Transcript
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This is Podcasting where I'm on a quest to conquer the podcasting realm,
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and I'm bringing you along for the journey to help you achieve your own podcasting success.
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Welcome back to Podcasting. In this episode, we are diving into my current podcast studio,
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and the reason I wanted to dive into this on this episode is because I want you to understand that
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you don't need anything fancy to start a podcast. Let's dive right into it. You don't need anything
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fancy as I previously mentioned. To start a podcast, you really just need you, a microphone,
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a computer, and internet access. That's really all it takes. Okay, so you don't need anything fancy.
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So let's just kind of start with what I'm currently using, what I'm going to be hopefully
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using in the future when I upgrade, and maybe some budget tips for you if you're looking to
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start a podcast. So first of all, what I'm currently using is a Dell Latitude Laptop,
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which is the bare entry level for the Dell laptop. Now Dell gets a bad rep in my mind these days,
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but Dell is a staple in the business world. If you look at different businesses,
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companies, they are always using Dell. Dell is a solid company in my mind, and I don't think you
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can go wrong with a Dell laptop if you are using Windows. And this is a very entry level laptop.
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I believe I got it for a couple hundred bucks. Now I don't know the exact price on this. I'll
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put that in the show notes. If you want to check that out on Amazon, as well as all this other
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equipment that I am talking about today. If you want to check that out, I'll put that in the show
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notes. So the next thing I am using is a interface. Now if you're unaware, you do need an interface if
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you are using an XLR microphone. An XLR microphone is a microphone that uses a specific cable
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that connects to the microphone and then goes into the interface and then connects via USB to your
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laptop or PC. And so for my interface, I'm using a Scarlett Solo Generation 3. They have come out
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with a new updated version of this interface, and that is the Generation 4, which I would recommend.
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Of course, if you are going to, you might as well get the Generation 4, but you probably could get
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the Generation 3, which I have for cheaper. So that might be something to look into as well,
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if you're on a budget, but it is a great interface if you are using an XLR microphone. Now let's talk
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about this XLR microphone that I'm currently using, and that is an Electrovois RE320. An Electrovois
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RE320 now is a bit more fancy, and it is an expensive microphone. It's not as expensive as
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the predecessor RE20, which is kind of a standard in the broadcasting industry, but this microphone
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is definitely not a budget microphone. But I do have a budget microphone that I started out with,
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which is the Audio-Technica AT2020 condenser microphone. It is around $100, I believe, on
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Amazon, and it is a condenser microphone. Now if you don't know the difference between dynamic and
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condenser microphones, a dynamic microphone does not require phantom power, whereas a condenser
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microphone uses phantom power, or electricity basically, to run the microphone. A condenser
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microphone is great because it picks up more frequencies, and the phantom power really helps
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microphones' ability to pick up these frequencies, whereas a dynamic microphone does not require
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phantom power. If you're looking into these microphones and you're trying to figure out
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should you go with dynamic or condenser, I'd actually recommend going with dynamic, because
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dynamic does not pick up as much background sound, background noise, and things of that nature,
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so you want to go with something that will do that unless you have a soundproof room. Now you can get
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away with a condenser microphone like the AT2020 like I had. Now when I bought the AT2020, I was
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using it, the main purpose that I bought it for was voiceover, and whenever you google voiceover
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microphones, it is recommended you get a condenser microphone, but what they don't always tell you
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is that it is also recommended that you are in a dead room or a soundproof vocal booth for a
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condenser microphone to work appropriately and to get a great sound, otherwise you will be picking
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up a lot of background noise, but you can get away with using a condenser microphone like the AT2020,
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and they are around $100 on Amazon, and you can also get the USB version of the AT2020,
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which does not have phantom power, but is a great option as well. Let's dive into some other
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equipment that I'm using. I have a microphone stand here that I'm using on my table, and that is a
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Gator Frameworks stand here. Now I had a cheaper stand that really did not work. This stand is
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great. It has a very sturdy base that really helps with the microphone because the ElectroVoice RE320
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is kind of a heavy, definitely a heavy sturdy microphone, and it requires a sturdy stand.
