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Free NewsletterThis week I take a detailed look at podcasting equipment and how it can make a huge difference in the quality of your podcast. Last week in part 1, we talked about how podcasting can reach a broad audience, and spoke a bit about show formats, finding your niche and deciding what your message should be. Now in part 2 I’ll dive into a high level overview of equipment you need to get started podcasting, as well as cover the basic types of equipment you can purchase as your show grows.
[Full disclosure: The equipment links below are Amazon Associate links that provide me a commission if you choose to order through them]
Podcasting Equipment 101
Let me start by saying that I am an audio snob – there are a lot of podcasts out there that sound horrible, and I simply won’t listen to them, even if they have a great message. I believe the quality of audio in the podcast matters – a lot!
Most people I talk with about podcasting jump right in and ask “What kind of microphone should I use?”, but even when we talk equipment that is still the wrong question. The microphone is only one component in the overall system. Lets take a look at the components of an average podcasting system:
- Microphone - Captures the sound your voice makes (and also your co-host), and encodes it electronically, usually as an analog signal.
- Mixer - Usually needed if you want to record more than one microphone or have a guest – the mixer “mixes” two or more microphone signals into a single signal that can be recorded, and also lets you adjust audio levels and frequency so everyone has roughly the same volume level.
- Recorder – Either a computer or separate audio recorder that records the mixed signal digitally so it can be edited and played back later.
- Editing Software – While we will cover the editing process in part 3, you can actually do a lot of things in editing software that used to require hardware, so you can make up for shortfalls in your podcasting equipment by carefully editing your work
- Dial In or Skype Equipment – If you want to capture remote guests (depending on the show), you need to either bring them in via some kind of phone recording system or computer system. A large number of podcasters use Skype, which is free video-teleconference software to bring guests in on the same or a separate computer. Skype has higher quality sound than a typical phone line.
- Audio Processing Hardware – If you are a closet sound engineer, you might add any number of additional boxes to your podcasting system. The most popular is the Compressor Gate which gates out background noise when you are not talking and compresses the audio to make it sound better. However, these functions can be done in software, so the extra hardware is not really needed except for high end live shows.
These basic components make up every major podcasting system, with high end audio systems approaching the equipment of a major radio studio. However you don’t need a lot of equipment to get started podcasting. In fact you can do simple recording with a very simple microphone or headset.
So for the rest of this post, I’m going to go over some typical podcasting setups and how you might use them, starting with the least expensive and moving up to the most expensive.
The USB Microphone – One Guy Podcasting
Plantronics DSP-400
The simplest setup for beginning podcasters is the USB headset. Noticed I said USB headset and not microphone or the regular headset you plug into your sound card. There is a reason for this – the sound card that is built into your computer is notoriously bad at capturing sound. The reasons are many, including the fact that PC manufacturers are cheap and also the inside of your computer has a lot of electrical noise.
So if you want an all-in-one solution for one person podcasting using your computer as the recorder get a USB headset. The headset keeps the microphone at a fixed distance from your mouth (so you don’t need to have great microphone technique) and if you do have a guest dial in on skype you won’t get nasty feedback from the speakers as you can feed the sound through your headset.
I’ve tested a lot of USB headsets (in fact I often send them to guests), and the top models I recommend for overall sound quality are Plantronics headsets. I like the Plantronics .Audio 655 USB Multimedia Headset
There are two major downsides to using a USB mic – one is that your guest options are very limited (you can host one guest via skype — see below) and the second issue is that you can’t hear yourself talking. Higher end systems using a mixer let you monitor your voice on headphones so you hear yourself as you speak. This may sound trivial, but the brain actually has a bit of a feedback loop built in that maintains a constant audio level – recording on a USB mic breaks that loop. As a result, you will have a harder time maintaining the same audio level the whole show vs someone that has that feedback.
To illustrate the point, try conversing with someone on a conventional land-line phone. You will notice that when you talk on the phone you can hear yourself speak – the phone provides feedback. Now try the same exercise on a cell phone – which provides no feedback. You will quickly find yourself talking a lot louder into the cell phone (some people practically yell) because your brain misses that feedback.
Microphone, Mixer and Recorder – and Adding Guests
Behringer 802
The problem “one guy podcasting” has using the headset above is that some day he may want to add guests or a co-host. On the Mac, it is possible to add more than one USB microphone, but on the PC it is just about impossible. When you add a second person (either live or via skype) you also run into volume and leveling issues. Even if two people are using identical microphones, they won’t sound the same because they use different techniques and talk at different levels.
Using a Mixer for Podcasting
Enter the mixer – a wonderful device that takes anywhere from 2-24 microphones (they come in all sizes) and lets you mix them together into one conversation. They also let you mix in sound effects and audio clips from your computer by wiring your computer to one of the inputs. Mixers have a ton of knobs on them and look very imposing. The one I use is a Mackie Onyx 1620i FireWire Recording Mixer
I bought a big one with firewire to be part of a very special remote podcasting system. The reality is you don’t need one that big or that complex – you could work for a long time with a simple Behringer XENYX502 5-Channel Mixer
The knobs on the mixer look complex, but they are not that hard to master. Each has a bunch of microphone inputs organized into columns on the mixer. Below each input is a bunch of knobs. One knob (or slider on larger systems) – usually the one at the bottom - lets you adjust the volume for that microphone so you can boost it if someone is talking softly, or lower it if they are too soft. The other knobs above that let you pan to the left or right channel (hardly ever used) or play with the equalizer levels (also rarely used). The only other knob that matters is the “gain” knob which is another way to adjust the input level for studio microphones.
