Are you scheduled to come on a podcast as a guest? If you want to be invited back, or appear on any other podcast interviews for that matter, you need to have good audio.
Many authors make the mistake of using their laptop’s microphone and speakers. This will undermine your quality and scare away popular podcasts that expect good audio.
The key to sounding great on a podcast is to have some kind of microphone and over-the-ear headphones.
- The microphone makes you sound professional and credible.
- The headphones prevent echoes and ensure that you can hear the host clearly.
“A good audio setup not only makes you sound great, it gives you credibility as a guest.” Click to Tweet.
Here are three packages I recommend, depending on your budget.
The Bang for Your Buck ($75)
This bundle will give you the best quality per dollar. If you plan on doing multiple interviews, this is the setup to go with. The Samson Q2U gives you 90% of the quality of the Studio Setup at 6% of the cost.
The Studio Setup ($1200)
With this setup, you will have better gear than many of the podcasts that interview you. This is overkill for being a guest, but if you plan to start your own podcast in the future and have the money, this setup is worth considering.
- Shure SM7b Microphone This is the microphone top podcasters like Joe Rogan use. According to one audio engineer I talked with, it outperforms microphones that cost $2000 more. I saw President Obama talking into one of these in a recent podcast interview.
- RODE PSA 1 This is one of the most popular mic arms.
- Shure A26X 3″ Extension Tube The SM7b needs this $8 adapter to work with the Rode PSA 1 arm.
- Focusrite Scarlett Solo This is one of the most popular single person audio interfaces. This will allow you to plug the microphone into your computer. The best advantage of this one is that it has a simple design without dozens of nobs to set correctly.
- Audio-Technica ATH-M40x Headphones. These headphones will isolate background noise and allow you to hear exactly what is going into your microphone. They are also some of the best music listening headphones money can buy. Better than Beats and at a fraction of the cost. I have purchased dozens of headphones over the years and these are by far the best.
