an audience seems cool but the connections that really matter is that guy who sends a comment 7 years later informing you that they've made progress on the project you had to abandon, but wrote about so others could learn about it at least.
document cool stuff! share cool links! share reading that made you think or made you feel something (just be careful with the angry)
but audiences don't tend to grow with you. eventually you'll outgrow them, because they replace the ones who grew with you, with new people finding your posts, without realizing.
and you'll be glad you didn't write for them. because new people who care keep finding your old posts. and it's the people who care who end up making an impact on the larger scale, but also tend to be more reliable connections even if you don't talk much.
Sony, the "five figure pro gear" company, made a damn good USB quad-array shotgun/cardioid hybrid mic about 15 years ago, with 1-4 channel recording and standard USB 2.0 audio device class driverless interface (compatible with anything)
and, well
it's a peripheral for the playstation three.
it's the PlayStation Eye Cam and can be had for like, $5 secondhand on le bay d'electroniques or the like, or found in the cable bin at a used game shop. tape it to your tripod or something, and it's good to go. It has a moderate filter inside the cage but cover it in fur or foam if you need a more aggressive wind filter.
(btw, ignore the camera function. the camera itself is VGA-resolution garbage, only has drivers in Linux, and the only redeeming quality I can give it is that it's probably reasonable for computer vision, with a bilevel focus knob and high framerates for a "webcam", 60fps typical)
maybe the only reason it was as good as it is, is because it was MSRP at $80 and sold as a loss-leader for other PlayStation Eye and Move AR/waggle games, and was intended for crisp, clear living room-space in-game chat audio, with enough quality to do voice isolation.
my other equipment was all picked up on the random: a Samson Go Mic, some AudioTechnica hand mic, and some "Fifine" brand podcast mic. Total price: maybe $40 altogether?
