When it comes to microphone recommendations – everyone has a different opinion. I thought you may as well know mine.
Considering which equipment to buy really depends on the type of podcast you’re planning and in particular whether you’ll have guests, external interviews or multiple regular hosts. From my perspective, each of these scenarios result in different products being recommended.
If the podcast is just you talking into a microphone, then your options are quite open. You could use a USB-based microphone like a Rode Podcaster which will give you a high quality sound directly through your USB port. Another option of course, is to use a standard XLR microphone with a USB adapter like the MicPort Pro.
If you want to add regular co-hosts to the program then this is unlikely to work for you. You may then want to consider a mixer and a microphone for each of your hosts. A mixer allows you to individually control the gain and level for each microphone which means you can compensate for the louder and softer people in your podcasting team. You will get the best quality sound from more expensive microphones, but it’s really your microphone technique that will help you most in this area even with less expensive ones.
A good middle of the range microphone is the Shure SM-58 or Rode M1. If you want a solid broadcast quality microphone then Rode Procaster is probably more your thing. It’s got almost the same insides as the Rode Podcaster, but it suits an XLR connection.
The decisions may change again if your podcast includes interviews over Skype. Skype will work whether you podcast alone using a USB microphone or with others using a mixer. Setup is definitely easier if you use a digital mixer like the Alesis Multimix 8, which will allow you to hear your callers as they talk and vice versa.
If you are planning a lot of external interviews in your show, hosts on the Lifestyle PodNetwork recommend the Zoom h4n with adjustable onboard microphones and the ability to plugin your own external XLR mics. If you want an option that includes the ability to record video you might consider the Zoom Q3HD.
Follow the topic links in this document to find out more about these different subject areas on my podcast called Podcasters’ Emporium. Bold product links take you through to product pages at Amazon.com.
I love my Zoom H2 and I never thought to use it as a soundcard until you guys explained that on the show. It works brilliantly and sounds better (when it works), but I get distortion and audio break up about 50% of the time. I Googled that and found its fairly common. Suggestions for a cure include changing to another USB port, and running it via a USB hub, neither of which worked for me. I also tried a firmware update to no avail. I’m really keen to use my H2 in this way (now you’ve turned me on to that), does anyone have a cure for the distorted recording issue?