Q. What programs do you recommend for recording podcasts?
A. Skype is great for recording interviews, it also works perfectly if you need to record a 3 way conversation. For recording in-house get Audacity. These recording solutions are simple, quick, have built in tools to ensure quality recordings and most importantly free to download.
Q. Piezo or Call Recorder?
A. Call Recorder works well, but we’ve had issues with files size and redundant data. Piezo is well designed, simple and clean. We think you’ll like it much more.
Q. How do I record an interview with Skype and Piezo?
A. Watch this quick and easy tutorial which runs you through the whole set up.
Q. Does Piezo record both sides of the interview?
A. Yes. It also splits both recordings into tracks for improved editing.
Q. Is it ok the files are saved as .mp3’s?
A. Yes in our opinion the .mp3 recordings are fine. They’re not as robust and there is less data to work with, but we find that it doesn’t limit our capacity to use them as material to produce great podcasts.
Q. What equipment do you recommend to start a Podcast?
A. For all your equipment needs head on over to http://freedompodcasting.com/studio for a list of the best quality and most affordable recording devices on the market today. We also recommend for in person interviews you have 2 microphones because passing the mic back and forth breaks up the conversation.
Q. Should I invest in recording equipment?
A. Yes. If you’re serious about creating a podcast that people want to listen to, quality recording equipment is a no brainer. In my experience (after producing well over 200 podcast episodes) quality is a huge differentiator from shows that are successful and those that aren’t.
If you’ve come this far, you’re going to be investing a significant amount of time into your show. Quality should be high on your priority list. Especially since it’s so inexpensive. With all the time you spend recording, producing and publishing; the investment will pay-off many times over.
Q. Would it be the end of the world if I get the Technica mic and not the 2i2 mixer? Just going mic to USB in that case.
A. When listening with or without the mixer I hear a considerable difference in sound quality. It’s deeper, richer and I want to hear the recording that was created with the mixer more.
I recommend using the mixer (and the ATR-2100 microphone of course) to all my clients and friends. The reason is that, quality can make or break a show. As a podcaster, you will be using this equipment again and again in the coming months and years. You might record 1,000 hours of audio on the equipment you’re about to buy. Think about the compounding value of making that sound quality just 1% better. How will that overall value of increasing your sound quality look like over the course of the next 10 years?
It could be exponential. I guess the better question is, “how serious are you about making your recordings?”
Q. Do you recommend picking up some sort of boom arm? Or is the ATR desk mount sufficient?
A. I don’t have a recommendation on boom arms because I travel all the time so a boom arm isn’t practical for me. If I had a home studio, I would definitely get a boom arm. I’ve recorded in studios with great boom arms and it’s more fun and sort of inspires you to record more. It doesn’t seem like there are great Pro options out there yet for the Audio Technica 2100… but I did find this YouTube video of a guy who made one (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4LbxckDjmk)
Q. What’s phantom power?
A. Phantom power is just power being fed to the microphones through the cables (in this case, XLR cables.) Why use the term? Because it explains that the microphones use power which is a trait of higher quality recordings.
