WHAT WE USE...
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If you’re thinking of starting your own podcast, the amount of equipment and resources available out there right now may seem a bit overwhelming and leave the typical newbie with decision paralysis. While it’s true that it’s easier than ever before to get your voice heard and distributed to the masses, there’s a lot to consider and to take in.
While this particular article isn’t going to be a “Beginners Guide to Podcasting” type of article, I figured I’d take a second to show you guys what we use, how we use it, and why it works for us. That last part is important. Podcasting isn’t a “one size fits all” medium. Just like any art, everyone has their own methods and techniques. While the basics and best practices are good to know as a ground floor knowledge, once you get past that phase you can really zero in on your sound and style and hone your skills! There’s currently almost A MILLION different podcasts in the world right now. You need to find your own unique sound to stand out.
So with all that being said, let’s take a look at what type of equipment we use:
MICROPHONE
Audio-Technica AT2020 Cardioid Condenser Studio XLR
Our studio is currently set up with 4, Audio-Technica AT2020 Cardioid Condenser Studio XLR microphones. One microphone per host and one extra for potential guests. To be quite honest, this mic might be the best bang-for-your-buck microphone out there in the market. At just $99/ mic (comes with a carry bag and a mount for a mic stand), this mic really does sound amazing. Only really being edged out by some of the MUCH more expensive Rhodecaster mics.
The AT2020 has great sound and range. Perfect for voice-over work, podcasting (duh), and even vocals. Especially when combined with a good pop filter. The mics in our studio are pretty close together but we hardly ever experience “ghosting” (echo from other mics) at all.
While we use the XLR version of these mics through a Mixer (see below), they also have a USB version that works almost as well! In fact the USB version is what I use on my gaming rig for voice chat and streaming.
AUDIO MIXER
Yamaha MG10XU 10-Input Stereo Mixer with Effects
All of those XLR microphones have to go to something and I’m willing to bet that your PC doesn’t have an XLR port on the back. In order to digitize the incoming audio signal from the mic, you’ll need some type of interface that plugs into your PC. Micophones > Mixer > PC USB port. That’s the basic idea. The Yamaha MG10XU Stereo Mixer works fantastic and gives you a TON of control over how your podcast will sound. From compression, stereo balancing, Low, Mid, and High adjustment, this mixer has it all. Even built in effects with individual channel-specific controls! In addition to the 4 XLR inputs, it also has some 1/4” input channels along with built in monitoring and level indicator. While the board may seem intimidating at first, it’s so worth it to take a day or so and play around with the sound and various features. This board has given us the ability to adjust the sound of each mic and gives each host a very unique sound that helps separate them to the listener’s ears. At about $200, it’s very much been worth the cost to us, and has helped make our audio sound very professional.
STUDIO HEADPHONES
OneOdio Over Ear Headphone with 50mm Driver, Foldable Lightweight Headphones
Do you need headphones? No not really. But do they help? ABSOLUTELY! Not only do they enable you to hear what EXACTLY is being put out to your recording PC, you can better hear each other and yourself, which is very important. Being able to better hear things during a discussion helps make for a better show and keeps you from talking over the other person (in theory). If you use audio effects, soundboards, etc during your recording, it really helps to be able to hear the playback as well.
We went through a bunch of various variations of headphones and cables/adapters until we found these. They sound AMAZING for the price ($39.99 and under for various colors). I initially chose these though because they came with a cable that has 1/4” straight to 3.5mm. No adapter or anything necessary. When we used adapters, it didn’t matter what kind of cables we were using, it just never sounded right and gave us a TON of feedback. But with these, we not only experienced 0 feedback, but we also get excellent bass and sound from them. And for the price, it’s great! Only downside to them is that the headband and folding pieces are a hard plastic vs metal or composite like higher end headphones. However, for the price, we were able to outfit the entire studio with 4 pairs of these for the price of 1 really nice pair of studio headphones. So win-win! They also come in 4 different color combinations that look really cool.
HEADPHONE AMP
On-Stage HA4000 4-Channel Pro Headphone Amplifier
The mixer I listed above only has one headphone input for monitoring (what we talked about in the headphones section). In order to make sure everyone can hear what’s going on during recording, you’ll need a way to split that monitoring signal into different outputs. To do that, we use what’s called a Headphone Amp. This particular one has 4 outputs, perfect for our 4 mic and headphone setup!
