What difference does a microphone make ? Podcast recording tips

I recently had a great illustration of the difference that a good microphone can make to a podcast recording. To record remote guests, I get best results from the calling platform, Squadcast. Although it’s certainly my preferred podcast recording platform, Squadcast‘s claim of being able to “record studio quality podcasts from anywhere” sounds optimistic.

I had some guests from Melbourne, Australia lined up to speak in this recording session. We decided to trial the technology and make sure that the guest was comfortable. So, we ran a test recording the day before the interview itself. Our guest was using a standard gaming headset of the sort commonly seen for sale almost everywhere.

I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the sound that we were getting from the headset (what the heck do they use in these things?). So, we decided to try an alternative microphone. We swapped the gaming headset for a handy, loaned Blue Yeti mic – and the difference was remarkable.

Using the same recording platform, the thin and overly treble-y voice supplied by the headset mic filled out to sound, well … almost studio quality

Take a listen to this audio example of recordings made using the two difference microphones. Same recording platform, same guest, just a different microphone.

As a bonus example, in between microphone switching we had the audio being picked up by the laptop’s built-in microphone.

Audio was given no post-production or modification in this example. The WAV file generated from Squadcast was laid on to the timeline in this video and exported with AAC audio compression.