January 3, 2024 • 28 mins
In Episode 03 of How to Start a Podcast, you'll learn how to choose a good microphone and which accessories we recommend for 1-person, 2-person, and 4-person podcast setups.
Next Steps:
- How to Record a Podcast on Zoom [Best Settings for 2022] (Blog)
- Long Distance Podcast Recording on a Budget with Zoom (Video)
- Samson Q2U Review: Best Mic for New Podcasters (Video)
- Can a Samson Q2U sound like a Shure SM7B? MIC BATTLE! (Video)
- Blue Yeti Review: Is it a good choice for podcasters? (Video)
Gear We Recommend:
- Samson Q2U (Microphone)
- Rode PodMic (Microphone)
- Samson SM7B (Microphone)
- Rode PSA1 (Boom Arm)
- Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (Audio Interface)
- Rodecaster Pro (Audio Mixer)
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Alban (00:00):
Welcome back to recording number three. Alon and guess
(00:03):
what we're talking about todaywe're talking about microphones,
episode three.
Gilon (00:12):
Welcome back to episode three of the how to start a
podcast, podcast. Do on an albumhere.
Alban (00:19):
How's it going, everybody? Welcome back. And
today we are talking aboutequipment. We're talking about
the mics, we're talking aboutthe sound boards, the audio
mixers, we're talking about theaccessories, headphones, boom,
arms, pop filters, hot filters.
If any of this sounds weird toyou, we're gonna break it down,
and we're gonna talk through it.
So get ready. Here we go.
Gilon (00:40):
So first things first. I know when you start a podcast,
even when you start researchingabout a podcast, the equipment
part of it, I think, is whereeverybody leaps to first, like,
I need a mic. I need this. Ineed that. And sometimes that's
where people fall off. But thereare so many options. So let's
start with the mic piece of it.
What are some considerationswhen you're looking for a mic?
All right,
Alban (00:57):
well, the first thing I want to say when you're buying a
mic is you would be shocked byhow many big podcasts don't care
about what they're using.
They're just using basic, cheapUSB microphones. And they're
also lots of really tinypodcasts that never got
launched. They have $1,000setups, big facts. So if you're
the person who thinks like, oh,I need to buy this really nice
(01:21):
mic so that I get the perfectsound for my podcast. You know,
that's like somebody says, If Ireally want to get this job
interview, I need to get areally nice car to drive to the
job interview, like, no, no, yougot to do the stuff, the job
interview to get the job, howyou got there is actually much
less important. So take a stepback and relax a little bit
before we start pulling out ourwallet,
Gilon (01:45):
for sure. And I think it's a really important step.
Kind of like when you hoppedinto cover art before you really
started your podcast. I think alot of times, people will start
with equipment and buy a bunchof stuff. And you maybe don't
use it or don't launch thepodcast, but don't really like
need all the things that youbought. So we know for a fact
you need bare bones. You need amicrophone, right? Headphones
are helpful. Yeah, you may ormay not need a mixer.
Alban (02:07):
Yeah. So let's dive into it. So what's the thing?
Everyone needs? Got to have amic?
Gilon (02:11):
I have a mic.
Alban (02:12):
What are some of the considerations? Maybe when we're
talking about mics? Price? Yeah,price
Gilon (02:17):
point. For me, I would be the person's like, I gotta buy
all this stuff. And it would bekind of like, I would buy it to
make an excuse of why I can'tstart. And so I don't want
people to think that they haveto get the most expensive mic to
be able to start you kind ofneed to start right. And there
are plenty of affordablemicrophones out there to get to
begin.
Alban (02:36):
So one of the things we're looking at is price.
There's also a few differenttypes of microphones. So there's
microphones that are dynamic orcondenser microphones, there's
are two different kinds.
Gilon (02:47):
What does that mean? Do they look different on the
outside,
Alban (02:49):
they don't, it's on the inside how they're actually
registering sound. Dynamicmicrophones really are listening
for your like a loud noise.
They're not just recordingeverything. And so they're much
better at not getting backgroundnoise. But they're not what
people use when recording likemusic. They are recording with
condenser mics, because theywant all the nuance. Well, when
(03:09):
you're recording a podcast,unless you're recording in a
treated studio, like an actualmusician, getting musician like
studio time, you want to get adynamic microphone, because
there is going to be backgroundnoise. There's a refrigerator,
there's your dishwasher, there'syour kids, there's the lawn guy,
there's the dog, there stuff inthe background, unless you want
(03:33):
that on the podcast, we're gonnabe really limiting our
conversation to dynamicmicrophones,
Gilon (03:41):
which is important because I think podcasting
especially for people that arejust hopping in is super DIY,
the likelihood of you being in asound treated room is low, very
low. So you kind of want to giveyourself the best chance of
having good sound by picking amicrophone that's going to
isolate for your voice and nothear all the things that Alban
just mentioned.
Alban (03:59):
Yeah. And then the next thing we're talking about is
connections. So there's two bigkinds of connections for audio
equipment really, for mics. Youcan have XLR, which is this
special adapter, a lot of musicequipment uses a lot of
microphones use, you have to geta special cable has to run
through an audio mixer, or nowwe've got this new thing called
(04:20):
USB. and lots of mics now arejust using USB connections,
which is so nice, because thesemics can plug directly into your
computer. Yes,
Gilon (04:30):
it's great. It's my favorite because I'm not super
techy. So I just What do I havealready a USB port, I want to
connect that microphone that I'mtrying to figure out how to use
to the computer that I alreadyknow how to use so USB is one of
my faves. So
Alban (04:43):
that's one of the things to really consider is like what
kind of connections we have. Andwe'll talk about those when we
give our recommendations. Andthen last but not least, because
I know everybody's already doingthis anyway, is looks right?
Like people are thinking aboutthis not just how the mic sound
It's not just how much it costs,we also kind of want a cool mic,
(05:05):
especially if we're doing avideo podcast. And it's not
surprising one of the mics willrecommend is the one you see on
every YouTube podcast. It's notused on most audio podcasts, but
every single YouTube one, theyare using the same mic. So we
will talk about that one in ourgroup. Is there anything else
we're considering?
Gilon (05:25):
What about sounds like How should my mic sound? Are all
mics created equal when it comesto sound?
Alban (05:31):
Yeah, absolutely not. So that's a really good question.
With radios, there's actuallypeople who will help each person
on the radio, like, here's yourway Your voices, let's talk
about, like, what Mike actuallyis picking up the right
frequencies for your voice, thenlet's do a custom EQ for your
voice. And they're doing a wholeprocess, you're probably not
(05:54):
doing that for your podcast, Ibarely know that that even
exists. So I've never done that.
But what you can do is test outa few mics. So if you go to like
a podcasting conference, you goto a Guitar Center or something,
they probably got a few of thesemics there. And you can just go
and record a one minute clip,and just listen to them, and
then play with the settings alittle bit and be like, Oh, my
voice is sounding a littletinny, it's sounding kind of
(06:16):
hollow. Or maybe I'm gettinglots of plosives. We'll talk
about what all those things meanlater. And then you can make
adjustments or pick a mic thatmatches your voice.
