Essential Podcasting Gear for 2024: What You Need and What You Don’t – PCI 418

Welcome to Podcast Insider. I'm Tod Cochran, founder of Blueberry. And I'm Mike Dell, the VP of customer relations here at Blueberry Podcasting. And today, we're going to be talking about podcast gear, what you need and what you don't need, and what is available for us here in 2024.

You're listening to Podcast Insider hosted by Mike Dell, Todd Cochran, and Mackenzie Bennett from the Blueberry team, bringing you weekly insights, advice, and insider tips and tricks to help you start, grow, and thrive through podcasting with all the support of your team here at Blueberry Podcasting.

Welcome. Let's dive in. Well, I tell you, Mike, podcasting gear just continues to evolve, and I just I almost salivate at the thought of having to been able to have had this type of gear back in the day. Oh, yeah. I you know, just that RODECaster when it first came out a few years ago. Yeah. Oh my gosh. You know, I had this rack of audio gear, and the RODECaster replaced all of that. It it was just it was amazing.

And and, you know, we'll talk a little about it later in the episode today, but, you know, I've got a rack of gear here to do video and something just came out actually today that just would change that whole operation, you know, if I was to rebuild the studio again. But, you know, podcasting gear can be really expensive or, you know, pretty, I wouldn't say cheap but inexpensive. Yeah. Inexpensive

is the right word. Yeah. And, you know, your choice really depends on how you plan to record your show, audio or video. And of course, it's much easier to get high quality audio today than it was back in the day. Number 1, we can encode it a much higher rate. But as podcasters, we love to geek out on our gear. So we're gonna do that a little bit today. And, of course, the essence of any good podcast starts with a microphone. Oh, yeah.

And, luckily, today, there are many options to consider at price ranges that go all across the board with minimal differences in sound quality. I guess that's the best way to say it. Yeah. For sure. You know, you could get you could start with something as simple as a dynamic USB microphone and then graduate up to having a mixer or, you know, one of the RODEcasters or something like that.

But, you know, to get started, to get decent audio, you know, one of one of my favorite mics I like to tell people that are just starting out, and they're not sure they're gonna really be in it for the long run. They just wanna, you know, get in and, you know, wet their feet. I I'd say, you know, the Samsung q 2u or the Audio Technica ATR 21100. And what's cool about those microphones, and they're virtually identical, they have both USB and XLR.

So if you wanna start with the USB and then graduate up to a mixer or something, you can do that with these microphones, and, you know, they sound really, really good for the cost. And, you know, they're what about 50 to $80. Sometimes you can catch them on sale a little cheaper, and they're they're just handy little microphones. You know, I I keep an ATR in my travel bag. I you never know when opportunities gonna strike, and I just, you know, plug it into my computer and in a way I go.

It's really that simple with the with the a t r or even the Samsung q two u. Of course, there's additional USB mics that are out there that are good. One that has gained some popularity is the Rode PodMic. I've tested that mic. It's not for me, but it's a decent mic for a $199, and it can do USB or

XLR. Now where I've kind of found the sweet spot for me, and it's what I use at my desk for work for doing, you know, recording screen screencast or doing interviews or something where I don't wanna fire the full blown studio up and, of course, you know, that that's a whole another story because I do have a full blown studio, but that that Shure MV 7 which will also do USB and XLR at $275

is a great mic. And here's the beauty about that particular mic and it serves a dual purpose is I can plug it into a little device that you and I both have and get exceptional audio out of it, or plug it into my XLR and not have just as much control on gain and noise background. But really, that combination with that Shure and maybe you can talk a little bit about the device we're talking about, the PodMobile,

is just just a killer combination. Now I that mic, the way it's configured is, you know, was good for using a variety of online platforms to record with, but I tell you that that that's your m v 7. I like that mic a lot. Yeah. That is a a great microphone. Mackenzie uses that as her main microphone. So whenever you hear her, she's on an MV 7. And, you know, there's several different models of

it. Some of them don't have the XLR capability, but the MV 7 plus is the one that I would go for, if I was to get one of those. But, again, I have a little bit different mobile setup, but we'll talk about that a little bit later. You know, one of the popular microphones is the Electro Voice RE 3 20. You know, guys like Dave Jackson and a bunch of bunch of them use those, and

they're really, really good mics. And considering what the real version of that, the r e twenty cost, it's, you know, it's $150 less at 299. Right. But you have to have an XLR mixer or USB interface that runs XLR. It does not require a preamp, you know, as as the the next couple microphones we're gonna talk about. Another one that was real popular way back was the p r 40 from Heil. It's still a great microphone. I use one on my ham radio. So I've got one of in a box, you know. And here's what I

found with the Heil PR 40. Either you love it or you hate it. Yeah. And to be honest with you, you know, if you're podcaster that doesn't know what mic to buy out of the gate, I would say stay away from this one from a unless you've been able to test this mic with somebody with somebody's rig, they'll put a put set a headset on. But almost universally, the mic that everyone loves and the one that I'm using right now is the Shure SM7B.

