AP 0225: Which Podcasting Equipment Would You Recommend?

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AskPat 225 Episode Transcript

Pat Flynn: What's up everybody? Pat Flynn here, and welcome to Episode 225 of AskPat. Thank you so much for joining me today. This is December 1st. We are in our final month of the year, and I hope you had a great year. Let's finish it off strong with a great set of questions here from AskPat listeners.

Today's question is from Gabe. But before we get to today's question from Gabe, I do want to thank today's sponsor, which is Lynda.com. That's L-Y-N-D-A.com, the easy to use and affordable way to help yourself learn. You could instantly stream thousands of courses created by experts on business, software, web development, graphic design, and more. They work directly with industry experts and come out with timely training. And I do mean timely, because you know how we have software, and it updates all the time, and we have to learn new things? Well, they often have the latest up-to-date videos on new versions of all of our favorite software that we use. So, you're always up to speed. So check it out, Lynda.com. You can actually get access to it for seven days, complete access to all courses for seven days, by going to Lynda.com/askpat. You should go there. Check out what things they have available for you to improve what you're doing. So check it out, again, Lynda.com/askpat.

Alright, now let's get to today's question from Gabe.

Gabe: Hey Pat, do you have a video showcasing what type of audio equipment you use to run your podcast? And do you also have any recommendations on DSLR cameras that someone can use to also do video and audio podcast work?

Pat: Gabe, what's up? Thank you so much for the question and for everybody out there who is interested in starting a podcast, which I think is a great idea, especially now. Because when you think about it, there are 400 million blogs that we all have to compete with. You know blogging was huge. It still is. It's still is a great way to do content marketing and build a relationship with an audience. But there's 400 million active blogs out there. I mean, that's quite a bit. There are only 400 thousand, 400 thousand only, active podcasts, so said by Cliff Ravenscraft from Podcast Answer Man, and I recently heard him speak at the Platform conference in Colorado Springs, and those are the numbers he was sharing. And it's just mind-boggling.

So we are still in the early ages of podcasting, so if you want to get started with podcasting, awesome. I think it's so smart. It's the number one way people have found out about my brand. You're obviously listening to this podcast right now, and we're making a connection here, and that's great. If you want to start a podcast, very simple. Go to PodcastingTutorial.com. That'll redirect you to a page on my site that has six complete videos with all the instructions you need in terms of software, and equipment, and how to upload, and how to tag, and do all that stuff, so you can get your show and your voice out there to the world.

And you know, as much as it's just you and a microphone when you're recording it, literally it feels like you are speaking to a stadium full of people. You know, every episode of the Smart Passive Income Podcast has 80 to 90 thousand listens. Like, imagine being in a stadium speaking to that many people. It's incredible. You have to start a podcast if you want to grow your brand. It's totally untapped, still the Wild Wild West, which is why it's fun and exciting, and not everybody's going to do it, because it's a little bit scary. I was scared at first. I am not happy with my voice, but one thing I feel that has helped me get over my voice is the equipment I use, because I definitely feel like I sound better on air than I do in real life, and that's thanks to my microphone, I feel. A lot of the other equipment that I have, I do mention that equipment at PodcastingTutorial.com. But I'm going to go over a few of the large pieces of equipment that I use. Not large in size, but just the most important things.

So I'm going to talk about the microphone first. Currently, you're listening to me on a Heil PR-40, H-E-I-L PR-40. It's a great mic. It runs about 300 to 350 bucks, depending on where you get it. You can get it at BHPhoto.com, or Amazon.com even. And it's fantastic. Like I said, I feel like it makes me sound better on the air than I do in real life. However, you do have to know that it connects through a XLR connection, so it's not just your standard USB connection, or you know a 3.5mm jack, or anything like that. It's an XLR connection, so you need something to plug it into, like a mixer.

And so there are a couple types of mixers out there. I currently use a Xeynx, that's X-E-Y-N-X, 1002 by Behringer, which is great. [Editor's note: It's spelled “Xenyx.”] It's simple and easy to use, and you just plug it in there, and then you plug that, the connection from the mixer, into your computer, and that works. That works for me, and it's been working for me for the last four years. It's great. But there's another mixer out there that I know a lot of people are using, especially if they are on a MacBook Pro, or some sort of mobile computer, a laptop. That's the Scarlett 2i2. Now there's different versions of it. There's the 4i, and all those other things. The number basically means how many inputs there are. The 2i2 was recommended to me by Caleb Wojcik because I am going to be doing more podcasting on the road next year, and it's a USB recording interface. So you plug your XLR from your Heil into this box, it's a red box, against Scarlett 2i2, and that plugs into your computer with the USB connection, so even if you have a laptop, it works. So you don't need a line-in connection like if you have a iMac or a PC. So that works for me, it works for people on the go as well, or if you have a MacBook Pro, or something like that, or a MacBook Air even, you could record on the road doing that. And that's great.

