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February 18, 2025 14 mins
Great audio is the backbone of any successful podcast. Whether you're recording solo, hosting remote interviews, or capturing conversations on the go, the right microphone can make all the difference and more importantly draw more listeners in. In this episode, we are going to break down exactly what type of microphone, mixer, and other key recording devices you need depending on your set-up to turn your podcast episodes into a polished professional-sounding show! 
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome back to Podcasting Tips Weekly. I'm Ryan Tillotson,
Founder and CEO of straw Hut Media, and today we're
diving into one of the most important aspects of podcasting,
which is getting great audio that fits your specific needs.
Whether you're recording solo at home, conducting remote interviews, or
capturing conversations on the go, choosing the right microphone and

(00:32):
setup can make all the difference in how professional your
podcast sounds. The first question to ask yourself is what
kind of podcasting am I doing? Again? Are you recording
solo at home? Do you have a studio or an office?
Are you conducting remote interviews via riverside or zoom? Are
you recording in person interviews or mobile podcasts? Once you've

(00:55):
figured that out, which I think you should know at
this point, but once you figured out that, you can
decide the right microphone and recording setup. So let's break
it down. Okay, to kick this off, let's start with
if you are recording solo or remote interviews. If you're
recording solo or conducting interviews remotely, a USB microphone is

(01:19):
usually your best bet. These are simple to use. Just
plug him into your computer and you are ready to go.
I will walk you through some of the best USB
microphones that we use for podcasting, the mics that we
ship out to our guests that are virtual all around
the world, and the ones that I recommend for in
your little studio in your office for your remote podcasting.
A common one that I see in all kinds of

(01:42):
YouTube content and I see in clips all over the place,
and mics that we recommend the Sure MV seven. This
is the you know, the baby brother to the Sure
SM seven B, which we will talk about a little
bit later. But this microphone is one of the best
USB microphones for podcasters that delivers high que quality sound
with a built in gain and tone controls, which is

(02:03):
just great. It looks good. It's the common microphone that
you see in video content. You know that mic that's
big in front of people's face, cylindrical, it'sa describing every mic.
I'm not sure, but you've seen this microphone. I know
you have. It's a great mic. It really does a
good job trapping out background sound. Highly recommend. It is

(02:23):
the more expensive end. These next three mics that I'm
about to recommend, which are the ones that we typically
ship around the world for guests that want to come
on different shows. They are much more affordable. The Audio
Technica ATR twenty one hundred, the AT two zero zero
five or the AT twenty twenty. These are all great

(02:44):
mics with prices ranging from fifty to one hundred and
fifty dollars, making them a great budget friendly options. Honestly,
the two zero zero five and the twenty one hundred
we have like five to ten of them in the
studio at all times that are constantly getting shipped all
around the world for different guests. We have on our
podcast Great Mic. If you want to travel with your
mic to do an interview at a hotel room or something,

(03:06):
it's the perfect It fits in a little bag, it's
so easy to move around with. Highly recommend that mic.
And then again, the setup for these mics is super simple.
You literally plug it into your computer. Your computer will
recognize it immediately, so if you're using Zoom, stream Yard
or Riverside, which is our go to platform, it will

(03:27):
see the mic right away and you'll sound great. But
again I do recommend Riverside records high quality, locally captured
audio for each participant. There are some tech issues and
if there ever are tech issues. We do use Zoom
as a backup, but again, Riverside is going to be
your best bet because that audio is being recorded locally

(03:48):
to their computer and then uploads to a cloud fairly
quickly for you to access it later. Separate tracks. Lovely platform. Okay,
moving on to mobile podcast on the go in person interviews.
When you're recording multiple people in person, you're gonna need
a little bit more of a versatile setup. So the

(04:09):
best mobile podcast team kit and the one I recommend
and the one that we use when we're traveling on
the go is the Zoom pod Track P four. This
is a great mixer recorder, compact, battery powered, has four
XLR inputs, great flexibility. It can also run on USB
power or Douba batteries. Love it. I can go through

(04:31):
a whole episode on how to use this device. But
it's a great one. It's small, it's compact. I have
a little case for the ones that we use, so
that mixer and recorder with you know, depending on how
many people. The sure SM fifty eight microphones now, these
microphones are super durable, super reliable, and excellent for capturing

(04:51):
clear voice recordings in various environments. The Sure SM fifty
eight microphones are the mics that you often see on
stage for live band per performances. They are that great
that like a singer can be singing into it, the
guitar behind him can be blasting, and that the mic
is still not picking up all of that extra noise around.