Gilon (06:28):
Alright, so let's talk about our recommendations. These
are the official Buzzsproutmicrophone recommendations.
Alban (06:34):
This is from, you know, 12 years or something of talking
to tons of people about podcastmics and troubleshooting with
them, and trying to find thingsthat are simple. And this is
where we've ended up if anybodyworks, Samson, we have sent you
a lot of people who want so muchmicrophone. So the number one
(06:55):
mic we recommend, John, what isit?
Gilon (06:57):
It is the Samson, Q two, you have heard it throughout all
our videos, it's probably madeso many appearances in our blog
posts, it is the one we go to.
Alban (07:06):
If you think of the mic emoji or like you're dropping a
microphone like it looks likethat. It looks like a standard
mic comes with a nice stand. Itcomes with a USB connection. So
you plug it directly into yourcomputer. And it's solid as a
rock. It's also got great sound.
And it also is committed at agreat price point like you can
(07:26):
easily get it for 70 bucks orless. It's checks like all the
boxes for us. Yeah, there's nota whole lot to say that's
negative about this, we put itup on tests against other mics
that are four or five times asexpensive. And in a lot of
places people are like actuallyprefer the sound of a Samsung
cue to you to some of these moreexpensive mics.
Gilon (07:48):
The other thing that I really like about the Samsung Q
to you is that it's one a greatbeginner mic, it's not hard to
figure out you're not dialing ina bunch of things. But it also
has two different cables. Soit'll carry you through your
podcasting career honestly. Soif you start out on you know,
your Mac or your computer, youcan plug it right in. But if you
elevate and then use a mixer,you can also use the XLR cables,
(08:08):
and it adapts to both just fine.
Alban (08:10):
It's really nice that it has that versatility, because
we're going to talk about oneperson setups, two person setups
for person setup, like,hopefully not eight person
setup, how to record, this micworks in all of those. So what's
great is you buy it now. And ifthe composition of your podcast
(08:32):
changes later on, you've nowadded to three co hosts or maybe
you do another show later on. Oryou end up in you just move into
music or you're streaming onTwitch like whatever you do,
this mic still works. So it'sreally nice that you didn't buy
something expensive and thenends up just sitting in a
drawer, your Paracels
Gilon (08:49):
for sure, because that's never happening. Alright, so
let's talk about our second pic.
We know Samsung Q to usereigning king. So what is your
second recommendation.
Alban (08:58):
Another one we talked about a lot is the road pod mic.
And I don't know like how todescribe the look, but it just
feels like a big piece of metal.
It's like very heavy. It's verysolid. It's got a cool look to
it, but it is a XLR only mic. Soit needs to a stand, you'd need
to buy that separately, you'dneed to buy an audio mixer. It's
(09:20):
got a slightly different soundthan q2 Though maybe not the
best. I know Travis, it's hispreferred mic at the lower end.
And you are going to need a lotof these other things for this
mic to work and it costs 100bucks to start out. So there's a
few reasons why you might bestill leaning towards that cue
(09:40):
to you. But if you have a chanceto try out the pod mic, it's one
that for a lot of people is areally good option. Okay,
Gilon (09:49):
so it's number two for a reason, but it's still a pretty
solid mike doesn't quite havethe versatility when it comes to
the cable piece of things butgood sound $100 You can still
kind of get in the game withthat as well.
Alban (10:01):
Yeah. Now the thing we've got to talk about is the mic
that we're actually using.
Right?
Gilon (10:05):
Mm. We should probably start. Okay. Yeah.
Alban (10:10):
So the mic that we're using is the Shure SM seven B.
These are not cheap.
Travis (10:15):
Yeah. So I just looked it up. And the SM seven B is
currently available for $400. Sojust a little bit more than the
Qt U and the pod mic.
Alban (10:22):
Yeah. And this is a really cool mic. And if you go
look on YouTube, and you searchwith any podcasts, almost all of
them use this microphone,
Gilon (10:32):
its claim to fame is that it allegedly was used to hoard
thriller, aka Michael Jackson'shit song.
Alban (10:38):
So yeah, if it can record, thriller, I'm sure it
could do well with your podcast.
I really like it. It looksreally professional, which I
think is why a lot of peoplepicked it up. I think the first
time I really saw it was themics that Joe Rogan was using. I
think that got a lot of peoplethinking like that mic looks
cool. What is it, and then theystarted looking into it. I'm
(10:58):
sure Joe has sold lots of theShure SM seven B's over the past
few years. The downside is thatprice point is shocking, right.
And we've got all the issues wehad with the pod mic. It's not a
USB mic, it does need to gothrough an audio mixer, it does
need a stand, it does need stilllike headphones and stuff like
(11:19):
you're going to need all of thatstuff. And so for the setup
we're using here, you can belooking 1500 bucks, easy once
you've got two people, andyou're setting this whole thing
up. So it's a very, verydifferent perspective than when
we were looking at a $70 Samsungcue to you. For a lot of people,
I'm not sure that you're goingto notice the audio difference
(11:41):
almost at all,
Gilon (11:43):
I feel that it's kind of to the point that you said most
podcasts that are strictly audioare using pretty simple devices
that may not even be thatexpensive. So
Alban (11:51):
three different mic options. One that we didn't talk
about is the Blue Yeti. So we'regoing to get a bunch of people
who are saying, isn't that micthat I keep seeing? I see that
one on YouTube a lot too. And alot of people recommend? Why is
that not on our list?
Gilon (12:06):
It was actually a podcasting conference where I
first heard that the Blue Yetiwas not really a solid mic. And
that was amazing to me, becauseit was recommended so highly. So
yeah, let's talk about why wedon't recommend it. What don't
we love about the Blue Yeti?
Alban (12:20):
I mean, the first thing is, is a condenser microphone.
So it's picking up a lot ofbackground noise, everything.
And it's marketed as, hey, thisone mic can do a lot for you. It
can be for one person, it can berecording the room, it can
record two people having aconversation in different
setups. And that's all cool. Butyeah, in theory, but what ends
(12:43):
up happening is you can't recordon separate tracks. Because it's
one mic, a lot of people misuseit, they speak into the wrong
side mic just because it lookstotally different. And you are
always picking up thatbackground noise. Yeah, it's
also a pretty big, heavy mic.
And so getting it up close toyour mouth, is going to be a
whole nother hurdle. And theprice point isn't there. So it's
(13:05):
not like it's a bad mic. If it'sthe mic you already own because
maybe you were using it forsomething else. Hey, by all
means, hold on to it and usethat to start. It's not like
it's going to hold you back. Butif we're walking over to the
store, and we're gonna put downsome money or put something on
the credit card, this isn't themic that I think you want to
spend extra money to go aheadand get, it's gonna be hard for
(13:27):
me to move off that Samsung cueto you it could be years from
now, there should be dozens ofother mics I'm going to go. I
know. But this checks so manyboxes for such a low price.
