In my last post I described my initial setup with the Altec Lansing head-set. Well after listening back to the fuzzy quality and finding out that the podcasting idea was a huge hit with Planet, I decided to start doing things a little more properly (at least in my head!).
My first purchase then was to be a ‘proper’ microphone. After a little searching around I decided that a USB mic would be perfect for my needs. No pre-amp or phantom power requirements, plug and play functionality simple! I went for the Samson C01U Studio condenser and got it in a ‘podcasting kit’ from Dolphin Music. This gave me everything I thought I needed, the mic, the spider mount (I still think this is VERY cool!) and a sturdy desk stan, pus a nice case to keep it all in. I actually got a ‘B’ grade package which had been returned but was in excellent condition, and was a bargain price too.
I was very happy with my new kit and couldn’t wait to record my next ‘cast. It was then I discovered that this mic provides a left channel only feed via it’s USB interface. This was a little frustrating as the software I was using didn’t support balancing the input over both channels, or mirroring it in the mix. BAH! The solution was to record everything on the left channel, mix it down with the bed into a stereo WAV file and then encode this down to a mono MP3 file, not ideal but as I’m only talking on the casts it’s good enough.
The Samson mic provides a really good sound and I’m very happy with everything I’ve got from it so far. I did invest in a boom mic stand and a pop filter too though, the former the help with my vocal projection and the latter because the plosives were just a little harsh.
So, the very first podcast I ever recorded was for Planet Technologies all about our ISV program. I’d put forward that it’d be really cool to reach out to our market space in a different way and I though podcasting was a good idea.. thats when I got the job.
The first kit I used was my PC and an Altec Lansing all-in-one headset thing. Software was initially the free utility from Wildvoice, but I got a little frustrated with that after I managed to delete everything I’d recorded, so I did some searching around and a copy of Propaganda instead, which I’ve continued to use up until very recently.
The audio quality is not bad with this set up, but not great. I’m actually tempted to go back and re-record this particular one but it also reminds me of how much better I’m getting nowadays.
The quality of the voice is pretty much down to the quality of the microhone in the headset itself and the requirements for it to be all but touching ones lips in order to be effective (they are designed this way of course), there is a lack of crispness to the tones and everything seems to be a little.. well foggy sounding. Having said that.. I’ve listened to quite a few podcasts which were, let’s say less than fantastic in their overall sound so there’s probably a lot to be said for this type of cheap, entry-level set up to get you sound out there!
The headphones are supra-aural but are a decent enough size so that, for me at least - being a circumaural fan, they did an effective job of delivering the sound and comfort I wanted.
So, the idea of this area is that I’ll record the various little snippets of information which I’m coming across as I get deeper into Podcast production.
There’ll be updates on the kit I’m using and I’ll probably add some reviews to the Silesti Podcasts too.
