I’ve had a few podcasters ask me what all went into the new clearer and richer sound of the podcast. I’m writing this blog post to give you a quick run down. If you have questions leave them in the comments and I’ll answer them there. We use Audacity (a free program) to record our shows.

We used to record with a Blue Snowball USB microphone. It was very simple. You plug it in and it does it’s thing. The only thing you have to adjust is the mic volume on your computer. It has 3 settings for different recording set ups. So it’s great for people sitting in a room having a conversation OR one person talking directly into it. The sound quality is very good for a mic that’ll run you between $75 to $100. In order to record things like news clips during the show we’d have to play it on our computer stereo and turn the volume up so the mic would catch it.

The new equipment is a bit more complex. The main gem that we have is Alesis MULTIMIX8USBFX 8ch Mixer W/ Fx Usb Audio Interface.

The instructions that come with it are very simple and it works like a charm. With this we can play audio straight through our computer. The settings are all built into the board. It also has some features like echo and sound effects but I don’t fuck with that stuff.

Now because we have a mixer we had to get some condenser mics. These mics work off of phantom power which means it’ll work with this mixer as long as you have the phantom power switch to the “on” position. One of the mics we got off of Best Buy brand new. The other two we got used.

This is the used mic we got it’s called MXL 990 Condenser Microphone

We bought one that came in the case with a shock mount. This is good for sound quality and stuff.

Of course you’ll also need mic stands, mic cords and a few other cords that will connect things to your head phones or speakers. This will vary by our individual set up. All of the input and output interfaces on this mixers are 1/4 stereo connections which is a pain in the ass because you have to go buy converters for all of your equipment that uses plain old regular jacks.

I also have to buy this headphone splitter thing because with the new setup we can only hear each other if we’re speaking into the mics while wearing headphones. Of course this means we have to get a four way splitter which is like $50 or something. Then we can finally split the signal 4 ways and get Will and Justin back in the studio with us.

That’s a down and dirty explanation. If you have really specific questions I suggest you Google them first but if not then just leave a comment here and I’ll answer what I can.