The demands for a remote podcast production are higher than for an average video call. While a video call is primarily about good speech intelligibility, a podcast focuses on generally good audio quality.
For this reason, the same equipment you use for video calls is not necessarily suitable for recording a podcast. For more information on this check out our article Why a Podcast is not a Zoom call.
We recommend the following setup:
- an external microphone (connection via XLR to audio interface or via USB directly into the computer)
- a pair of headphones (preferably closed type)
The internal microphones of laptops are absolutely insufficient. In addition, we want to put distance between the microphone and the computer. On the one hand, to accommodate the microphone position and line of sight independently, and on the other hand, to stay as far away as possible from interfering noise (such as from the computer fan).
An ordinary office or gaming headset is also not suitable, as it interferes with the audio signal to a massive extent in order to ensure the aforementioned speech intelligibility even in acoustically difficult environments (for example, open-plan offices). Headphones are an absolute must, otherwise echoes from the computer’s speakers can ruin the recording.
If you are unable to create these conditions, we will be happy to provide you with our podcast kit. In this video (German) we explain the components and how you can use them to participate in a podcast recording with an online recording service.