Essential Gear for Podcasters: Microphones, Boom Arms, and Headphones Explained

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Boomer Podcasters, the podcast that is here to help baby Boomers, Gen X, Gen Z, Gen Y and anyone else start a podcast.

We will help with everything you need from equipment like microphones, programs to record your audio and video.

If you are going to do a video podcast from Start to publishing with a host, this podcast is for you.

Podcasting is a great medium as well as a lot of fun.

So sit back and get ready to learn about the podcasting world.

Now, here is your host and podcaster himself, Gray Hair Dave.

Well, what did you think of her voice?

Yes, folks, that also was from eleven Labs artificial intelligence.

Reading my intro for me, I just want you to know that it's out there.

Also, I want the phrase or the intro to be the same every time.

Okay?

I don't want to veer away.

I don't want to be changing it up.

I want to be consistent for you.

So that's why I'm going to be using those in the future.

So how are you?

I'm doing good.

I hope you're doing good.

Today we're going to talk about a couple of things.

First of all, we're going to recap really quickly what happened last week when we were talking about Dawes digital audio workstations.

But the main thing we're going to talk about today is microphones, the different types of microphones.

What's going to work best for you versus somebody else?

And get you a generalized idea.

What is the best way for you to go?

Now, I have this habit of purchasing more microphones than I need.

I believe that I have about 12.

No, it's 10.

I have 10 microphones that either hook into my computer or hook into an audio interface, which then hooks into my computer.

There are.

There's a big difference between those two types.

Okay.

Also, I also have some wireless mics and some lavalier mics.

Depends on what I'm going to be doing and where I'm going to be doing it.

So that's one of the things we're going to talk about that will be the main topic today.

The second one I want to talk about a little bit.

It doesn't need to be deep.

Is what we call boom arms.

Okay.

Boom arms are what you put your microphone in to help get them at the right height or the right distance from you.

A lot of today's microphones will come with a stand, which are absolutely great.

But I want to talk about boom arms and what to look out for.

Excuse me.

Also, I want to make sure That I don't forget this portion of it.

Headphones, or headsets, whatever you want to call them, are very, very important when you are recording and editing.

This way you're not getting the feedback you don't want to be getting.

So that's what we're going to talk about today.

Okay, So I hope you're all doing well.

And let's get started on the exciting and fascinating journey into podcasting.

Microphones help take your voice and run it into a DAW or a recording system or a recording program.

Years ago, those used to go into a tape machine and know a 1632 track tape machine.

That was years and years and years ago.

Now we use what's called digital audio workstations, which live on the computer.

We talked about Mac computers, we talked about Windows computers.

So those are very different, aren't they?

If you think about it, they have two different operating systems.

Well, you can think about microphones the same way.

Microphones do different things for different circumstances.

There's two types of microphones.

First one, I think I mentioned it last week, is a condenser microphone.

Condenser microphones are mainly found in studio conditions or studio settings.

Now, if you've got a room where you're going to be doing all your, all your recording and your editing, whether that's a closet or a bedroom with a bunch of noise canceling material around you, then a condenser microphone is fine.

They're very rich, they're very, very in tune to what you're doing.

But they will pick up every noise throughout your house or your apartment or wherever you are, and you'll hear it in the background.

And then you got more editing to do.

I don't recommend them.

I was doing my first couple with a condenser microphone.

It came with the equipment that I originally bought.

And I realized as time went on, I was making the editing process harder on myself because I was having to get rid of all the background noise and all the junk in the air because I was recording in a bedroom.

And the bedroom's got carpet.

The bedroom's got, of course, a bed with cloth with bedding on it.

There were days I would open up my closet doors and, you know, I'd point myself towards the closet just for that extra added ability to not have the noise or the words bouncing off the walls and coming back at me.

That's where headsets come in very, very handy.

So that's what a condenser microphone is.

If that's something that you can do, that's great.

Condenser microphones need something called phantom power.

Phantom power supplies the power basically usually 48 volt phantom power to the microphone.

It needs power to work.

I mean it needs additional power not just being plugged into the computer.

Okay.

That's another thing you have to worry about.

So with a condenser microphone, you need to run it from the condenser to an audio interface through an XLR cable.

Now we haven't talked much about cables because there's.

There's really only two types.

There's XLR three pin that we would use where there's USB.

