The Best Podcast Gear Setup For Any Budget

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Alban (00:00):
Kevin, Jordan, congratulations.

Kevin (00:02):
Who dis?
New phone, Who dis?

Alban (00:05):
This is Alban.
I'm back from my sabbatical andI'm excited to record.
I haven't seen you in forever.
Friday was my last day on thesabbatical and I almost messaged
both of you and said, if youcan move it up 30 minutes, I'll
be there, Because I was excitedabout you were talking about all
of the YouTube slop which I'dbeen running into and you were

(00:25):
talking about magic mastering,which I was excited about, but
you didn't talk about the thingI was most excited about, which
was we got a huge achievement wegot 500,000 downloads for
Buzzcast.

Jordan (00:38):
Half a mil baby.

Alban (00:39):
Half a million and I was surprised at how excited I was
when I got it.
I got it as a notificationbecause I have the Buzzsprout
app and I was just like wow,that's actually a pretty big
number and you know, smallernumbers over time added up go to
a bigger number, and half amillion feels like that's
surprising to me.
I feel like I didn't expect usto be that close.

(01:01):
So congratulations to both ofyou.

Jordan (01:07):
Yeah, what was really cool was we got that
notification on the 4th of July,so I was lighting off fireworks
and I was like all right timeto celebrate.

Alban (01:12):
I was just pretending that all the fireworks I saw
were celebrating us.

Jordan (01:16):
Just felt a little bit better than everyone else that
night.

Alban (01:19):
But also I really enjoyed the two episodes I wasn't on.
It was kind of nice to listento Buzzcast and not have had a
little bit of the insideknowledge of how it was made.
And so I really liked theepisode about magic mastering
the updates you did.
I have some feedback.

Jordan (01:38):
Oh, I knew it was going to happen.
Here we go.

Kevin (01:41):
Good news.
If you have, like you said,feedback, which is typically a
bad thing, like it's like MagicMaster would remove it.
Yeah.

Alban (01:50):
Just save it.
So from now on, if I say thething Kevin doesn't like, he'll
go.
I think filler killer must havedeleted that whole segment.
Yeah, so my feedback isactually the same as Tim.
He wrote in via fan mail andsaid I appreciate your brave
attempt to record the worstpossible audio.
He has very brave.
Both of you and you publishedan episode after running it

(02:13):
through Magic Mastering, but Iwould love to have heard the
before audio to see how far itwas improved.
And I thought the same thing.
I heard what sounded like goodaudio.
I know you and Kevin, so Itrust that both of you really
did record this outdoors on yourAirPods.
Yeah, so let me catch you up.

Kevin (02:31):
First of all, it was a quick cast, and so one of the
things we try to do with quickcast is cover one topic in 10
minutes or less, and we try tokeep it tight so there's not a
ton of editing.

Jordan (02:41):
Yeah.

Kevin (02:41):
Those are kind of the rules of the game.
We don't always follow therules of the game, but that's
generally the rules that we playby, and so, in order to do like
a before and after, youwouldn't be able to just take
one recording and run it throughpower clean, because it would
have cleaned everything up, andso that's one thing.
We just wanted to run the finalrecording through power clean
and be done with it.
Yeah, the other thing is thatwe were both using AirPods, and

(03:03):
AirPods automatically do somelike background noise reduction.
So it wasn't the best test inthe world in terms of the
recording itself had alreadykind of been cleaned up a little
bit by the AirPods, and thenpower clean did the rest of it.

Jordan (03:15):
Yeah.

Kevin (03:16):
What's a better example is for us to go out and use
AirPods or a microphone orsomething, but like turn off any
.
Like pre-processing that'shappening in the microphone and
getting a real noisy recordingusing that and then running that
same thing through power clean,editing them together and then
not running the final throughpower clean.
So maybe Jordan is up for thatat some point, maybe today, I
don't know.

Jordan (03:36):
I'm going to do that today.
I'm going to do that on thisepisode.
It's going to be like a littlebit tricky how I do this, but I
do have an audio clip from aconvention and it's really noisy
.
In the background you can hearlike things clinking and people
talking and crowds, and I'mrunning it through power clean.

(03:57):
But I have to run only thatthrough power clean so it
doesn't clean up the bad audiobefore it.

Alban (04:02):
So it's going to be a little bit of a trick.
It's hard to get the badversion into the final.
Yeah, so the disclaimer here iswe will run the bad version
through power clean, but thefinal won't get power clean
because that would fix the badaudio, right?
Yeah, I'm now thinking ourexplanation makes this more
complicated.
Let's play the clips.

Test Audio Speaker (04:29):
Um, can I say two things?
Um, going to bat for otherpeople is the name of the game.
So, um, that attracts a certainkind of personality, that
attracts a certain kind ofperson.
Can I say two things?
Going to bat for other peopleis the name of the game.
So so, that attracts a certainkind of personality, that
attracts a certain kind ofperson.

Jordan (04:49):
Doesn't that sound so much better.

Kevin (04:50):
Let me say this, though, On this show we talk about
podcasting, we talk about thingsthat are happening at
Buzzsprout, and we want to giveexamples like we just did.
But I would not encourageanybody to be like oh,
powerclean exists, now I can gorecord anywhere.
I can intentionally have awfulrecordings because they will
always get cleaned up.
These are for emergencysituations when you had a bad

(05:12):
recording.
Unintentionally, somebody chosethe wrong microphone when you
were interviewing them and it'sgot a lot of reverb or room echo
that you need to clean up.
It'll help with that.
You bumped into somebody at aconference and you tried to find
the quietest space you could,but it was still a lot of
background noise.
It will help with that.
You bumped into somebody at aconference and you tried to find
the quietest space you could,but it was still a lot of
background noise.
It will help with that.
It will help when you happen tohave a bad recording, but I
don't want anyone to be like, oh, I have free license to just

(05:33):
record anywhere, anytime andPowerClean will always come in
and save the day.
That's not what we're billingit as.
It's not how we're pitching it.
We're pitching it for, like,emergency cleanup situations I
had a bad recording.
It's something that happensinfrequently.
That's why it's not somethingthat you turn on by default for
all of your episodes.

Jordan (05:48):
Yeah.

Kevin (05:48):
And if you happen to listen to last week's quick cast
, you would notice that there'sno hangup sound at the end but
there was there was.
Jordan put it in before sheuploaded it and power cleaned it
.
But power clean heard thatlittle at the end and said, oh,
that sounded weird.
That was probably not a part oftheir intended recording, but
it was.
But it took it out because itrecognized it as a weird noise.

(06:09):
Yeah, and so that's why youdon't want to run power clean on
everything, because it'saggressive.
And most of the time yourrecordings should be good enough
where you don't need to powerclean them.

Alban (06:24):
But once in a while.
You do have an exception andthat's why it exists.
So power cleans the emergencyshoot.
You're jumping, you know ifyou're skydiving?

Kevin (06:33):
it's your emergency chute , also take the main chute,
which is trying to get a goodrecording to begin with.
Don't just jump out of theplane emergency chute only and
just be like I'm fine, got this.