Gilon (13:37):
Yeah, he make really good points as someone who's used the
Blue Yeti before, the backgroundnoise is the most difficult
thing to really filter out. AndI think when you're just
starting out, you don't realizethat minimizing background noise
is really something that canmake or break your audio.
There's only so many things youcan pull out and kind of drown
out when it comes to backgroundnoise. And the Blue Yeti is just
simply very sensitive to sound.
And so that is one of the mainreasons that we don't recommend
(13:59):
it. But Samsung cue to you podmic and even the sure those are
really great microphones that weoften push people towards.
Alban (14:07):
Alright, so let's start talking about some sample
setups. So if earlier you said Iwant to do a one person setup,
what are we looking at? Likewhat do we need in total,
Gilon (14:18):
a mic and some headphones and maybe a pop filter? Yeah,
baby boomer.
Alban (14:21):
So the nice thing with that Samson cue to you is it's
coming with a small stand. It'scoming with a little foam cover.
It's coming with a USB mic isgoing to plug into the computer
and all I need to do is add someset phones so well that sounds
pretty good. What kind ofheadphones do we want to look
at?
Gilon (14:40):
You know, you can get into the game for free, right?
If you've got some Appleheadphones, you can totally use
those that may not provide thebest sound over your headphones
really help you hear a littlebit more clearly how you're
sounding and coming through fromthe mic.
Alban (14:53):
The main thing to remember is we're using
headphones because we don't wantsound from the other person
speaking to us to come into ourmic, that's called Audio bleed.
So imagine you were talking tosomeone on Zoom, you need to be
able to hear what they hear, butyou don't want your microphone
to hear it. So that's like whatwe're doing with these
headphones. The other thing is,and I'm going to do some bad mic
(15:16):
technique here. But if I startdrifting away from the
microphone, and coming back, Ididn't move away a whole lot,
you know, maybe a foot. As soonas I just move back a foot and
the audio drops way out, I needto notice that. And the
headphones are giving thatconstant feedback. Hey, it
doesn't sound the same. Did youmove away? Or did you get like,
(15:37):
a little excited there, hestarted getting loud, and it's
not gonna work, it's maybe gonnapeek, all that stuff, having the
headphones, man, they eliminatethose issues, because you are
getting feedback on what'sworking and what's not.
Gilon (15:50):
Definitely you're able to hear yourself and then kind of
adjust in the moment as opposedto talk talk have tons of
plosives have background noiserunning that you didn't even
know it was getting picked upuntil you go listen to the
audio. And then it's like, can Ieven use this? So headphones
definitely help you monitorthat?
Alban (16:04):
Yeah, I know that I have recorded an entire podcast one
time where I was using mycomputer microphone, rather than
my microphone microphone. Butbecause I didn't set up
headphones. I didn't notice thatuntil I went back to listen, and
I'm like, Man, those 30 minutevoiceover, it would be really
helpful to have just stuck someApple earbuds in. And to figure
(16:26):
it out there. Don't look atstudio headphones. There's a lot
out there. Those who are usedfor like sound engineers, people
who are mastering Taylor Swiftrecords, you are not mastering
Taylor Swift or I don't knowthat. So Apple earbuds, maybe
some audio technica in 50x. Andwe can put a couple other
(16:47):
options down in the show notesin case you want to check out
some headphone options, butthat's probably not the spot to
spend your money.
Gilon (16:54):
Okay, so do things get a little interesting when we add a
second person does everythingchange,
Alban (16:58):
everything changes once you add somebody else. So the
problem is, a lot of computersstart freaking out when you plug
in multiple microphones with aUSB setup. So I take both of
them and plug them into acomputer, the computer starts
being like, I'm not sure whichof these microphones is which.
So when you have two people andyou need to plug two microphones
(17:20):
in, it's best to go through anaudio interface. And the one we
really like is the FocusriteScarlett two i Two is $170 audio
interface, what it allows you todo is plug one cable into the
computer, and then both yourmicrophones using XLR cables
plug in to the audio interface.
Gilon (17:39):
And why would you want to do that other than freaking out
your computer,
Alban (17:43):
one, we want the computer to be able to get separate audio
tracks for both people and torecognize them correctly. But to
it allows us to monitorourselves and the other person
at different volumes so thatit's easier to have a
conversation, we're able toadjust the gain. So maybe if one
of us is a little bit of alouder talker, and the other
one's a little bit more quiet, Icould turn my game down if I'm
(18:06):
getting a little amped up orsomething. So you're just able
to get better audio quality fromtwo different speakers rather
than just trusting the computeror the post editing, you know
all that process to figure itout.
Gilon (18:19):
That makes total sense.
Are there any other pieces thatwe need for a two person setup.
Alban (18:23):
So the shopping list here is going to be two Samsung Q to
use one focus right to i Two asthe audio interface, the cables
you need will all be in thoseboxes. And then I think we need
to get a headphone splitter sothat we can both listen to the
headphones. And then we're goingto actually need some sort of
(18:44):
headphones, but I would justbring whatever I already have.
So whether it's your Appleearbuds to something quite
nicer, anything in there, theywill work for you. Alright,
Gilon (18:55):
let's say we multiply double it out from two to four
to things get even morecomplicated.
Alban (19:01):
Well, they're not getting more complicated. They're
getting more pricey now moreexpensive. Alright, so if we're
looking at three or four people,again, we need a mic for
everybody. So you know whichmics you've got up out there for
options. I'm still goingSampson, q2, you if you're
upgrading, that's your decision,right?
Gilon (19:21):
For people and so I think we need to be a little bit
economical now. Right?
Alban (19:24):
Yeah, you might have like one, you know, high roller on
the team, and they're like, No,I'm going for the big mic, and
then you all start realizinglike that really didn't matter a
whole lot when we startedlistening to this sound quality,
but you got to get your fourmics. They all need XLR cables.
And then those all plug into nowwe need a different audio
(19:44):
interface, when we really likethat has a lot of inputs is
called the road caster Pro. Andthis is like a pretty nice
soundboard. It's actually whatwe're using here. It's got a lot
of features. It's really nice,but the price point is getting
up there.
Gilon (20:00):
So we are looking at about 599.
Alban (20:03):
About exactly five IDs.
So you could sometimes get alittle bit of a deal. It's not
super common, this is a reallynice soundboard, you put some
sounds on it. So you couldprogram if you wanted to have
like an air horn on there, oryour intro music, you can do
that. You could set it up. Soyou can record that phone call
or something from Bluetooth,there's so many options. And one
(20:25):
of the cool options is you canactually record your audio files
directly to an SD card ratherthan recording it to a computer.
It's got a lot of options, but599. So that's what we're
looking at. So if we're lookingat three, four people, the
prices are getting up there. Butwe do have one other option for
(20:45):
people we do. Yeah, so if you'rethinking like these prices are
getting out of control, and I'mnot looking to get into this,
one that you can do is justrecord remote podcasts. And
we're in this weird time inpodcasting technology, where the
microphones are cheap. A lot ofpeople already have computers.
