What Equipment Do You Need for a Podcast?
One of the first questions everyone asks us is what equipment they’ll need for their podcast. Most people assume they’ll need lots of expensive kit, maybe a studio to record in and that their guests will need the same thing. Luckily this couldn’t be further from the truth! We always recommend that the main host(s) have a microphone – the one we use is the Rode NT-USB mic and it costs around £140 but they’re always available on eBay if you’re looking to keep your costs down. The only other pieces of equipment you’ll need are things you already own… Your laptop or phone, and a pair of headphones. Oh and some curtains and cushions, but we’ll get to that later.
Once you’ve got your kit together it’s really simple. You record your audio either into your phone or a laptop, and then we make it sound great afterwards in post-production! One of the unexpected benefits of having to work from home was that everyone learned how to use Zoom, which has opened up a whole world of possibilities in terms of recording remotely - quite literally.
Gone are the days of everyone needing to be in the same room to record a podcast. We can record with anyone, anywhere in the world, all they need is a decent WiFi connection. Some podcast producers use the audio directly from Zoom, which if we’re being honest, is much easier. The reason we don’t do it this way and ask contributors to record their audio natively too is, quite simply, that it sounds like you’re on Zoom! By each contributor recording their audio individually we get a much better quality of sound, and we can edit out any mistakes or bits where people interrupted each other to make it sound really slick. Oh, and it eliminates the inevitable issues when someone’s WiFi drops out and they freeze. And then come back. And then freeze again.
But what about your guests? We ask them to record into the Voice Notes app on their phone or straight in to their laptop, the same as you, just without the mic. And the audio quality is really good! Think of it like you’re listing to a call on a radio show. You want (and expect) the presenter to be in perfect quality but it doesn’t matter as much if the caller doesn’t sound quite as good. To be honest, if your guest is recording in the right room, you sometimes can’t really tell the difference. And this is where the curtains and cushions come in!
When recording any kind of audio, it’s important to consider your surroundings – and those of your guests. Big, bare rooms, high ceilings and wooden floors are not your friends when recording your podcast. You need to be in the room where you have the most soft furnishings to help ‘absorb’ the sound. So curtains, carpets, cushions, sofas or even a bed work brilliantly to help your audio sound great – and remember to close the windows!
So there you go, one less thing to have to worry about when choosing us to produce your podcast. A mic, your phone, headphones, that great idea we’ve developed together and you’re ready to go!
Sound Rebel is a podcast production company based in Liverpool. We produce bespoke podcasts for clients both in the UK and across the world. To talk to us about starting your own podcast, email hello@soundrebel.co.uk