Paul Figgiani, founder of PodcastRigs.com and thepointpodcast.com and one of the senior production engineers for IT Conversations, presented Audio Gear for Any Budget at the Podcast Academy. According to Paul, you don’t need to spend tens of thousands of dollars on your podcast gear to make an excellent podcast

The really inexpensive way to get started is to get a Samson C01U USB Mic for $79 that plugs right into your PC

Mixers for any budget.
Tapco Mix50 provides a 5 channel mixer for $45 or the Tapco Mix100 provides a 10 channel mixer with a better equalizer for $69. The Yamaha MG10 is the next step up. The Mackie 1202 VLZ Pro is a “major workhorse”. Its durable and has excellent quality preamps – the Mackie costs about $400 or you may be able to find in on eBay for about $200.

Another great low end mixer is the Alesis Mulitmix 8USB for $79. It has a built in USB interface.

The Mackie Onyx 1220 is a 12 channel mixer with a wonderful on-board equalizer. The 1220 also supports firewire interface connections. For about $450 without firewire, firewire adds about $300

Interfaces
Edirol UA-1x USB interface supports plug in powered mic and 24 bit/96hz for $80. Tapco USB link for $150. A nicer device is the Personus Inspire 1394 at $200. The 1394 has 2 firewire ports that allow you to daisy chain firewire devices.

The Tascam FW 1804 is $400 and has midi inputs and outputs.

Mackie Onyx 400f for $700 – rack mountable, 4 channel inserts 24bit 96hz.

Microphones

KEL HM-1 costs about $100 and has a very warm sound

RODE NT 1A costs about $200 and has a somewhat brighter sound.

Ev RE-20 and Shure SM7B are professional quality mics used by a large percentage of professional broadcasters. These mics cost about $350 a piece. The Ev RE-20 seems require a really strong pre-amp to pump up the signal.

The two hot tickets of the day – HEIL PR-30 was designed with Joe Walsh of the Eagles. It costs about $250 retail and is a wonderful sounding microphone. And the HEIL PR-40 is the best of the day and has won the 2005 Radio World Cool Stuff Award. The PR-40 retails for about $325.

Get a microphone arm with a riser that allows you to have more flexibility with mic positioning. OC White is a great brand for microphone arms.

You’ll also want to get a pop stopper to cut down on wind noises and voice pops.

Signal Processors – Compressors/Limiters/Gates

The processor helps you hear your voice as it’s processed. This allows you to modulate your voice in real time.

Gates help you take out dead noise. It looks for sound below a certain level and takes it all the way down to silence when the sound drops below a certain level. This helps take out fan noise and other unwanted noise. It also helps manage unwanted noise in phone interviews.

Limiters prevent the sound level from peaking too high and causing clipping. It helps you prevent this in real time.

The compressor enables the peak noises to be compressed as they approach limits. This makes the increasing sound level fit in more smoothly.

An equalizer allows you to adjust your sound quality as you speak. Need a voice that sounds a little deeper, add some bass.

Compellors automatically adjust the gain on different sound feeds. This gives a smoother feel than a compressor which is noticeable when it first moves to compress and then when it releases it misses the change. A compellor fixes this problem by being both a compressor and a leveler.

Some devices to consider:

• The dbx 1066 and the dbx pro vocal are both about $400.
• Aphex Easyrider compressor available on ebay for less than $100.
• Aphex Expressor 661 compressor/limitor is a professional quality device.
• Aphex 20-4 aural exciter with optical big bottom at $199.
• Aphex 320A Compellor is a compressor, limiter and leveler, priced at about $1,000 at retail
• Aphex 720 Dominator II limiter sets the limits on the signal.
• Aphex 230 Vocal Processor – 2005 Radio World Cool Stuff Award winner is $600.
• Some more affordable processors are the BBE MaxCom at $199 and Tapco Sqeez SQ-2 at $120.

Headphones
Some headphones to consider

• Sennheiser HD 477 about $50
• Sony MDR 7506
• Beyerdynamic DT990 at $200
• AKG K141 Studio is one of the most popular headphones priced at less than $150

Portable recorders

TASCAM HD-P2 records up to 192kHz/24bit files to compact flash media with a list price of $1000.

Cables

Paul recommends cables from Horizon Music Inc for affordable, high quality cables. He is most concerned with durability and reliability. Cables can often be the weak link in your system, so make an investment in quality cables.

Power protection
Furman M8 power conditioner is rack mountable and provides 8 AC outlets for $50