Now XLR is what all of or 99.9% of the condenser microphones are the ones that are worthwhile use.

So they want you to run through an audio interface.

Audio interfaces are coming on the next one, on the next episode.

It's a little more confusing and it's a little more money.

Okay, again, nothing against it.

It depends on what you want to do.

You want to try one?

Fantastic.

Just make sure you get an audio interface to go with it.

I'm going to suggest if you want to try something like that, don't go out and spend a fortune to begin with.

You can start out with a presonus interface for I think their.

They don't have to be presonus, but you can get.

Usually get an interface around 70 or $80.

That's okay.

Doesn't have a lot of extra knobs that you don't need.

But it has phantom power and a jack for the XLR to go into, plus a power which it gets a power cable which goes to your computer.

They're all in one.

Okay.

So you would need those two things to do it with a condenser microphone.

Plus of course your computer and your, your daw.

Now what I'm using now and have been for the past couple of years is a dynamic microphone.

A dynamic microphone doesn't pick up all that sound around you.

It's.

It's meant to be used with very short distance.

Distance between yourself and the microphone.

Ever watch a concert on TV or on YouTube or anywhere else and you will see the singer.

Like I'm going to use Elton John as an example.

Elton John keeps his mouth close to the microphone because they're using dynamic microphones.

They just don't have the range.

They're not meant to have the range.

Again, they don't require phantom power, so that makes it easier for them.

But they do have a condenser, micro diaphragm condenser in there.

You Know, it's again, it depends on what it is you're doing with it.

So condenser microphones are capturing everything, dynamics are capturing everything in front of them.

And you gotta look at the box when you get it to make sure you're talking into the right portion of the microphone with a dynamic.

Okay.

Most of them that have a coned top you want to speak in directly into the microphone top.

Some have them in the front or the back.

It just depends on the design.

Okay, now I have for you and it's going up on the website.

In fact, it's on the website boomerpodcasters.com it's a list of microphones if you're interested in using something that I suggest.

Now all of these microphones in here that I've got are affiliates, affiliate links to Amazon so that if you do buy one of these through my link, I'll get a little money out of it.

I have to say that up front.

So all these are recommended by me.

I use quite a few of them I would suggest and I would tell you that I think they're good.

There is one I have in here I'll talk about at the end.

So let's start out first with the ATR 2100.

It is a USB and an XLR.

So it can go either way when it comes to cables.

Just because it uses an XLR cable doesn't mean it's a condenser microphone.

It just means it can go into an audio interface or it can go directly to your computer, whichever way you want to do it.

When I started out, I was using, I was using a Xenix audio interface to where I could adjust the gain, I could adjust the high, the mid lows, reverb, all kinds of things.

Plus, you know, I had a slider bar for the volume and the gain and it had phantom power.

So it was great.

And I still use it once in a while today and then it goes.

So I use an XLR cable to go into that.

Now this ATR 2100 sounds for about 49 bucks.

49 $50.

It's a ATR 2100.

If you go to my website, boomerangpodcasters.com Go to the page that says product suggestions.

You pull up a PDF, click on the ATR 2100 that's underlined and it'll take you to Amazon again.

Don't forget, I have, I'm affiliate with them.

They, you know, I'm in the affiliate program.

I'm going to make a little money off of it.

The ATR 2100 is really, really good.

I use right now the Samson Q2U, USB and XLR microphone.

The kit comes with a standard.

It comes with an XLR cable as well as a USB to go to the computer.

It's a USB C.

No, it's a USB A.

And it comes with a pop filter.

POP filters are very, very important.

They help you with your plosives.

We're going to talk about plosives as we get down the road.

But a plosive just basically from right now, from the get go, is P, B, Ds and some of these things that give you a pop that you don't want in there.

Now the Samsung Q2U ran me about $70 and I like it.

It's versatile.

Next is the Rode Pod mic.

It's an XLR.

It runs about $100.

Next one is an Audio Technica 2040.

It's an XLR.

It's about $100 up from there.

If you really want to look like the big boys and you're doing video, there is one made by shure.

It's an MV6 USB microphone.

It's a gaming microphone, but it works just fine for this.

It runs about $149 and is a very good, good microphone.

I would tell you about the sure, MV7 and the MV7B and now there's an MV7DB.

Those are excellent and out of my price range.