Again, it's an XLR only mic, comes in at 399, but I'm very rare to have found anyone that doesn't like that mic. And it's a it's a sister to actually the it's the parent of the Shure MV 7 Plus. So Yep. For sure. SM 7 B has been around a long time. It's a great mic but at a great price as well. And then, of course, you you reflected with r a 20 at $450. That's really, really getting up there even that your s m 7 b at 399.

But to be honest with you, if you want the best of the both worlds, if I was a brand new podcaster, I was guarantee I'm gonna do shows for for at least a couple of years. The 2 choices I would go with would either be the ATR 21 100 or the Shure MV 7. That would be my top two picks in the stack for a for a new podcaster and that and best thing about the Audio Technica, if you do upgrade to the sheer m v 7 later, that Audio Technica can do just like I do.

It goes in my bag and can be used really anywhere to record a podcast as long as you have a Right. Computer with you. Well, if you walk into any radio station, you're gonna find 1 of 2 microphones at the, you know, the DJ console there. That's gonna be either the SM 7 B or the ElectroVoice RE 20. The the thing about microphones, though, is your your voice may not sound good on all microphones, but the SM 7 B and the MV 7 and the RE 20 all seem to work pretty well with most voices.

Back to the PR 40, female voices don't sound as good on the PR 40. There is another Heil called the PR 30 that was specifically designed for that. So you might look at that microphone as well, but, you know, your mileage may vary. Well, what's funny, Mike, is the p r 30, I do like. The p r 40 for my voice Yeah. Is not a good match. So again, I think, you know, disregard, you know, nothing to take away from the Heyo microphone, but I think you should test it before you before you buy it.

Podcast events have been good in the past for doing that. It it doesn't mean that Heil will always be in an event, but Yeah. Go to b s w booth, you know, a lot of these events and they'll have a whole bunch of microphones set up. Now one suggestion to start with is do not, and I repeat, do not use a condenser mic unless you really know what you're doing. I have I used a condenser mic for probably 10 years. I love my condenser mic. It was very, very expensive.

I've got that in a box now even though I have almost a better controlled environment now than I did before. But, yeah, you really have to know what you're doing to use a condenser. And another thing too with condensers is guaranteed absolutely almost in all cases, you're gonna have to have a mixer like the RODEcaster or something similar. But, again, I I don't recommend it unless you are really an expert and know what you're doing.

And if you're if you are that person, you don't even need to listen to this episode except for what we got coming next. Right. Right. And and one one thing kind of a joke inside joke amongst podcaster gearheads. If you walk into a Best Buy and look for a podcast microphone, 9 times out of 10, you're gonna find a thing called the Blue Yeti. Blue Yeti can be an awesome microphone, but very few people I know of that can use 1 and get away with it. Yeah.

If you're talking into the top of your Blue Yeti, you're using it wrong. Yeah. But I I my saying and it, you know, it raises eyebrows at times, but podcasters don't let podcasters use a Bluet YETI. So, yeah, definitely not on a recommendation list at all. I I did find a really good use for 1. I sometimes play bluegrass with a bunch of friends, and if you set one of those right in the middle of the room with a bunch of acoustic instruments, it actually comes out okay. I'm sure. And that's what

it's designed. It's designed if you have people around a tight kitchen table and talking into it, but it yeah. Again, use case use case. If you're a single show or a even a dual host show, this is not the mic for you for sure. And we were talking about the mixers and interfaces.

You know? So if you're gonna be using, you know, some of these higher end microphones or even the ATRs and and Q2Us and that kind of stuff, and you wanna go a little bit deeper into, you know, mixing stuff and and all that or you have more than 1 person in the room. These USB interfaces work pretty good. Focusrite has you know, I use a Solo on on another computer. It's a decent interface for one XLR microphone, plugs in USB.

They do make other ones that have 2 or more interface, you know, 2 or 2 or more microphones that you can plug in, but it's a a good simple step. It doesn't work with the high powered mics, you know, like the SM 7 b and the RE 20 that require a little bit more preamp, but it it works decently with with everything else. No problem whatsoever. It does not have any fax or anything, so you won't get a noise gate or,

you know, anything like that. But it's a good basic interface if you wanna use an XLR only mic with your computer or you got more than one person, that kind of stuff. And this is this is what you're currently using. Oh, this is the next one. I'm currently on a Mackie mixer. I've been a big fan of Mackie mixers and, you know, but there has been

that a line drawn in the sand. Well, you know, the Mackie mixer I have today is not the same as the Mackie mix is being built now because Rode actually bought Mackie. And so you can see a lot of the changes in the Mackie mixer space looking a little bit and migrating to kind of that RODE RODE RODECaster look. It still kinda got its unique Mackie, but I think

