All The Equipment Your Podcast Needs EXPLAINED I The Patrick Carr Show

Memories All right everybody Welcome to the Patrick Carr show you know we get a lot Of questions about podcasting in general I mean how do I start a podcast and uh What should I do with uh with the Podcast citation I put to YouTube should I put it over to Spotify should I use Apple music but before you can ever Answer those questions you’ve got to Have equipment that will make your Podcast possible and so we get these Kind of questions all the time what Equipment do I need where should I start Um and today I wanted to run down Exactly that Um haven’t gone through some big uh Pre-production process for this Literally what we did is we run around The studio here today and just took some Notes about what some of the equipment Was Um we’ve upgraded some stuff over the Last few years and so I want to give you A starting point from where you can go And then as well I want to give you some Upgrades you can make and some things You could do differently to make your Own podcast exactly that your own Because everyone’s got some different Preferences and different styles and so Uh that’s exactly what we want to give You today some options that you have Available to you so let’s get it started

All right if you’re going to have a Podcast the number one thing that you’re Going to need is a microphone right even If you’re not doing something visually So you’re not gonna do something on YouTube You’re Going to focus more on Your Spotify type stuff Um you’re gonna need a good mic and so I Want to run through three different Kinds of mics that you may have seen or That you may have heard of all right the First one we do not have here but we Will put a picture up there Um on on the screen it is the sure Sm7bs all right this is kind of Considered to be the top of the line mic This is what you’re going to see when You watch Joe Rogan or a lot of the Podcasts that are nationally out there That’s the sm7bs they run about 400 on Amazon and if you want to start off with The absolute best that is out there that Is going to be my suggestion again we Don’t have those here we have the ones That are right below that all right That’s going to be the m v7s they run About 269 dollars you can see them right Here we also have one below that which Is the mv7x it runs seven 179 dollars Now I want to show you all something Here the last two that I just described And the one that I’m speaking on right Here these are actually the mics right Here the difference between the 179

Dollar version and the 269 version so You’re talking about a 100 difference Between these two and you probably look At it much like me and think doesn’t Look like much of a difference right There are some minor differences between These two mics and you can really tell By looking at the bottom of these Um one of them has a headphone jack Um so you can actually plug your Headphones directly into the mic if You’re wanting that playback sound this Is going to give you especially if You’re a single person doing a podcast This is how I started off I upgraded to This mic right here uh so that I would Have that headphone jack available You’re also going to see it does have I Believe it’s called an a I think it’s Called an a adapter I think it uh I Can’t yeah but I think they’re an a that Right there is going to allow you with a Little more flexibility with your sound Too that’ll plug directly into laptops So if you want to go from like USB to a I I believe it’s called an a forgive me On this one folks you can do that again If you’re a person that’s just a single Podcaster this mic right here is Probably going to be where you want to Go both have the XLR inputs right there On the bottom so we’re going to discuss Those in just a second but again you’ve Got a difference between one the other

And then your top little line your sm7bs Looking forward to upgrading to those Soon so that takes care of your mic Situation I would always go with Shore It’s a good brand and I think people are Going to recognize that one is out there Next thing we want to discuss how do you Actually get the sound from these and That’s going to be these things called XLR chords everybody for those people in The industry don’t forgive me I just Grabbed these out of there so I’ve Probably got them a little Tangled right Now but XLR chords I suggest buying at Least 25 feet depending on the size of Your podcast you may actually have some Length to go to get to your audio where It’s going to be recorded but if you Have each of these you can see I’ve got One directly right here underneath Plugged into this mic but your XLR cords Depending on how many mics you have That’s how many XLR cords you are going To need next headphones everybody Um headphones we are using let me see What I got here we’ve got the let’s see One audio wired headphones is what I’ve Always gone with Um for whatever reason I tried out a few Of them I like the way that these feel Suggestion though to you is this I know That everybody wants to Go Wireless when It comes to headphones I suggest being Wired for right now

Um I don’t like the wireless side Because you never know if you’re at a Conference you’re at some place where There’s going to be some interference Your wireless stuff can give out on you So if you if you want to make sure Excuse me things are going to work all The time go with the wired headphones These run you I think it’s about thirty Dollars we’ll put the Amazon Link in the Amazon picture up there but these have Been very comfortable for us and to our Guests next thing I want to talk about Because these headphone wires are not Going to be sometimes as long as what You need you’re going to need an Extender all right so this is going to Be what’s called a basically I call them A headphone extender an audio extender Cord it’s a 3.5 millimeter extension Cable they’ll run you uh let’s see what I got here like eight bucks per Extension cable Um get one that’s like 25 30 feet again You never know how far it’s going to be To the recorder especially if you’re Going to be doing stuff mobily you may Have to have your audio team or somebody Recording off screen right now we’ve got About a 15 20 feet to the actual Recorder and to where the headphones are Actually plugged in over there Um let’s talk about tripods you’re going To have cameras on tripods if you’re