I think the cheapest one I found is around 200 bucks.

But the SM7B, right around 250 to $300 depending on the day of the week and that's even at Amazon.

So start out with something a little less expensive.

And if there's something you're going to like and you're going to do and you go, hey, you know, great here, Dave, I like this.

This is fun.

Let's continue on with this then.

Yeah, then go ahead and upgrade.

I have found there are so many podcasters out there right now that are using Samson Q2 use or ATR 2100, even rode podmic that they're great microphones and they're going to last a long, long, long, long time.

Okay, now if you're going to get a.

A condenser microphone, my suggestion to you would be to start off with.

Okay, so what I would do first is for the cardioid condenser microphone, I would go with the Audio Technica 2020, the AT2020.

It's an XLR microphone, $99.

I'm going to add this to that list later on today.

Audio Technica 2040 is really, really good.

Now you get down into some of these other guys that their name is like solo cast.

Sure has one that's sure SM7DB dynamic dynamic vocal microphone with built in preamp for streaming podcasts and recording a wide range frequencies and warm, warm and depth and all that kind of stuff.

$432, folks.

You can spend hundreds of dollars.

I do ask that you do yourself a favor because you're going to come back to me and say, well Dave, I can go to, you know, Best Buy and I can get a blue Yeti.

I don't, I do not have, I will not have a blue Yeti.

I'm sorry, I'm not saying it's junk.

I'm saying if you don't know how to use it properly you're gonna get crummy sound.

And I don't want you to sound bad.

Okay?

I just don't.

Now there is a Fifine or F I, F I N E condenser microphone that's about 30 and you're saying well what about kits?

Well, kits aren't a bad idea.

Fifine has a condenser microphone that goes directly to your computer.

All right, so I am on the Amazon side looking at this right now and the blue Yeti runs for about 85 bucks.

So let me ask you, why would you pay 85 bucks for something that isn't as good a quality as you can get for 70 bucks or 50 bucks?

Just a question, just me talking.

So that was part of it right there.

Okay, next let's talk about what we're going to switch right on over to boom arms.

Okay, so for boom arms I want to suggest to you that you use a boom arm.

The stands that most of these less expensive microphones come with aren't real stable unless you've got like a round heavy bass that it comes with and not all of them do.

I know the Samsung Q2U, it's plastic legs with a plastic housing.

Yeah, it'll work until you find the boom arm.

You want to do it.

You know it will, it will work just fine.

So you're going to find if you got.

And I'm going to put this on that PDF too soon you can go out and you can get a boom arm from fifine from 42.

It's a low profile so it lays low to your desk and it brings the microphone up to you.

I haven't tried one of those yet.

I prefer the Boom arm that goes up and comes down towards you.

So you can get these boom arms for like 20 bucks.

But they've got a spring on them.

So if you by chance move it, move anything, you're going to hear that spring making that noise through your microphone into your, into your daw.

Okay, I suggest something a little different.

So there's an innogear mic boom arm.

It's the same kind I do.

It works with, with everybody's.

It's $39.

I'll put that in there.

There's inner gear's got quite a few good ones besides.

Now I also have one here for CM Tech and, and it doesn't use springs, it uses leverage.

And it gives you an allen wrench so you can tighten it up, but you can still move things around.

I'm going to put a list of boom arms in there.

Here's the thing with a boom arm.

If you're running a condenser microphone, I suggest you have on your boom arm you have a shock mount adjust, you know, on there because it helps with the vibrations from anything.

If you're just running a dynamic, you don't really need one.

But read the instructions that come with it.

Look at the photos on Amazon.

When I put it up there, you want to make sure that it's hanging down in front of you, that it's hanging down in front of you, or you're looking at it and that your mouth is pointed towards the dynamic head, you know of or cone of the microphone.

Otherwise you're wasting your time.

Okay?

So please, please, please do get a boom arm.

I suggest you don't have to wait a while.

See if you like this.

You're gonna like it because I'm positive about it.

So do that for me.

Okay?

Get a boom arm.

Boom arms are very, very important.

And I just, I can't talk about them enough.

I've got three of those ringed ones.

They're sitting in a closet.

I will never use them again now.

Not for a microphone, I won't.

I will use them for a light.

Like if I'm using.

I'm doing a video, I use that to connect to a circular light.