Jordan (06:45):
Welcome back to Buzzcast a podcast about all things
podcasting from the people atBuzzsprout.
Well, I think that our magicmastering discussion actually
segues nicely into what ourepisode topic is, and it's
podcasting gear, because if youhave the right gear for your
podcast, you won't need theemergency chute of power clean,
right, you won't need it veryoften hopefully.

(07:06):
No, not very often hopefully.

Alban (07:08):
It's funny because one of the myths that I was thinking
about a lot is people will think, if you get really good
equipment, you're going to fixall of the bad recordings and
you're going to fix the badrecording environment, which
isn't true.
It can help, but often you wantto improve that recording
environment before you buy moreequipment, because that's really

(07:29):
where you're going to have thebiggest gains.
But it's funny that we've justspent a lot of time talking
about how you can actually cleanup the recording with software.
That that's where we'veactually been able to make big
improvements.

Jordan (07:39):
Yeah, I think that's kind of where podcasting is at
now where there's thisincredible software that can
make really bad recordings soundis at now where there's this
incredible software that canmake really bad recordings sound
.
You know almost studio quality.
But it really is best if youcan get a clean recording in the
front.
And part of that is definitelygoing to be the environment
making sure you have rugs,making sure you have soft
furniture and curtains.

Kevin (07:59):
Yeah, like in my space.
In particular, I am in a smallhome office setup.
This room is pretty tight, it'slike 10 by 10.
And so this room has beennotoriously a tough environment
to record in, and so what I'vehad to do was I have had to
install felt panels on all thewalls, I've had to do bass traps
in the corners and I've gotsome like rubber mats on the

(08:20):
floor, and now everything soundsfine.
But one of the last thingspeople typically think about
when they think about recordingequipment is treating the
environment that you'rerecording in.
They usually think aboutheadphones and microphones and
boom arms and audio interfaces,mixers, stuff like that.
But one of the simplest thingsand the most cost-effective
things that you can do is justfind a room that makes

(08:40):
everything sound better,regardless of what other
equipment you're using themicrophone, et cetera.

Jordan (08:44):
So what made me want to talk about this was a podcast
equipment guide that Albanposted about a month ago and I
really love the angle that youwent from.
This it's podcast equipmentguide what I recommend after 500
episodes.
I'll link to it in the shownotes.
But I love your story on herebecause I actually had a very
similar thing happen.

(09:05):
You explained that having theright podcasting gear matters
more than just like what kind oflike recording environment
you're in, but it's also good tounderstand what kind of things
can go wrong.
And you had a lovely storyabout MV7.

Alban (09:23):
I'm sure will resonate with a lot of people who have
owned the MV7.
Yeah, so the MV7, for peoplewho don't know kind of looks
like that iconic SM7B.
It's almost like a little bittinier version, but the nice
thing was that it didn't need anaudio interface because it
could plug in via USB to yourcomputer.
And so when it came out rightat the beginning of COVID, I
bought one.
I was so excited and I used itand it was really good on some

(09:47):
vectors, but it was pretty badon a few others.
That kind of killed the fun ofusing it and eventually shelved
it.
The two things that it had thatI didn't like.
It has kind of like a touchscreen.
That would be how you wouldchange your gain and it's how
you would change the volumeoutput from the mic so you could
self-monitor yeah and there'slike a computer in the mic so

(10:10):
booted up every time.
It had a bad connector in theback this usb micro usb cable
and so I think, having likethree different times I'm
recording an interview, one waswith, like, one of my biggest
guests.
I tap my boom arm and justtapped it and it popped the
cable out of the back.
As soon as it popped out itturns off the mic.

(10:32):
I plug it back in.
It has to boot itself back up.
Then I have to use the touchscreen to try to get back to the
same settings.
After that I wasn't on bigrecordings, it'd just be on like
a call with Kevin.
But a third time it did it.
I went.
I've tried to tape this thing in, I've done everything I can to
make this connection tight, butit kind of just gave me this

(10:53):
lesson that no matter how goodthe recording equipment is, the
more failure points you have theworse.
And so the cable was a failurepoint that just kind of ruined
the whole mic.
Similar thing happened when wewere running cloud lifters, and
so we had two XLR cables and acloud lifter in there and you'd

(11:13):
get a hum, and now you've gotthree pieces instead of one to
troubleshoot to try to figureout where that hum comes from.
So I ended up, I think, reallybeginning of COVID going.
I want the simplest setups Ican get and try not to
unnecessarily complicate it,because you want that audio
chain from the capsule that's inthe microphone to the capturing

(11:33):
device, which for me is acomputer.
I want that to be as fast aspossible and as clean and as
simple as possible, so thatfewer things can go wrong.

Jordan (11:41):
Yeah, I had the exact same thing happen with the MV7.
And with the design on it.
I mean it was really cool thatit had this.
Like it was one of the firstmicrophones that had like a
touchscreen panel on it whereyou could adjust things in real
time.
But the problem was was theyput the touchscreen on the top
of the back of the microphone soyou'd almost have to like look
and make sure that you wereactually touching in like the

(12:03):
right place and then, yeah,you'd bump the microphone and
then the cable would pop out,and so I had like the electrical
tape kind of like anchored upacross the back of my microphone
just to make sure it stayed in.
I had the exact same problem.
I think that was the mostcommon issue with the MV7.
I don't know if they'veupgraded to a USB-C, but you
might want to check that ifyou're interested in that
microphone.

Alban (12:24):
Yeah, interesting enough, I went down this rabbit hole
when I wrote the article,reading these tests of how many
newtons of force are required toremove a cable out of different
USB ports, and micro USBspecifically, the version they
use is the least, and I was like, yeah, there's sometimes like a
USB-C, you click it in and itstays, but that micro one would

(12:47):
pop out sometimes oh yeah.

Kevin (12:49):
This happens to me in lots of areas of my life, but
often in tech.
I am a pretty technical personand I work in tech, and so
oftentimes when I'm jumping intosomething new, I will go for
the most high-tech solutionpossible.
I'm just sort of attracted tohigh-tech stuff and so, whether
it be like a TV setup with asurround sound system and a

(13:11):
bunch of different boxes andthey connect a million different
ways or podcasting gear,oftentimes my initial approach
to this is oh, I'm a technicalperson, I'm going to research
all the best stuff, I'm going togo the high end, this is going
to be great.
So usually I get it all set up,it never works initially, so
you troubleshoot, you get to thepoint where everything's
working, and then you come backthe next week to use it again

(13:33):
and something isn't working andso you fix it.
And then you get to this pointwhere you're like I understand
all this stuff, but it iscomplicated and the hobby that I
thought I was like setting uplike whether it be movie
watching or podcasting hasturned into another hobby, which
is like troubleshooting tech,yeah, and then I get I get tech

(13:55):
fatigue and I'm like, ah, thisis not what I wanted to do, and
so then I usually go the otherway, which is like what Alban
describes as trying to figureout what's the least technical
solution, what's the simplestapproach, and I usually go the
other way, which is like whatAlban describes as trying to
figure out what's the leasttechnical solution, what's the
simplest approach, and I usuallycome full circle and all this
stuff.

Jordan (14:10):
Yeah.

Alban (14:10):
It's even worse if you're the designated tech problem
solver in the family and thenpeople are like, hey, tv's not
working.
And you're like, okay, well,here's what I think you should
probably try to do, and you'rewalking somebody else through
the setup.

