Chapter 4: The Equipment You Need For Podcasting

Before you create any podcasts you need the right equipment. The worst thing that you can do is to produce podcasts where the audio quality is poor. Nobody will want to listen to them. A podcast is all about audio and trying to record using the microphone in your laptop or the one attached to a pair of cheap headphones is out of the question.

You need to think about the type of podcasting you plan to do. If you are going to have a setup where guests will appear on your podcasts by dropping into your home studio then you will need a mixer and some other gear. We do not suggest that you start this way. It can cost you a lot of money to create a mini studio like this.

We recommend that you start by creating the podcasts yourself and conducting interviews over an app like Skype. The advantage of doing this is that you can interview people anywhere in the world. The disadvantage is that sometimes the quality of Skype recordings vary and the person being interviewed will need a good microphone.

So we will take a look in this chapter at a home setup where you will use a computer for the recordings and then we will discuss the options for setting up a mini studio where guests can come and record a podcast with you.

The Simple Podcast Recording Setup

This is the simplest form of podcast recording setup that you can do at home. You will need a computer (which you probably already have), a high quality microphone with a pop guard, good quality headphones and audio editing software.

Most Computers will be fine

You do not need a high end computer to record good quality podcasts. Audio files are a lot smaller than video files and if you have a reasonably modern desktop or laptop computer at the moment this should be more than sufficient.

Podcast Recording with Mobile Devices

What about mobile devices? Well you can record a podcast on your smartphone or tablet but you will need a higher quality microphone than the one included in your device. There are a number of recording apps available for audio for both Android and iOS devices. So mobile device recording is certainly a possibility.

What Microphone?

If you are just going to use your computer for solo podcasts and Skype interviews (more on this later) then we recommend that you get a good quality USB microphone. A USB microphone will work very well with your computer. There are two different types of microphone which are:

Condenser

Dynamic

A condenser microphone is all that you need for solo recordings. If you intend to have two people on a podcast recording into your computer then dynamic microphones are best. You can find good quality USB microphones available on Amazon.com for a reasonable price. A couple of good examples are:

The Blue Yeti (there are some great accessories for this) which is a condenser microphone

The Audio Technica ATR2100 which is a dynamic USB/XLR microphone

If you want to record using your smartphone or tablet device then you will need a better microphone than the one that comes with the device. You can use a lavalier microphone here such as the Rode smartLav+ which is an omnidirectional microphone that you can clip on to a lapel or a tie for good quality recordings.

The Rode smartLav+ plugs straight into your smartphone or tablet jack. This is a good option if you plan to travel around to make podcast recordings. It will work on most Android and iOS mobile devices.

Get a Pop Guard (or Pop Filter)

Some microphones come with a pop guard (or pop filter) already supplied. If your chosen microphone does not have a pop filter then we strongly recommend that you get one as it will improve the sound quality of your podcasts significantly.

Microphone Stand

You will need some form of microphone stand otherwise you will have to hold your microphone when you are recording your podcasts which is far from ideal. You can get a small desk stand for your microphone so that it sits upright on your desk. This is sufficient in most home recording situations.

Another way to hold a microphone in place is to use a boom arm. These are available separately or you can purchase them in a bundle with the microphone – the Blue Yeti microphone certainly has this option. You clamp the boom arm to a desk and then you can move it around so that it is in the perfect position for your recordings.

Good Quality Headphones

Although you can record a solo podcast into your computer without headphones we recommend that you use a pair of good quality headphones for all of your recording so that you get live feedback on the quality.

You can choose between “in ear” or “earbud” headphones or the conventional “over the ear” headphones. One of the best value for money earbuds is the Panasonic Ergo Fit. If you want to go up a notch in quality then we recommend the 1 MORE Triple Driver in ear solution.

If you prefer the over the ear headphones then the AKG Pro Audio AKG K92 closed back headphones provide great quality sound at a very good price. Of course there are higher quality over the ear headphones available and if you want the best then the Grado SR352e are really up there.

Audio Editing Software

When you record your podcasts it is very unlikely that you will not want to make some edits to it. You may have made some mistakes that you want to cut for the final production and you can make your podcasts sound really professional by adding intro and outro music and sound effects.

Well we have some good news for you here. After spending money on a good microphone and other accessories there is no need for you to pay for audio editing software.

There are two free audio editing suites which will provide all of the tools that you need to produce high quality podcasts:

Windows computers – Audacity

Mac computers – Garageband

There are other audio editing suites some of which are free and others where you will need to pay for them. In all honesty Audacity and Garageband are all you need so why pay for an editing suite when you don’t need to?

We are not going to explain how to use these audio editing suites here as it is beyond the scope of this guide. There are plenty of videos on YouTube that will show you how to use the basic and advanced features of these two audio editing suites. With both of these apps you can produce your final podcast in MP3 format.

If you want to do your audio editing on your smartphone or tablet device then there are a number of free and paid apps available for this. For Android devices there is WaveEditor for example and for iOS devices you can use Garageband or TonePad. It is not the easiest thing to do to edit your recordings on a smartphone with these apps. So a better option would be to save your initial recording in MP3 format on your phone using an app and then copy it onto your computer and use Audacity or Garageband.

The Advanced Podcast Recording Setup

If you want to create a podcast recording studio then you will need some additional gear. You will need to use dynamic microphones with an XLR connector for plugging into a mixer. You will also need the mixer, maybe a preamp, a digital recorder and a number of boom arms to hold the microphones in place.

The idea here is that you will create your podcasts using the mixer and digital recorder and then transfer the recording onto your computer so that you can perform your edits with Audacity or Garageband.

To create a podcasting studio like this is going to take some serious investment so you need to be sure that this is the way that you want to go. This is an ideal setup if you are in a good location where guests can easily drop in and participate in podcasts with you.