RODE has actually improved the Mackie brand. Now Mackie brand is basically it can go anywhere from, like like, 4 channels to, you know, like, 40. You know, they've got the and these are, you know, for big monster concert productions. So they've got smaller mixers now that are really designed kind of in that same broadcaster class to be able to take them on the go or take up a little bit of room. And in some of the Mackie mixers also

have USB input. So there's a whole line now of Mackie mixers that are similar to to the RODEcaster. So I think you have to keep an eye out on what you want your use case for. I really think that it's, you know, it's a an acquisition that Rode made that is really probably in increase the value of the Mackie line. Of course, you know, Mike you're using a Rodecaster. I have a matter of fact, I have a Rodecaster here. I have a Rodecaster in my studio that I have overseas.

All three models, the Rodecaster Pro, Rodecaster Pro 2, and the Rodecaster Dual, which the Rodecaster Dual is the one I have in my mini studio overseas is the, it's the one I run there. Now here in the studio here what I use RODECaster for some unique integrations when I'm doing big big productions, but my Mackie mix are still kind of the go to through all the outputs and, you know, I can run what we're running right now. I can have up to 4 people in and we can do a mix minus. I

can have people on screen. So my my whole setup is really designed for a different type of production, but, again, you can't go wrong with the Mackie or Roadcaster. Of course, you can go small. And, Mike, you and I both have had a little experience with Zoom, but I don't have a current Zoom product. Yeah. I have a a, you know, Zoom, just the recorder thing, and it allows 2

microphones or whatever. But the the one that I would recommend that people get if that's gonna be your main interface would be the PodTrak p 4 from Zoom, not the company that does the the networking software, but, you know, this is a a physical recorder. It's really portable. You can have up to 4 mics as a built in recorder, and it's kinda like a a a very dumbed down version of the, RodeCaster. You know? But it's like in a, you know, portable little thing. And that

little device can serve two purposes. If you're gonna take it mobile and you're gonna, you know, like, go interview somebody at their office or whatever, this is this is the perfect little device for that. Plus, it works as a USB interface on your computer, so it's it's it's pretty slick all the way around. So that kind of wraps up our list. We'll have some other devices in the in the show notes that you'll wanna take a look at.

But, Mike, you know, I I referred to the PodMobile, and you had a conversation with Fernando, the creator of this device. I I was turned on to this Audio Sigma product by just a one man shop more than a year ago. A matter of fact, I I turned I basically introduced him to Adam Curry and and Adam and him collaborated a little bit and then they had he's got a new product line now. So I've got his first of gen 1 and I got his gen 2 product which is now available via VSW.

You're gonna have a great conversation with him, but I am gonna tell all of you that are listening today. This by far is the most slick piece of single piece gear that I probably have ever used. It's really designed

for 1 or 2 people. You can do more that are that are together, but the version that if you just wanna have a great interface connect to Zoom or to StreamYard or to OBS or vMix or whatever you're gonna be doing, connecting and doing a a recording of a podcast, this is device that takes up no more than, like, 4 by 5 inches. Yeah. It's real small. In fact, in fact, I'm not using the Rodecaster today. I am on the PodMobile. So you're on the PodMobile. Yeah. I this is a great

great product. Fernando's gonna go into this at the end of the episode today. If if nothing else, don't miss the discussion with him. But we do wanna talk about video. Yes. Videos seems to be, you know, a lot of people wanna do it now. Yeah. You know, and be honest with you, I've been doing video a long time. If I was starting today, there's no way I would build it the way I have it now. It's just no way. I I invested a huge amount of money.

I mean, an insane amount of money and upgrading through the years different types of TriCasters and, you know, my insurance bill reflects that investment. But if that TriCaster flips overs and dies tonight, I will not even have I won't shed a tear. I might shed a tear on the investment that I made that I want to last a number more years, but I would be back up for the next show and no one would even know that on the video side that we had switched gears. Matter of fact, it might even be a

little bit cleaner. My desk could be a lot cleaner for sure. Power bill probably go down too. Potentially, yes. For sure. But there's just a lot of options now. And here's the thing to think about on video and the thing that I always stress, people will forgive you, for bad video. They won't forget you for bad audio, but there's no reason today to have bad video. There's great USB webcams out there. Even some of the web cams that come in

computers today are pretty doggone good. Also, if you want to have a little bit step up, a little bit bigger glass and and more lens, older camcorders, believe it or not, with a HDMI out, using conjunction with a product called Cam Link, where it does a HDMI to USB converter can give you exceptional video and a a different angle of view. Usually, camcorders are a little bit wider view than what the camcorders are, but you can zoom

and get the perfect shot. Yeah. And they they deal with light a lot better than than, say, their normal webcam. They do. So for for the majority of you out there, don't go buy no gear for your video to start off with. Maybe the cam on your computer is gonna be good or just grab, you know, if you've got a camcorder in the house. Again, it's got an HDMI out and connected to a Cam Link adapter. It plugs in and the computer will recognize it just as if it was a USB camera.

