Last week, the United Church of Christ national website published a nice write-up about my new podcast. It’s an interview-style show sharing the stories and experiences of LGBTQ+ latinxs. Some of my favorite podcasts are these deep, one-on-one convos, and I modeled this show off of The JV Club with Janet Varney.
It’s nice having a reason to invest in a bit of gear and use the audio editing skills I’ve picked up over the years for more than just playing around. I’m brushing up on interview skills and becoming so cognizant of how much we stutter and use filler words in our speech. Seriously, how do we even understand each other?
I just got my new mic this week–an AT-2100x and a windscreen. I was fine with paying the extra money for a Blue Yeti, but after doing more research into mics specifically for podcasting, I went with the highly recommended AT mic. I tested it on a conference call for the day job last week and got great comments on the quality of the sound.
You might be lost with this mic talk, so here are the basics:
- There are two main types of mics you can buy: dynamic and condenser. A Blue Yeti is a condenser mic. The AT-2100 is a dynamic mic.
- Condenser mics create a warmer tone, but pick up every noise. This is why you don’t have to be close to a condenser mic for it to pick up your voice. Your built-in computer mic is probably a condenser mic.
- Dynamic mics will filter out a lot of background noise, but you have to be very close to it. For me, a dynamic mic was the right solution because my computer makes noise, my external HD makes noise, and the refrigerator is just on the other side of the wall from my office. That’s why in the first two episodes of the pod, you might notice a steady hum in the background. I used a Logitech headset I picked up from the day job for conference calls, which has a condenser mic.
- You can use towels or hang blankets around a room to absorb sound so condenser mics don’t pick up as much noise, but that’s not feasible in my recording space. My AT-2100, set at the right level, doesn’t record any of that noise.
I also like that the AT-2100 has both a USB connector and an XLR connector (your standard mic cable that plugs into a speaker). This means I can record directly into my computer and in any post-COVID future where I may do in-person interviews, all I need to do is get a second mic for my guest and a field recording device. I don’t have to have a laptop with me to record because I can plug in with the XLR cables.
As exciting as all of this is, episode 2 of the podcast, which drops the first Saturday of June, was recorded with my condenser mic headset and via Skype. For episode 3, I’ll have audio with my new mic and I’m gonna try recording through Zencastr to not deal with Skype’s distorted audio.
You can listen to Encuentros Latinxs on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or our Podbean.