I remember my first attempts to record the music I was creating back in the mid-80s. Home recording equipment was just becoming affordable to the average musician and I was slowly building up the components of a home recording studio. But, having just bought the eqipment, I was rather surprised at how bad my initial recordings sounded. Not really knowing anything about proper microphone placement and other basic elements of a recording engineers skill set, I spent a lot of time with trial and error, got lucky sometimes but ended up ruining a lot of recordings because of poor recording studio fundamentals.

With so many people creating podcasts now, the basic knowledge of what makes a good recording is gradually coming from the specialized world of the recording engineer into the mainstream. Podcasters who want to improve the quality of their productions need, at some point, to learn about microphones - there’s no question, having a good, professional-grade microphone will immediately increase the quality of your podcast production. Today there are many microphones being marketed expressly for podcasting.

Here is really smart article by Cleveland-area IT Specialist, Aaron Shaffer A Review of Seven Microphones, The Heart of All Podcasting [sorry this link is now 404 Not Found as of 6/15/08].

Aaron looks at seven different microphones including headset, lapel, wireless, and standard tabletop microphones and judges their strengths for podcast recording based on affordability and usage. He points out that a microphone should be chosen based on the recording situation in which it will be placed. For instance recording a lecture for a podcast requires a different microphone than recording a table interview between two people. Aaron gives actual recorded samples of each microphone and then offers his opinion on each mic’s strengths.

Here are his final conclusions based on the microphones he tested, but you should read the complete article because there lots of good podcasting information in it.
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“What would I recommend to you as a professor or lecturer if you want to podcast? Without a doubt the AudioTechnica wireless mic. You can connect it to any laptop or mixer and get great quality. What would I recommend to those interested in dialogue type podcasting with two or more people? The MXL-990. You can’t beat it for the price. And If you’ve got money to blow, go with the Heil PR-40 all around.”
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If you have a little more money to spend, consider these USB microphones, most created by the manufacturers to appeal to the new podcasting market.

Blue Microphones Snowball $134
Marshall Electronics MXL USB.006 $170
Rode - Podcaster $349
Samson CO1U $210
Samson Q1U $90

If you are interested in sound fx for your podcast to create openings, transitions and endings to segments, then check out this fx set created especially for podcast production.

Podcaster $59 
Music & Sound FX for Podcasting

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The use of podcasting as an information tool has become very popular in our nation’s high schools. School podcasts cover everything from student-produced current events shows to teacher-produced curriculum and lecture announcements. Many schools even have iPod subscription links through the Apple iTunes store. Students can easily subscribe and receive every edition of their school’s podcast automatically downloaded to their iPod.

Now Apple Computer is promoting podcasting as a teacher development tool. They are offering a free white paper that gives ideas for using the iPod for professional development.

Here is an excerpt from the site…
“Podcasting allows administrators to update faculty—even an entire district—in just minutes. With a single click, teachers can subscribe to podcasts and have future content delivered automatically. An ever-growing collection of professional development material, both commercial and free, is available online from the iTunes Store. This is the perfect way to expand ongoing training programs, without straining district resources.

The iPod is an affordable development tool that can scale to fit almost any technology plan. And once in teachers’ hands, it can do even more: from recording notes and podcasts, to transporting digital files back and forth to school, on any Mac or PC. All this, in the palm of your hand. This is the iPod for professional development — an unexpectedly powerful tool for education.”

Just Released: Podcaster - a massive collection of royalty free music and sound effects geared towards podcast creators and producers.

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Music for the Action Hero

UniqueTracks is proud to release Ultimate Warrior, our latest collection of Hollywood style action adventure music for royalty free licensing. This set features orchestral movie soundtracks perfect for battle scenes, chase scenes, and subject matter relating to conflict/war. Big orchestral sound featuring powerful horns, strings, and eerie choir textures. Think of the soundtracks to epic Hollywood films like Gladiator or Braveheart.

Here are links to a few of the tracks
Grand Army
Prepare To Attack
Combat

You can listen to the complete CD of Ultimate Warrior here.

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