And, of course, there's a ton, I mean, just an absolute metric ton of software out there now Yeah. That works with USB cameras. Now there's one company that has recently increased their prices dramatically. Yeah. And we removed them from the list. We're not gonna talk about them, but there's stuff out there for free and some stuff at a very low cost. OBS, completely open source. Yeah. And that runs directly on your computer not it's not a over the web thing like some of these others.

Yep. VMix is another one that is is a paid software package. You can buy the package and do monthly. Not too bad on the base product. A lot of people don't know about vMix but it's good if you want to run multiple cameras. VMix may not be the way to go. We've got a new product on the market that is announced today. We'll talk about Restream. That's who I use to basically send my video stream to and then they Restream to

multiple locations. I go to YouTube, Facebook, x, some other locations, LinkedIn. And Restream, believe it or not, has a really great studio product that a lot of people aren't even aware of. So Restream dot I plain old Zoom. Zoom works great. And it'll allow you to stream to Facebook and a couple other places if you set it up right. Yeah. And,

again, there's lots of other audio and video recording services out there, but I think from the majority of folks, they're probably now using OBS vMix, Restream, Zoom. Mike, you use Rumble Studio. Right? Yeah. And, you know, what's cool about Rumble Studio is it's it's free, and you can also stream to other places, but, you know, not it's not for everybody. You know, I think it'll do x and Facebook and few other places. So it's kinda like Restream, but it it runs in the browser.

It's it's pretty pretty simple. So within an hour of this us recording this today, we got the announcement that they have a new product out called a Rode does called the RodeCaster Video. Now they had something before was called the Rode Streamer, a pretty decent product. I think it was available for 299, and I don't know if they're gonna discontinue it, but this new Rodecaster and the Rodestreamer would do, I think, 2 video sources.

This brand new Rodecaster video, I I believe, and I haven't read all the documentation, but a minimum of 6 video sources. The video source could be a computer screen, a camera, bringing someone in from another connection. Again, I haven't read all of the all of the features, but when I, you know, posted up on Facebook, everyone's just weighing and go like, wow. My god. It is pricey. $2,390. Yeah. When you compare it to it with

the setup you have, it's cheap. Oh, this would this would be a complete replacement for what I have today and how I use my system today. There might be a few exceptions, but I just need to go in and look at it. The one thing I like about my TriCasters is I can, like, when I do the podcast award show, I can have 30 videos queued and I can cross back and forth back and forth and run those videos as the show line progresses. I don't know if this unit will do

it. I'm sure there's a way. Yeah. I guess it would all depend on how much storage on board and how they handle external media or internal media. But if for the average person that is just wanting to do live, that RODE streamer is probably enough, but this brand new RODEcaster video, I I might I got an email from B&H within minutes of getting the other notification. I ordered it sight unseen. Nice. Well, you'll have to give us a

report. Yeah. It'll be here Friday. So, you know, I've got a lot of stuff to do this weekend. I may not get to, you know, getting it out and playing with it, but I yeah. I'm gonna take it with me and to use it there'll be overkill to use my other studio when I go overseas. We'll see how that works out. But again, lots of options to do video, and you don't have to break the bank. Now that No. Broadcaster video is gonna hurt the credit card.

Oh, for sure. And, you know, and, again, you know, it's it depends on, you know, how much you're gonna do. You know? If you're just gonna, you know, live record your audio podcast and you just want the talking head video, your webcam's probably good enough. And then your podcast setup that you use anyway for audio is the same thing that'll feed the video, and Yep. You know, it'll it'll be great. So, you know, don't don't go out and spend a whole bunch of money until you're sure you wanna keep

doing it. You know, video is a lot of work. Yeah. It is a lot of work. And and to be honest with you, if you look at my mission control here, my god, you know, it it does, you know, people that see see me stream live, they don't see all the other stuff that's happening here but, you know, it's it it you can go down a rabbit hole pretty quick and depending on what level of stuff and it's still I'm not a I'm not a famous YouTuber folks. You know, people listen to my show and watch my show via

podcast apps. They don't via YouTube. So that gives you, you know, a little clue. You can build it, but it's not guaranteed that they're gonna come. Yep. For sure. And, you know, like I said, the video is is is fun. You know? Especially going live sometimes is fun. You know? I'm doing that here coming up soon for a milestone anniversary, and, you know, it it's just fun. I don't do it all the time. You know, I have a face for radio, like I said, but do what

you want. There's no rules. That's the great thing. So I think that's gonna wrap us up. We've covered a lot of ground here, and you guys have got to hang out. Don't leave. No. No. Because we have this great interview. And this gentleman, if you choose to support him, he has there's very few people that I just endorse outright. I love Fernando and what he's doing. Yeah. It's a it's a great product and he's a great guy. Yeah. And it again, it's the AudioSigma