(14:31):
Yeah, really, in the end, thething I want is a good recording
and it's a bonus to have a nicemic that I think looks cool,
but in the end I just want toget a really good recording that
sounds good enough that MagicMastering cleans it up and I'm
good to go and I don't have tothink about it again.

Jordan (14:42):
Yeah, and I think that that's where a lot of beginner
podcasters are coming from aswell, and you know, maybe
honestly established podcasterstoo, where they're just like.
I just want to do the simplestthing.
I'm done with being a gearhead.
Okay, so we have brought up alot of, I want to say, like
vocabulary terms that might notbe familiar to someone just

(15:03):
getting started in podcasting,and then maybe they aren't
familiar with the equipment thatthey'll need to start a podcast
, or you know what podcastingequipment does.
So can we break down some ofthe equipment that people often
encounter with podcasting?

Kevin (15:18):
Sure, what do you think about starting with like a
complex indie podcaster homesetup and all the equipment that
you might need to do that, andthen we can kind of work down to
a simpler setup that's, formost people, going to be just as
good.

Alban (15:32):
So we're starting with.
If you search this on Google,you're going to run into an
affiliate page that's got allthe recommendations you need to
buy all of this stuff.
And now what Kevin's going torun us through all of that, and
then we can start eliminatingout what Kevin's going to run us
through all of that and then wecan start eliminating.

Kevin (15:51):
So, like a high-end professional or like
semi-professional home setupwould include some sort of let's
just start with the mixer.
This is oftentimes called aaudio interface, a mixer, a
soundboard, some people wouldjust say a roadcaster.
It's kind of like the mostpopular one for that podcasters
are interested in using.
And then there's a couple ofdifferent versions of the
Rodecaster.
There's an original Rodecaster,there's a Rodecaster 2.
There's the Rodecaster Duo,which is a smaller version of it

(16:14):
.
What that does is the wholething with all these different
mixers and audio interfaces isit gives you a way to plug an
analog device into somethingdigital, so that you can plug it
in your computer, which isdigital.
That's the basic thing thatthey're all doing.
And then they all have a bunchof different fancy things that
they add on top of that.
So, like the Rodecaster does alot of different stuff.
Let's you connect a cell phone.

(16:34):
It lets you has like a littlesound panel, lets you adjust the
mix, lets you do somepre-processing on your audio.
That's coming into the device,as opposed to like a Vocaster,
which is the Scarlett device.
There's a Scarlett 2i2.
There's the new one, which isthe Vocaster and the Ducaster.
They're all audio interfaces.

(16:54):
They don't do as much butthey're smaller.
But they do the same thing inallowing you to plug an XLR
microphone into something thatthen gives you like a USB output
to plug it into your computer.
Zoom makes some of thesedevices.
Zoom is another company thatmakes mixers and audio
interfaces not the webconferencing company, not the
website there's.

Alban (17:09):
there's two companies called Zoom in the audio space.
Not useful, not helpful.

Kevin (17:15):
So anytime you hear the word mixer or audio interface,
like and you're talking aboutpodcasting you can kind of put
those in the same category.
Also, like soundboard, you canput that in the same category.
It's just allowing you to put amore professional, higher level
right Like microphone and plugthat into your computer somehow.
That's the simplest way tothink about it.
Do you need it?
No, Do some people want it?

(17:35):
Yes.
Does it make you feel, I don'tknow a little bit more like I'm
a real podcaster because I havea roadcaster or something like,
with a bunch of colored buttonson it sitting on my desk?
Yeah, it is fun.

Jordan (17:46):
Does it make my kids think I'm cooler than I am?
Maybe I don't know.

Kevin (17:50):
I would never tell anybody like oh, you don't need
a roadcaster, You're silly forbuying that.

Alban (18:00):
No, if you have the money to buy it and you like of the
buttons with one of thepre-recorded sound, right, they
always get edited out by Jordan.
She never leaves my buttonhitting in, but you feel cool.

Kevin (18:13):
Right, so the next thing in the chain.
So we're starting and I shouldhave said I actually probably
should start at the computer.
You need some sort of computer,mostly, unless you're doing
like all mobile recordings.
But usually most people willrecord into a laptop or a
desktop computer Mac or PCdoesn't really matter.
Chromebooks you run into someadditional difficulties on what
is compatible with a Chromebook,but typically Mac and PC work

(18:36):
with almost everything.
So start there and usuallywhatever you have is totally
fine.
You don't need a super high-endlaptop or desktop computer to
be able to record a podcast.
If you do video work, that'sdifferent.
But we're not talking aboutvideo work, we're talking about
audio podcasting.
And pretty much any laptop ordesktop computer that I would
say generally is like less thanfive to seven years old is going

(18:58):
to work just fine for you.
As long as it's in goodoperating condition, as long as
you can browse websites andcheck email on it, it's probably
going to work fine forrecording audio.
Next in the chain the audiointerface, the mixer, the
soundboard, which we've alreadycovered, and now we're going.
You know what's the next piececonnected to that is some sort
of microphone and some sort ofheadphones.
So headphones.

(19:18):
I always say just wear whateveryou're most comfortable with.
Over the ear blocks a lot ofexternal sound, but if you're
recording in a quiet environment, maybe you don't need to worry
about that and maybe you findearbuds a little bit more
comfortable.
Something in the air you can dothat.
You might just have somethinglaying around the house.
Typically would be just fine.
Again, if you want to spend alittle bit more money, if you
have the budget for it or if thething that you currently have

(19:39):
isn't that comfortable forextended recording sessions,
like if you listen to music orif you have earbuds in, maybe
you just do that for 20, 30minutes at a time when you're
doing a workout, but now you'rerecording and it's like hour or
more per recording session andyou find these are actually
uncomfortable.
So you might want to getsomething a little bit more
comfortable.
And then the microphone.
Now we're the microphone weprobably shouldn't just gloss

(20:00):
over, because there's a lot tocover in microphones.

Jordan (20:03):
Yes.

Kevin (20:04):
So I'm going to table that for a second and then I'm
just going to gloss over boomarms, real quick.
Boom arms or microphone stands.
Again, this is just apreference and, depending on
your setup, you need somethingto hold your microphone like a
good, comfortable distance fromyour mouth, and this is actually
really important.
Microphone technique.
You could have great gear.
You could have a greatmicrophone, great headphones,

(20:26):
great audio interface, greatloud Everything else is perfect
Great XLR cables and you havepoor microphone technique and
your audio is not going to soundreally, really good.
Yeah.
And so the stand or the boom armdoes a good job of keeping that
microphone in a consistentposition to where you're
speaking from, from your mouth,and typically that's about four
fingers away from your mouth, soit's a little bit closer than

(20:48):
most people are comfortable with, but it's important to be
pretty tight to the mic Ifyou're going to use the type of
microphone that we're going toultimately recommend, which is a
dynamic microphone.
Again, you have more leeway ifyou use a condenser, but we'll
cover that in a second.

