Input
Select advice based on Marcus’ decades of professional audio production experience.
Podcasting Equipment I Recommend in 2024
If you’re serious about your podcast and want to have equipment that gets you a professional sound, is a pleasure to use, and is extremely reliable, I’ve assembled two wish lists at B&H of everything I recommend my clients get for their audio recordings.
Using Compression
If you're like Tom Buck - and most content creators - you're probably turning knobs on your mixer and effects plugins until everything sounds better, but without really understanding exactly what’s going on. And like Tom, you probably know the “secret sauce” for professional audio quality is compression. So audio engineer Marcus dePaula is here to answer Tom’s question about compression by walking us through the 5 main compression settings: threshold, ratio, attack, release, and makeup (or output) gain.
DIY Acoustic Panels
In 2018 I built a dozen acoustic panels myself using pine boards, Rockwool insulation, and fabric. The whole project cost me less than $400, including mounting hardware, and took me a couple weekends to complete. This post is my written instructions on how anyone can build your own professional studio quality acoustic panels.
The Importance of Good Light for Video
Audio is my specialty, but we are living in a time when video is more important than ever for everyone. Whether you’re using your FaceTime camera in your MacBook or an external mirrorless camera to stream and record video, your lighting setup is what will make or break your image quality. It’s just like with the acoustics of the space you’re in for recording audio. It makes the most notable difference, no matter what equipment you’re using.
A Playlist of Reference Tracks
Reference tracks are an essential tool for any audio engineer. These are mine.
The Easiest Way to Record On Your Computer
Even though I rely on Cleanfeed.net to record podcast guests who are in different locations, when I can I ask them to also record themselves on their end just in case the internet connection falters. The easiest way to do this when the guest has a Mac is using QuickTime Player, which is pre-installed on all Apple computers. For Windows users, they’ll need to install an app like Windows Voice Recorder.