Everything you NEED for Podcasting (and some stuff you DON'T)

there are over 5 million podcasts out there right now and you might wonder with that many how can I make my podcasts stand out well I've got more good news over 460 million people listen to podcasts every day and nearly half of the 5 million podcasts only have three episodes so if we divide the total number of listeners by the number of podcasts that are actively posting your podcast could attract a significant audience but how do you attract those listeners well if you're asking those questions then you are in the right place because today I'm going to cover what you need in order to create a good podcast and I'm going to break it down into three categories the essentials optional equipment and what I use and stick around to the end because I'm going to explain how you can make your podcast explode this year let's start with [Music] Essentials podcasting is easier than ever all you need is a microphone and even your phone has a microphone now I wouldn't actually recommend podcasting from your phone but it is possible here I'll show you how to use an app in order to record I recommend farite it's pretty cheap and uh it works really well basically you're going to hit record and then you're going to hold your phone upside down and talk into it be consistent in how you hold your phone and ensure that your breath doesn't go into the phone as that's going to make it sound bad I recorded all of that using my phone it didn't sound amazing but you know it wasn't terrible either if you want better sound quality I recommend getting a built for-purpose microphone I'll post links to everything that I mentioned down below there are going to be different styles of microphones available to you there's lav mics which clip to your shirt shotgun mics so that you boom out of frame and my goto broadcast microphones specifically Dynamic microphones when you're shopping for a dynamic mic you want to decide how how many people are going to be on your show with you in person if your podcast is remote then things get a whole lot easier and you can use USB mics however if you have multiple people in a room together things can get complicated but we'll discuss that later if you're alone in a room either on a solo podcast or a podcast done remotely a USB mic is going to be fine they've improved a lot over the years my recommendation for a good USB mic is either the Shure mv7 which is $249 or the road pod mic USB which is 199 both microphones have both USB and XLR which we will talk about later so you can use them with different settings they also have a headphone input on the back so if you've ever wondered why video podcasters tend to wear headphones when they're talking to people in the same room it's so that they can hear how they sound this is called monitoring to start a podcast with a friend you're each going to want to invest about $200 if you want to go with the road pod mics then do the show remotely for remote podcasting I use riverside. FM it's absolutely amazing you send a link to your guest they show up you record it edits everything for you at a super high quality it's very highly recommended and I use it all the time link down below besides microphones you're also going to need headphones if you already have headphones you can skip this part but I've been using the Audio Technica atth m50x for years I'm a big fan but the included ear cups are a little bit uncomfortable so I recommend if you do go with these then you should get replacement cushions from Wicked cushions another option I'm considering are the road nth1 100s I've heard really good things about them but for now my recommendation has to be stick with the audio Technic ass set doing a show remotely is fine my podcast is a remote show and but there is something to be said about being in a room with your guest the conversation will have a tendency to flow better it'll feel more natural and you don't have that slight delay that we've all experienced during Zoom calls where everybody starts talking over each other if you want to level up your podcast and record in the same room with your co-hosts these mics will still be useful thanks to the fact that they have the option of using XLR having more than one USB mic on a computer can cause problems when you are ready for in-person podcasting it's time to get an audio interface an audio interface uses XLR cables to allow you to hook multiple microphones up at once you can get something like the Focus right Scarlet 2i2 which is very popular this allows you to use two XLR microphones and two pair of headphones and you can record it on your computer it works great but personally I would love that up to the roadter duo this has two XLR inputs and two sets of headphones just like the 2i2 but it also has these smart pads and really nice faders for controlling your audio the smart pads let you add music live while you're doing your show you can hit the intro button fade it out start your show and then at the end of the show hit the outro button fade it back in all with the faders and what's even better no computer is needed and because you were adding music during the show and everybody could hear the music during the show and all the sound effects there's no need for you to edit when you're done plus you can record it directly to an SD card right in the mixer so you don't even need a computer for this setup I personally use the big brother to this it's called the roadter Pro 2 comes in at about $700 it's similar but bigger with more XLR inputs and more headphone Jacks if I were starting today I would get the duo unless I was doing a show with more than two people in the room next let's discuss lights you might be wondering why would I be recommending lights for your audio only podcast you don't need lights and an audio only podcasts are great but remember at the beginning when I mentioned the secret to making your podcast explode this year it's video video podcasts have a huge advantage over Audio Only podcasts because of YouTube YouTube has 2.7 billion monthly active users and it offers the discover ability that audio podcasts just don't have if you're going to record a podcast you may as well turn on a camera and make a video version for YouTube at the same time yes it will complicate your workflow but you are going to be glad that you did for example my current podcast gets roughly 3,000 to 6,000 downloads per episode but the YouTube version of the podcast gets around 20,000 views per episode and in only 38 Episodes the show has more than 600,000 views on YouTube podcasts are huge on YouTube and if you're not using video you are missing out on a huge section of the audience that wants to watch your show let's talk about that lighting I record my podcast in a very small 12x 12T room with slanted ceilings it's in my attic so I don't have room for the lights that I would prefer if I were in another room I would probably go with the god do SL 60 wat light for $140 and the SB UI softbox for $75 I bought these and I loved how they looked but they were just too big for this particular room if you're in a smaller space like me I would recommend getting LED panels you can get away with just having one but I use the newer 18in LED video panel it's $270 but it comes with two so you can use one for your key light in the other for your Rim light you can also control them with a remote As for a camera when good lighting you can get away with just using a webcam or you can get a used DSLR if you are on a budget I shot my show for years on an old Logitech webcam and nobody complained if I were buying a webcam today I'd probably go with the Elgato face cam for about 150 bucks the next step up for that is the obsbot tiny cam 2 which has some pretty impr impressive tracking features for just [Music] $300 okay I listed off a bunch of options but what do I actually use here we go this stuff is expensive so get your wallets ready my microphone is the H pr40 which costs about $350 you can get one with a shock mount and a boom arm for about $430 I use the road PSA 1 plus boom arm because my old boom arm broke after using it for a years it's an XLR mic and it goes into the roadter pro two which is about 700 and it has four XLR inputs four headphone Jacks and some of the best preamps that you can get this thing is incredibly good and I personally hardly scratch the surface of what it can do next up is the camera I'm shooting this on the Sony a6700 which is total overkill for what I do but I wanted something that was future proof the lenses that I use are the sigma 16 mm f1.4 for talking head stuff but lately have been leaning on my Tamron 17 to 70 mm lens that has an aperture of f2.8 I run the camera into my capture card with Elgato HD 60x you can plug this camera directly into the computer but I already had the capture card so I figured why not use it the roadter and the capture card go into my Cal digigit ts4 Thunderbolt dock so I can have a single wire go from my MacBook Pro and hook everything up that way this setup is pretty much futureproof meaning no matter what I'm going to throw at it it's going to get handled but a lot of people won't do any in-person podcasting and for them the roadter duo that I mentioned earlier and the roadter Pro 2 that I am using they're going to be mostly unused features so for those people I would recommend the same mic the same camera the same lenses the same lights and ditch the capture card and the mixer and instead get the streamer X from Road it handles all of your video and audio because it has the same preamps that I'm using right now and a built-in capture card then you just hit hop on Riverside and record this gear is pretty topof the line but gear does not make a show great what makes a great show is lots and lots of bad shows and if you want to know what I mean by that then check out this video right here thanks for watching

Channel: Bill Fairchild

Views: 18,029

Keywords: podcasting gear, start a podcast, podcasting, podcasting tricks

Id: hfWN7swEhbM

Length: 10min 46sec (646 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 20 2024