Welcome to help me podcast. A show designed to help you launch and grow your podcast. I am your host Gino. And twice a week, I will release a new episode with different tips and tricks for launching and growing your podcast. From audio engineering to planning intentionally to growth tactics, each episode will be a bite sized tip to help you podcast.
Hey. Welcome back to Help Me Podcast. In today's episode, I wanna talk about podcasting gear, but I wanna talk about podcasting gear from the lens of being able to use your
gear. And the idea of this episode came from an experience that I had with a client, and I think it's worth talking about and worth mentioning you know, if you're out there and you're trying to purchase the gear to record your podcast, and maybe you're reading articles saying, like, this is the best microphone, and this is, you know, the best piece of gear, and this is how you should be recording your
podcast. I think one thing that really gets overlooked a lot of the times is just It is the ease of use of the gear. And can I use this gear repeatedly to record my podcast, or am I gonna be struggling with it and having to constantly Google how to fix this or how to fix that. And maybe you're just not a tech person, and you're not good with computers. And That's totally okay. And I think that should help you make the decision on which gear that
you should be purchasing to record your podcast. the story with the client is I had this person kinda reach out to me after I did a score event, which is kinda just a free seminar about podcasting. and podcast gear and that sort of thing. And this person kinda found me through that and set up a call with me. And kinda told me their situation
and where they were at. Basically, they had a bunch of gear that they spent money on, and they didn't know how to use So they were recording their podcast just through the microphone on their laptop because they didn't know how to use the equipment. So they wanted me to help them try to set up the gear, get it working, so that way they could record their podcast, with, you know, better quality and and use the
gear that they actually spent money on. So I went into this thing kinda thinking, like, you know, maybe it was gonna be a few hour consultation. I'll set up their gear. I'll show them how to use it, and I'll give them a, like, a PDF of, you know, here's the step to get this thing working. And I I guess what happened was somebody had told him to, you know, oh, you have a podcast. You should go buy this gear. And it it was an XLR microphone. It was an interface that he had and a laptop that he was
trying to hook everything up with. He had the boom arm. and the pop filters and those sort of things. But it just it wasn't set up, and he didn't know how to use it. So I went in there, and I and I set everything up for him. And, you know, it wasn't front from my perspective, and, you know, I'm pretty comfortable and familiar with audio gear. And, you know, I've been using it for a long time. And I
basically hooked everything up on his computer. I downloaded some of the drivers for the audio interface. and then I got him hooked up in Reaper because he said he wanted to be recording 2 channels at once with 2 microphones. So I downloaded Reaper. I I made a tutorial of how to use it, and, you know, we got everything working. And I made like I said, I a document for him, kind of a how to use it, how to open it up, how to record, how to render, and that sort of thing.
And then I was on my merry way, I thought that that was kinda gonna be the the last of the interaction. And then a few weeks later, he called me with something else. And, you know, now Reaper wasn't working, and something was wrong with Reaper. And then he called me again, and something else wasn't working. And It kinda be it turned into this thing where, like, I've now fixed and problem solved multiple things for this person. And I'm kinda sitting here thinking, like, This gear was not
the correct move for this person. And, you know, it's it's no I'm I'm not saying anything bad about this person. I mean, some people just aren't tech people, and that's fine. But, like, whoever told him to buy this gear, it wasn't the right choice because it is more technically involved using an Excel or microphone and, you know, recording on Reaper and doing a 2 mic setup. It's a little bit more involved than being able to just plug in a USB microphone
and turning it on, and that's it. So I I think the point of this story is it's not to bash on anybody's tech expertise or not. But the point that I'm trying to make is that if if you were to come to me first and I kinda, you know, asked him about his familiarity with recording equipment and computers and that sort of thing. And if I sensed that he didn't really have that much experience in it, I probably would have suggested
a simpler recording setup. Because now every time he goes to record his podcast and something doesn't work, now he's spending so much time trying to fix the issue just to get recording. And that can be super frustrating from his perspective. And, you know, I can relate to when I started recording, and and the first days of me even using any sort of audio recording program, just being frustrated with setting it up and having to spend so much time just getting to be able to record, and it
kinda just you know, it it takes the life out of the experience. And And, again, maybe I'm rambling here, but the the point being, like, if you have to constantly spend so much time and effort to just set up your recording gear, then maybe it's not worth it. Right? Maybe the audio quality is not worth it. Maybe if you have to record 2 people, Just get a blue yeti USB mic and turn on the omnidirectional cardio a pattern so you can
record two people with one microphone. It's not gonna sound as good as 2 individual isolated microphones, but if it means you can record your podcast repeatedly without issue or struggle, then to me, that's worth more than the little bit of audio quality that you're gonna get. So just some food for thought. as far as, you know, being able to pick the right gear for the right
person. I think it and I've said it before that, I think, picking the right gear is dependent on your your situation and and what you're trying to record and how many people who try and record and, you know, what kind of environment you're in. But this experience also got me thinking on, like, yeah, you wanna think about all of those things, but you also wanna think about what's your experience with recording gear. and
the ease of use of being able to record. Because I think as a podcaster, you have so many other things going on that you need to be able to record easily. And I think that sometimes it, you know, audio quality falls short to just ease of use in being able to use the gear that you have.
So that's my thought for today. That's my rant for today. Maybe it helps somebody out there who is maybe being peer pressured in to buying a $400 s m 7 b, which I've talked about before will lead you to all sorts of tech problems, and it's not just gonna be a plug and play thing. They're they're a little bit of a challenge to get working properly. They do sound great, but they're a little bit of a challenge to get working properly. And if you're not somebody who's familiar with audio gear, that
mic's probably not the right microphone for you to start your podcast. with. So I I I think there's more to think about than just the technical ability of the gear and, you know, technically, this microphone's better than this one. But can you use that microphone? And can you repeatably record a podcast with that microphone? I think that's a piece of the conversation that sometimes could get overlooked. So I hope
this was helpful. I hope that you have found the right recording set up for you, that you don't have to think about, and you can just turn on and start recording and get your podcast out there. So thank you for listening, and I will see you next time. We've reached the end of the episode. And if you enjoyed this podcast or you got something from it, you might be interested in my weekly newsletter that I send out every Monday morning full of podcasting
tips, tricks, and news. So if you like this show, you might like this newsletter. To sign up, just go to the show notes and click the link. Thanks for listening and happy podcasting.