Jordan (21:04):
I want to press pause on the mic technique too, because
that will save you so muchheadache when you're editing.
I've actually talked to, I wantto say, three or four
podcasters just in the last sixmonths that have told me that
they have an issue with plosives.
So plosives are when your P'sand B's and stuff like that are
punching the microphone.
It's creating like this reallybassy, like boom sound, and it

(21:24):
is a huge issue for podcasters.
And one of the things that's sohard is you do want to keep
your mouth four fingers awayfrom the microphone, but what
happens is then the air fromyour mouth is hitting the
microphone and punching it tomake that really horrible sound.
And so one tip that I've givento everyone that has completely
remediated this whole issue isthat instead of placing the

(21:47):
microphone like directly facingyour mouth and even off to the
side a little bit, you'll stillget those plosives actually put
it under your chin, facingupwards, because you're not
going to put your head down totalk and then hit the microphone
.
So if you have it facing uptowards your mouth, like towards
your chin, you won't be gettingthat air punching the

(22:08):
microphone.

Kevin (22:09):
Right, you typically want your microphone at roughly a 45
degree angle from your mouth,so you're speaking into it, but
across it, not directly, like atit.

Jordan (22:17):
Yeah.

Kevin (22:17):
Something that you could visualize, to sort of think
about how these microphonecapsules pick up audio is
imagine holding up like a thinpiece of tissue paper in front
of your mouth and as you talk,that thing is going to move
around, it's going to vibrate,right.
That's what's capturing theaudio.
And if you held up a piece oftissue paper directly in front
of your mouth and startedtalking, you would like be

(22:37):
blowing that thing over, right,like especially every time you
said a B or P or punchy sounds.
It would be like totallyknocking that thing over.
That's going to wreck youraudio.
But if you held it at a 45degree angle and spoke, even if
you did a powerful punchy typesound, it's not going to blow it
over, it's going to go rightacross the surface of it.
That's where you want to haveyour microphone.
So just think about yourmicrophone like a piece of paper

(22:59):
.

Alban (22:59):
We're trying to capture everything without having
certain aspects of your voice beamplified so much.
So, kevin, you kind of touchedon this for a second.
Microphones come in a fewdifferent flavors dynamic
condenser what's the differencebetween those two?

Kevin (23:14):
I'll do two things I'll save you the trouble of hearing
the boring technical differenceof what is actually the
difference between a dynamic andcondenser microphone, and I'll
also save me the embarrassmentbecause I'm not expert enough in
these two technologies toexplain it well.
So I'll avoid that altogether,but I can tell you the best use
cases for each.

Jordan (23:30):
That's what matters.

Kevin (23:31):
Right, and so typically there are different flavors of
all of these things, but I'mjust going to speak in broad
strokes.
A dynamic microphone isdesigned to capture audio from
one single source and and thatsource should be close to that
microphone, and it does a reallygood job of rejecting other
noises that are not comingdirectly into it.

(23:51):
So anything that's to the sidesor to the back, it does a
really good job of rejecting ornot capturing, and it does a
really good job of picking upwhatever's coming directly into
it, and typically that is thesetup for a podcaster.
In order for that to workreally well, you need to have
that good mic technique that wespoke about.
You need to be close to it.
It's intentionally rejecting abunch of noise that doesn't feel

(24:13):
intentional and it's capturingwhat's directly coming in.
So that's why mic technique isimportant with these dynamic
microphones.
Condensers, on the other hand,are again typically designed to
be used in like highly treatedspaces where there's not a lot
of noise that needs to berejected, so they're really good
at capturing environments.
So if you were recording in apodcast conference and you

(24:37):
really wanted to make it soundlike you want the audience to
hear all the noise that's goingon around in this noisy
environment.
A condenser would be great.
It would pick up all that roomnoise from everywhere, like you
want the audience to hear allthe noise that's going on around
in this noisy environment.
A condenser would be great.
It would pick up all that roomnoise from everywhere, not just
what's coming directly into it.
Yeah.
When would a podcaster want acondenser microphone?
There are some use cases whereI guess you could make it work,

(24:58):
Like if you were in a smalltreated room and you wanted one
microphone in the center butmultiple people all talking and
none of them having to beparticularly close.
Like everyone wanted to be ableto sit back in a chair and just
speak and have a microphonethat captured the whole
conversation and it sounded moreconversational and you wanted
some of that like ambiance ofsort of a room in the recording.

(25:20):
I guess you could kind of makethat work.

Jordan (25:22):
It would have to be very treated.

Kevin (25:23):
You would have to be very treated and very intentional
about making that work.
Which is why when people say Ihave a two or three person setup
and we're going to record inthis room and I'd like to do a
one microphone setup, since itis so difficult to get that to
sound exactly right, we don'trecommend it.
We recommend that you put amicrophone in front of each
person, put headphones on eachperson.
And you put a microphone infront of each person, put

(25:44):
headphones on each person.
And it's a little bit of anadjustment for people to get
used to speaking with amicrophone in front of them and
headphones on and hearing otherpeople through their headphones,
hearing themselves throughtheir headphones, but you can
typically do that, like in thefirst 10 or 15 minutes.
Usually you start to getcomfortable with it and that the
annoyance or weirdness ofhaving a microphone in front of
you and headphones on goes awayand the audio is great.

Jordan (26:03):
Yeah.

Kevin (26:04):
So I would say, like, press into the traditional setup
and don't try to take the morecomplicated route of using a
condenser to capture two orthree people just on one mic.
Yeah, ultimately it's going tobe really hard, but people do
try to use, like, the Blue Yetito solve that problem and I
don't know that I've ever heardit sound great.

Jordan (26:23):
No, I've never heard it sound great.

Alban (26:24):
No, I've never heard it sound good yeah it, it feels
like it was a nice idea that Ihave not ever seen in practice
workout.
It's nice to think I'll buy onemic that can do everything, but
it kind of does none of the usecases particularly well and
often gets misused and and Ithink that just ends up meaning

(26:45):
I recommend like don't use theBlue Yeti because it almost
always will give you a worsesound, just because people get
confused on which setting itneeds to be, on how to talk into
it.
It just doesn't make sense forthem.

Jordan (26:57):
Also, the people that are buying the Blue Yeti are
usually the ones that don't havethe professional studios like
required to make it sound good,so you're usually like recording
in your garage or around thedining table or something like
that.

Alban (27:10):
Another thing we could talk about here would be the
connectors.
So you can either have an XLRor you could have like a USB
connector from the microphone towhatever the next source ends
up being.
Xlr is going to be for ananalog device.
I mean that is an analog cable,which means it needs to be

(27:30):
turned into a digital signal.

Jordan (27:33):
Yeah.

Alban (27:33):
And to do that you need it to run through an audio
interface.
So more money, yeah, More money, more complication.
If you have a USB output fromyour mic, it can go directly
into your computer because it'salready a digital signal which
will simplify your whole setup.

Jordan (27:49):
And honestly, like in the last few years, there have
been so many hybrid modelscoming out that you can start
with USB and then move up to anXLR.
So, like Samson Q2U, forexample, we recommend all the
time it has a USB plug in but italso has an XLR plugin.
So if you are just starting outand you're like you know what,

(28:10):
I'm just comfortable pluggingthis directly into the computer
and going from there, that'sgreat.
But in the future, if you go,you know what, I think I'm going
to tinker with an audiointerface and start doing mixing
and you know DSR and all thisprocessing on my voice.
You can upgrade to that later.
So it's kind of cool that nowthese hybrid models are coming
out where they can, like, growwith you as you grow as a

(28:30):
podcaster.

