If you and your co-hosts are recording in the same room, your audio options vary quite a bit. The single most important factor in starting a podcast for most folks is budget. There are plenty of areas to save money when starting a show to keep it fairly cheap, but the recording setup should be an area that you focus the majority of your budget.
The first decision to make is whether you want a single microphone that records omnidirectionally or a separate microphone for each host. A single microphone will be the simpler (and likely cheaper) method, but individual microphones will have significantly better sound quality.
A single microphone will typically connect via USB, meaning you are able to just plug it in and get started. Individual microphones will need to run through an audio interface so each input will record individually.
Single Microphone
Picking an omnidirectional microphone is a common place to start. It simplifies the process to plug-and-play. There are a variety of microphones available on the marketplace, so let’s take a look at some of them.
One of the most common microphones for beginning podcasters is the Blue Snowball. It has two modes: omnidirectional and cardioid. For those new to these terms, omnidirectional records sound in a 360 degree radius while cardioid records what is directly in front of it.
This is a nice microphone to start with, as it can accommodate multiple individuals in one room as well as a single individual recording their own audio. This combined with it’s relatively low price point puts it into a high standing on most recommendation lists.
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While not as trusted a brand as Blue, the Movo has good reviews as an introductory microphone, especially given the versatility of the different modes. It offers a slight step up in quality from that of the Snowball in addition to two more recording modes: stereo and bidirectional.
Bidirectional mode will pick up sound from the front and the back of the microphone. Sit face-to-face with your co-host, place the microphone between you with if pointing at one of you, and press record.
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The Yeti is another of the most common microphones for starting out a podcast. It’s the Blue’s next step up from the Snowball, providing superior sound quality with four separate recording modes. It comes with four modes as well, omnidirectional, cardioid modes, stereo, and bidirectional.
This microphone provides excellent sound quality in cardioid mode. I’ve had friends who are sound engineers on podcasts reach out to me when I started to let me know how good my audio sounded while using this microphone in cardioid mode.
One of my favorite features of the Yeti is the bidirectional mode. For a two person podcast, this is an excellent way to start. Bidirectional mode will pick up sound from the front and the back of the microphone. Sit face-to-face with your co-host, place the microphone between you with if pointing at one of you, and press record. The sound quality is excellent, especially for the price point. Highly recommended.