Now I will say there's a mic out there that I do recommend. It's much cheaper. Runs about 60 bucks, actually probably less than that. 50 bucks. And it sounds almost this good, as you're listening to this mic right now. And that is the ATR 2100, by Audio Technica. So A-T-R, 2100, 2-1-0-0. And it's great. It just plugs directly into your computer USB, and it sounds fantastic. And if you are on a budget, that's where I would start. ATR 2100, by Audio Technica. And so, again, I could go over a ton of equipment here, but those are the things I want to share with you first, Gabe, and again I recommend going to PodcastingTutorial.com to get more information. And check out the other options that you have, as well, for microphones.

Now as far as DSLR cameras, I think that's a really smart question, too, because I have been using a DSLR camera, which is . . . normally people use it for taking photos. And it's great because you just point and click, but it's really easy. It's fantastic quality, but there's video capability on it, too. And so I love the Canon Rebel series. I started with a Canon Rebel T3I, and then I moved up to a CanonRebel T4I. The only difference between those . . . well, there's a few differences, but the major difference is the T4I has a touchscreen, LCD, which is cool, and you can swipe between photos like an iPhone, and you can literally touch the screen, and it focuses on that part that you're looking at, which is really cool. But on video, it actually auto-focuses while you're recording. With a T3I, once you press record, it's staying at that focus unless you manually move it in and out. So an auto-focus on video, which is pretty cool.

But the reason I like those is, relatively speaking, it's cheap compared to a lot of DSLR cameras. But it's great, high-quality, and it has that flip screen. So you can actually flip the screen out, turn it over, and then you could see yourself so you know where you're on camera. I can't tell you how many times, with a Nikon D90, which I had before, I would record a whole video and then look, and like half my face was cut off because I was doing it all on my own. Not good.

Anyway, that's a great camera to start with, but if you're going to be doing it simply for recording the video of you recording your audio podcast, which I know a lot of people do, and that's a great way to sort of repurpose that content, or kill two birds with one stone, you might not need a DSLR camera, especially if you have a longer episode. Some of those DSLR cameras, or actually most of them, will cut off at a certain point, because it'll stop the camera from over-heating. So I think the Canon Rebel T4I has a 29-minute limit. So if you have a show that's longer than 29 minutes, it's going to restart. Now there are ways to hack it so it restarts automatically, when it does it, but you risk burning out your camera, which you don't want to do.

So if you're going to simply record the videos of you recording your audio podcast, I would recommend a webcam. And there's a really great webcam out there that a lot of people recommend. This one is the Logitech C920, which is fantastic. And I use it for my Google hangouts, and Skype calls, and things like that. It's just simply amazing. It's about 70 bucks on Amazon. And it's again, Logitech C920. It records in 1080p. It's just fantastic quality. And for what you need to do, if you're just going to simply record yourself recording audio, so you can post it on YouTube, or Vimeo, or on Facebook, you know, things like that, that's going to work just great. You just have to maybe get a mini little tripod, so you can stick it in the right place.

And I would actually recommend going to DIYVideoGuy.com. That's Caleb Wojcik's site. He was the one who recommended the Scarlett to me. He's my video guy here in San Diego, and he also just came out with a really sweet video about how to look good on a webcam. And so making sure that the camera lens is at eye-level, the lighting and situation, you don't have a window behind you, all these really great tips for looking good on a webcam. Those will help you stand out of the crowd if you're going to be posting those videos for the public to see. So check it out. Again, that DIYVideoGuy.com.

So a lot of numbers, and letters, and pieces of equipment and resources mentioned. We'll put some show notes on at AskPat.com. Again this is episode 225. And Gabe, thank you so much for the question. I wish you the best of luck with your podcast and video series. And an AskPat t-shirt is headed your way for having your question featured here, which is awesome. And for those of you listening, if you have a questions you'd like potentially featured here on the show, all you have to do is head to AskPat.com. Thanks so much.

Thanks again also to Lynda. com, that's L-Y-N-D-A.com, the place that you should go to if you want to learn anything in regard to software, business, web development, graphic design, all those sorts of things. And what I love most about it is these videos, they're not just YouTube videos on Lynda.com. These are professionally shot videos in studio by experienced experts. And what's really cool is there's a lot of really great tools to go along with those videos to help you learn as well. So I highly recommend you check it out. L-Y-N-D-A.com/askpat to try Lynda. com for free for seven days. That's L-Y-N-D-A.com/askpat.

And lastly, as always, I like to end with a quote, and today's quote to finish off the first of this last month of the year, this is by Warren Buffet. He says, “I don't look to jump over seven-foot bars. I look around for one-foot bars that I can step over.”

Cheers, take care, and I'll see you on the next episode of AskPat.