Kevin (28:31):
Correct and I mean it sort of leads into a good
question of why would I want tointroduce an audio interface or
some sort of mixing board orsomething into my setup?
And, jordan, you touched onthis a little bit A lot of them
do have some really greatfeatures, like processing, for
example.
So, like the Rodecaster which Iuse, it has some built-in
filters that you can turn on,has a compressor that you can

(28:53):
turn on, has a noise gate, has ade-esser, and I don't think we
need to go into what each one ofthose things do.

Jordan (29:00):
Not in this episode, no.

Kevin (29:05):
Not in this episode, but they can save you some time in
your post processing, yeah.
So if you know that you like torun a certain series of filters
on your audio before youpublish and you have to do that
manually every time in yourediting software, maybe there's
an opportunity to save a littlebit of time in your workflow by
just having your audio interfacedo that for you before it's
actually captured to yourrecording device.

(29:26):
That's why you would want tointroduce something.

Jordan (29:28):
Also, if you have like multiple people recording, cause
it's really hard, I think Ithink you can plug multiple USB
microphones into your computer,but it is like nearly impossible
.
I have personally tried tofigure it out a couple of times
and I gave up.
And so if you have multiplepeople it's so much easier just

(29:48):
to plug a few microphones intoone audio interface and plug
that one USB cable in yourcomputer and have it record.
That way it's so much easier.

Kevin (29:57):
You are 100%.
You are 100%.
There are ways to plug multipleUSB microphones into the same
computer and then have themrecord to their own separate
tracks, which is importantbecause when you edit or when
you do leveling and stuff likethat, you want to be able to
have each voice on its own track.
Okay, there are ways to do it.
It is finicky, it is difficultto set up and it is like it

(30:20):
breaks all the time.
So, even once you get it honedin and it works great for one
recording, when you come backnext time, no guarantees it's
going to work the same way.
And so can you do it.
Yes, will you like it?
Long-term?
Probably not, and so at thatpoint, at a minimum, it's worth
just grabbing like a Scarlett2i2 or something they're like a
hundred dollars so you can plugin two XLR microphones, plug

(30:42):
that Scarlett 2i2 into yourcomputer one time, one plug, one
USB plug and then whateveryou're using to record the audio
, like Audition or what's theother one that a lot of people
use, audacity.
You would then be able toselect input one or input two.
Record the two mics on separatetracks.

Alban (30:58):
Yeah, all right.
So we've kind of laid thegroundwork, we've set the
landscape, we've got all thesedifferent options, and what I'd
love to do now is just kind ofshare the basic setup that we
use a lot.
I'm actually using it right nowbecause I'm not at home, and
that setup is the Samson Q2U.
I'm using the little mic standthat comes with the Samson Q2U.

(31:21):
It's got a little foam ball.
It's got a cable that plugsinto my computer.
It's the $70 thing you can buyon Amazon at any time and get it
in two days.
And then the basic Apple earbuds.
Those are not like AirPods,these are the ones that actually
plug in.
You really want something thatplugs in, and I'm plugging it

(31:42):
into the back so I canself-monitor and also so I can
hear both Kevin and Jordan.
So that's the recommendationthat we have for really
everybody who starts.

Jordan (31:52):
We're saying just get some wired headphones and get
this Samson Q2U and you're goodto go that listeners of this
episode wouldn't have even knownthat you had swapped from your
super fancy studio to the hotelroom version that you have here.

Alban (32:10):
Yeah, I'd be interested if anybody did hear that or
thought that might be the casebefore.

Jordan (32:14):
Yeah.

Alban (32:15):
I'd said that.

Jordan (32:16):
All right.
And then we also asked ourlisteners what kind of gear that
they love for podcasting.
So we got a few responses onthat.
First, kevin from Grit.
We got a few responses on that.
First, kevin from grit, graceand inspiration said that he
uses the focus right Bowcasteraudio interface which we
mentioned a little bit earlier,and that one's really nice
because that is like plug andplay, so it does auto leveling

(32:37):
and all that kind of stuff foryou.
It's really nice.
And then he also uses theElgato wave low profile boom arm
, which I think is actually areally nice substitution for the
OCY Ultima.
That's the low profile one thatyou see on like Joe Rogan and
it's like 450 bucks.
But the Elgato version of it,which is, I would say,
comparable, is like $100 up to180 for the pro version of it.

Alban (33:02):
So yeah, that's a good looking boom arm for sure, yeah.

Jordan (33:05):
And then Damien the DM.
I love this recommendationbecause Damien runs a five
person in person TTRPG show, sohe's got like five people
sitting around a table, you know, playing this role playing game
, and so you're going to haveMike bleed, I mean there's
there's so much room for issueshere.
So Damien recommends a zoom ZDMone and he says it does a great

(33:30):
job handling five of us arounda table without much Mike bleed,
and those are $70 and usually$50 on sale.
And then he also uses the zoomL 12, but wants to get the pod
track P8, which I think has alittle bit more bells and
whistles to it.

Kevin (33:46):
Okay, I will just tell you that the Zoom L12 is very
intimidating.
Oh really.

Alban (33:53):
Did you look it up?
I did Holy smokes.
This is like there's likehundreds of knobs and dials here
.
Oh man, please, Jordan, pleaseput this as like the chapter
artwork, so people can look atit this is intense, it's a
monster.

Jordan (34:09):
Oh my gosh.

Kevin (34:11):
Great.
So I have a feeling that Damienhas some experience in audio
production or was a musician orsomething to jump into.
Something that sophisticated,looking Lots of knobs and dials
and stuff on that.
The PodTrack P8, which he sayshe wants to get, looks less
intimidating but still a littleintimidating, but it's very
similar to like a Rodecaster.

Jordan (34:30):
Yeah, a little bit cheaper.

Alban (34:31):
It's interesting, this Zoom ZDM1, the XLR dynamic mic
that Damien is using, was alsorecommended by Devin, and Devin
said hey, I got a phone numberso now I can text directly.
So watch out, jordan, you haveno more excuses.
Oh boy, devin, we're happy tohear more from you and this is
good.
The Zoom ZDM1 XLR dynamic micis their recommendation, but

(35:00):
also the SE Dynacaster DCM8.

Jordan (35:01):
I had never heard of this one, which is a mouthful.

Kevin (35:04):
Gosh the names of these, like who names microphones.
These are so crazy.

Alban (35:08):
Okay, when it has a name like this, you know it was named
by the person who created it,who was like, oh, I'm so proud
of this amazing technicalachievement.
But when they get a simple namelike PodMic, you know that it
was passed over to the marketingguy who was like, oh, it's a
mic for podcasters, podmic GoodGot it.

(35:29):
The SE Dynacaster DCM8, whichsounds like an airplane, is
supposedly like the Shure SM7DBbut $200 less.
So $300 mic looks good and it'sgot Devin's recommendation.

Jordan (35:46):
So the SM7B, which is a really popular microphone.
That's one you see on like allthe professional podcasts.
It is notoriously gain hungry,so it's really quiet and you
usually have to use a cloudlifter for it, which just makes
the audio a little bit louderwhile still sounding good.
So Shure came out with thisSM7DB, which has a built-in
preamp, so you don't need thecloud lifter, but it's also like

(36:09):
a hundred bucks more.
So having an option that hasthat built-in preamp but it's
$200 less is great.
I'd rather spend 300 than 500on a microphone.

