How to Podcast
This page is grossly out-dated as I no longer use such a complex setup.
These days it’s just the Mic, Tascam US-122, and Übercaster. But I will leave this page up until I get around to updating with more recent info.
I have a good few requests to describe my audio recording setup here, so I thought I would create a page about it
I will be the first to admit that this setup is actually over the top for a basic podcast, but as I had the sound gear collecting dust in a cupboard, there was no harm in putting it all to good use!
As I currently do not have a mic pre-amp – essential when using condenser mics – I have used some routing trickery to enable use of some outboard effects and processing prior to the voice being added to the mix. The AT 4033 condenser mic is added to CH1 on the mixer, but instead of going straight to the main mix, it is routed back out through the mixer’s left ALT output channel (1). Routing to these channels, usually used to output to studio monitor speakers, effectively means I am using the mixer’s built-in mic pre-amps and phantom power to drive the studio condenser mic. This is a workaround for not having a mic pre-amp.
The mic signal is then passed through the left channel of a compressor (Behringer Composer Pro XL MX2600) which gates for ambient noise, de-esses the vocal and compresses to even out the sound and prevent distortion through clipping. From there it passes into a TC Helicon Voice One (2) – now admittedly this is a fun and wholly gratuitous voice modeling tool, but hey, I have it so I’ll use it!. Before heading back into the main mix on the mixer, it passes through an Equaliser (Behringer Ultra-Graph Pro GEQ3102) to add additional cleanup and minimise background noise such as computer and electronics hum (I am currently not entirely happy with this filtering and will be improving it at some point).
The corresponding Right ALT output channel is routed in a similar way (when an additional mic is connected), but bypasses the voice one (3) as the device is single channel only. Passing a second microphone through in this way enables full control and balancing of the two voice inputs based on characteristics of the different mics and voices.
Music and sound effects are input from Megaseg running on a Mac G4, directly into the second compressor (4). This compressor passes the audio signal through without manipulation unless it picks up signal coming through from the first compressor (5). This sidechained signal forces the compressor to compress the music audio levels at any time there is also voice input. This technique, called ‘ducking’, enables automatic music volume reduction when doing voice-over and makes life a great deal easier.
The music and sound effects enter the main mix and everything is then output to a Tascam US-122 (6) which is a USB audio interface into the G4.
Recording to file is done with Audio Hijack Pro, though it can be done with a hoard of other pro, shareware and freeware applications.
Some related links (not all are podcast-specific):
- All about compressors
- Recording vocals
- Salvaging bad audio
- How to create your own Podcast
- Endgaget: how to create a podcast