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Now another stand that I have is a tripod stand, and that is a, I believe it's OnStage is the brand,
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and it is a decent stand. Now if you are using a heavier microphone like the ElectroVoice RE320,
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it can tip over if you are not using it right or leaning it against something because the balance
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is a bit off. It would work great for another kind of dynamic microphone, think like a handheld
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microphone or something like that, but it does require some kind of more heavy base on the side
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to kind of balance that out, but it is a great standing stand if you will for recording if you
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want to add some more flexibility to your studio because you can move the stand wherever you see
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fit. Another stand that I do want, or I've had, I bought a cheap version of this actually with the
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AT2020 originally and it broke. It did not last very long and that is a boom arm. You might not
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know what a boom arm is, but if you've ever seen like a radio station, they always have boom arms
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which basically attach to your desk and then you are able to put the microphone on there and adjust
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it using springs and such, and so that is something that I want to invest in, but I will need a very
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sturdy boom arm considering the heaviness and durability of the microphone I'm currently using,
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but that is something I want to invest in as well. There are some great options for some boom arms
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which I'll put in the show notes as well if you want to check out those. And then for other
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equipment that I'm currently using is some cheap Amazon sound panels or sound foam rather, not sound
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panels, foam panels that I'm using here in the studio. Now they're not ideal, let me tell you that.
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They're not going to save your recordings if you will. They're not going to make a huge difference,
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but they do help a little bit. Ones I would recommend that I do want to buy some more of
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are actually from Troye Studio. They have a really cool design and they are a little bit thicker than
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a lot of the cheaper options that you will find on Amazon. I'll put a link to both of those in the
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show notes as well. I do want to shout out another audio interface now that I'm thinking about it
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because I'm looking at it behind me here and that is a Behringer Euphoria UM2. Now that is a great
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standard entry level interface and I would recommend checking out some YouTube videos on that
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such as the one from, what is that YouTube channel called? I think it's Podcastage and he does
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reviews of audio equipment and he does reviews on that specific interface. He is a big fan of that
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one as well. Now with the microphone and the interface you will need an XLR cable and so what
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I'm currently using for my XLR cable is also a Gator Frameworks cable which I picked up at a
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local music store called Music Depot here where I live in town and it is a musician's kind of standard
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XLR cable. Makes me feel like I have long hair and I'm a rock star when I'm recording. Not really but
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it does definitely help. Before that I was using a basic Amazon XLR cable which I believe I was
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having some issues with and since I have upgraded it seems to have resolved and you can pick up one
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of these for around 18 to 20 dollars on Amazon and it is a cable that I would recommend. Now there are
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some very expensive XLR cables you can get for like almost 80 dollars and they are supposed to be the
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gold standard but I don't think you necessarily need them especially when starting out. Let's
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dive into some software that I'm currently using. So if you're new to the podcasting world one of
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the most used and talked about DAWs. DAW stands for Digital Audio Workstation. Basically it's an
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audio editing tool or software is Audacity. Audacity is a open source tool, open source software that
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you can download and use on Windows and I believe Mac as well and that allows you to edit your podcast
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episodes. It allows you to cut things out like filler words, do compression, EQ, noise reduction,
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etc. Add background music and the whole gambit and they are always evolving and upgrading the
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software of Audacity and they just did some more updates recently and it looks great. The UI is
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great and it is definitely user friendly and of course the best it is free so that's something I
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would definitely check out is Audacity if you are trying to figure out how to edit your podcast.
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Another tool that I used for podcasting specifically Riverside is something that I have started to use
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very briefly, very vaguely using Riverside for podcasting. Kind of messing with it. It is
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an online tool that has audio editing features where it turns your podcast actually into paragraphs
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which you can edit and it is all AI based which I'm not a huge fan of but it is interesting to
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be able to edit your audio just using paragraphs like if you're writing an essay and you can just
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backspace and delete that word. It is pretty interesting and it is something that I think
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could be great if you are new to audio editing and it definitely would allow you to edit your audio
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easily compared to doing a audio editor tool or a DAW like Audacity. They also are very into video
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editing or in video podcasts so that's something if you are into video podcasting I would definitely
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look into Riverside and you can check that out in the show notes as well. I will put a link to
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Riverside as well and let's talk about what I want to upgrade to. So as far as a microphone's
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concerned I think I'm pretty good here with the Electro Voice RE320. I do want to purchase the
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Shure SM7B. Now it is on par, the microphone I'm currently using is on par with the SM7B of course.
