Best podcasting mic used in untreated room?

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dylansmith

Well-known member
Preferably one that blocks off as much off-axis noise as much as possible, and under $200. Recommendations welcome!
 
Use a headworn mic. They provide the best isolation from the surrounding noise and reflections while allowing you to move freely. It gives a consistent sound no matter how you move. Brand name versions can be had for cheap. Other podcast mics require you stay in one position for consistent sound and isolation and presence.

The whole podcast thing with people sitting around a table with these big microphones on big booms blocking the view of each other never made any sense to me. It goes way back to the day of the early days of DJs on the radio. Then there is the whole 'I need to wear headphones to hear myself and everyone else that's in the same room with me'. Again, it goes back to the DJ days, but it's so stupid and unnecessary. It's a lot of extra expense and clutter for no reason.
 
Good point from Paul. I was presuming with was going to be an audio podcast (I guess that's the old-fashioned use of the term) without a camera/video component. In that case, a dynamic mic such as the PodMic works fairly well and sounds better than cheap headset/earset mics. Better headset/earset mics are a different matter and are good choices; I'll agree with you on that.

On the cheap end, I've worked with the US$100 (or so) models from Point Source Audio and thought they were not terrible but kinda meh. I haven't worked with the more-expensive line of Point-Source mics.
https://www.point-sourceaudio.com

I own and prefer Countryman E6 and E2 earset mics, and have worked with their H6 headset mic. Sound great, but cost is more like $300+. I'd presume DPA's headset/earset mics are similarly good and expensive.
https://countryman.com

Oscar SoundTech and Rode also have headset mics that might offer a good price-performance balance, but I haven't worked with those.

Paul (and everyone) any good bang-for-the-buck headword mics you'd recommend?
 
If we're talking video podcast, I'm coming around to Paul's position of getting a headset mic. Unless you want that RADIO ANNOUNCER!! sound and look. With a headset/earset, you'll have constant distance from mouth to mic, and that'll leave you with two hands free for whatever. But alas, I don't know what inexpensive headset mic to recommend... (And all that said, if you can scrounge a SM58 from a musician friend for cheap, you can definitely get rolling with that).

Check out this two-minute video. It shows three basic approaches to "podcast" mics. There's Howard Stern eating his mic (looks like a Neumann TLM 103 condenser) that gives him that deep Voice of God sound. Also note that the mic is on a boom arm and he always holds the mic to his mouth. That lets him move around a bit and still get that deep sound. I don't follow Stern much, but IIRC, none of his guests or cohosts get to use that mic; he alone gets the super-deep sound. Robin, his cohost, appears to be on a Shure SM7b that's on a desk stand. Her voice sounds good, but without the depth of Stern's (if allowed, she and the crew could tweak that). The guest (Aniston) in this particular clip is wearing a headset/earset mic; looks to me like an earset mic held in place by the headphones. I can't tell what model mic the guest is using, but probably something decent (ie- Countryman, DPA, Shure, etc). The guest's voice sounds fine and she has both hands free.

Since I guess Stern's show is primarily for radio, camera placement is secondary. You probably wouldn't have mostly profile shots and wouldn't need to have the mics so visible and in the way. But if your worried about room noise or reflections, and want to be able to move around a bit, an approach like that used by the host (Stern) or the guest (Aniston) might better than the desk-stand used by Robin. And as Paul implies (I think), you may not need headphones.

So think of how much you want to move and what look/sound you like. And how important the video component is.

 
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Sure, I've run audio for innumerable interviews, panels, and roundtables. But many of those were in controlled or treated environments, not perhaps the type of rooms like Dylan's facing. And more significantly I was using more that $200 worth of equipment and monitoring audio so the hosts/guests/panelists didn't have to (same with those videos). :)

I'm not advocating emulating the Stern approach, but it's neat that a short video shows three styles of voice mic'ing (though in a studio environment).
 
Paul, thanks for your comment. I wasn't worked up. More, I was concerned that my comment wasn't clear and was leaving the wrong impression.

Good point about tables full of gak; even on a budget, that's an easy problem to eliminate.

No worries. And thanks for the opportunity to repost this unbelievable (but real) advertisement. Who remembers seeing this on TeeVee?

 
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