Pod Mobile. He's got a couple of devices out. You guys have covered that in the interview, but I think that wraps us up and we'll turn it over to you and you and Fernando. Fernando, welcome to the show. Hi, Mike. Yeah. It's good to have you on here. And like I said, we we talked about your devices there on this episode, but I figured we'd get it right from the horse's mouth. So Sounds great. Yeah. So you you're basically the what do you call it? Inventor

or producer? How how do how do you describe yourself when it comes to the Pod Mobile and the Mic Hero? Well, certainly, I designed both of them, but, you know, the Mic Hero, for example, was not everything there was my idea. There were there were things that I got feedback from the voice over guys community and, you know, the pod mobile for example, the mix button loop back also had input from Adam Curry. So I don't wanna say I'm the author of it, you know, because not all

of it was my idea. So I think I was blessed with, you know, people that were really awesome to give me, like, constructive input. So, certainly, I am the solo engineer of it, though. You know, every single component on the circuit board and and every line of code is I wrote it. So and and and designed the schematics and board. And yeah. So I'm I'm basically your your guy if you have any questions. For sure. I've been using it now for almost a month,

I think. Wow. Yeah. You hand it So you really know what you oh, that's fantastic. That's so good. Yeah. Fernando and I met met at the hotel there in DC for podcast movement. Right. And he reached down in his bag and handed me this little package and said, hey. Try this thing out, see if you like it. And I've been doing it ever since. I think we've recorded at least 6 or 7 episodes with it, and so far so good. I love it. Oh, wow. What what do you like most about it? Well, it's like it's nice and

simple, and it's small on my desk. And the other cool thing is I can unplug it, stick it in my backpack, and plug my iPhone into it, and it works the same as it does on the computer. I you know, like I said, I've been, you know, a Rodecaster Pro 2 user, and that's a great device. But, yeah, no. This is way simpler. I love it. And I guess we should go back and explain exactly what it is.

Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Wow. Okay. I think it's the easiest way to define it is if you hand the if you give this to someone on the street with, you know, a headphone and a microphone, they're ready they're they're ready to start their podcast sitting on the sidewalk without any instructions. Yeah. I I barely got any instructions, and I I seem to have managed mostly. Mhmm. Yeah. It's extremely simple to use. Four knobs. You know? I mean, actually, 2 knobs, really, because, you know,

there's a channel 1, channel 2. And Yeah. It's a it had no problem. It's basically a 2 channel I wouldn't call it a mixer, but, like, a USB interface, but it has a lot of processing in it. This denoiser thing is amazing. Oh, wow. You know, explain explain what that does. Okay. Well, I like that you brought brought up the term audio interface, and I call it a podcasting audio interface. So so audio interfaces are audio interfaces. So why is it podcasting on interface?

Truly, our interfaces are usually very generic and trying to do everything, you know, you can plug in your guitar and your microphone and whatever you want. And this is not that. This is really just designed for podcasting alone. So it's got, as you mentioned, a lot of processing. Everything that is useful for a podcast will sound great. So from compression, so expansion where you're using most of the available audio amplitude, so to speak. You like, you always

sound present and forward, but never peaking. So you have that.

You have equalization. You have a denoise algorithm as well where, you know, if you have HVAC running, fridge running, rumble of the street, it just cleans off that great greatly cleans it off. So it was just basically designed to be extremely portable, absolutely obvious to use, and and yet give you that radio voice, the podcasting voice that, you know, when you see a top notch podcast, that's what it

sounds like. And that's, you know, hopefully, that's if I don't know my job right, you will sound like that or very close to that by just, you know, hitting a couple of buttons on this thing. Yeah. I did it. You know, you get you gave me that, like, the 2nd night of the show, and I actually sat in, you know, at the booth, plugged it into my iPad with a with a dynamic microphone, and it made all the noise go away. I I did a few sample recordings, and I was just absolutely amazed

with that denoiser. And and and it you know, don't think of it as a a box that's got, you know, a ton of sliders and knobs. We'll have pictures of it in the in the show notes, and, of course, link back to Fernando's site there, but it's super simple. There's a couple of buttons, a couple of knobs, you know, mostly a gain knob and a and a headphone volume knob for each channel.

And Mhmm. And just a couple of buttons and, you know, it all kinda does it all magically, you know, with with the RodeCaster or a Mackie Mixer or something like that, you gotta fiddle with all these buttons and knobs and Right. And all this stuff, and this just takes all that away. Yeah. It doesn't take much figuring it out. You know? As I mentioned, I'm a fan of the simple, and, you know, if I can I always try to create something that you don't need a manual to operate?