On the far right side of the mixer is the output section where you can adjust the overall volume levels for the mixed signal coming out – which will then feed into your computer or recorder for recording. Also there is a plug and volume knob here for a headset – which gives you the ability to provide that real time feedback your ears need when you are talking.
Podcasting Microphones – Moving Up
Heil PR-40
The mixer also provides another very useful feature – something called a microphone preamplifier. Basically this is a big three prong plug that virtually all studio microphones use to connect along with the electronics needed to power the microphone. For example if you look at the Behringer Xenyx 802
So if you want to use a radio station microphone, you need to have the mixer. Which microphone to choose? In the inexpensive range (under $80), I would recommend the Audio Technica AT2020 Studio Mic
If you want to spend over $100 on a microphone, I would recommend you save your pennies as long as it takes to buy a Heil Sound PR40 Dynamic Microphone
When you move from a headset to a studio microphone, you need to spend some time learning how to use it. This means having good microphone technique. The basics are to keep the microphone a fixed distance from your mouth as you speak, point the microphone slightly to the side, and keep the microphone slightly off axis (don’t talk right into it). This minimizes the “popping” sound when you say the letter “p”. You can reduce this further using a “pop filter” which is a screen or piece of foam that goes over the mic to keep the wind from hitting it.
Podcast Recorders
Edirol R-09HR
The mixer you purchased has an main output. You can wire it directly to your computer microphone input and record it, but again you will run into noise issues since most computer sound chips are of poor quality. A cheap fix for this is to buy a cheap USB sound dongle such as this one: Syba USB Stereo Audio Adapter
The next step up from that is to purchase a separate audio recorder. These take the output from your mixer and record them directly to a flash media card – similar to the one you use in your digital camera. After recording you can take the flash card from the device and copy it to your computer for editing and final production.
I’m not an expert on digital recorders (see below) as I use a different method (below) to record my podcasts, but some of the most popular models used by professional podcasters include the Zoom H2 Handy Portable Stereo Recorder
High End Podcasting- Multi Channel Recording
Mackie 1620i
At the highest end of the podcasting equipment spectrum, it is possible to record each guest or sound input in a separate track. This is what music recording studios do when they record a band – each instrument and vocalist is on a separate track so they can remix the audio track later using software.
There are huge advantages to doing this. For example if one guest coughs or tries to talk over another guest, you can edit it out in the final copy since you have that guest’s track recorded separately. If you had the audio levels off a bit when recording, its no problem since you can adjust them in software later. You can even apply unique effects like compression and gating to each guest so they sound their best.
There are two ways to do this. One is to buy a special sound card (called an ASIO card) that actually has a bunch of separate audio inputs on it and plugs directly into your computer or has a USB or firewire plug. It will come with a special ASIO driver that works with popular audio editing software to record all of the tracks at once and let you mix them later. For example this M-Audio Delta 1010-LT PCI Digital Audio Card
The second way is to use a firewire mixer. In this case the mixer itself has a firewire interface built into it that you can plug directly into your computer. The mixer itself turns the inputs directly into digital signals, so there is no noise in the system, and it comes with an ASIO driver that interfaces directly with your audio editing software. Arguably the best of these firewire mixers come from Mackie, one of the best mixer makers. Their models include the Mackie Onyx 820i FireWire Mixer
Recording Skype Podcasts
A lot of podcasts feature interviews with one guest, or even a co-host of a show who is not co-located with the host. The best solution I’ve found is to use Skype for handling these situations. It is a free video conferencing program, and easy for guests to set up for both Mac and PC. My guests need only a USB headset and webcam (if doing video) to participate in the show, and having the video interaction helps with the conversation. Also you can use the “Skype out” feature to call regular phone lines, which lets you feature a guest who may only have a regular phone for only a few dollars a month (skype charges for phone calls).
There are two ways to record a skype conversation. One is to use software. Programs such as Callburner (PC), Hot Recorder (PC) , and Audio Hijack (Mac) let you record a two person skype conversation.
The second method (getting geeky for a minute) involves setting what audio wizards call a “mix-minus” with the auxiliary channel on your mixer (assuming it has one) with one of your PC/Mac computers hosting the skype conversation. The aux channel on the mixer is a separate mixing channel with knobs for each input.
What you do is connect the output from the PC hosting your skype conversation to one of your mixer inputs. Then you adjust the knobs on your aux channel so the volume is up on every channel except the one you have your skype conversation input coming in on (that one is zeroed). Then the output from the aux channel goes to the skype PC, essentially providing them with the entire mix – minus their own input so they don’t get an echo. Using this method you can host one skype conversation per aux channel on your mixer. My Mackie 1620i has four aux channels, so I can actually host 4 guests (each skype session is on a separate computer).
Summary
We’ve covered a lot of ground with this (very long) post, including a wide variety of equipment. The best advice I have for new podcasters is to start with some basic equipment - a single USB headset and software like Hot Recorder if you want to do a skype interview. Record a few shows without publishing them to get the hang of talking, recording and editing. After you have some experience under your belt and are know you like podcasting, then invest in the mixer or studio mic to make it sound better.
Thank you for visiting Online Business Zen. Next week, I’ll continue the series on podcasting with a discussion on software and podcast editing, and then after that we’ll dive into actually syndicating and publishing your podcast on iTunes. Have a great week and don’t hesitate to subscribe for more great info or leave a comment below.
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