(21:09):
And actually recording everybodyon some software is the easiest
bet. So lots of people, whatthey're doing is you your co
hosts, everybody gets a $70 michooked up to the computer, and
then uses something like zoom orsome remote recording software,
we can talk about options in afew episodes, and you record all
(21:29):
there, that means we're notplugging a bunch of mics into
our computer, all the computers,no, I'm recording this audio
file. And we have some videosout there on how to get the best
audio out of zoom. And so thisis a really legit option for a
lot of people. The other nicething is that you don't have to
(21:50):
actually drive and meet inlocation, you can all just hop
on a zoom call and record withall your friends,
Gilon (21:59):
right? So logistically, financially timewise all of it,
it's really helpful. It's kindof like a nice little
workaround, like if you don'twant to drop 600 bucks on a
mixer, but you do want to havefour plus people on the podcast,
remote recording is really anice, a nice option.
Alban (22:15):
Now we're not doing that because the one thing you lose
when you're not in person is youlose some of that interactivity,
you lose some of the connectionthat you have for your co hosts
like, we know the energy level,it does go down once we start
doing remote recordings. So wedecided like, hey, we both live
like 45 minutes away. But let'smeet at the office, let's set
(22:35):
everything up. And let's recordbecause we know the quality is
going to be slightly better.
Gilon (22:39):
And then I think there's also some sort of technological
advantage to being in person, wecan talk over each other, and
you can still hear both of us.
But if one person start talkingover another on a zoom call,
everybody kind of gets drownedout or only one voice gets
heard. And so crosstalk reallybecomes more of an issue when
you're doing remote recording.
Alban (22:56):
Yeah. And you've got issues of just whenever there's
a little bit of a lag, like ifyou ever been in this calls
where everyone's talking overeach other all the time, and you
realize like, oh, it's becauselike, we don't know, the other
person started talking. Sothere's some pluses and some
downsides. Now there's a fewother things you may look at. So
these are like the accessories,what kind of accessories are we
considering gotta buy
Gilon (23:17):
more things.
Alban (23:18):
You don't have to buy more things. There's just lots
of things that I know people arethinking about. So we want to be
able to help them along the wayif they decide to
Gilon (23:26):
it being helpful. Okay, so there are boom, arms. What
the heck is a boom arm I thinkboom, boom stick, like a gun
from the Muppets movies. Butwhat is the boom arm?
Alban (23:36):
Very different. All right, the boom arm is the thing
that holds the microphone. Andso if you ever think of like
watching somebody on the radio,where they've got something that
they're adjusting to get the micright in front of their mouth.
That's a boom arm. And what'sreally nice about the boom arm
is that you can sit perfectly upstraight, you can turn your head
(23:56):
no matter what movements youhave, you can always adjust the
boom arm to keep the mic rightat the perfect location. So
there's lots of different boomarms. One we really like is the
Rode PSA one, and we like itbecause it stays still like
that's the main thing you wantwith a boom arm like I can sit
up straight, you know your chestis expanded, you're taking full
(24:17):
breaths, you're not hunched overand the Maitreya in front of
you. It does that well, and it's$100. Again, this is something
down the road, you don't have tojump into this on the front end.
Gilon (24:28):
Okay, so next we got a boom arms or mic is being held
steady, possibly, if that'ssomething that's in our budget
as we're starting out. Nextthing, pop filters, do I need a
pop filter? Like what's wrongwith my naked microphone?
Alban (24:39):
So let's give some examples. And so Travis if we
can, like let's try to leavethese in. But a pop filter is
when you get these like plosivesthe peas that like they actually
it's a bunch of wind, hot airthat's coming out of your mouth,
and it's hitting the capsule inthe microphone. And so Why
(25:00):
there's foam, often around amicrophones cover, like I've got
the foam on right now the popfilter, and it's disperses a lot
of this wind, I guess, I don'tknow, wait right way to say it,
it disperses it so that youdon't get a big hit on the
capsule and thus get thatpopping sound. Yeah, there's
(25:21):
other sounds like the SS,sibilant SS. And so people's Ss
are kind of like that kind ofgrating chalk, you know,
scraping the chalk, thechalkboard sound like, those are
also getting cleaned out by popfilter. So it's often just these
foam covers that are going overthe end of the microphone. A lot
(25:42):
of microphones include them,there are some that you can look
at upgrading. But this issomething like, check to see how
your voice works. We have somemicrophones that work for some
people. And sometimes when I getbehind it, I realized I need to
start doing other things becausethe peas aren't the issue for
me. But it's more than SS. Istart getting that kind of civil
(26:03):
s sound. And when that comesthrough, it starts getting
annoying. So I need to make surethat I'm compensating for that.
All right.
Gilon (26:09):
And then last but not least, I would say the second
most important piece ofequipment would be the
headphones do yourrecommendations.
Alban (26:17):
I mean, just what we said earlier, this isn't the spot to
spend your money people mightrecommend you might buy a
package that has headphones andyou may see some headphones that
are like rated for podcasts,every headphone is rated for
podcast, just go ahead, get onethat's cheap. Don't overthink
it. This isn't the place tospend your money. This is a
place to save money. And reallydo you want to be that person
(26:38):
who's got like your podcastingheadphones, but you're also your
music headphones, but also yourair pods. He listened to the
house. You don't need all thisjunk, save whatever you're
using. Use that and it'll beperfect.
Gilon (26:50):
So be an essentialist is what you're saying. Exactly. All
right. So we have talked aboutmicrophones, we've talked about
setups, we've talked about allthe other things you need to
buy? Travis, do you have anyresources for us as we make
these considerations about whereto spend our money for our
podcast?
Travis (27:10):
Absolutely Jalon. So there are four videos in
particular, that I think wouldreally be helpful for you as
you're listening to this podcastand trying to get a sense of
where you should spend yourmoney and some of the other
things that we talked about. Soin the video covering how to
record your podcast using zoom,the video chat software, there
are some particular settingsthat you'll want to have turned
on to get better audio quality.
So definitely watch that video,if you want to start there to
(27:31):
record your audio. And then Igot three microphone videos for
you. The first one is the cue toyou that we've been raving about
are all in one overall bestmicrophone for new podcasters we
did a full review of thatmicrophone. So you can find that
on the YouTube channel. Therewas also a fun video I did where
I compared the Qt u to the SMseven B and did a side by side
(27:51):
sound test. So you can reallysee the difference and decide
for yourself if investing in theSM seven B is going to be
worthwhile for you. And we alsodid a video covering the Blue
Yeti. And so you know, we'retalking about the background
noise rejection and the problemsthat we have with that you can
actually hear an actual reallife example of the Blue Yeti
stacked up against the cue toyou. And you may or may not hear
(28:13):
a three year old singing to letit go. And you can find links to
all of those in the show notesfor this episode.