You know? That is like, if you read, it's gonna be good, you know, but you don't need one. And, yeah. It it was a clean clean sheet design, you could say, because I started this without having ever bought any other product. So it's not like I got, let's say, kinda, you know, influenced by other, you know, what he would say, competitors. Although, you know, I don't think this really competes. I mean, it overlaps in utilization, but it's kind of a thing of its own.

So I don't think there's any direct competitor competitors. No. Not that I can think of. I mean, you know, the closest thing would be like a RODEcaster or something like that. And but the RODEcaster does other things, you know, where this is just simply getting the microphone to sound decent into a computer, into an iPhone, into whatever.

And it another thing I love about it is no power supply. It pulls off the USB or, you know, even your phone or your iPad or or whatever. And the voice quality is the same, you know, into the note you know, the what is it? Voice notes and and iOS as it is, you know, here we're using Clean Feed today. And, you know, both of us are on the device, I'm sure. Yes. And, you know, it's just I don't know. You know? This is something that, you know, Adam was talking about several

years ago. You know? Something that is simple and all that. And he tried to produce 1 and, you know, definitely, I wouldn't call it a failure. The the prototype that he built was pretty good, but it wasn't simple like this. Yeah. I it's funny that we met years later after his initial effort, and, you know, basically, what he told me is that, oh, you basically did what I wanted to do. Yeah. And but, you know, I think he never hit the target

cost with that. It was a little bit on the expensive side, so kinda ended up not being competitive enough or something like that where this is, you know, affordable. Yeah. Definitely. Less than the RODECaster. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. And, you know, the the the other thing you can do with this so you'd say you are gonna record somewhere and you need more than 2 microphones. You know, explain how these things network together. Yes. The I'm so glad you brought that up because

I was going to forget. So well, it's 2 2 channel and, you know, sometimes you you wanna have 3, 4 people on a pow on a podcast. And one thing I didn't want to run into is, let's say, you have your pod mobile. You love it. It's perfect for what you do, but dang it. Now you need another

person or 2 in your podcast. And for that reason, you need to shelf this device and buy something else and get, you know, acquainted with a new device all over again, relearn the whole thing, just all that, you know, and then, of course, your Podmole is just collecting dust at that point. So I created this little expansion port, which, you know, if you have 1 and I have 1, we can simply put a little Ethernet cable

between them. You know? And luckily, they sell on Amazon, for example, those thin, Ethernet cables that, you know, it's kinda like a really flexible thin wire, so it's not the thick thing. And, when you plug between the 2 of them, they work as a bigger device, so everything applies and nothing changes. So the same game settings, the same functions, all of it, except that you have more channels and more people this time. So you can link them, and you can

link up to 5 of them. So it can go from 2 people up to 10, and, you don't need to provide extra power. You can even, you know, run 5 of them from 1 USB c connector. So that's kinda wild. But, usually, I I think, you know, 2 up to 3 devices linked together, it's where most of that will be used, hopefully, you know, 2 to 2 up to 6 people. Yeah. But there's some virtually no limit. You know? Like, 10 people, you can do 10 people with POND

mobiles. Of course, we will need 5 devices, but don't know how cost effective it is at that point. At some point, it it yeah. Yeah. But, you know, you know, having 2 of them would would make sense for somebody that that that, you know, has more than 2 people on a podcast or or, you know, especially remote recording. You know? I I've I've got a Zoom h 5 recorder, and whenever I've done mobile before that, I would take that, and that's a 2 channel.

You can have more channels in there. You can use that big, ugly condenser mic on the top, which, you know, picks up everything. Everything. Yeah. Or you have a couple of these, and you could have 4 microphones, 4 people. They can be in a noisy area, and that denoiser thing will will definitely help with that. You know, sometimes you want a little ambiance in in the recording, but, you know, with the with that Zoom recorder I have, you know, you get all the ambiance. Right.

You know, it's cool in some but, yeah, I'm I'm gonna be packing this thing. I'm not you know, that Zoom recorder is gonna be sitting on the shelf getting dust. Yeah. And the thing about the Pod Mobile is that, as you mentioned, you don't need, you know, batteries. You don't need external power. So you never run out. You never forget to charge. You never have to replace batteries.

You know? It's super efficient. So it basically takes the USB power and, you know, creates its own power rails inside through a boost power supply and phantom power as well, everything. Yeah. And, you don't have to worry about getting anything charged up in advance or, you know, consuming expensive batteries is just not a

thing. So Right. And, you know, here in the studio, I have a Shure SM 7 B, which famously usually needs a an extra power supply or an extra preamp, you know, to lift it up, like a Cloudlifter or a FetHead, something like that. And this thing takes care of it and and just plugged directly into it with this SM 7 b, and it sounds just as good as, you know, anything else I've ever had with the FetHead plugged in.