There are expensive lights you can get out there if you're doing video.

And there are expensive boom arms.

I've been getting into elgato stuff lately.

The elgato boom arm is a little over 100 bucks and that's expensive, but it's a nice boom arm.

So don't buy that stuff until you need to.

But once you find it you like this stuff, go out and get some good things and really, really put your game in there.

Now we're going to talk next about headsets.

Okay.

I want to talk to you about the different kinds of headsets that I suggest.

I want to start off right away by saying I do not suggest.

I'm not saying you can't do it, but I don't suggest using a gaming headset with a microphone connected to it, kind of like a broadcast headset.

I don't suggest that for many, many reasons and the main one being it just doesn't give you the sound quality that a good microphone will give you.

Okay.

There's many, many types of over ear and I suggest that you get a decent pair.

Decent doesn't mean spending $184 on a, on an auto tech or audio Technica.

It means spending 42 bucks on a One Audio Pro.

I've got those.

I use those.

I also have a, a pair that came with my first condenser mic.

And it's fine.

It's made by Focusrite.

It came in the kit.

So I got a condenser microphone, I got the audio interface and I got a boom ARM plus a.

I actually got a mic stand and I got the audio interface.

Wasn't real cheap.

It was like 400 bucks.

I'm not comfortable with it because I don't like headsets on my ears that much.

Now I am using right now in Ear Micro in ear headsets a lot like they would use if you're in a band, except mine are wired and go to my microphone.

There's two ways to do this.

If your microphone has an in or out for a headset, I suggest you use that again.

Using a headset means you're listening to your voice as you're, as you're recording it.

It's not, you're not getting feedback off the walls.

If you've got the sound coming out of your speaker on your computer or if you're like me, you've got external monitors for your computer that's just going to create all kinds of confusion and editing you don't want to do.

Wear headset.

You know, make sure you set your DOP when you're doing it in the settings department or settings tab to use the right input and output.

Which means, you know, like for me It's a Samson Q2U4 in and out because that's where I'm hooking up the headsets.

I'll put a link to that on that page too.

These are comfortable and I don't get a lot of outside noise.

They're almost completely head canceling.

And I'll be honest with you, if somebody looks at me, it looks a little more professional.

If you're wearing a regular headset, that's fine.

Can you use any headsets you want?

Absolutely.

The in the earbuds that you get from your phone, I got a set from Logitech that I think I paid 20 bucks for that.

Really good sound.

Yeah, use those.

Just don't use that microphone unless you're recording to your phone.

I mean if you're going to start this out recording to your phone and you can because all you got to do is open up your notes app, your voice notes app and start recording.

You can and then download that file over to your computer.

I tried that the other day because I got some new head.

I got a new lavalier mic and I just air dropped it over to my Mac.

Now I'm not going to tell you how to do that today, but anyways, that's what's going on with those.

You really need a headset folks, if you're comfortable with the over the year.

Fantastic.

I like these.

Don't.

I don't believe, I do not believe that you get the same quality with wireless headphones.

Like I have an Apple phone, so I have Apple earbuds.

You get.

I can get the volume out of them that I like.

Anyways you get good quality.

But I don't think it has quite the good sound that you're going to get out of actually in a good wired one.

Plus there's latency.

Mentioned it last week.

Latency is delay, basically.

Why do they change the name?

Did it a long time ago.

Has to do with some thing way before my time.

Maybe not before my time, but before I decided to go into this.

So get yourself a good headset.

Yeah, I used.

In the beginning I used headset.

Then I went to my Apple earbuds from connected to my phone.

Now I have these.

I like these.

If it's a really big long day, if I'm editing for somebody else and they've got a couple hour show, I may switch out once in a while because they are very, very delicate.

But it's a great way to be.

It's a great way to do it.

Do it right.

Right.

So there we are folks.

I mean I will put links on that page, on that PDF so you can download.

Don't forget I am an affiliate with Amazon.

So if you buy use that affiliate link please so that I get a Little bit of cash out of this.

I would appreciate that.

I want to be upfront and honest with you.

We can all use a little extra money, right?

I mean, who can't?

Here's one more thing that I wanted to talk about really quickly, which I should have talked about when we were in the microphone section of this recording Today I went out and I bought a two pack of wireless lavalier microphones by Neewer N E E W E R.

