PROFIT LAB

Pre-Training Day 4: Easy Equipment Guide & In-House Audio Setup
Pre-Training Day 4: Easy Equipment Guide & In-House Audio Setup

Lesson Overview

Understand What Equipment You Need

What Podcast Hosting Is The Best Option Available?

The Complete Equipment Run-Down

We dive into understanding what equipment you need to get started including both standard & premium recommendations for you to get started with.

Homework Assignment...

Buy your Podcast Equipment

Select Your Podcast Hosting (recommended: SimpleCast)

Easy Equipment & In House Audio Setup

Hey Everybody! And welcome to another awesome day of PRE-TRAINING!

One of the first things you need to do when getting prepared to host a podcast is to get the right equipment and to get your in-home space setup...

This section of the pre-training is going to outline ALL of the costs you'll need to get started with your podcast.

(just for reference this page does contain some affiliate links so any purchases may lead to me receiving a small kick-back at no extra cost to yourself)

We're going to break down our recommendations with two options:

A recommended setup & an advanced setup.

For some of you... you may want to really invest hard in good quality equipment that is going to give you the best sounding podcast you can get.

One thing that is worth noting, is that when you invest in something physical that you can hold in your hands (like a new microphone) it gives you the feeling of being a podcaster.

Seriously... WIELD that thing like Thors Hammer!

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Buying Guide

Below we'll outline all of the equipment we recommend for you to get started with. We'll include a description of what the equipment is and what you need it for.

Podcast Hosting

One of the first things you'll want to decide on is which podcast hosting company you are going to use. We personally don't recommend using Anchor (a popular recommendation) as you find that 85% of anchor users never get their podcasts over 1 download!

While it's easy to use, it also LACKS a lot of the important things you need to create a successful show.

There are a few options to choose for Podcast hosting but hands down the BEST choice available is SimpleCast.

We currently use them to host our show and are one of the most up-to-date podcast hosts who are still innovating and bringing you new features.

Some others recommendations you'll have heard are LibSyn who I used to host my show with. They are an OK solution, but the interface hasn't changed in over 5 years and some of the hosting options are very old school and not particularly user friendly.

I suggest that every single one of you picks SimpleCast, In our opinion, it's the best option on the market and also offers unlimited hosting for $15 per month.

You also get access to some pretty cool analytics tools, and other features.

Recommended Podcast Hosting: SimpleCast $15 Per Month

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https://simplecast.com/#_r_jamieatkinson⁠

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Microphone

When it comes to selecting the Microphone for you there are a metric shit ton of choices for you to choose from. Don't worry, like any electronics there are always going to be tons of options to choose from.

This is perhaps the most important piece of equipment you're going to need to select for your show. You can have the best content in the world, but if it sounds like you're recording your show on a packed Jumbo Jet, people aren't going to take you seriously.

Having a great sounding podcast sets the intent for your show from the get-go... you mean business and this show is going to kick butt.

Our recommended choice (and the mic I use for my podcast) is the ATR-2100 USB mic. This microphone is fantastically capable, and if you want to check out how it sounds, just go and jump onto my podcast to get a feel for the audio quality.

The mic is a amazing allrounder, I know many seasoned podcasters who recommend it and it's not only hardy but seriously portable! (We take ours all over the world in the bottom of our backpacks) and very affordable at around $65-$80.

Our advanced option is the Shure SM7B, the microphone of choice by Joe Rogan and many professional podcasters. At $400 this microphone packs a punch, but if you want the best there is, this is the one to go for.

Recommended: ATR 2100 - USB $65-$80

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https://amzn.to/2W16vZu⁠

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Advanced: Shure SM7B Cardioid Dynamic Microphone - $400

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https://amzn.to/2W0wyjv⁠

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Mic Stand / Boom ARM & Pop Filter

One of the most important things to make sure your microphone is setup correctly is a good quality stand. You have bundle options with the ATR 2100 that come with a stand and pop filter put many of you will want to go with a dedicated home studio setup and invest in a Boom Arm.

A boom arm is a mountable bracket for your podcast mic so you can have it suspended in mid-air. These not only look seriously cool... but they help with your microphones audio.

Good quality boom arms reduce vibration, meaning a clearer and less interrupted sound.

It also has the added bonus of making you feel like you have a rockstar home studio.

Something that is very important to reducing 'Plosives' which are the strong sounding S's and V's that give that sharp high pitched sound when recording is to use a Pop Filter.

These help to reduce the impact plosives have on the microphone making for a better listening experience.

Here's our recommendation for the Boom arms (remember to always check compatibility with your microphone and a boom arm before purchasing as I haven't used a boom arm I'm going purely on recommendations from my other podcast friends on this one).

Quick note for Blue Yeti Users:

Mounting a Blue Yeti on a Boom Arm

Now, for the question on mounting a Blue Yeti microphone on a boom arm, Blue microphones actually sell their own shock mount that will allow just that.

The Radius Shockmount is custom built for the Blue Yeti and the Blue Yeti pro and will let you put it on any microphone stand or boom arm. Easy!

Boom Arm Recommendation:

Recommended: Neewer NW-35 Metal Suspension Boom Scissor Arm Stand - $20-$30

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https://amzn.to/2Hw0s5W⁠

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Advanced: RODE PSA 1 Swivel Mount Studio Microphone Boom Arm - $90-$100

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https://amzn.to/2VW5VvW⁠

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Pop Filter Recommendation

Recommended: Nady MPF-6 6-Inch Clamp On Microphone Pop Filter - $10-$20

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https://amzn.to/2VSMbcE⁠

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Advanced: Stedman Corporation Proscreen XL ($70-$90)

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https://amzn.to/2EnHZGM⁠

When it comes to getting started with equipment, that's about all you need folks! Let us know in the Facebook group if you have any specific questions about the equipment.

For me personally my podcast setup is very basic:

ATR 2100 USB microphone

Nady Pop Filter

ATR 2100 Stand (the one that comes with the microphone)

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Pre-Training Day 4: Easy Equipment Guide & In-House Audio SetupPre-Training Day 4: Easy Equipment Guide & In-House Audio Setup