Alban (36:20):
Yeah, so thanks to everybody who wrote in and gave
their recommendations.
Can we all three of us runthrough kind of quickly what our
setups are?
I think Kevin and I have almostthe exact same one.
So, kevin, I'll let you gofirst.

Kevin (36:32):
Sure, so the microphone is a Earthworks Ethos.
It is actually a condenser micbut it is tuned very much to
work more like a dynamic mic.
And so when we first saw thismic, alvin was like, oh, I love
the way this microphone looks, Ithink I want to get it.
I was like no, you're going tohate it, condenser, stay away

(36:55):
from it.
And I avoided it unnecessarilyfor like a year until somehow it
was on sale or something andI'm like I'm just going to get
one to test it because it doeslook so good.
And then Alban got really madat me because he saw me
recording with it.

Alban (37:04):
He's like we have this clip somewhere where I'm like,
what are you doing?
You have the mic.

Kevin (37:12):
But at the end of the day it is a condenser mic but it
actually works really well.
It's very it's actually morelike a dynamic than a condenser.
It works great for podcasting.
It is pricey, it is fancy, itis unnecessary, but I like it.
That is on a OC white Ultimalow profile boom arm.
Again, more than I need, butthis is my job and work paid for
it.

(37:32):
So, thanks, buzzsprout.
And it is plugged into aRodecaster the newer one, the
Rodecaster 2, which again is setup for four or more people and
it's just me here.
So, again, more than I need,but yeah, so at the end of the
day I've overindulged in mypodcasting setup and I probably
sound no different than Albanwho is working with the simplest

(37:52):
setup today.

Jordan (37:54):
Yeah, what headphones do you use, kevin?

Kevin (37:57):
These are one Odeo A71s.

Jordan (38:00):
Oh, okay.

Kevin (38:01):
So I think these are just like $30 from Amazon.
They're very comfortable, verycheap over the ear, amazon
headphones that last about ayear and then all the foam
around my ears starts fallingoff and then I buy new ones.
I spend $30 on them at a timeand everything else that I've
looked at is, you know, hundredsof dollars, and to my ear it

(38:22):
doesn't sound any different.
So I just keep buying the cheapones and just replace them when
they wear out.

Jordan (38:26):
Yeah, alan, what's your setup at home?

Alban (38:29):
All right.
So almost identical to Kevin'sEarthworks Ethos microphone.
Friends of the show, stevenRobles and Marcus DePaula, I
think, both recommended it andeventually we got them.
Kevin bought his first I lostmy mind and I got one too.
And I got to be clear that's a$400 microphone that used to be
800.

(38:49):
So we got it when it dropped,but that's still a lot of money.
Yeah, and it's only because bothof us had been recording all
the time and we're testing newthings all the time.
It's part of our jobs.
I would not have paid for thatif it was just out of my own
pocket to get you know a reallyto me, pretty microphone.
It's probably one of the mostbeautiful microphones I've seen.

(39:10):
Then we both have the same boomarm that OC White Ultima low
profile.
It's got the cable managementbuilt in.
It's like a $400 boom arm.
Again, it's over the top.
It's too much using.
I think it's a pig hog XLR andthose are just the ones that we
bought when we would go toconferences and they never broke

(39:34):
.
And that's kind of what youwant out of XLR cable.
You're not thinking about it.
Basically is the highestcompliment you can give an XLR
cable.

Kevin (39:42):
Right, like push pause on that for a second.
I can't believe I just saidthat sort of word.
Weird corporate talk.
Is that push pause right there?

Alban (39:48):
Let's double click on that, Kevin.

Kevin (39:49):
All right, let's double click on the XLR cables.
When you go to Sweetwater orAmazon or whatever site you're
buying, or B&H you're buyingyour gear from, you're going to
type in six foot XLR cable andyou're going to see them from
two, 99 up to like 1499 roughlyfor a six foot one.
Just get the 1499 one.

Jordan (40:08):
Yeah.

Kevin (40:08):
Just get the one that has some sort of name brand behind
it.
Pig hog is a weird name brand,but it is a name brand,
exceptually strange name.

Jordan (40:18):
I have bought many and Amazon basics XLR cable right
and I've bought one.
I don't know what the name ofthis is, but it even feels nicer
.
So I think you actually savemoney in the long run if you go
a little bit more expensive.

Kevin (40:33):
Yeah, really, what you are talking about at the end of
the day is a analog cable.
It has, like, copper wiresinside of it and they wear out
and they break.
And the more expensive ones usehigher quality materials so
that they wear out slower, theybreak.
And the more expensive ones usehigher quality materials so
that they wear out slower, theylast longer.
It's a simpler way to say that.
And if you're plugging them inand taking them out and moving
them around and you got themlike locked into your boom arm
and that's constantly gettingswiveled this way and that way,

(40:55):
like the cheap ones will wearout quickly and you'll be
pulling your hair out in themiddle of a podcasting interview
because you won't know what allthis like staticky noise is
getting like.
Where's it coming from?
It's coming from your two 99cable.
So just buy the $15 one andsave yourself the headache.

Alban (41:08):
Yeah, there's nothing more frustrating in having a
really expensive setup that isheld back by the $2 and 99 cent
budget cable.
So go for the one.
That's 10 bucks, you're fine.

Jordan (41:20):
Yeah.

Alban (41:21):
I'm using a roadcaster duo I.
I used to use a Rodecaster Probut got the other one because
it's smaller.
I like that.
It's smaller.
I've run at least two of thebuilt-in processings on there,
which is why I use theRodecasters.
I think I run a de-esser andbig bottom EQ on my voice, which
I think sounds better and Ithink Jordan enjoys it more when

(41:43):
I don't have all the S's in theaudio recording.
I think it works a little bitbetter with my voice.

Jordan (41:48):
Yeah, and then what about headphones?

Alban (41:50):
Apple ear pods.
I know that over the ear wouldprobably be a little bit better
for mic bleed, but mostly I playthe audio pretty low and it
just feels better in my ears.
So this is more a what'scomfortable for you.
What's comfortable for Kevin isthere's one audios, for me it's
ear pods.
But notice, both of us arespending sub $30.

(42:13):
I think mine I just had aroundthe house, so we're not looking
to spend money on the headphonessection.
That's really useful to avoidmic bleed and so we can monitor
our voices in real time.
Besides that, I don't thinkmuch of a benefit in upgrading
because I'm not mastering theepisode.
I'm not in a professionalrecording environment where I'm

(42:35):
listening for the tiniest nuanceand making tweaks on a giant
board similar to what Damien has.
I'm just listening to make sureI didn't get way too far away
in the middle of the recording.

Jordan (42:47):
Yeah, all right.
So my setup that I have here Ihave the SM7B microphone and I
used to have a Rodecaster Projust the first version and so I
had to have a cloud lifter.
So I saw that Rodecaster Duoreleased a white collection and
I jumped on that and it looks sobeautiful on my desk.

