3:23 PM, Alex Calder wrote:

Umm the expiration thingy on the front says 11/15

and It’s kind of hard to read but I think the last 3 digits are 538

-Alex

On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 4:18 PM, Alex Calder wrote:

Did those numbers work?

-Alex

On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 8:24 PM, Alex Calder wrote:

Hey Man were you able to transfer the money? We called the number on the back of the card and it says the money hasn’t been added yet – please let me know if there were any issues.

-Alex

On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 10:20 PM, Alex Calder wrote:

Hey can you please respond to me?