(05:11):
Great great, great mics, But unlike USB mics, these require
XLR cables. Nothing's getting uploaded automatically to a cloud. It
is all recording onto an SD card in the device,
so it's a little different. It's not hard to use.
You can put in settings to limit your audio so
nothing peaks. Again, I should probably do a whole episode

(05:32):
on the pod track before great equipment. So far, all
of the mics that I've mentioned are dynamic microphones, and
I want to tell you why they matter. It's important
when choosing your setup. Okay, why because dynamic mics are
excellent at rejecting background noise. Like I said about the
SM fifty eight's, they capture sounds from close up while
minimizing unwanted room noise, making them ideal for home setups,

(05:56):
mobile recording, or even studio use. Like I said, the
Sure SM fifty eight is a microphone widely used in
live music, and it is designed to isolate the singer's
voice while rejecting sound from instruments or other performers, and
this makes it a perfect mic for podcasting, especially in
noisy environments. You probably have no idea that I'm on

(06:17):
a busy street in Los Angeles right now, because I
am using a dynamic microphone anyway. By contrast, condenser microphones
often use in professional studios pick up a lot more detail,
but they also capture more background noise. So that is
why dynamic microphones are usually the better choice for podcasters,
especially if you don't know audio super well. You're just

(06:38):
going to be happier with your results with a dynamic mic. Okay,
so we're talking about mobile. The pod track pfore is
a great mobile setup, but I want to go over
another one that's even smaller, potentially easier if you need
even more mobility. Another great option is the road wireless
go to. These compact wireless microphones a lot to record

(07:00):
either a single channel, both voices on one track, or
two separate channels, each voice recorded independently, and the ability
to record separate tracks is huge. It's a huge advantage
in post production because it gives you more control over
balancing and editing each voice individually. Another major benefit is
that you can use them with your phone. You don't
need the pod track P four. This makes them incredibly

(07:23):
convenient for on the go podcasting, whether you're recording interviews
at an event, capturing content outside of a studio, or
doing some quick remote recordings with a full setup. The
trade off though wireless audio can be a little bit
more prone to interference. The quality isn't quite as high
as the wired options that I had mentioned before, but
for flexibility and ease of use, it's a great tool

(07:44):
to have in your kit. Get some If you're a
phone person, If you live on your phone and you
want a podcast and you want it to be simple
and stress free, this could be the option for you.
I know we're breezing through this and I hopefully it's
not a brain overload for you. The next thing I
wanted to go over is if you want to build
a studio. If you're considering building a podcast studio, whether

(08:07):
it's for yourself or for a client, here are the
key things to keep in mind. Microphones, Obviously, that's what
we're talking about mostly the standard studio setup. A classic
podcast studio setup includes the sure SM seven B microphone.
That is actually what I'm using right now talking to you.
These used to require an external cloud lifter pre amp,

(08:29):
which the model that I'm using does, but they have
newer models now that no longer need that extra setup.
It has it built in. But these are high quality
broadcast mics. They do cost about four hundred to five
hundred dollars per mic, so keep that in mind. Another
option if you want high end studio mics, if you
want to be Howard Stern, the Noyman TLM one o
two fantastic microphone. Again, if you ever see clips of

(08:51):
Howard Stern talking, that's what he's talking into the Noyman
TLM one oh two. Great mic. That one is even pricier.
We're talking into the thousand. Okay, and say you're a
visual person and you are really focused on having the
perfect looking video setup for your podcast, and you don't
want microphones in the shot, which is common. You know,

(09:13):
in a movie, you don't see the microphones. Typically they're
hidden on wireless, they're hidden you know, in shirts, or
they're above on a boom. So basically, what I'm suggesting
here is in a studio for podcasting, you know where
everyone's gonna be sitting. It's not like you're moving around
lock in those boom mics. Right now, we're in the
process of building a new studio for one of our clients,
and we're gonna be using Sennheiser shotgun mics instead of