Doing it that way we use the newer ones Uh make sure you get the heavy duty Aluminum alloy kind I want to show you a Couple different kinds right here folks We use this one in the field Um these are great right here um don’t Get me wrong they will come they’re Going just like this And There I don’t know if you can see me I Probably out of focus or something right Now but that’s fine what I want to show You is that these are great for in the Field all right but when you’re talking About a studio environment everyone you Want to make sure that you’ve got Something that if somebody bumps into it Your camera is not going to go falling Over okay these are great for on the go Uh but just make sure you go in and Spend a little bit of extra money it’s About 149 dollars for the aluminum alloy Ones each spend the extra money and make Sure your cameras don’t get toppled over Because somebody trips and falls on a Wire which I assure you has happened to Me lost the camera smashed it all up and Lost the lens so make sure you do that Under no circumstances do you ever go The absolute cheapest route this is what You see people in the gym taking their Videos with right here everybody where They have the cell phone they put the Cell phone in here and then you know

Everyone’s taking this do not go the Cheapest route if you’re gonna buy a Camera to put on this these are not Meant for cameras these are meant for Cell phones they are flimsy they will Fall over don’t mess around with this Spend the extra money 149 bucks a piece And you can have yourself a tripod That’s going to last you a while and you Know it’s going to work For us we’ve got a three camera setup That we do here you may have seen it When we do our podcast we’ll put one on Our guests one on me and then one kind Of showing both of us we use two Different kinds of cameras right now we Have a Sony fx30s Um with the XLR handles make sure you Get the handles if you’re gonna buy the Fx30 it will be about a three to four Hundred dollar difference Um there are some advantages to having That handle besides just being able to Be mobile with the camera and not have To use so much of a gimbal it does have An XLR input into the into the actual Handle so that allows for better sound On the go if need be Um so definitely recommend getting the XLR handles with the FX 30s if you’re Going to do that we have two of them Here and then of course our Workhorse The Sony fx6 It’s going to run you about six thousand

Dollars uh to start it off with however Though Um once you buy everything you’re going To need for the camera I’m talking about Things like a ninja recorder if you’re Going to go down that way or if you try To do the souped up SD cards that it Takes to to be able to run the thing Um overall you’re probably going to be In about seven thousand dollars and Trying to do Um the Sony fx6 not necessary for a Podcast you know some of the notes that I have right here is that if you’re Going to get started with a podcast Start off with something simple Um we use all Sony here but you can use Any kind of Baseline brand your canons And others Um and the Sony A7 II runs about a Thousand bucks right now Um and it’ll work just fine for a Podcast Um and you know you’re not talking about Doing some Dynamic cinematic shoot out There in the field we’re gonna be right Back to that episode but you know There’s real power in having a CRM built For your industry you know if I was and Let’s just say a business of building Cameras we see all the way around here I’d want a CRM that keeps my business Organized that was built exactly for That if you’re going to be a business

That I don’t know builds tables why Don’t you want something that was built For the industry that you’re in of Course you would because it would be Adaptable to everything that you’re Currently doing right now it would have The stages of the jobs that you’re known For having and it would be customizable To what your needs are and wouldn’t just Try to fit you into a square hole and That’s exactly what contractors are Getting right now with leap leap is Built for contractors and they Understand the needs of the contractor Listen not every job is going to be the Same they’re going to be different Stages there’s going to be different Kinds of work that you do and with that In mind you need a CRM that is going to Be adaptable to you and that is Leap so If you’re a contractor out there and you Have a CRM that’s just built for a sales Or it’s built for operations or you just Threw something together when you Started your company years back and you Haven’t changed then you’ve got to get Over to leap and let them get the right Platform for your business the website Is going to be directly across the Bottom of the screen right here head Over there they’re going to get you a Nice webinar walk you through everything That leap can do for your business and I Promise you as a contractor you are not