Alban (28:21):
Alright, so lots of places that we could spend
money. Hopefully we're helpingyou save some through this whole
process. So go check out thoseresources. And next we're gonna
be talking about the software.
We're gonna be talking about howto actually record we talked
about some of those remoterecording options and we'll go
through a deep dive of all thepros cons of different options
and what recording and editingsoftware should be check out
(28:44):
until next time, keep up thegreat work and I'll see you
later
Welcome back to recording number three. Alon and guess
(00:03):
what we're talking about todaywe're talking about microphones,
episode three.
Gilon (00:12):
Welcome back to episode three of the how to start a
podcast, podcast. Do on an albumhere.
Alban (00:19):
How's it going, everybody? Welcome back. And
today we are talking aboutequipment. We're talking about
the mics, we're talking aboutthe sound boards, the audio
mixers, we're talking about theaccessories, headphones, boom,
arms, pop filters, hot filters.
If any of this sounds weird toyou, we're gonna break it down,
and we're gonna talk through it.
So get ready. Here we go.
Gilon (00:40):
So first things first. I know when you start a podcast,
even when you start researchingabout a podcast, the equipment
part of it, I think, is whereeverybody leaps to first, like,
I need a mic. I need this. Ineed that. And sometimes that's
where people fall off. But thereare so many options. So let's
start with the mic piece of it.
What are some considerationswhen you're looking for a mic?
All right,
Alban (00:57):
well, the first thing I want to say when you're buying a
mic is you would be shocked byhow many big podcasts don't care
about what they're using.
They're just using basic, cheapUSB microphones. And they're
also lots of really tinypodcasts that never got
launched. They have $1,000setups, big facts. So if you're
the person who thinks like, oh,I need to buy this really nice
(01:21):
mic so that I get the perfectsound for my podcast. You know,
that's like somebody says, If Ireally want to get this job
interview, I need to get areally nice car to drive to the
job interview, like, no, no, yougot to do the stuff, the job
interview to get the job, howyou got there is actually much
less important. So take a stepback and relax a little bit
before we start pulling out ourwallet,
Gilon (01:45):
for sure. And I think it's a really important step.
Kind of like when you hoppedinto cover art before you really
started your podcast. I think alot of times, people will start
with equipment and buy a bunchof stuff. And you maybe don't
use it or don't launch thepodcast, but don't really like
need all the things that youbought. So we know for a fact
you need bare bones. You need amicrophone, right? Headphones
are helpful. Yeah, you may ormay not need a mixer.
Alban (02:07):
Yeah. So let's dive into it. So what's the thing?
Everyone needs? Got to have amic?
Gilon (02:11):
I have a mic.
Alban (02:12):
What are some of the considerations? Maybe when we're
talking about mics? Price? Yeah,price
Gilon (02:17):
point. For me, I would be the person's like, I gotta buy
all this stuff. And it would bekind of like, I would buy it to
make an excuse of why I can'tstart. And so I don't want
people to think that they haveto get the most expensive mic to
be able to start you kind ofneed to start right. And there
are plenty of affordablemicrophones out there to get to
begin.
Alban (02:36):
So one of the things we're looking at is price.
There's also a few differenttypes of microphones. So there's
microphones that are dynamic orcondenser microphones, there's
are two different kinds.
Gilon (02:47):
What does that mean? Do they look different on the
outside,
Alban (02:49):
they don't, it's on the inside how they're actually
registering sound. Dynamicmicrophones really are listening
for your like a loud noise.
They're not just recordingeverything. And so they're much
better at not getting backgroundnoise. But they're not what
people use when recording likemusic. They are recording with
condenser mics, because theywant all the nuance. Well, when
(03:09):
you're recording a podcast,unless you're recording in a
treated studio, like an actualmusician, getting musician like
studio time, you want to get adynamic microphone, because
there is going to be backgroundnoise. There's a refrigerator,
there's your dishwasher, there'syour kids, there's the lawn guy,
there's the dog, there stuff inthe background, unless you want
(03:33):
that on the podcast, we're gonnabe really limiting our
conversation to dynamicmicrophones,
Gilon (03:41):
which is important because I think podcasting
especially for people that arejust hopping in is super DIY,
the likelihood of you being in asound treated room is low, very
low. So you kind of want to giveyourself the best chance of
having good sound by picking amicrophone that's going to
isolate for your voice and nothear all the things that Alban
just mentioned.
Alban (03:59):
Yeah. And then the next thing we're talking about is
connections. So there's two bigkinds of connections for audio
equipment really, for mics. Youcan have XLR, which is this
special adapter, a lot of musicequipment uses a lot of
microphones use, you have to geta special cable has to run
through an audio mixer, or nowwe've got this new thing called
(04:20):
USB. and lots of mics now arejust using USB connections,
which is so nice, because thesemics can plug directly into your
computer. Yes,
Gilon (04:30):
it's great. It's my favorite because I'm not super
techy. So I just What do I havealready a USB port, I want to
connect that microphone that I'mtrying to figure out how to use
to the computer that I alreadyknow how to use so USB is one of
my faves. So
Alban (04:43):
that's one of the things to really consider is like what
kind of connections we have. Andwe'll talk about those when we
give our recommendations. Andthen last but not least, because
I know everybody's already doingthis anyway, is looks right?
Like people are thinking aboutthis not just how the mic sound
It's not just how much it costs,we also kind of want a cool mic,
(05:05):
especially if we're doing avideo podcast. And it's not
surprising one of the mics willrecommend is the one you see on
every YouTube podcast. It's notused on most audio podcasts, but
every single YouTube one, theyare using the same mic. So we
will talk about that one in ourgroup. Is there anything else
we're considering?
Gilon (05:25):
What about sounds like How should my mic sound? Are all
mics created equal when it comesto sound?
Alban (05:31):
Yeah, absolutely not. So that's a really good question.
With radios, there's actuallypeople who will help each person
on the radio, like, here's yourway Your voices, let's talk
about, like, what Mike actuallyis picking up the right
frequencies for your voice, thenlet's do a custom EQ for your
voice. And they're doing a wholeprocess, you're probably not
(05:54):
doing that for your podcast, Ibarely know that that even
exists. So I've never done that.
But what you can do is test outa few mics. So if you go to like
a podcasting conference, you goto a Guitar Center or something,
they probably got a few of thesemics there. And you can just go
and record a one minute clip,and just listen to them, and
then play with the settings alittle bit and be like, Oh, my
voice is sounding a littletinny, it's sounding kind of
(06:16):
hollow. Or maybe I'm gettinglots of plosives. We'll talk
about what all those things meanlater. And then you can make
adjustments or pick a mic thatmatches your voice.
Gilon (06:28):
Alright, so let's talk about our recommendations. These
are the official Buzzsproutmicrophone recommendations.