Yeah. Yeah. You you absolutely can use the SM 7 b directly connected to the Pod Mobile without any activators, and that saves quite a bit of money. You know? Like, I mean, I think the Fed has, like, $89. The Cloudlifters Something like that. Yeah. 200. I don't remember what I paid for this thing, but Yeah. You know, that's what I I had to use that with my Zoom recorder because, you know, the they wouldn't power this or my RE 20, you know, because it just requires a lot more

gain or or oops. I just dropped the thing on the table. Anyway but, yeah, like I said, this this device is something else. Now I know the, the Mic Hero isn't isn't really a podcaster sort of thing, but for voice over, what what is the difference between the two devices? Are they completely different? Yeah. Okay. That's such a good question. And I need to do a better job at making that clear so people don't buy what what they the wrong device, let's say.

But let's start with the application. With voice over, you want the absolute lowest possible background noise, and you also want I mean and I'm I'm talking about hissing at that point, not even background like ambiance. I'm talking about electrical noise. And, also, you want a recording headroom. You know, usually, they set their gain, let's say, minus 10 dBs. Mhmm. You know, at the, you know, at their loudest or, you know, they want all that headroom.

They also want very natural sounding voice. You know, a lot of people, they don't want any cue. They don't want any compression. They don't want anything. They just want the voice clear, crystal clear, and, so then after recording, you can add in whatever you want. You can add your own cue, compression if it needs to be. So, basically, you want raw, high fidelity, and and extremely low noise floor. Usually, they use condenser microphones or shotgun microphones.

You know? Dynamic mics aren't really I mean, you can use it, but it's usually not used while they're using it. Podcast recording. Most most people use the con or the dynamic. Right. So you get the VO, the voice over, and you flip everything around, and you get the podcast in which you use dynamic mics to begin with. Now you do want compression. You do want queue. Like, everything that you don't want for VO, you want for podcasting, basically.

So, you know, like, instead of trying to do one thing that does everything well and either it will not happen or you will have to go through a bunch of settings to set it right to your application. I just made 2 separate devices, you know, so the PodMobile has this compression where, for example right now, I'm speaking about 5 inches away from my mic, but I'm gonna just get close to it. And I am literally speaking into my mic, and I'm not blowing up. No. You

know? Sounds great. Right. And I and now, like, in in between, and I'm moving around, and you cannot even tell that I'm moving around much. All that is because of this compression that is that I designed for podcasting. I literally spend time listening to podcasts and adjusting this compression to sound just like the podcast that I enjoy the sound the most. So that is fixed. You know? You can't really change it. And you give it to a voice over artist, for example, they'll be like, no. I

don't want that. Yeah. There's too too much. Yeah. They like a nice clean you know? And then they can manipulate it as needed afterwards. So, yeah, 2 different devices for 2 very different use cases. You would think audio would be audio, but, that that makes sense. I I would have never thought of it that way. Yeah. And then in the other hand, you give this to a podcaster, and they're like, gosh. I'm dialed in from the get go. It's like I don't even

know. I don't need to know anymore. I just plug, start, and it sounds great. I'm totally happy with this, and I don't need to mess up with any settings or anything. So, yes, very different devices. So the Mic Hero is not the 1 1 channel version of the Pod Mobile, and the Pod Mobile is not the 2 channel version of the Mic Hero. These are not to be confused, and the Pod Mobile is just awesome for podcasting, and the Mic Hero is not good for VO. It's just not good for voice over.

And and the Mic Hero is awesome for voice over. However, it can be awesome for podcasting as well because it allows you to activate this sort of compression and EQ. You have all the options to add those in. So, you know, the Pod Mobile, you have all that dialed in from factory, so to speak, and you can't deactivate those things. And that makes it unsuitable for voice over, but excellent for podcasting. And the other advantage of that also is that you can expand

the number of participants. So you buy 1, you have 2 people, you know, participate in your podcast, but later on down the road, you can always buy another one or have a friend that has one come link the theirs with yours. And now you have 4 people, so it's endlessly expansible expandable. Yeah. And it works with all you. You know, it works with all the recording apps and, you know, just the the whole thing.

I use it for Zoom. You know, when I'm on a Zoom call, you know, that's that's the microphone I have at my desk and, you know, Zoom phone, and and, you know, we're using Clean Feed today. It works with that. It it, you know, just it's it's another USB microphone as far as your computer's concerned, so it's it's Absolutely. Super easy. Yeah. And the Mic Hero is perfect for voice over.

