By Stuart Last COO Audioboom
This week we opened our first podcast production studio in New York City. It immediately went into action as the team began piloting some really exciting concepts ready for this summer’s new podcast launches.
The studio looks good and sounds really really great. It’s flexible enough to use for simple voice-over work or for podcasts needing 5 on-air voices. It can connect to guests in high quality, globally allowing us to access key guests around the world. So, here’s our equipment guide to what makes a great podcast studio.
D&R Airlite Mixing Console
This console is powerful enough to drive a small radio station, and makes light work of all our podcast needs.
8 channels, 3 dedicated mic channels, EQs, pre-fades and auto-starts. Control room and guest talk-back, 2 program buses, great monitoring.
But the best thing about this is the simplicity of it’s USB connectivity. You can hook up 2 usb cables into the same PC and it does a bunch of great things; simple digital recording straight into Pro Tools or Garageband; a dedicated VOIP line with talkback to use with Skype or Facetime; 3 separate inputs from your PC so you can play music beds or jingles from a Cartwall, video sound or sfx straight from the internet, and playback recordings from your editing software.
DBX 286 Mic Processor
We us DBX 286s in the recording chain to add some nice compression to the vocals and eliminate a little of the room tone with the Gate function.
Audio-Technica AT2035 Mics
The AT2035 is a good budget condenser mic that has a crisp, responsive sound.
If you are a podcaster using a Blue Yeti USB mic consider switching to this — you’ll never go back.
YellowTec Mika Mic Arms
These were a bit of luxury for us — mainly because I hate the look of traditional mic arms that show off springs and cables. So yes, while they work great, using the Mika mic-arm was all about aesthetics.
Headphone Distribution
We use a Behringer HA400 headphone amplifier to power 4 ART Headtap taps, each with individual volume controls.
That allows 8 users to monitor via the classic Sony MDR 7508 headphones.
Monitoring
A Pyle PFA 300 amp delivers sound to Klipsch Reference RB61-II speakers.
