List of Recomended Equipment Please

Home Studio
1

Hello Mike

Please could you kindly help me by providing some advice and guidance on the equipment that I will need to set-up a ‘Studio’ at home, where I will be interviewing guests and then uploading onto YT.

My main concerns are (1)improving the sound of my voice and that of my interviewees and (2) ensuring that the sound of panellists is good and professionally conveyed, esp. as some of the interviews will be over Zoom and then broadcast.

I am a complete novice; have experience of speaking on radio talk shows, where I believe (from feedback rec’d) that my voice is clear and comprehensible, but I’m not happy with it and would like to improve. Being a community welfare volunteer, I will soon be interviewing public interest campaigners for broadcast on the internet and hence I’d like my voice to sound good, as well as the voices of my guests i.e. that they should sound brilliant, as must the whole episode where I will be connecting with guests on Zoom, broadcasting the entire sessions on the net i.e. on YT; I’d like to present as professionally as possible.

Having researched more deeply, I believe that the equipment known as Audio Processors help, but as I’m not a tech. person and neither a professional broadcaster, it’s all double Dutch to me, so I need the help of experts and would be most grateful if you could advise how best (i.e. with the technical equipment) I could set-up a room in my domestic property as a studio wherefrom I can conduct these interviews for broadcast please.

Prospective Studio Room Details
The room is c. 3.6m (W) * 2.8m (D) * 2.5m (H) and has a large window (2.2m (W) * 1.2m (H)) and is North-East facing. Two walls are external (brick built) and two walls are partition timber-framed.

The room faces onto the main residential road which is a ‘back-street’ so not heavy with traffic, but at the same time is not remote so there is a regular flow of vehicles.

Guidance on the internet suggests that The Electro-Voice RE320 Wired Dynamic Microphone is one of the best mic.'s but I’m not sure if I’ll need two, one for me and one for the guest or whether if we sit close enough we can share the mic. and whether this would also work for the people who i interview on Zoom. The DBX 286S is suggested as a good Audio Processor, but again I have no idea.

I would really appreciate your suggestions about the whole set-up please.

Thank you very much.

DCM

2

Hi there @dcm, I would suggest going down a youtube rabbit hole about setting up a podcast or radio studio. There is so much out there that will help you.

I would recommend looking at the RODECaster Pro with some Podmics or similar XLR microphones if you would like great audio. The RODECaster Pro has some compression and other effects built in to make the sound even better. If you have a smaller budget, then I would look at USB mics. RODE have the NT USB MINI’s and a free software that you can download on your PC that has effects similar to the RODECaster Pro.

In terms of your room, just place the mics on stands and have your computer or mixer on a table. You can easily fix sound problems caused by the room acoustics with software such as Adobe Audition when editing your videos, but if you are looking at a more advanced setup, you will want to look at getting sound proofing/acoustic treatment on the walls.

Also, please don’t use Zoom to interview guests hahaha. The quality is rubbish. I would suggest cleanfeed.net or similar as the quality is 1000 times better.

Hope that helps is some way and let me know if you have questions :slight_smile:

3

@dcm some really good questions here!

  1. Do not use Zoom for recording - just like Biorn said - it’s not great for capturing good quality. We use and recommend Riverside.fm - especially good if you want to record both audio and video.

  2. Microphone - definitely invest the most in the microphone you can afford. This should be your priority. I don’t personally have experience with RE320 but if it was me I would invest in a more known brand such as Shure SM7B for example. Important that both hosts have the same microphone!

  3. dbx286s is GREAT. You will however need one for each microphone so this will get a little expensive. It is worth the money in my opinion - especially if the room you record in is not professionally treated.

  4. Roadcaster Pro is a great audio interface - will serve well too.

I hope this helps! Let us know what you decided to go for in the end :slight_smile: