← Let's Start a Podcast! - A Step-By-Step Guide to Launching Your Show On Any Budget
Let's Start a Podcast! - A Step-By-Step Guide to Launching Your Show On Any Budget
The Only Gear You Actually Need to Launch Your Podcast
00:10:50
Everyone thinks they need a fancy microphone before they can launch a podcast. Spoiler: they don't. In this episode, Will breaks down the only three things you actually need to start recording, and explains why your phone might already have all of...
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- [00:07]
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Hey there. Welcome back to let's Start a Podcast. I'm your host, Will, and today we are talking gear. Yep, we're finally there. We're finally at the point where we can talk about the gear and what you need and what you may not need and how much money you need to spend or how much you don't need to spend. And I want to start by saying something that might surprise you. Coming from a guy who has now spent way too much money on microphones, you probably don't need what you think you need. Here's the thing about gear conversations in the podcasting world. They get a way of turning into this giant, expensive rabbit hole that convinces you that you cannot possibly hit record until you have the perfect mic, the perfect interface, the perfect acoustic treatment on your walls, maybe a little mood lighting. And I get it, I really do. Because when I started the Skeptic Metaphysicians, I went down that exact rabbit hole. I was Googling microphones at 2 o' clock in the morning, I was reading Reddit threads about audio interfaces, and I was paralyzed. You know what eventually got me to publish my first episode? My phone. That's it. Just me, the voice memo app, and a deep need to say something out loud to the world. Was it perfect? Absolutely not. Did it sound a little rough around the edges? Oh, buddy, did it ever? But it existed. And that meant I was a podcaster. Not an aspiring podcaster, an actual podcaster. So before we talk about anything else today, I want to give you permission to start exactly where you are right now with whatever it is that you have. Because the best mic in the world doesn't help you if you never press record. Okay, let's go ahead and talk about what you actually need. At its core, a podcast setup has three a microphone, headphones, and recording software. That's it. Everything else is optional. Everything else is a nice to have. But those three things, those are your foundation. Let's take them one at a time. First, the microphone. Your mic is probably the single most important gear decision that you'll make. But it doesn't have to be a complicated one. At the most basic level, if you have a smartphone and a pair of earbuds, you already have a microphone. Seriously, Your phone earbuds have a built in mic that is more than good enough to get your first episodes out the door. And when you're ready to invest a little more, there are some great USB microphones under $100 range that plug directly into your computer with zero setup. No interface required. Just plug it in and go from there. There's also the mid range options in the $100 to $200 range. They start giving you this richer, warmer sound that you recognize from your favorite shows. And then at the pro level, you got the gold standard mics used by the biggest names in podcasting. Mics that require a separate audio interface to run but deliver studio quality sound. Now, I'm not going to walk you through every specific model right now because honestly, I wrote a whole book on this and it's got every recommendation I'd make it every budget level from literally $0 to the full pro rig. And the links are in there too, so you can go straight to the exact gear that I'm talking about. It's listed at like, I think it's six bucks. So it's not a big commitment. But the value that you're going to get out of that book is pretty significant. Like I said, I'm going to put the link to the book in the show notes so that it's easy for you to access. And if you do pick up the ebook, you're going to find the links are active and will take you directly to the page. So all you need to do is take a look at it. Yep, this is what I want. Click, add it to my cart and you are good to go. It'll be super easy and believe me, depending on your budget level, this takes a lot of your research out of your hands. It makes it so much easier for you. Anyway, let's go on to the next piece of gear. Headphones. I would recommend that anytime you hit record, you wear headphones. I mean, that's, that's my rule. Headphones let you hear exactly what your mic is picking up in real time. You can catch problems before your listener does. Background noise, echo, weird hums from your refrigerator, your fan, whatever it is, you'll hear it live instead of after you've already already recorded a 15 minute episode. You don't need anything fancy here. Your phone earbuds work fine to begin with. The upgrade path from there goes to closed back audio studio headphones, which are better because they don't bleed sound back into your microphone. Again, the book has the specific recommendations if you want them, and I'd recommend you take a look at them. And then the third piece of equipment that you're definitely going to need is some sort of recording software. If you're recording by yourself solo episodes or storytelling style content, you probably already have something