You can connect this, the adapter, to your phone, your iPad.

I'm sure it's a USB C.

I'm sure you could connect it to your computer and then you just, you know, clip on the microphone, whichever one you're going to use that day, and then turn it on and you can start recording.

It does do noise canceling.

It's.

I would.

I'm extremely impressed and I really, really am.

I'm extremely impressed with this.

And I'll be honest with you, What I pay 40 bucks, 39.99 on Amazon and I carry it with me.

When I got my backpack, they're in my backpack.

So that if I come up with something that I want to record and I want good quality because I want to throw it into a podcast or I want to throw it into something else.

I've got it.

It's there.

So that's it for today.

Let's wrap it up really, really quickly.

First thing we talked about was microphones.

Condenser microphones are more for studios.

They're going to grab every bit of noise around you if you're in a quiet, well dressed room.

And when I say well dressed room with lots of sound deadening material in the room or you've dressed it with sound deadening material.

They are fantastic microphones.

Think about it.

This is what recording artists use in the studio.

Some of those condenser microphones in the studios are thousands of dollars.

We aren't recording.

I don't think.

I don't think we're recording that kind of music or that kind of high quality education or chit chat that we really need to go out and buy $2,000 microphones.

Then we talked about dynamic microphones.

Dynamic microphones are used by people like us.

They're also used in live performances.

Also.

They don't pick up all the noise room.

They don't need phantom power like a condenser mic does, but they don't pick it all up.

But you need to be close to the microphone, which means you need a boom arm, which was the second thing we talked about.

Boom Arms start out with just the stand that comes with it, folks.

And almost every one of these is going to come with a mic stand.

Is it going to be inexpensive?

Yes.

Is it going to work to see if this is something you want to do?

Yes.

Give it a try.

Eventually, go out there and get a boom arm and try and stay away from the ones with the springs.

Unless you're not going to move things around.

Like right now, I'm moving my microphone around.

You didn't hear any spring noise?

Okay, just me.

I don't like to have to try and edit that out because then I have to go into our isotope Rx and I have to go into the spectrogram and I will talk about that later.

Okay, so after that, we talked a little bit about headsets and headphones.

Right?

Please do yourself a favor.

Wear headsets or wear a headphone when you're recording as well as when you're editing.

Especially when you're editing because you're hearing just what's going on in the recording, not what's going on around you.

Does that make sense?

If you could see my hands.

I'm talking with my hands right now.

But that's.

So that's what we talked about today.

Don't forget I am an Amazon affiliate and that if you go to that pot, to that PDF and you click on something and you buy it that way from Amazon, I appreciate it, but I am an affiliate and I will get paid for that.

Gotta be upfront and honest about that.

So I hope that you enjoyed this today.

I want to also let you know that if you know somebody who doesn't know what a podcast, just doesn't know what a podcast can do for them, doesn't know what kind of podcasts are out there, what different kinds of genres.

Do me a favor, will you?

Please?

Let them know.

Show them how to do it.

Show them how to get it on their phone or their computer or their iPad or whatever they're using.

You know that you can even get them on those Amazon tablets.

You can fire sticks, everything.

Also, folks, this show is brought to you by Gray Hair Productions.

I am.

I am Gray Hair Productions.

I do audio editing.

I'm trying to build that business up to where it supports me.

And if you know somebody who needs audio editing or even video editing, I'm pretty good at video editing.

Please send them my way.

Send them to the website boomerpodcast.com Also, folks, I have another podcast I hope you think you might find interesting.

It's called five minutes with gray hair Dave.

That's the number five minutes with gray haired Dave.

It's only about 12 minutes long.

I know it says five minutes, but it's only about 12 minutes long.

It's done weekly now and I could go today or tomorrow when I record it'll be 136.

And I'm having just fun with.

It's just about a baby boomer talking about being a baby boomer.

Nothing out of the world, out of this world, but it's just me talking.

So on behalf of me, gray Haired Dave, if you're out and about today, smile at somebody.

You're going to make their day.

I hope you all like this.

Please come back next week.

Next week we are going to be talking about to do episode prep and outlines and I may also go in there with a recap on what we've done so far.

So that one will be fun.

So get some pencil and paper out for next week.

So on behalf of Gray Hair Dave, you have a great day and I will be talking at you soon.

Bye.