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Podcasting Blog
Voice Over Training
5/10/2008
One of the obvious aspects of podcasting is using your voice. And using it properly. If you’re looking for some more information about how to improve your voice technique in your podcast, I’d suggest checking out the Voice Over Experts Podcast from Voices.com.
Audacity Updated
5/09/2008
The very popular among podcasters audio recording application, Audacity has received an update. Podcasting News has a full rundown of the changes, including many bug fixes. It is nice to see some interface fixes, too, as I’ve felt Audacity has always suffered on the UI side.
Got a Podcaster Birthday Coming Up?
2/14/2008
Don’t forget that I’ve put together the finest collection of gifts for your favorite podcasting friend, family member, neighbor, or stranger! This isn’t just a list for holiday gifts, but great to find something to buy for a birthday gift or something for yourself, too. Filled with books, hardware and more, the store is broken out into … Continue reading »
Hardware Recommendations
- Kustom KM4 Mic with Cable
- Behringer XM8500 Microphone
- Shure SM58 Mic
- MXL MXL V63MBP Computer Desktop Recording Kit
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Ryan Irelan, Editor - listen@podcastfreeamerica.com
How to record a roundtable discussion
This article was inspired by a reader email.
Bob Irving wrote:
What kind of recording equipment would you need to do a round-table discussion (3 or 4 people)? And what would be the best placement of mikes?
Excellent question and it has an answer that will hopefully help a lot of people who are not yet into podcasting. Of course, the techniques I describe here are not particular to podcasting, but can be used to record a roundtable discussion, even if you don’t wish to podcast it.
Bob noted in his question that there will be 3-4 people in the discussion. I’ll use this as a starting point for this article, but you can easily expand by adding more hardware. So, let’s get to the hardware.
Hardware
- 1 microphone
for every 1-2 people - in order to keep costs at a minimum it is feasible to have two people share one microphone, but I wouldn’t do anymore than that. You don’t want to get into a situation where people are passing microphones around; it creates extra noise and a lot of dead air while the mic is being passed.
- 1 desktop mic stand
for every microphone - You may think that it is OK to just hold the mic in your hand. Don’t do it. Invest in enough desktop mic stands to hold each microphone.
- 1 microphone cable
for each mic - obviously we need a way to connect the microphones to our mixing board.
- 1 small mixer - In order to bring all of the microphones together to be recorded together you’ll need a simple, small mixer. I’d recommend the Behringer Eurorack UB802 Mixer
- 1 pair of headphones for monitoring - Any headphones will do here. They will be plugged into your recording device - a laptop or desktop computer (or portable recorder).
How to set it up:
- Position the microphones so that they are evenly between two people. If you have 8 people, you’ll need four mics. 4 people, two mic. And so on.
- Run the cables from the microphones into the mixing board.
- Run the output from the mixing board to your recording device. I would suggest a laptop computer running Audacity or another recording tool.
- Plug your headphones into the recording device (from #3) so you can monitor exactly what is being recorded to disk. You could also monitor by plugging into the mixing board, but you won’t know what the actual recording will sound like. You always want to monitor at the point of recording.
- Give your speakers some instructions. Participants in the roundtable should be given some basic instructions on good microphone technique before you start recording. Tell them they should stay 6 inches away from the microphone when speaking and to speak in their normal conversation voice.
- Do a sound check. A sound check is a test run before you start the actual discussion. During this sound check, you want the participants to talk as if they would during the real thing. While they are talking, you should adjust microphone levels, so everyone is equal is volume. Additionally, you’ll want to record part of the sound check and go back and listen to be sure it is recording properly. This is important!
- When all is ready and tweaked, hit record and start your roundtable discussion.
Some extra tips
- You should have one person who isn’t a part of the discussion act as the sound monitor. It is his or her job to wear the headphones, monitoring the sound and making any necessary adjustments along the way.
- Microphone Windscreens
. One way to ensure that the discussion participants do not eat the micrphone (getting too close to it) is to put an inexpensive windscreen on each microphone. This will also server double duty of filtering out any pops and hisses from the audio.
Every situation will be unique, but this should get you started recording your next roundtable discussion. This type of setup is perfect for podcasting Board Meetings, Local Gov’t Hearings, Church Committee Hearings or any Special Discussions Groups/Panels, such as at a conference.
This is part of the series ABC of Podcasting from Podcast Free America.
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