Choosing The Right Equipment and Optimizing Your Production Values #4

There's loads of equipment choices out there for every budget. You can start with a cheap $20 headset and move on from there. We use a Heil PR-40 Microphone, the gold standard of podcasting, a Mackie PRO-FX8 Mixer, a Behringer Gate/Compressor/Limiter and some other things to give the best possible sound. Quality equipment and sound editing practices go hand and hand with high production values. As Cliff Ravenscraft says, "High production values won't get people to listen to your podcast, but it will get them to come back again and again." But there are many choices available to you to produce a quality podcast. You can use a USB microphone, many of which have excellent sound. You have to do what's right for you and your budget. Don't overproduce your show. It will wind up sounding fake and unnatural. Do the minimal edits required, a little bit of compression, a small amount of tweaking and let it go. I know a number of people who cut out every breath and every verbal stumble. That's a big mistake. You're not a rock star. You're not aiming for perfection, just excellence.