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I'm just a bit of a nerd, an audio nerd so I kind of want to buy that just because that is another
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option that I was comparing to this Electro Voice microphone. I decided to go with this one but
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the SM7B is kind of a standard that you'll see podcasters and content creators using today and
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so that's something that I kind of want to buy. Not something I need or something I will definitely
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upgrade to but something I will think about purchasing. It's not necessarily an upgrade,
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more of a lateral move if you will but it's something that I'm interested in checking out.
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As far as DAWs are concerned or audio editing I'm really looking to upgrade to Adobe Audition.
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Adobe Audition is kind of a great audio editing software but the issue with that is it is paid
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but you can get it with the Adobe Creative Suite which is something I would like to do when I can
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have the budget to pay for a monthly subscription and you get Photoshop and Adobe Audition and
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Premiere Pro and a variety of other things which I think are great and Adobe's actually coming out
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with a lot of tools catered towards podcasting. They have a free tool that you can use to enhance
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your podcast which I will be doing a video about, a YouTube video about if you want to check that out
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on the YouTube channel. Kind of diving into that and seeing how it works but they are going into
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they are diving into podcasting as well of course and so Adobe Audition is something that I used in
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college and it is a great DAW that really is a standard and something that I would like to
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upgrade to eventually but Audacity is great in the meantime. As far as other software is concerned
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I don't really have any other software specific towards podcasting that I think I need to upgrade
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to. I am working on getting a higher end PC built. I actually just got the case in today. Me and a
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friend of mine are going to be working on building a PC for myself which will help me just with video
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production and audio production and a variety of other tasks and content creation that I want to do
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and so that is something that hopefully will help as well so that is something that I am working on
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and then that is really it as far as upgrading. Maybe it is a oh I do want to get that boom arm
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that I was talking about so a new boom arm and maybe a oh I know I just forgot to mention I want
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to get a Rode podcaster what is it called a Rode oh I can't think of what it is called off the top
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of my head but basically it is a fancy audio interface or mixer. I will put the link to that
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in the show notes as well and that is something I want. I don't need it but I just want it.
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Anyways that is going to be it for as far as my upgrades are concerned.
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Now let's dive into some budget tips if you are looking to get into podcasting or you are looking
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to start a podcast but don't know what to buy or how to start as far as equipment is concerned.
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I personally if I was to start over I would not invest in the Electro Voice RA320 right off the
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bat. I would go with a USB microphone like a Yeti microphone. Yeti offers some great Bluetooth
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microphones and I would check out there out the Yeti microphones. They have a what is it the
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Snowball and a few other options that are great. One of them allows you to change the direction of
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the microphone pickup so it'll go from omnidirectional to other directions so you can record in a
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round table if you're wanting to put the microphone in the middle and then you can change the direction
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that the microphones are picking up which is great so that's something to check out as well. It's a
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great option and you don't need anything fancy to start out right. You can create high quality audio
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with a cheap USB microphone. Now of course there are going to be cheap USB microphones you don't
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want to use and those are going to be in the you know $20 range and so on and then if you get a
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USB microphone you don't need an interface so then that cuts out that and then you can use Audacity.
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So you really just need to buy a basic microphone and you are good to go. You're off to achieve your
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Quest. That's really all you need in your satchel to start your Quest is basically a decent microphone
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and a audio editing software like Audacity which you can download again for free. Anything else
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that I can think of here off the top of my head of course you will need a hosting platform.
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I'm currently using RSS.com which I will put a link in the show notes. The reason for my use of
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RSS.com is that is only $20 a month for unlimited shows so if you're like me and want to have a
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podcasting network RSS.com is awesome. They are also huge on Podcasting 2.0 which if you didn't
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check out the episode I did on Podcasting 2.0 check out that episode where I dive into that movement
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and so RSS.com is great for those and then if I was not using RSS.com I would probably be on
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Podbean.com. Podbean.com is a hosting platform that I've used in the past for other podcasts and so
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that is a podcasting hosting platform that I would be using. I'll put that in the show notes as well.
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Anyways that's going to do it for this episode. I hope that was helpful and remember to keep
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enjoying the journey and if you are beginning on this quest you don't really need anything fancy.
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I'll be putting all the list of equipment in the show notes. Now just to let you know these are
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affiliate links so if you do want to support the show definitely go through those. No big deal if
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you don't want to go through the affiliate links or you're interested in some other equipment.
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But definitely if you feel like donating to the show or helping out the show in any way
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definitely use the affiliate links. Until next time guys enjoy the quest and I hope you
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are enjoying it and having a great time.