Alban (06:34):
This is from, you know, 12 years or something of talking
to tons of people about podcastmics and troubleshooting with
them, and trying to find thingsthat are simple. And this is
where we've ended up if anybodyworks, Samson, we have sent you
a lot of people who want so muchmicrophone. So the number one
(06:55):
mic we recommend, John, what isit?
Gilon (06:57):
It is the Samson, Q two, you have heard it throughout all
our videos, it's probably madeso many appearances in our blog
posts, it is the one we go to.
Alban (07:06):
If you think of the mic emoji or like you're dropping a
microphone like it looks likethat. It looks like a standard
mic comes with a nice stand. Itcomes with a USB connection. So
you plug it directly into yourcomputer. And it's solid as a
rock. It's also got great sound.
And it also is committed at agreat price point like you can
(07:26):
easily get it for 70 bucks orless. It's checks like all the
boxes for us. Yeah, there's nota whole lot to say that's
negative about this, we put itup on tests against other mics
that are four or five times asexpensive. And in a lot of
places people are like actuallyprefer the sound of a Samsung
cue to you to some of these moreexpensive mics.
Gilon (07:48):
The other thing that I really like about the Samsung Q
to you is that it's one a greatbeginner mic, it's not hard to
figure out you're not dialing ina bunch of things. But it also
has two different cables. Soit'll carry you through your
podcasting career honestly. Soif you start out on you know,
your Mac or your computer, youcan plug it right in. But if you
elevate and then use a mixer,you can also use the XLR cables,
(08:08):
and it adapts to both just fine.
Alban (08:10):
It's really nice that it has that versatility, because
we're going to talk about oneperson setups, two person setups
for person setup, like,hopefully not eight person
setup, how to record, this micworks in all of those. So what's
great is you buy it now. And ifthe composition of your podcast
(08:32):
changes later on, you've nowadded to three co hosts or maybe
you do another show later on. Oryou end up in you just move into
music or you're streaming onTwitch like whatever you do,
this mic still works. So it'sreally nice that you didn't buy
something expensive and thenends up just sitting in a
drawer, your Paracels
Gilon (08:49):
for sure, because that's never happening. Alright, so
let's talk about our second pic.
We know Samsung Q to usereigning king. So what is your
second recommendation.
Alban (08:58):
Another one we talked about a lot is the road pod mic.
And I don't know like how todescribe the look, but it just
feels like a big piece of metal.
It's like very heavy. It's verysolid. It's got a cool look to
it, but it is a XLR only mic. Soit needs to a stand, you'd need
to buy that separately, you'dneed to buy an audio mixer. It's
(09:20):
got a slightly different soundthan q2 Though maybe not the
best. I know Travis, it's hispreferred mic at the lower end.
And you are going to need a lotof these other things for this
mic to work and it costs 100bucks to start out. So there's a
few reasons why you might bestill leaning towards that cue
(09:40):
to you. But if you have a chanceto try out the pod mic, it's one
that for a lot of people is areally good option. Okay,
Gilon (09:49):
so it's number two for a reason, but it's still a pretty
solid mike doesn't quite havethe versatility when it comes to
the cable piece of things butgood sound $100 You can still
kind of get in the game withthat as well.
Alban (10:01):
Yeah. Now the thing we've got to talk about is the mic
that we're actually using.
Right?
Gilon (10:05):
Mm. We should probably start. Okay. Yeah.
Alban (10:10):
So the mic that we're using is the Shure SM seven B.
These are not cheap.
Travis (10:15):
Yeah. So I just looked it up. And the SM seven B is
currently available for $400. Sojust a little bit more than the
Qt U and the pod mic.
Alban (10:22):
Yeah. And this is a really cool mic. And if you go
look on YouTube, and you searchwith any podcasts, almost all of
them use this microphone,
Gilon (10:32):
its claim to fame is that it allegedly was used to hoard
thriller, aka Michael Jackson'shit song.
Alban (10:38):
So yeah, if it can record, thriller, I'm sure it
could do well with your podcast.
I really like it. It looksreally professional, which I
think is why a lot of peoplepicked it up. I think the first
time I really saw it was themics that Joe Rogan was using. I
think that got a lot of peoplethinking like that mic looks
cool. What is it, and then theystarted looking into it. I'm
(10:58):
sure Joe has sold lots of theShure SM seven B's over the past
few years. The downside is thatprice point is shocking, right.
And we've got all the issues wehad with the pod mic. It's not a
USB mic, it does need to gothrough an audio mixer, it does
need a stand, it does need stilllike headphones and stuff like
(11:19):
you're going to need all of thatstuff. And so for the setup
we're using here, you can belooking 1500 bucks, easy once
you've got two people, andyou're setting this whole thing
up. So it's a very, verydifferent perspective than when
we were looking at a $70 Samsungcue to you. For a lot of people,
I'm not sure that you're goingto notice the audio difference
(11:41):
almost at all,
Gilon (11:43):
I feel that it's kind of to the point that you said most
podcasts that are strictly audioare using pretty simple devices
that may not even be thatexpensive. So
Alban (11:51):
three different mic options. One that we didn't talk
about is the Blue Yeti. So we'regoing to get a bunch of people
who are saying, isn't that micthat I keep seeing? I see that
one on YouTube a lot too. And alot of people recommend? Why is
that not on our list?
Gilon (12:06):
It was actually a podcasting conference where I
first heard that the Blue Yetiwas not really a solid mic. And
that was amazing to me, becauseit was recommended so highly. So
yeah, let's talk about why wedon't recommend it. What don't
we love about the Blue Yeti?
Alban (12:20):
I mean, the first thing is, is a condenser microphone.
So it's picking up a lot ofbackground noise, everything.
And it's marketed as, hey, thisone mic can do a lot for you. It
can be for one person, it can berecording the room, it can
record two people having aconversation in different
setups. And that's all cool. Butyeah, in theory, but what ends
(12:43):
up happening is you can't recordon separate tracks. Because it's
one mic, a lot of people misuseit, they speak into the wrong
side mic just because it lookstotally different. And you are
always picking up thatbackground noise. Yeah, it's
also a pretty big, heavy mic.
And so getting it up close toyour mouth, is going to be a
whole nother hurdle. And theprice point isn't there. So it's
(13:05):
not like it's a bad mic. If it'sthe mic you already own because
maybe you were using it forsomething else. Hey, by all
means, hold on to it and usethat to start. It's not like
it's going to hold you back. Butif we're walking over to the
store, and we're gonna put downsome money or put something on
the credit card, this isn't themic that I think you want to
spend extra money to go aheadand get, it's gonna be hard for
(13:27):
me to move off that Samsung cueto you it could be years from
now, there should be dozens ofother mics I'm going to go. I
know. But this checks so manyboxes for such a low price.
Gilon (13:37):
Yeah, he make really good points as someone who's used the
Blue Yeti before, the backgroundnoise is the most difficult
thing to really filter out. AndI think when you're just
starting out, you don't realizethat minimizing background noise
is really something that canmake or break your audio.
There's only so many things youcan pull out and kind of drown
out when it comes to backgroundnoise. And the Blue Yeti is just
simply very sensitive to sound.