It's got things like antiplosive, and, I mean, it's just more complete for voice over and but you can absolutely use it for podcasting. So PodMobile, podcasting only. My Hero, voice over and solo casting. Right? Because there's only one person and it's not expensable. So expandable. And, you know, and the other thing was yeah. And the other thing with the My Hero, if I'm reading it correctly, you know, if you do all this post processing yourself for your podcast, that might

be the way to go. Mhmm. You know? Because and then if you're also a VO guy, well, use it for that. Yeah. Yeah. If you're a one one person podcaster, get the mic hero, you know, because, yeah, it will it will do the VO and the podcasting. If you wanna, you know, if you have, like, say for example, you and your wife, you and your friend doing a podcast, then get the pod mobile. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so the the overall company is Audio Sigma? Is that how you're

going to do it? Okay. And Mhmm. And I I heard you say something about you're kind of in partnership with BSW for distribution. Correct. Yeah. They've been amazing. And, yeah, since March 2023, they've been just absolutely awesome to work with. And they have actually a podcasting package with the Pod Mobile. So if you yeah. It's great. I mean, they they put it together. 2 Auto Technica dynamic mics, 2 headphones, the PodMobile mic stands,

and really affordable. I think it's under $600 for the whole thing. So, yeah, it it it's just like, you know, if you don't know if if starting from scratch, gosh, like, if you want that sound that we have now, like, just go get that. It'd be perfect, and it fits the budget so well. It's ridiculous. Yeah. You know, back when I started podcasting almost 20 years ago, believe that or not Wow. It it was a lot harder to do everything in podcasting, and recording was one of

the things. You know, my first probably 30 episodes was recorded on a on a stick microphone plugged into my laptop, and, I mean, they were terrible. And I've always dreamed of having, you know, just turn it on and go. And Mhmm. This you know, the Rodecaster was a fir the original Rodecaster Pro was the first device that I had that this is really close. You know, this is really you know, it

sounded decent. It it was pretty easy to deal with, but there was a lot of wires and, you know, had a power supply, and it took up a lot of desk space and all. And this thing, you know, it slides under my monitor when I'm not fiddling with the knobs and buttons, which there isn't many of them, and it's out of the way. I just have a microphone, and I hit record, and

away I go. And and it's just that that's always been the dream of of, you know, a lot of podcasters that do this, you know, as a a solo show or, you know, or 2 people show or whatever that I don't have to, you know, I don't have to take 10 minutes to set up. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Start the software, hit record, and start talking. Yeah. You don't have to install an app. You don't have to install any drivers. Yeah. Yeah. Just basically plug and go. Yeah.

So so if anybody wants to read more about this, where would they go? Audiosigma.com. Okay. Audiosigma.com. Of course, we'll have a link in the show notes and price points on these things. So if I forget now. I'm not looking at the page. So Current currently, the Podmo was at 359, and, the mic here is 289. And let me check what the price is at PSW's package because

that is a very, very cost effective package. Yeah. That's a that's a you know, all you get everything you need in one box. Yes. Okay. So currently because, of course, these things can change. But Sure. Currently, a b s w, the PodMobile Pro package 2, comes with 2 microphones, 80 2040, Audio Technica, 2 headphones, 2 mic stands, 2 cables, and a PodMobile. All that for 5.29. Yeah. That's, you know, that's less than than the, I think, the cheapest Rodecaster

alone without all the money. My gosh. That's right. Yeah. That's right. I think the the headphones are also Audio Technica. Nice. That's what I'm using here. I love them. Yes. It is. Actually, it's the same headphone that I'm using now, so I vouch for those. They're great. I love Audio Technica. I think they're such a good brand. Yeah. I have a headset microphone from them, BPHS 1 that I used

to use a lot. And, you know, it's a an XLR headphone with, you know, with headphones with a, you know, XLR microphone dynamic that, you know, just stays right in front of you. And I haven't tried that with this this Pied mobile device, but I I think I probably will. That might be handy for for portable as well. You know, if you wanna do a man on the street interview or something, you you wear the headset, and then you carry around a hand mic to to ask people questions. So that'd be cool.

Yeah. That does sound great. Yeah. Lots of lots of uses for this. Well, yeah, thanks for coming on here, and, you know, we wish you the best of success. Todd's a fan. I'm a fan. We gotta get Mackenzie one of them. She's one of our other cohosts, and and I think she would sound really good on it as well. So we'll we'll definitely say good things about you, and we'll have links in the show notes. And, yeah, when you come out with something new, let us know. We'll get you back on.

That is awesome. I think the the last thing that's worth noting is that those are being built in Texas. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. I'm I'm pretty not I don't think proud is the word, but I think it's just cool. You know? That is not something just getting sourced from China, you know, like everything else, most things. I think the unit you give me, you hand built it, didn't you? Well, yes. That one was made in my bedroom. Cool. I'll have to get you the sign next time I see you.

With pleasure, my friend. Thank you so much, Mike. Alright. Well, thanks for being on. We'll go back to your regularly scheduled podcasts. Wonderful. Thanks for joining us. Come back next week. And in the meantime, head to podcast insider.com for more information, to subscribe, share, and read our show notes. To check out our latest suite of services and learn how Blueberry can help you leverage your podcast, visit blueberry.com. That's blueberry without the e's. We couldn't afford the e's.