that works. Right now, if you're a Mac user, you have QuickTime. If you're a Windows user, you have the voice recorder. They're not glamorous, but trust me, they get the job done. When you're just starting out now, when you start to bring guests in remotely, which is probably in your future, if it isn't already, you're going to want something a little more robust, familiar one. Everyone knows Zoom, right? It's the familiar starting point. Most people already have it. It handles multiperson recording without too much friction. Now, the Pro move, if you're going to use Zoom, the Pro move is to enable the settings that records separate audio tracks for each participant. That's going to make your editing dramatically easier if you do editing, and we'll talk about that in a future episode. But when you're ready to level up beyond Zoom, there are platforms that are built specifically for podcasters that record locally on each participant's device. That means even if someone's Internet hiccups mid conversation, the audio is going to stay clean. I use one of those platforms for the skeptic musicians, and the difference in audio quality is massive. Like, massive. Again, not that I'm trying to sell you this book, but it does cover these in detail, including the one that I would recommend if you want a single subscription, that covers both recording and editing. All right, let's talk about something that doesn't get mentioned enough in gear conversations. Now that we've got those three pieces of equipment out of the way, and that's your environment, your recording space actually matters as much, if not more, than your microphone. Think about it this way. A $200 microphone in a room that's full of echo is going to sound worse than a $50 mic in a well treated space. Hard surfaces reflect sound. Carpet, curtains, bookshelves, foam panels on the walls, all of that. It absorbs it. I'm not gonna tell you to buy invest all kinds of money in foams on the walls and things like that. Something as simple as putting a curtain up or some books around you or something like that is going to go a long way. Get close to your microphone. One thing I ask you not to do is don't get the blue yeti or the snow snowflake and then sit really far back. It sounds really echoey and it does not sound professional. I'm going to give you a tip later that's going to save your audio quality. If you find yourself with an echo in your recording. Not necessarily an echo, but if it's reverb, if it sounds echoey a little bit, this almost not using the microphone anyway. The goal in a recording space is a dead dry sound that you can then shape in editing, rather than this big, roomy, echoing mess that you're fighting the whole time. The classic beginner move. I've seen it all the time. You're going to laugh. Record in the closet. Seriously. You are sitting in the closet surrounded by these hanging clothes, which are basically natural acoustic treatments. I mean, I've heard pros who still swear by recording in their closet. Now, if a closet isn't practical, try recording in a carpeted room. At least make sure you turn off anything that makes noise, like refrigerator or fan, the ac. And if you're really working with nothing, grab some blankets, drape it around your setup. It sounds ridiculous. I promise. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I promise on until you hear the difference, you are going to think I'm going crazy. It makes a massive difference. The trick is to treat your mic like it's eavesdropping. If you can hear something, it can hear something. All right, so here's the big picture takeaway from all of this. You do not need a lot to start. You can start right now with what you've got in your hands right now. Even if you don't have headphones, you need a way to capture your voice clearly, something to listen back through while you record, if possible, and and a place to put the recording. That's it. That's the whole list. From there, the path forward is gradual. Start with what you have, get your first few episodes out, learn what bugs you about your sound, then fix that specific thing. If you try to fix for everything right off the bat, you try to pre plan everything. You might do a lot of work that you maybe don't need to do. Don't buy gear for problems that you don't want, already have, or that you don't have yet. The goal isn't to have the best setup on day one. The goal is to be a podcaster on day one. Better gear follows from experience, and experience only comes from publishing. See how that works. Again, if you want the full gear breakdown with specific recommendations at every budget level, direct links to the equipment I actually use and trust, and a whole lot more to help you get your show off the ground. Check out my book. The link is in the show notes. It's five bucks and some change and more like six bucks. But it's going to save you hours and hours of googling. And if you're like me, two o' clock in the morning comes around real fast. Trust me on that one. All right, next episode we're getting into the nitty of it all. Hosting and distribution, RSS feeds, getting a show onto Spotify or Apple, podcasts and everywhere else. That is where things start to get real. And I promise it is not as technical as it sounds. It's super easy. You're going to be amazed. I'll see you on the next episode. Until then, I'm will go make something.
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