Patricia from www.poetrypea.com
I had decided after some time to do a studio-quality podcast.
I went to Rode, and I’ve got one of their professional microphones. So I have that for my actual studio, which I’m not in at the moment.
If I’m out and about, I have my phone, and I have a nice Shure microphone which I can put onto my phone that makes a huge difference. Or I use a Zoom H5 for interviews when I’m out and about without any video.
Frankly, if I’m out and about, two pieces of kit is more than enough for me. But, as I said, once you start getting serious and start having those pieces of kit you want to wander about with, then you start needing a little bit of money.
These mics that Patricia’s mentioning, these are not cheap mics, okay?
For instance, this mic I’m using during this interview is the Shure MV7. This is a USB or XLR mic. It’s basically two steps below, like, when you look at radio DJs and things like that. A lot of them are using, what, the SM7B and things like that, which is a $400 microphone, you know? The other thing you need to be also considering about equipment is, once you get into the higher-level mics, most likely, you’re going to need an XLR cable.
And once you need an XLR cable, you’re going to need some sort of power source. So, you’re going to need what’s called a phantom power source. You can get things like a soundboard that allows you to mix audio and also provide power. A popular choice is a Rodecaster Pro.
If your audio is still very soft, another thing you want to look into is something called a Cloudlifter. I do not have a Cloudlifter, but basically, it just kind of lifts up your volume a little bit more.
Not all of these things are needed though!
Even just getting started investing in a $100 microphone is a massive upgrade to what your phone can do.
Honestly, that can carry you for a while. But audio, especially if you guys are considering doing a video podcast like what we do, is more important than video. People will tolerate poor video quality if the audio is good.
But if the video quality is excellent, 4K even, but your audio quality is poor, no one’s going to watch your video.
YouTube and video has made a real difference to the number of people coming to my podcast. But the audio is so important, it really is. And going back to Audacity, it also has functionality to make your voice sound much better and louder. So, I don’t use anything other than Audacity. It’s even sort of six, seven years old. It has everything I need to make sure that the quality is good.
I mean, I’m not a radio person, so, you know, maybe if I was trained as a radio broadcaster, I would do a better job. But people compliment the podcast on its audio quality, so I’m happy with what we’ve got, for sure.
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