Top 10 Podcasting Mistakes (Part 5)

5. Inferior Equipment

One huge plus for podcasting is that you can do it with little more than Garage Band and your laptop's internal mic.

One huge negative for podcasting is that you can do it with little more than Garage Band and your laptop's internal mic.

The very first podcast I ever did was in January of 2005 with writer JJ Sullivan. GREAT content. UNBELIEVABLY bad quality. As I attempted to do the edits, I was so mortified by the sound quality that I just stopped. So it's somewhere deep in the recesses of my laptop's audio files, never to be retrieved.

I ruined a wonderful conversation because I made the mistake of using a combined total of $50 worth of recording equipment. Horrible move.

You don't have to have thousands of dollars of mics, headphones, and software, but investing a couple of hundred bucks in a solid mic, popscreen and set of headphones will take the sound quality of your recordings up several orders of magnitude.

Oh, and pleeeease make sure you're in as dead a room as possible. Think: Closet not kitchen.

Note: Although you don't HAVE to have high end headphones, listening to the new Amos Lee on a set of our studio headphones while blogging late at night is a SPECTACULAR experience. Feel free to be jealous.

Also See:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

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Comments

[Jay (the other Jay)]

I believe I was there for the JJ Sullivan debacle. The great thing about that was we had the dude convinced that we were legit. And we were! Did we pick up everything we needed in 5 minutes at Radio Shack.

Good stuff.

[Jay Kelly]

I wasn't trying to leave you out of the spotlight. I was trying to protect you from the embarrassment. And yes, everything from the Radio Shack at 2nd and Bryant. Oh the shame . . .

[jen]

i am oh so in love with amos lee :)

[Stephen Neill]

Update - A very helpful member of the team just spoke to me and I look forward to joining this community
Stephen