.FLYINGHEAD FUN WITH PODCASTING
.TITLE Choosing a recorder for your podcast
.AUTHOR Jorge Sosa
.SUMMARY If you’re serious about podcasting, you’ll need to record your broadcast. In this very helpful article, Jorge Sosa discusses different podcasting recorders and which one worked best for him.
.OTHER
So you’re ready to start podcasting. You just can’t wait to send your voice and message around the world. You’ve read my first article on podcasting, so know what to do the moment you push the "record" button.
Unless, of course, there’s no such button because you don’t you have a recorder. Welcome to my world, circa about five months ago.
It turns out there’s a universe of potential choices for recorders out there, depending on how much you want to spend and what kind of computer you own. In fact, if you have the right computer, you might not need to buy a recorder at all.
.CALLOUT It sounds less muffled than recording through a foot of concrete.
A buddy of mine uses the built-in microphone in his Mac laptop (a feature on many other computers, too) to record his podcast. He’s totally satisfied, because he didn’t have to invest in any new equipment to get up and running.
But, my co-worker Kay and I work for a small-town newspaper and wanted to launch an [[http://hutchinsonleader.com/news/audio/six-minutes-over-hutchinson
|entertainment podcast]] on our paper’s Web site. For those reasons, the built-in mic approach wouldn’t work. For starters, the sound quality leaves a bit to be desired. Using the built-in mic results in a podcast that sounds echoey, like a speakerphone conference call. If you want to sound really professional, you’ll want to invest in a dedicated recorder and microphone.
There’s another reason you might want to use a separate recording device: fan and drive noise. Most computers are somewhat noisy, but solid state recorders are silent. If you’re recording in a room full of computers, you’re bound to hear the hiss or hum of the machinery in the background. Noise reduction software can help, but it’s much easier to simply use a standalone recorder. Plus (and a big plus, it is), you take the recorder anywhere and do an on-the-spot interview or recording session.
.H1 Olympus DS-40: Windows only
A popular choice seems to be the Olympus line of digital voice recorders. A nice [[http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/product.asp?product=1277|DS-40]] will cost only about $100 and lets you record roughly eight hours of audio on its internal flash memory. You can transfer WMA or MP3 files from the recorder to your computer with a USB cable. The DS-40 has an internal stereo microphone, but many folks invest in a separate external mic for better sound quality.
However, our newspaper is a Mac house, which adds some interesting wrinkles. The DS-40 is only Windows-compatible, which is fine for about 90-percent of the human computing race. We Macophiles have to look elsewhere.
.H1 iRiver T60: terrible recording quality
First, we tried a teeny, little gadget called the [[http://www.iriver.com/product/p_detail.asp?pidx=85|iRiver T60]]. It’s an MP3 player that doubles as a digital voice recorder. It had the advantage of being Mac-compatible, and was even cheaper than the Olympus. We found a four-gigabyte model for $60. An online review of the T60 I read said its recorder had "pretty good sound quality." Not to mention, at 2.5 inches long and weighing less than an ounce, it was cute as a button.
Sadly, it appears when some say "pretty good sound quality," they mean, "It sounds less muffled than recording through a foot of concrete." Don’t get me wrong, the T60 seems like a fun little MP3 player, but I wouldn’t recommend buying it for the built-in recorder.
.H1 Marantz PMD 660 and Conference Grabbers: costly, but just right
A colleague of mine, upon hearing of our recorder woes, recommended dropping about $500 on a [[http://www.d-mpro.com/users/folder.asp?FolderID=3629&CatID=19&SubCatID=188|Marantz PMD 660]]. The Marantz PMD 660 uses removable flash drives to record MP3s. It offers near-radio quality, and it might be overkill, but my colleague left me with no doubt we’d be satisified. And we were.
As you can see in Figure A, the PMD 660 isn’t very cute, but it’s all business. It comes with a surprisingly decent built-in stereo mic, and you can adjust the recording levels for the left and right channels independently.
.FIGPAIR A It’s not the cheapest digital voice recorder out there, but it’s hard to go wrong with the top-notch Marantz PMD 660.
The vendor we ordered our PMD 660 from [[http://martelelectronics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=MDH&Product_Code=1231|threw in a pair of Martel Conference Grabber omnidirectional microphones]] — as seen in Figure B — free-of-charge. They’re battery-operated and retail for about $60 apiece.
They’re not absolutely necessary, and we find the PMD 660’s internal microphone is just fine for recording just the two of us. If you wrangle more than a couple people into doing a podcast with you, consider going with something like the Conference Grabbers.
.FIGPAIR B Conference microphones such as these are one possible option for use with your digital recorder.
.BEGIN_KEEP
You can plug the Conference Grabbers, or conceivably just about any professional microphone into the left and right ports on the PMD 660, as seen in Figure C. The far-right port you see in Figure C is where you plug in the last piece of essential recording equipment: your headphones.
.FIGPAIR C The Marantz PMD 660 has left and right channel microphone ports that let you record in stereo.
Listening to yourself over headphones as you record is the best way to be sure you’re capturing your voice at the desired volume and sound quality. The other way to find out is when you download your audio to your computer and discover it’s all bungled up! So, yeah, you’ll want those headphones.
In my next article, I’ll tell how to take what you’ve recorded and prepare it for distribution to your worldwide listening audience. Until then, it’s time to sign off.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
Listen to Jorge’s [[http://hutchinsonleader.com/news/audio/six-minutes-over-hutchinson
|podcast]].
Learn about the [[http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/product.asp?product=1277|DS-40]].
Learn about the [[http://www.iriver.com/product/p_detail.asp?pidx=85|iRiver T60]].
Learn about the [[http://www.d-mpro.com/users/folder.asp?FolderID=3629&CatID=19&SubCatID=188|Marantz PMD 660]].
Learn about the [[http://martelelectronics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=MDH&Product_Code=1231|Martel Conference Grabber omnidirectional microphones]].
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO
.END_KEEP
