#intercut

Audio quality

I'll be honest and say that while I like listening to podcasts, especially film related podcasts, the audio quality is often...horrible.

Certainly they are still Ok to listen to, but I do prefer podcasts that have good audio quality. Mostly I don't like anything that sounds echo-ey, if that's a word.

I should also say that I'm no audio expert or audiophile by any stretch of the imagination, but I do know what I like. Both Cody and I enjoy listening to the now defunct Hollywood Saloon podcast which has pretty good audio and superb content--so that kind of quality was our target.

I gave myself a budget of about $200 for mics, including shipping and tax--everything--and started searching.

Mid or low range condenser mic

I don't know a lot about mics, but I knew that I wanted a condenser mic. I did a bit of googling and ebay searching, and finally decided on the MXL 770 condenser mic.

Unfortunately, there are no Canadian retailers of this mic that had them in stock, so I had to buy them off ebay. I got two of them, each with a case and a shockmount, for about $210. I think that was a good price.

Above you can see the little case the mic comes in, and the shockmount.

The accessories

Unfortunately, when I had budgeted I hadn't considered how I was going to "mount" the mics so that we could actually use them.

I went over to Long and Mcquade to see what options they had. At first I bought a kind of flimsy mount that didn't work out. So I had to go back and pickup a couple heavy base-plates.

(cast-iron base)

These are probably cast-iron and are very heavy. Also, I bought the little stands that screw into the base plates, the pop filters, and finally a couple new 5' XLR cables. I had several longer XLR cables, but it was such a pain to use them that I just had to buy shorter cables.

All in

- $210, 2x MXL 770 condenser mics with case and shockmount

- $40, 2x baseplates

- $20 2x stands

- $40, 2x pop filters with adjustable arm

- $40, 2x 5' XLR cables

- $60, Reaper digital audio workstation

- $0, Zoom H4N - I already had this, used as an audio interface, provides phantom power to the mics

- $0, Laptop - Already had (could also just record to the h4N if desired)

TOTAL: ~$400!

I think I could have done better price-wise by buying the accessories off of ebay or online. Long and Mcquade is a nice store, and they're local, but those accessories are waaaay over-priced. But we really needed to record the podcast as soon as possible, ie. couldn't wait for shipping, so I didn't have much choice. It's nice to support local stores, but it's hard when the pricing can often be 100% higher than elsewhere. I suppose in this case I payed for the convenience. :)

Frankly, Canada really gets the shaft on the cost of music related gear (and bikes too, but that's a whole other story). Not only do we not get as good a selection as America, but the costs are also much higher, mostly I assume because of having to import them.

For example the Tascam DR-40, a field recorder similar to the Zoom H4N, is $150 in the US, but $240 at local stores. 

I think someone wanting to do a similar sounding podcast could do so by spending a lot less money than I did. I definitely learned a few things about buying gear that I wouldn't do again.

The room

Probably the cheapest way to get a good audio recording is to pick a good, quiet room. Fortunately I have access to a conference room of sorts, and it's pretty quiet. I go around and turn off all the electroncs in the room as well, and there is a little fridge that I unplug too.

I also think it's better to record in the middle of a room, because that will help to avoid echoes.

Improvements

In the future I might replace the Zoom H4N. That's probably the technical spot in the chain that could be improved. The mic preamps in the H4N are not that good, and the sound quality might benefit from a better preamp. But that will be down the road, once we get better at "podcasting."

There's also a lot of room for improvement in our workflow and use of Reaper, in terms of setting the right levels, compression, etc. I even still have trouble with clipping and setting levels while recording. But eventually we'll figure it out.

Editing

Cody and I also spend a lot of time editing the podcasts. Certainly there are still quite a few "umms" and "awwws" and lip smacking sounds, but we actually edit most of them out. This is time consuming, be we're getting better at it, especially when using automation and keyboard shortcuts in Reaper.

Other uses

I should also say that this gear can be used for all kinds of things. Recently Adam Bentley and I recorded some voice-over for the short TEENAGE DANCE, which I'm producing.

As usual, if you have any questions, comments, concerns or criticisms, let me know in the comments. :)

Why are we putting out a podcast?

For me, there are three main reasons:

1) I love film, and talking about film is fun. I'm learning quite a bit by having to do research for each episode, and Cody is extremely knowledgeable about film, especially in specific areas like noir, so I'm learning just by listening to him.

2) #yegfilm is hyper local. I would like to create something that can be more widely followed and yet still be related to #yegfilm. I think this podcast is a good way to do that, and will hopefully help to grow #yegfilm beyond the boundaries of Edmonton.

3) To learn more about working with audio. Already, just by making the first episode, I've learned that Sound Track Pro, the software I used to use for audio work, has been left behind by Apple, and has a lot of issues compared to other systems. I've started using  the Reaper Digital Audio Workstation software, which is an inexpensive and extremely powerful audio tool. (More on that in future blog posts.)

The Podcast!

Here is a mixcloud embed of the podcast. If you're reading this post in a RSS feed reader you can download the MP3 directly.

You can also subscribe in iTunes and iTunes will take care of finding and downloading new episodes for you automatically.

Given that this is our first episode, there is still a lot to learn!

Thanks for reading, and hopefully listening. :)