(43:07):
It's a lot smaller than theRodecaster Pro and the preamp
built into it made it so that Idon't have to have a cloud
lifter, so I only have to haveone XLR cable plugged in from my
SM7B to the Rodecaster Duo, tothe Roadcaster Duo.

(43:29):
And Alban also recommended thatI get the OC Ultima White or
Ultima OC White Co.
Ultima low profile boom armGolly, some of this stuff and at
first I was like I don't reallywant that, like that's a little
too like fancy for me, and nowI'm never going back.
It's low profile, boom arms allday for me.

Alban (43:44):
Yeah, we should say low profile boom arms.
The benefit is really for likevideo podcasters that there's
not something in your facebecause they stay below your
head and they raise the mic upto your mouth, whereas the
typical boom arms are up highand they lower the mic down to
your mouth.
For me it's really nice, andthe reason I think Kevin uses as

(44:05):
well is because they are easyto like, slide out of the way
and so they sit on the edge ofthe thing we're all talking
about is it looks really good.

(44:29):
I like the look because itmakes my desk feel nice, and
that's where a lot of theselling points are.
If we're just talking aboutaudio capture, I really think
you could go with a much cheapersetup.
If this was a hobby, I wouldnever have graduated beyond the
Q2U.
That would be what I used allthe time.

Jordan (44:48):
Absolutely All right.
So we talked about our setups,our listener setups.
Let's pop into podcastingremotely versus in person.
So this is for the person whois not the solo podcaster.
They have a co-host, they havea guest, something like that.
So what are the differences inthe podcasting setups when
you're in person versus if youremotely record through

(45:10):
recording software?

Alban (45:11):
Yeah.
So if you record remotely likewe do, everybody needs
headphones Absolutely To preventecho and mic bleed.
That way, when I'm listening toJordan, her audio doesn't show
up on my track.
You'll get an echo.
That way it's just, it'simpossible to edit, or it's not
impossible, it's very, verypainful.
I really recommend just using abasic setup for everybody, so

(45:33):
USB microphones and it's an easyway to get everybody on the
recording for cheap.
So you use Riverside, you useZoom, you use Squadcast,
something like that, to geteverybody's audios on their own
computer remotely and then youbring them all together for the
editor.
That's how I'd run a remoterecording In person.

(45:56):
You have a few more options.

Jordan (45:57):
Is one of those options throwing a condenser mic in the
middle of the room and lettingeveryone talk.
It is an option.

Kevin (46:03):
I don't think it's the easiest option and it might not
be the best option, depending onyour skill level of setting all
that up.
Yeah.
What I recommend anytime peopleare going to record in person
is everybody gets their ownmicrophone.
That that be a dynamicmicrophone and it doesn't have
to be expensive.
It could be something like theSamson Q2U.
It could be something.

Jordan (46:21):
The Zoom ZDM1 sounds like it's a good option.

Kevin (46:24):
Zoom ZDM-1, which was recommended.
There's plenty of options there.
As long as they're dynamic,they're all going to work pretty
well for this setup.
Everyone should have their ownheadphones.
Everyone should have their ownmic stand or boom arm to keep
that microphone tight to theirmouth.
Yeah.
And because this setup ismultiple people in one place,
you want to be able to plug allthose microphones into the same

(46:46):
computer to record, and so theeasiest way to do that is to run
it through an audio interfaceor a mixer or a sound board,
whatever you want to call it,and so it just depends now.
It just depends on how manypeople you have.
If you have two people, youhave options like the Scarlett
2i2, the Vocaster 2, theRodecaster Pro Duo and Zoom also

(47:08):
make some boards like this.
If you have more than two, thenyou have to get the bigger
versions of these things.
So I think Focusrite makes aninterface that has four inputs
or more, and Rodecaster has aRodecaster Pro that I think has
four inputs or more.
Yeah.
That's going to be dictated bythe number of people you have in
that same location.

Jordan (47:27):
Yeah, that's going to be dictated by the number of
people you have in that samelocation.
Yeah, and then another thingthat people might run into
podcasting is sometimes you gota podcast from your vacation
spot or from a conference centeror something like that.
So I felt like this was verytimely.
James Crinland actuallyhighlighted one of his articles
on pod news in the pod newsnewsletter this week and I was

(47:47):
like perfect, because this isthe topic we're discussing.
And so he talks about how herecords pod news on the move and
he says that he uses the ShureMV88 plus and that is a about
$280 mini microphone, which isastronomical in my opinion, but

(48:09):
it does sound good.
I've heard his episodes wherehe's recording from outside the
studio and it does sound good,but I don't know.
I think for even podcastinglike on the go, I would still
recommend the Samson Q2U becauseit's USB and you can just plug
it in.

Alban (48:23):
Right, the nice thing about that Shure microphone is
that it's meant to be used oftenfor somebody recording onto a
phone.

Jordan (48:31):
Yeah.

Alban (48:31):
And so it can plug directly into the phone and your
iPhone can use it as the input.
It's a little bit more naturalbecause it's so tiny for travel.
I mean, it's hard for me tojustify upgrading.
I think I used the first in the88 and it was good, but it
didn't play nicely with my phoneback then, but that was years
ago the Q2U.

(48:53):
I'm literally using the exactsame Samson Q2U that we bought
10 years ago, like the same one,and it still works well about I
don't know.
We have a world of whereeverything has like planned
obsolescence and it goes out ofstyle and you can't get the old
thing anymore and everythingbreaks after the warranty period
.
And there's this like one micin my life that the exact same

(49:16):
mic has been working perfectlyfor 10 plus years and we have
beat it up, We've dropped it somany times.
So if we sound like we'retalking about the same mic over
and over, it's because it's doneright by us and I want to make
sure that the companies that dobuild products like this are
rewarded.

Kevin (49:32):
Yeah, it also depends a lot on what you're trying to do.
I know when I see James walkingaround podcast conference and
doing Pod News Live, he'susually walking around, he's
usually holding a laptop andhe's got a microphone.
He's got that microphone in hishand and he's talking with Sam
Sethi, his co-host, remotelythrough some remote recording
software and then he's walkingaround interviewing people.

(49:54):
So then he'll move the mic fromhis mouth to their mouth as he
does interviews and Sam is inthere also.
That's a pretty complicatedsetup and he's a professional
podcaster who does this as acareer.
If you don't need that remotedeal but you want to record
remotely but everyone you'reinterviewing is going to be in
person, then you can just grabthe mic that Alban's talking

(50:14):
about, like a Samson Q2U and aPodTrack P4, which you just plug
into that thing, hit record,slide it into your pocket and
now you're just walking aroundwith just a microphone and it's
recording to an SD card in yourpocket.
That works really well too.

Jordan (50:27):
You know, I actually have a recommendation for happy
to help.
Priscilla went to a conferencein Denver and she wanted to
interview some people and so wedid some research and we found
we didn't want to spend like aton of money and we found a zoom
H1 essential and it's like ahundred bucks.
It's one of those ones where itjust it looks like the standard
handheld things that everyonehas in like true crime

(50:50):
documentaries, you know what I'msaying?
And it has like the screen onit and it actually records the
files onto the device but themicrophone's attached to it and
she was in the conference centerrecording with people
interviewing them and she sentme the files and I could not
hear anyone else around them andI was shocked at how good the

(51:10):
audio is, especially for adevice that's like a hundred
bucks.
It was very good.

Alban (51:14):
And the zoom H one essential is used, I think, by
like journalists who want to beable to record people in bad
environments so they canactually use that audio.

Jordan (51:23):
So yeah, I think it's usually like the H five N or
something like that.
So I think this is a more basicversion of that.

Alban (51:28):
Well, yeah, that's a.
It's a great tip for people whoare going to be recording in
person, but maybe even at aconference or noisy environments
.

Jordan (51:35):
Yeah, all right.
So just to put a big bow onthis, our final thoughts, our
ultimate recommendations, and Ican link to these in the show
notes too.
There's gonna be a lot of links.
So, and I can link to these inthe show notes too, there's
gonna be a lot of links.
So if anything piqued yourinterest, I will make sure that
you can find it.
So our beginner setuprecommendation I think that we
have nailed this on the head afew times Samson Q2U dynamic mic

(51:56):
, usb plugin and wiredheadphones cheap wired
headphones 30 bucks or less.
You don't need anything more.

Alban (52:19):
Pro level rig.
What did we land on here?
C white Ultima roadcaster andthen something to listen to with
.
You know some headphones andyou could pick whichever ones
feel best on your head.
I think that would probably bethe main thing I'd be looking
for.
But again, that's really ifyou're doing, you know you're
really spending money and you'reenjoying spending the money,

(52:40):
you have to kind of enjoy thatpart.
So look at all these mics andpick something out that you
enjoy.
Yeah, if that's the way you'regoing to go.

Jordan (52:48):
All right.
So for our next episode, we'regoing to be discussing podcast
cover art.
I'm real excited about this.

Kevin (52:55):
Okay.
Well, I would tell anyone who'slistening then that this is
going to be a pretty visualepisode.
I think we're going to havelots of examples of cover art,
and so, of course, we'll link tothem in the description, the
show notes.
But it might be beneficial foryou to go ahead now and download
a podcast app that supportschapter art, because we could
link them all as chapter art.
So, as we're talking about thecover art for whatever song

(53:17):
exploder, it's just going todisplay automatically for you in
your podcast app.
You know a lot of people don'tuse it, but I think this would
be a great time to show off thefeature and show how it works,
and so we will say, like, forthe best listening experience,
listen to this episode in, andwe'll list a couple apps so you
can all see the chapter art aswe're talking about it.

Alban (53:33):
I could say that this morning I was listening to a
podcast and they were talkingabout a visual and I looked at
my phone and, because I'm onOvercast and because they use
chapter artwork, I was able tosee the visual and I'm like it
is really nice.
You know I'm not watching avideo, but if they want to show
a picture they're talking aboutonce an episode I can see it and

(53:56):
go okay, that makes sense forwhat they're talking about.
Move on.
You know, if someone wants toshow a graph or something, I
totally agree.

Kevin (54:02):
There's a podcast that I'm listening to right now that
I'm not seeing the images.
There's a podcast that I'mlistening to right now that I'm
not seeing the images.
It's a long episode.
It's Lex Friedman interviewingDHH, six hour episode, and
there's visuals and somebodysuggested go watch it on YouTube
so you can see the visuals.
I'm like I do not want to watchit on YouTube.
No, this is six hours.
I'm not sitting in front of acomputer watching a screen for

(54:24):
six hours.
I want to listen to it when I'mdriving around.
Yeah, but I do want to see likethe code examples and stuff that
they're talking about, so Iwish they use chapter art.

Jordan (54:30):
Yeah, well, I mean, on that note, how about we have
listeners send us in what theythink are really great examples
of podcast cover art, what'ssomething that you think is like
really stunning, or yourfavorite podcast cover art?
Do not be cheeky and send inyour own.
I will look it up and I willknow that it was you.
So just send us some stuff andthen we'll put them in the

(54:55):
chapter artwork and talk aboutthem.

Alban (54:56):
Yeah, and then if you have questions, if you have hot
takes, if you have opinionsabout artwork, feel free to send
those in as well.
It's fun to incorporate thoseinto the outline as we go, but I
know we have lots of thoughtsabout it and opinions on how you
can create great podcast coverart, so feel free to jump in and
help us do that.

Jordan (55:14):
Yeah, and to do that, go ahead and tap the Texas show
link in the show notes to sendus some fan mail.
So until next week, thanks forlistening and keep podcasting.
Okay, I have been seeingeverywhere on my socials, like
you know, how the algorithm justpicks up something you'd be
interested in and it just feedsit to you over and over and over

(55:36):
again.
Yes, all right.
Yes, this week has been that aLas Vegas casino is implementing
Uno into the casino.

Kevin (55:49):
Do you play against the dealer, like the house?
Are you playing against otherpeople?

Jordan (55:52):
I assume it would work similar to poker.

Kevin (55:56):
Yeah, where you play other people.

Jordan (55:57):
Yeah, I would think so.

Alban (55:59):
There's like a buy-in with some kind of rake so that
they take some of the money outof there.
This is a terrible idea.
By the way, I don't like this.
I've seen way too many.

Kevin (56:09):
I was going to go the other way.
I was going to say because Unohas some strategy.

Jordan (56:13):
It does.

Kevin (56:14):
Yeah, it's not just a straight luck game, so it feels
like poker in that you could getbetter at it if you play some
strategy.

Jordan (56:22):
You know my kids cannot beat me at Uno and that gave me
the confidence to go.
Maybe I should go to Vegas.
I feel like I could reallyclean up there.

Alban (56:31):
Oh no, jordan, the problem with I've seen I'm sure
you have too People get in realarguments while they're playing
Uno, because you always feellike I'm getting close, I'm
getting close, and then theperson right before you drops
the draw four and people arelike you're always doing this to
me, you pick on me, you waittill it's coming my way, yeah.
And now if money's at stake ontop of it imagine like a

(56:54):
thousand dollar pot and you'resweating it and you go, I've got
it, the next card is going tobe mine and I'm out and then a
person drops a like draw four onyou.
You're going to be furious.

Kevin (57:06):
That is interesting because in Uno you can team up
on people oh yeah, for sure andpress them out.
That's kind of hard to do inpoker.
Right, like poker, you areplaying against other people,
but you can't really work withanother player to get somebody
out.

Alban (57:19):
And if you try to bully someone in poker, if they have
the hand, they're going to takethe chips from you.
Where Uno, I don't know, I feellike this.
It's always the person next toyou, too, who does it.
So it was the person who's nextto you.
I feel like you've got a realopportunity for some like
physical altercations in thesecasino environments.

Jordan (57:38):
Well, and what about like house rules too?
Because we all grew up with ourown version of what you can do
in Uno.
I think the number one argumentI get into with people is I
play where you can stack theplus twos so that the last
person to not stack a plus twothey have to draw like eight
cards or something like that.
And then you get all the peopleare like you can't stack those.
No, you can't do that.

(57:58):
It's usually the one gettingyou know the bad end of the
stick.

Alban (58:08):
But I just don't know if that's like official rules or I
mean I don't know.
So I'm sure you have to havelike the house rules written
there on the felt around thetable.
Well, Jordan, maybe if the next, there's been at least one
podcast movement that was inVegas, so maybe if they get
another one you could go downthere and take your paycheck and
see how you do.

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