And so that is one of the mainreasons that we don't recommend
(13:59):
it. But Samsung cue to you podmic and even the sure those are
really great microphones that weoften push people towards.
Alban (14:07):
Alright, so let's start talking about some sample
setups. So if earlier you said Iwant to do a one person setup,
what are we looking at? Likewhat do we need in total,
Gilon (14:18):
a mic and some headphones and maybe a pop filter? Yeah,
baby boomer.
Alban (14:21):
So the nice thing with that Samson cue to you is it's
coming with a small stand. It'scoming with a little foam cover.
It's coming with a USB mic isgoing to plug into the computer
and all I need to do is add someset phones so well that sounds
pretty good. What kind ofheadphones do we want to look
at?
Gilon (14:40):
You know, you can get into the game for free, right?
If you've got some Appleheadphones, you can totally use
those that may not provide thebest sound over your headphones
really help you hear a littlebit more clearly how you're
sounding and coming through fromthe mic.
Alban (14:53):
The main thing to remember is we're using
headphones because we don't wantsound from the other person
speaking to us to come into ourmic, that's called Audio bleed.
So imagine you were talking tosomeone on Zoom, you need to be
able to hear what they hear, butyou don't want your microphone
to hear it. So that's like whatwe're doing with these
headphones. The other thing is,and I'm going to do some bad mic
(15:16):
technique here. But if I startdrifting away from the
microphone, and coming back, Ididn't move away a whole lot,
you know, maybe a foot. As soonas I just move back a foot and
the audio drops way out, I needto notice that. And the
headphones are giving thatconstant feedback. Hey, it
doesn't sound the same. Did youmove away? Or did you get like,
(15:37):
a little excited there, hestarted getting loud, and it's
not gonna work, it's maybe gonnapeek, all that stuff, having the
headphones, man, they eliminatethose issues, because you are
getting feedback on what'sworking and what's not.
Gilon (15:50):
Definitely you're able to hear yourself and then kind of
adjust in the moment as opposedto talk talk have tons of
plosives have background noiserunning that you didn't even
know it was getting picked upuntil you go listen to the
audio. And then it's like, can Ieven use this? So headphones
definitely help you monitorthat?
Alban (16:04):
Yeah, I know that I have recorded an entire podcast one
time where I was using mycomputer microphone, rather than
my microphone microphone. Butbecause I didn't set up
headphones. I didn't notice thatuntil I went back to listen, and
I'm like, Man, those 30 minutevoiceover, it would be really
helpful to have just stuck someApple earbuds in. And to figure
(16:26):
it out there. Don't look atstudio headphones. There's a lot
out there. Those who are usedfor like sound engineers, people
who are mastering Taylor Swiftrecords, you are not mastering
Taylor Swift or I don't knowthat. So Apple earbuds, maybe
some audio technica in 50x. Andwe can put a couple other
(16:47):
options down in the show notesin case you want to check out
some headphone options, butthat's probably not the spot to
spend your money.
Gilon (16:54):
Okay, so do things get a little interesting when we add a
second person does everythingchange,
Alban (16:58):
everything changes once you add somebody else. So the
problem is, a lot of computersstart freaking out when you plug
in multiple microphones with aUSB setup. So I take both of
them and plug them into acomputer, the computer starts
being like, I'm not sure whichof these microphones is which.
So when you have two people andyou need to plug two microphones
(17:20):
in, it's best to go through anaudio interface. And the one we
really like is the FocusriteScarlett two i Two is $170 audio
interface, what it allows you todo is plug one cable into the
computer, and then both yourmicrophones using XLR cables
plug in to the audio interface.
Gilon (17:39):
And why would you want to do that other than freaking out
your computer,
Alban (17:43):
one, we want the computer to be able to get separate audio
tracks for both people and torecognize them correctly. But to
it allows us to monitorourselves and the other person
at different volumes so thatit's easier to have a
conversation, we're able toadjust the gain. So maybe if one
of us is a little bit of alouder talker, and the other
one's a little bit more quiet, Icould turn my game down if I'm
(18:06):
getting a little amped up orsomething. So you're just able
to get better audio quality fromtwo different speakers rather
than just trusting the computeror the post editing, you know
all that process to figure itout.
Gilon (18:19):
That makes total sense.
Are there any other pieces thatwe need for a two person setup.
Alban (18:23):
So the shopping list here is going to be two Samsung Q to
use one focus right to i Two asthe audio interface, the cables
you need will all be in thoseboxes. And then I think we need
to get a headphone splitter sothat we can both listen to the
headphones. And then we're goingto actually need some sort of
(18:44):
headphones, but I would justbring whatever I already have.
So whether it's your Appleearbuds to something quite
nicer, anything in there, theywill work for you. Alright,
Gilon (18:55):
let's say we multiply double it out from two to four
to things get even morecomplicated.
Alban (19:01):
Well, they're not getting more complicated. They're
getting more pricey now moreexpensive. Alright, so if we're
looking at three or four people,again, we need a mic for
everybody. So you know whichmics you've got up out there for
options. I'm still goingSampson, q2, you if you're
upgrading, that's your decision,right?
Gilon (19:21):
For people and so I think we need to be a little bit
economical now. Right?
Alban (19:24):
Yeah, you might have like one, you know, high roller on
the team, and they're like, No,I'm going for the big mic, and
then you all start realizinglike that really didn't matter a
whole lot when we startedlistening to this sound quality,
but you got to get your fourmics. They all need XLR cables.
And then those all plug into nowwe need a different audio
(19:44):
interface, when we really likethat has a lot of inputs is
called the road caster Pro. Andthis is like a pretty nice
soundboard. It's actually whatwe're using here. It's got a lot
of features. It's really nice,but the price point is getting
up there.
Gilon (20:00):
So we are looking at about 599.
Alban (20:03):
About exactly five IDs.
So you could sometimes get alittle bit of a deal. It's not
super common, this is a reallynice soundboard, you put some
sounds on it. So you couldprogram if you wanted to have
like an air horn on there, oryour intro music, you can do
that. You could set it up. Soyou can record that phone call
or something from Bluetooth,there's so many options. And one
(20:25):
of the cool options is you canactually record your audio files
directly to an SD card ratherthan recording it to a computer.
It's got a lot of options, but599. So that's what we're
looking at. So if we're lookingat three, four people, the
prices are getting up there. Butwe do have one other option for
(20:45):
people we do. Yeah, so if you'rethinking like these prices are
getting out of control, and I'mnot looking to get into this,
one that you can do is justrecord remote podcasts. And
we're in this weird time inpodcasting technology, where the
microphones are cheap. A lot ofpeople already have computers.
