Podcasting Equipment

Hardware

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="432" caption="Headsets ranges from RM15-RM50"][/caption]

Ok. Many of you may be wondering how I do my podcast or songs recording and how much it may have cost to do something like this. Well, if you really want cheap I suggest that go for the normal headsets like what I have put on from the picture above.  I started using that for the first few episode of my podcast, and it may not be something great but it does the work just fine.  And if you were to record guitars on it, it will sound just fine as well.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="432" caption="Samson CO1U Condenser Mic (USD100)"][/caption]

Ok, I got this baby a few weeks after doing my initial podcast.  And the sound quality did improve A LOT.  This actually was a little unnecessary because back then I didn't really had much thought on what I plan to do with it.  After reading some reviews on it, plus doing some research I ended up getting this instead.  Not only did it helped out on the sound quality, it does eliminate a lot of "air" sounds compared to the previous headset microphone.  I had a hard time adjusting the setting at first, because it was super sensitive.  Plus it only records on Mono, Left Channel only.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="432" caption="USB sound card with Line In less than USD10"][/caption]

If you notice just next to the laptop on the right, and slightly above the headset you should see a device that actually has jack being input to it.  This is actually a USB Sound card that has a line in, and it has 7.1 channel.  I used this to record Skyp  conversation or anything that goes through the system.  The reason why I got this was because I didn't have any line in port on my laptop.  But after getting this device, there is actually a line in port on the laptop which uses the same jack as the microphone.  So I was a bit upset, as I thought I could have saved about USD8-9, when purchasing this sound card.  But never the less, I found another usage for it whereby I was able to output the sounds to 2-3 head sets if necessary.  Plus it comes in handy during the recording part which I will explain later.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="432" caption="Pop Filter, Spider Mount & Mic Stand"][/caption]

This few things I only got it recently.  Both the pop filter as well as the spider mount I got it less than USD40 from a seller on eBay.  Whereby combine shipping is crucial and a lot of negotiating was done before I paid for it.  And as for the mic stand, I got it at quite a bargain considering that this is 2nd hand.  Plus the condition really looks new, and it still does the job perfectly.  Total for this is probably less than RM180 all in all.  I had to buy them separately, so it was less painful to the wallet. Hehehe.

Software

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="253" caption="Audacity Recording Software"][/caption]

If you can't afford Adobe Audition like me, Audacity works great just as it is.  It has all the features that you need to do, to record your podcast or songs on to it.  It has a multi-track system whereby for instance you can play the piano, then after that you can record your guitar, and maybe finally your vocals.

The reason why I use this method is that, not only it helps add a lot of instruments to your songs but also saves time on errors.  You can actually edit certain parts if you made mistakes and it really saves up a lot of time.  You can also select the different inputs when recording, hence what I did for my skype recording.  I selected the USB sound card as input 1, and my samson USB mic as the 2nd input.  So basically that's how it works.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="464" caption="Skype For Conversation"][/caption]

Finally I use Skype for all the podcasting session whenever I have guest who are currently far away from me.  The reason why I use this is that, it supports group conferencing.  So I can have more than 2 guest to talk to, as how I did on my previous shows which you can listen to.  If your other guests has skype, then you can actually call them for free.  But if you don't, you can use their credit system like a prepaid card like that.  Quality wise you can check it out when I did the mooncake festival with 4 people.

So that's pretty much about it.  Probably my next target is getting a  USB Mixer.  So at least I can do a proper recording for my keyboard as well as guitar.  But I might or might not get it, depending how things goes in the future.  Lol.  So that's pretty much about it from a cheapskate podcaster/recording artist wanna be. Hahaha.