Packaged Deals from Musician’s Friend
Packages are often an excellent way to enter a new hobby because 1) the components are pre-selected by experts so that they work together, and 2) packages are often discounted by the retailer. You don’t get to pick and choose your components, but it might be the fastest way to enter podcasting.
Note: None of these packages include a compressor/expander unit. If you don’t get one initially, you’ll want one later. Podcheck uses a Behringer MDX2600 Composer Pro-XL Compressor
| This extremely basic package is as bare-bones as you can get, and might be a bit under-powered for someone expecting highly-professional results for around $100. The MXL microphone included in the kit is battery powered rather than phantom powered (don’t forget to turn off the microphone!), and it comes with the cable and adapters that allow it to plug directly into your PC. Rather than buying this package, we suggest that you save your money until you can afford to buy more of the pieces. |  Musician’s Friend Podcasting Production Kit #1 PC
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| At around $200, this more-realistically priced package is still a huge bargain for the beginner. The MXL V63M microphone represents about $80 of the value, and requires phantom power (supplied by the M-Audio MobilePre USB device included). |  Musician’s Friend Podcasting Production Kit #2 PC Also available for
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| This package would be ideal for a beginning couples podcast, or any podcast with two people. The price on 10/12/05 was well under $300 for the PC version, and was an excellent value. |  Musician’s Friend Podcasting Production Kit #3 PC Also availble for
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What We use at Podcheck
Sometimes, you go with what works for others. The Podcheck Team cannot tell you how much to spend, or which components to purchase. The only thing we’re comfortable telling you is: the following gear works well for us. (NOTE: You’ll need various cables and cords to connect all the bits together. Let me know if it would be helpful to put together a complete guide, with all the diagrams, etc.)
Large Diaphram Condenser MicrophoneWe chose a large-diaphram condenser mic to capture subtle sounds that aren’t captured by other types of mics. These professional microphones require a special power source called “phantom power,” which is normally supplied by either the mixer into which it is connected, or by a battery inside the mic, or by a ‘phantom power injector’ that is connected between the mic and the mixer. At around $200, the AT3035 is a great value, and we consider it the premium entry-level voice mic. |  Audio-Technica AT3035 Cardioid Condenser Microphone
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A versatile compressor/expanderTo reduce the room noise, even out the voice levels, and to provide a little ‘punch’ to Scott’s voice, we use a compressor/expander (sometimes called a ‘downward expander’). |  Behringer MDX2600 Composer Pro-XL Compressor
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Audio MixerA convenient and sufficient mixer with phantom power |  Behringer Eurorack UB802 Mixer
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Multi-Track Audio Composing/Mixing SoftwareSony ACID Music Studio | Sony Acid Music Studio 6
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Audio Editing SoftwareYou can pick one of the following commercial audio editors, or you can consider the free, popular, and open-source Audacity for your audio editing needs. We still recommend getting Sony’s ACID Music Studio in addition, though. | ||||
| Sony’s “Sound Forge Audio Studio” is the inexpensive ($70) little brother to the full-blown “Sound Forge”($250) We don’t use either of these products here at Podcheck, but we probably should take a look at “Sound Forge Audio Studio.” (Goldwave works well enough, and we already have a license for it. Also, Musician’s Friend doesn’t offer this product yet.)
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| Use Goldwave to 1) record your voiceover audio, and 2) edit your sound files to clip out the bad stuff. It’s not the sexiest software around, but it’s been around for a long, long time. (Musician’s Friend doesn’t offer this product.)
|  Goldwave Digital Audio Editor | |||
HeadphonesWe received a pair of these ATH-M20 headphones for free as part of a promotion when we bought the AT3035 mic. They are comfortable, decent, and innexpensive. Just about any headphones will work, but this is what we use… |  Audio-Technica ATH-M20 Closed-Back Headphones
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Skype Conversation Recording SoftwareRecord audio interviews for your show on Skype. Use HotRecorder! | HotRecorder!
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December 12th, 2005 at 12:01 pm
Hi,
Great show, great site — just a mention that the Sony Acid Pro version mentioned on the “How to sound like Scott” page has been discontinued as you’ll discover if you follow the link.
Thanks!
Steve P.
December 12th, 2005 at 5:25 pm
Thank you, Steve! I have updated the link. Sony has released a new version (version 6).
February 26th, 2006 at 10:01 pm
Hi there.. this is a great site! was wondering if you could share how do u connect the Behringer UB802 mixer to computer?
Thanks
February 27th, 2006 at 10:23 am
Hi Isaac, here’s how my stuff is connected:
Microphone -> Mixer’s Ch.1
Mixer Main Out (L) -> Compressor Ch.1
Compressor Ch.1 Out -> Compressor Ch2. In
Compressor Ch.2 Out -> computer’s Mic in.
You’ll notice that I use both channels of the compressor, but not for stereo. This lets me take a second pass at the compression to “file off any rough edges” that might have made it through the first pass.
I connect Ch.1 into Ch.2, and then using Ch.2’s output as the source for the computer’s Mic.In jack. Specifically, to answer your question, I use a single 1/4″ mono plug adapter that provides two RCA female jacks. I then connect my computer to the two RCA jacks using a standard 1/8″ stereo male -to- (L/R) RCA male cable. This cable is very commonly used to connect computers to speakers or other audio equipment.
Wow, this is hard without pictures. Let me know if you still have questions, and I’ll try to be of more assistance. Feel free to e-mail me at show -a-t- podcheck -dot- com.
February 28th, 2006 at 8:30 am
Thanks Scott.. it’s really helpful. I connected that to Computer’s Mic in and it worked well, is Sony Acid Pro able to separate the different channels on the mixer to separate tracks?
February 28th, 2006 at 10:47 am
No. As far as I know, ACID will only record a single Left/Right track while recording, as it only records a single WAV file with each punch-in. If you want to do “real” multi-track recording, I think you might need to step up to either Audition or ProTools for that, as well as a different mixer and sound card (or other firewire or USB audio interface). I don’t do that live multi-track stuff anymore, so my knowledge is WAY out of date. (I used TurtleBeach cards with SAW+ 10 years ago, but everything has changed since then.)
February 28th, 2006 at 6:01 pm
Scott, For those of us living on the edge of a penny… Is there a software compression alternative you could recommend?
What are the tricks to making something like this work?
Keeme
January 22nd, 2007 at 4:04 pm
hey scott, i just bought a behringer DJX700 and im trying to use it on my PC with Traktor DJ studio 3, i would like to know wat cables do i need, and how can i make it play in 2 different channels.
Hope to hear from you
ok thanks