Mics > Mixer> USB Recording PC
|
L> Headphone Amp > Headphones
POP FILTER / WINDSCREEN
AT2020 Foam Windscreen by Vocalbeat
While the AT2020 microphones are a fantastic microphone on it’s own, every mic needs a little bit of help. You’ll want to invest in a pop filter, AKA windscreen for your mics. This’ll help muffle some of the harsh sounds that humans make when speaking naturally into a microphone up close (called “Popping” or “Hard P’s”). While the price tag of just under $13 each seems kinda high, you definitely get what you pay for in terms of quality. These have a real nice thick foam and they fit PERFECTLY over the AT2020 mics. If you end up with a different mic, you’ll want to find a pop filter that fits your mic.
MICROPHONE ARM
Adjustable Microphone Suspension Boom Scissor Arm Stand with Shock Mount
In terms of mounting your mics, you have quite a few options. Desktop stands tend to pick up a LOT of table noise and lot of unintended bumps and vibrations. To counter that, we went with a mic mount that mounted on the edge of the table with an arm and suspension mount. The suspension mount is like a little bungee chord cage that the mic rests inside. This suspension helps keep the mic from rattling from desk bumps and movement. The suspension arm itself helps a bit and is adjustable at multiple points, which is great as it lets the hosts and guests sit comfortably with the mic still close to them. All three of us have our mics in different positions based on what we like, and we can do that thanks to the adjustable arm. At only $20 each with the adapter for various mic sizes, it’s a great value!
RECORDING PROGRAM
Audacity
So now that you’ve got all the necessary recording equipment, it’s time to record! But wait! How?!
We use the free (yes FREE) audio recording program, Audacity. It’s simple, easy to use, very versatile, and did we mention FREE?! Audacity is an open-source, cross-platform program developed by a group of volunteers. In terms of ease-to-use, there’s really no better alternative that I’ve found. I even have the Adobe Creative Cloud suite and refuse to record on anything besides the free Audacity. Not only that, but it’s great for editing and splicing in post-production.
POST PRODUCTION
Levelator (and Audacity)
We generally will take the raw WAV file of our podcast and run it through a program called The Levelator. Another FREE program, The Levelator will take your audio recording and level out all the audio levels. So if one mic was too loud or too low, or perhaps you had a lot of audio spikes or loud pops, The Levelator will take all of that and level everything out to a nice and even recording. It’s no substitution for quality equipment and practices, but it definitely helps out in post production and makes the podcast sound a little bit more produced.
HOSTING/DISTRIBUTION
Podbean.com
To host the audio files and distribute the RSS feed to the various podcast platforms like Apple, Google, Spotify, iHeart, etc, we use Podbean. While they have a free version to use, we use the “Unlimited Audio” version. For the price, you get unlimited audio hosting, a podcast page, embedded players (like on this site), and other features like access to an Ads marketplace to help monetize your podcast. So far we’ve been very happy with Podbean and their easy to understand UI and see no current reason to want to switch.
THE STUDIO
The Game Pad Podcast Studio
And that’s it! Above is a pic of our current Studio. Which happens to just be the 3rd bedroom in my house. One thing we didn’t talk about in this write up was the sound foam. If you have the money and budget, I absolutely recommend setting some up wherever you are recording. The sound waves from your mouth bounce off the walls and back into our ears, and in this case, the mic. If the sound is bouncing around the room all willy nilly, you’ll get a lot of echo since the same waves are bouncing back and forth across the room. The sound foam acts as a “trap” inside the room and will essentially (in layman’s terms) slow down the sound waves and dissipate the reverb, resulting in a cleaner and deeper sound in our ears and mics since the sound wave from our mouths is only hitting the mic once vs bouncing off the wall and coming back.
While you don’t NEED all of this equipment to make a podcast, this is what we use and what we’ve grown into. It’s important to determine your own budget, needs, and space. Maybe next time I’ll do a write up on the bare minimum you need for a podcast. Hopefully this was helpful and informative for those of you out there wanting to start a podcast or who were just curious as to how we got our sound. Thanks for reading!