(09:36):
some of the podcast mics that I mentioned above. They're
gonna be out of the frame, so you will not
see them in any of the shots, and they will
just be dangling directly out of frame above the host
and above the guest. And it's just gonna make for
a very clean visual setup, and it's gonna sound great
because shotgun mics boom mics are highly directional, meaning they

(09:57):
only pick up sound from the person speaking and reject
most other noises. And this setup works great for a
host and guest format. I mean, if you want multiple people,
it will get messy and I wouldn't recommend it. I
would stick to the sure SM seven b's or the
sure SM fifty eight's. Okay Now mixers and recording workflow.
In our studio, we use the Zoom L twelve live

(10:18):
track mixer and recorder, and this setup allows us to
record on an SD card or directly into Adobe Edition.
That's the platform we use for all of our audio editing,
and it allows us to have twelve inputs. We have
nine in there at all times because we have different
setups in our studio and so depending on what setup
we're in, which is we already have Mike's plugged in
ready to go. But if you don't need twelve inputs,

(10:40):
you could go for something like the Zoom L eight
which is guess what, eight inputs, or the Roadcaster Pro.
These are also great options. I would recommend taking off
all of the limiting settings on there, so you're recording
the raw uncompressed audio and doing your mixing and compression later.
That's what we do, That's what I would recommend. And

(11:01):
now the last thing that we're going to go over
for audio setups is some soundproofing acoustic treatments. Regardless of
your setup, finding a quiet space is crucial and one
mistake I often see is people choosing a room that
seems quiet, like an empty bathroom or a closet, but
because it's just full of hard services, it actually creates
a ton of echo and reverb, and so where they

(11:24):
went from like a living room which they thought was
loud because someone else was in there on the phone
or something, and they go into this a hard surfaced
empty room actually made it much worse. But there are
ways to fix this. You can use acoustic panels, foam panels,
or if you are in a closet that's empty, we'll
just fill it with clothes and make it not empty.

(11:46):
Sound bounces, it bounces off walls, and you're trying to
prevent that because as soon as it's bouncing off a
bunch of walls, it's creating echo and reverb. And so
fill that closet, fill that bathroom with blankets, towels, so
throw towels everywhere, or if you're building a studio, acoustic
foam panels help absorb sound reflections to prevent bouncing. Like

(12:08):
I said, soft furniture, rugs, curtains, towels, couches. Even if
you're having a lot of sound escape through windows or
doors and you're not able to or you don't want
to cover them with blankets, which I totally understand. There's
a company called Indo I INDW and they make acrylic

(12:29):
sound panels and they're one hundred percent customizable and they
reduce the sound by eighty percent. Like I said, I
am on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. The street is
super busy, and I don't think that you can hear
all of the traffic driving by right now. The only
exception is when like a siren goes by that is

(12:49):
pretty unavoidable, or sometimes like a really loud motorcycle that's
also pretty hard to cut out. But otherwise, like I
have the Indo panels in all of my windows here
and they do a very good job. So if you're
using dynamic microphones, getting close to the mic will already
cut out most of the background noise. But if you're
using shotgun mics, you'll need some extra soundproofing to prevent

(13:11):
unwanted ambient sounds. Think about the acrylic windows, think about blankets,
think about that kind of thing. I hope that makes sense.
If you have questions, please don't hesitate to email me
at tips at straw hutmedia dot com. I can explain
it further in an email or even you know, we
could potentially hop on a call. Okay, that about covers it.

(13:32):
I know it was very brief and it was a
lot of information, but whether you're recording solo, doing remote interviews,
podcasting on the go, or building a full studio. There's
a setup that fits your needs and your budget. And
if I didn't cover it again, email me tips at
straw hutmedia dot com. And you know, I didn't get
too much into the mixers and things like that, and

(13:54):
maybe we'll do a whole episode on it. But I'd
love to get into thirty two bit float recording. Maybe
look it up. I'll do a whole episode about it
in the future. But before you go, do me a favor,
rate and review this podcast wherever you're listening right now.
It truly helps more people discover the show, which is
ultimately what I want. So if you could do that,
that'd be so helpful, and also share the episode with

(14:16):
someone who you think would find this information valuable. That's
all for this week, Happy podcasting, and see you next
week on Podcasting Tips Weekly. Bye.
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