(21:09):
And actually recording everybodyon some software is the easiest
bet. So lots of people, whatthey're doing is you your co
hosts, everybody gets a $70 michooked up to the computer, and
then uses something like zoom orsome remote recording software,
we can talk about options in afew episodes, and you record all
(21:29):
there, that means we're notplugging a bunch of mics into
our computer, all the computers,no, I'm recording this audio
file. And we have some videosout there on how to get the best
audio out of zoom. And so thisis a really legit option for a
lot of people. The other nicething is that you don't have to
(21:50):
actually drive and meet inlocation, you can all just hop
on a zoom call and record withall your friends,
Gilon (21:59):
right? So logistically, financially timewise all of it,
it's really helpful. It's kindof like a nice little
workaround, like if you don'twant to drop 600 bucks on a
mixer, but you do want to havefour plus people on the podcast,
remote recording is really anice, a nice option.
Alban (22:15):
Now we're not doing that because the one thing you lose
when you're not in person is youlose some of that interactivity,
you lose some of the connectionthat you have for your co hosts
like, we know the energy level,it does go down once we start
doing remote recordings. So wedecided like, hey, we both live
like 45 minutes away. But let'smeet at the office, let's set
(22:35):
everything up. And let's recordbecause we know the quality is
going to be slightly better.
Gilon (22:39):
And then I think there's also some sort of technological
advantage to being in person, wecan talk over each other, and
you can still hear both of us.
But if one person start talkingover another on a zoom call,
everybody kind of gets drownedout or only one voice gets
heard. And so crosstalk reallybecomes more of an issue when
you're doing remote recording.
Alban (22:56):
Yeah. And you've got issues of just whenever there's
a little bit of a lag, like ifyou ever been in this calls
where everyone's talking overeach other all the time, and you
realize like, oh, it's becauselike, we don't know, the other
person started talking. Sothere's some pluses and some
downsides. Now there's a fewother things you may look at. So
these are like the accessories,what kind of accessories are we
considering gotta buy
Gilon (23:17):
more things.
Alban (23:18):
You don't have to buy more things. There's just lots
of things that I know people arethinking about. So we want to be
able to help them along the wayif they decide to
Gilon (23:26):
it being helpful. Okay, so there are boom, arms. What
the heck is a boom arm I thinkboom, boom stick, like a gun
from the Muppets movies. Butwhat is the boom arm?
Alban (23:36):
Very different. All right, the boom arm is the thing
that holds the microphone. Andso if you ever think of like
watching somebody on the radio,where they've got something that
they're adjusting to get the micright in front of their mouth.
That's a boom arm. And what'sreally nice about the boom arm
is that you can sit perfectly upstraight, you can turn your head
(23:56):
no matter what movements youhave, you can always adjust the
boom arm to keep the mic rightat the perfect location. So
there's lots of different boomarms. One we really like is the
Rode PSA one, and we like itbecause it stays still like
that's the main thing you wantwith a boom arm like I can sit
up straight, you know your chestis expanded, you're taking full
(24:17):
breaths, you're not hunched overand the Maitreya in front of
you. It does that well, and it's$100. Again, this is something
down the road, you don't have tojump into this on the front end.
Gilon (24:28):
Okay, so next we got a boom arms or mic is being held
steady, possibly, if that'ssomething that's in our budget
as we're starting out. Nextthing, pop filters, do I need a
pop filter? Like what's wrongwith my naked microphone?
Alban (24:39):
So let's give some examples. And so Travis if we
can, like let's try to leavethese in. But a pop filter is
when you get these like plosivesthe peas that like they actually
it's a bunch of wind, hot airthat's coming out of your mouth,
and it's hitting the capsule inthe microphone. And so Why
(25:00):
there's foam, often around amicrophones cover, like I've got
the foam on right now the popfilter, and it's disperses a lot
of this wind, I guess, I don'tknow, wait right way to say it,
it disperses it so that youdon't get a big hit on the
capsule and thus get thatpopping sound. Yeah, there's
(25:21):
other sounds like the SS,sibilant SS. And so people's Ss
are kind of like that kind ofgrating chalk, you know,
scraping the chalk, thechalkboard sound like, those are
also getting cleaned out by popfilter. So it's often just these
foam covers that are going overthe end of the microphone. A lot
(25:42):
of microphones include them,there are some that you can look
at upgrading. But this issomething like, check to see how
your voice works. We have somemicrophones that work for some
people. And sometimes when I getbehind it, I realized I need to
start doing other things becausethe peas aren't the issue for
me. But it's more than SS. Istart getting that kind of civil
(26:03):
s sound. And when that comesthrough, it starts getting
annoying. So I need to make surethat I'm compensating for that.
All right.
Gilon (26:09):
And then last but not least, I would say the second
most important piece ofequipment would be the
headphones do yourrecommendations.
Alban (26:17):
I mean, just what we said earlier, this isn't the spot to
spend your money people mightrecommend you might buy a
package that has headphones andyou may see some headphones that
are like rated for podcasts,every headphone is rated for
podcast, just go ahead, get onethat's cheap. Don't overthink
it. This isn't the place tospend your money. This is a
place to save money. And reallydo you want to be that person
(26:38):
who's got like your podcastingheadphones, but you're also your
music headphones, but also yourair pods. He listened to the
house. You don't need all thisjunk, save whatever you're
using. Use that and it'll beperfect.
Gilon (26:50):
So be an essentialist is what you're saying. Exactly. All
right. So we have talked aboutmicrophones, we've talked about
setups, we've talked about allthe other things you need to
buy? Travis, do you have anyresources for us as we make
these considerations about whereto spend our money for our
podcast?
Travis (27:10):
Absolutely Jalon. So there are four videos in
particular, that I think wouldreally be helpful for you as
you're listening to this podcastand trying to get a sense of
where you should spend yourmoney and some of the other
things that we talked about. Soin the video covering how to
record your podcast using zoom,the video chat software, there
are some particular settingsthat you'll want to have turned
on to get better audio quality.
So definitely watch that video,if you want to start there to
(27:31):
record your audio. And then Igot three microphone videos for
you. The first one is the cue toyou that we've been raving about
are all in one overall bestmicrophone for new podcasters we
did a full review of thatmicrophone. So you can find that
on the YouTube channel. Therewas also a fun video I did where
I compared the Qt u to the SMseven B and did a side by side
(27:51):
sound test. So you can reallysee the difference and decide
for yourself if investing in theSM seven B is going to be
worthwhile for you. And we alsodid a video covering the Blue
Yeti. And so you know, we'retalking about the background
noise rejection and the problemsthat we have with that you can
actually hear an actual reallife example of the Blue Yeti
stacked up against the cue toyou. And you may or may not hear
(28:13):
a three year old singing to letit go. And you can find links to
all of those in the show notesfor this episode.
Alban (28:21):
Alright, so lots of places that we could spend
money. Hopefully we're helpingyou save some through this whole
process. So go check out thoseresources. And next we're gonna
be talking about the software.
We're gonna be talking about howto actually record we talked
about some of those remoterecording options and we'll go
through a deep dive of all thepros cons of different options
and what recording and editingsoftware should be check out
(28:44):
until next time, keep up thegreat work and I'll see you
later
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.