If you’re new around here, we’ve been dedicating weekly episodes of the Headliner Podcast to getting to know our audience. Each week, we send out a question in our newsletter (which you can sign up for here) and ask our listeners to send in their answers. This week, we wanted to pry into your genius podcasting minds and find out what some of your favorite gear is. Your answers were all over the map, and super creative as always!
Before we get started with your answers, be sure to listen to last week’s podcast, where we asked about your top 3 favorite ways to promote your podcast. Go on…give it a listen!
Now, here are some essential pieces of podcasting gear these podcasters can’t live without:
Podcaster Answers
Carolina Groppa from Life with Caca, a podcast where Carolina speaks with producers from every corner of the entertainment industry, can’t live without her Sony noise-canceling headphones. A good pair of noise-canceling headphones have made a world of difference for the sound quality of the podcast, and really help Carolina hear the nuances in each episode.
Sarah Barnes Humphrey from Let’s Talk Supply Chain first and foremost can’t live without her editor, who trumps all pieces of gear. Aside from her amazing editor, Sarah can’t imagine podcasting without her mic flag. Mic flags offer a place for podcasters to display their logo and branding, and it can make your whole operation look extra professional.
Mark Tarnow of Afternoon Coffee with Mike and Tim can’t live without his sound-absorbing panels. Mark’s son had them custom made from ROCKWOOL over wood frames, and help to make his audio crisp and clean.
Christian Hunt from the Human Risk podcast, a podcast all about human behavior, can’t live without his microphone…accessories. Christian uses the RØDE NT-USB, which he has mounted on a boom arm swivel mount, so he can perfectly position his mic whether he is sitting or standing. For Christian, the boom arm is his most needed piece of gear, since it makes podcasting comfortable and convenient.
Rachel from Dating App Disasters, a hilarious podcast about the wild ride of dating apps, can’t live without her RØDECaster Pro. The RØDECaster Pro is a tiny, portable podcast studio that can easily go with you wherever you want to podcast. Best of all, it includes tons of awesome features so you can have guests call in, add sound effects, and much more.
Andrew Gelina from the Underserved podcast, which focuses on the Boston technology scene, can’t live without his Cloudlifter CL-1 Mic Activator. When Andrew works from home, the Cloudlifter helps to make even make-shift audio set-ups sound professional.
It’s pretty amazing how many different pieces of gear and equipment exist for podcasting, and even more incredible how creative people can be when creating their own solution! While we got some amazing answers, we know we still have some listeners who are still working to find a setup that works for them. To add to the inspiration, here are three podcast set-ups at three different price points:
Podcasting Gear On A Budget
$0 Set-Up
If you want to get started podcasting today, but don’t have the cash or time to run out and buy a bunch of equipment, this option is for you! Most people have access to a smartphone these days, and most happen to have pretty good built-in microphones. Recording a podcast on your smartphone can be as easy as using the built-in voice recorder app, using apps like Anchor, or even by recording a Skype or Zoom call. If you want to edit on a computer once you’re done, you can easily transfer the file and use an open-source (that means free) editing software like Audacity.
$50-$100 Set-Up
If you have a laptop readily available to you, this option is excellent. Pair your laptop with a Blue Snowball microphone, an excellent budget USB mic option. The Blue Snowball is basically a plug-and-play mic, so you won’t need to buy other expensive gear to get it working with your basic laptop. You can easily use Audacity to edit podcasts made with this method also, a step we can’t recommend enough.
$100-$200
If you’re feeling a little fancy, you can invest in the Audio Technica AT2005-USB mic, which is excellent at eliminating background noise and features XLR inputs in addition to being a USB mic. The AT2005 is a super durable mic, and buying two can be a great long-term investment.
Now that you’re feeling inspired, it’s time for you to go forth and start creating! If you want to get involved with next week’s podcast, be sure to sign up for our newsletter. Visit Headliner online to learn more about the app, and to discover more from the world of podcasting!