Going to be disappointed it’s about time You step up to the right CRM for you so Head on over there right now again that Website is right here and for now though Let’s get back to this episode you’re Talking about a stationary podcast you Don’t when you’re getting started need To look at anything more if you really Want to go a little bit below that Sony Has a what was that thing called I’m Going to slip my mind right now there Are there are a couple cameras below That Sony A7 II that you could run with Um I don’t suggest going much further Below that though when it comes to the Video quality you definitely want to be Able to shoot something that people are Going to watch so again you don’t have To start off at the very top of the line Start some where you feel like is Affordable to you start with one camera If that’s the way you’d like to go and Then kind of work your way up from there How the cameras actually attach to What’s going to be called a switcher You’re going to need HDMI cables or hdmi To hdmi mini cables these are what’s Going to allow you to record to a laptop When you see people out there that are You know they’re they’ve got a Multi-camera set up and they’re Switching between people I’m going to Show you how they do that in just a Second we’re going to walk through it

But the main thing I want you to get Right now is for each camera that you Buy you’re going to want to buy an HDMI Cable now depending on the camera it may Be an HDMI mini input or maybe a regular HDMI you’ll just have to look at the Camera give you an example the FX 30s That we have HDMI cables F the A7 3s Have an HDMI mini cable that goes into Them it really just depends on your Camera and your brand but what I really Want to get across is for each camera That you buy make sure you’re buying a Cable that’s going to go along with it So that you can move between cameras That’s going to cut down that editing Time for you HDMI cables are going to Run anywhere from 10 to 30 dollars Depending on how many you buy at a time And the length of them I would highly Suggest going uh I don’t know 25 20 feet on an HDMI cable Just give yourself a lot of room even Though your set might be smaller than That Okay here’s where things start to get Fun okay I want to talk about what I Call a headphone switcher some people Call it an audio switcher I just called The headphone switcher we have the Fosse Audio switcher Um I actually bought two of them because They’re pretty cheap they’re 30 bucks Now earlier you told me talk you hear me

Talk about how I’ve got I’ve got my Headphones right here and I have an Extender that extender is attached runs Underneath this table about 15 feet over To that audio switcher this means that All of the guests if we have them with Us let’s say we have me plus three other People all of our headphones are on Running directly into that audio Switcher so that each of us can hear one Another through our headphones The question becomes this right why do You need headphones in the first place And I’m going to give you the quickest Example especially if you are working With different people coming onto your Show guests who are not used to being on A podcast what they will tend to do is They will tend to go like this and they Will back up from a camera just like This and they’ll have a conversation With you like they normally would When you do that you will hear in the Headphones that they cannot hear you you Can’t hear yourself and it forces them Most of the time to bring themselves Back up to the table this is why Headphones are great Um it means that everybody knows how Each other sounds and how you sound to Your guest so if you’re gonna have People that are going to do this or they Want to talk like this because they’re Just talking to you they’re going to

Immediately figure out through those Headphones that hey you know we don’t Have consistent audio here this is why You keep the headphones on it’s why you See it on a lot of the podcasts and I’ll Tell you what they’re doing in a minute If they’re not using headphones and I’ll Tell you how you can still get some Decent sound and what you see on a lot Of podcasts where maybe they’re just Kind of sitting around talking we’ll Tell you how they do that in just a Second all right so we know we’ve got The the headphones that we can hear but We’ve got to be able to record our audio We record our audio through a zoom 6 Recorder they run about 279 dollars and You will see that this is where These XLR cords are all plugged into Makes sense right your mic which is Recording the sound or guys the sound is Going from the XLR cord directly into The zoom six recorder and that is how we Are separating our sound in our video It’s going over there I love the zoom 6 Recorder they also have a mobile one Um it’s like a little looks like a Little block and it but it only has two XLR inputs I believe uh if you’re gonna Be on the go I suggest doing that now I Only learned this the hard way we were Doing a uh we were doing a what was it a Documentary on Hurricane Ian and we had The zoom six inside of the bag and doing

That walking around up and down we broke The zoom six we had to get a new one Nothing worse than showing up to a Podcast and your equipment doesn’t work We had that exact thing happen don’t let It happen to you so Zoom six is great if You’re just gonna be stationary it’ll Work just fine for you and has always Been great to us all right so now One little note right here you Definitely want to connect that uh Headphone switcher and the zoom six Recorder so that everybody can hear one Another and that is done through just Another one of those 3.5 millimeter you Can find them headphone Um connections it’s a cord it’s about This long we have it uh run you a couple Bucks on Amazon Finally I want to get into a couple last Things here so you can understand how it All comes together one of the things I Did forget I have it written down here Are our mic stands so there’s a couple Different kinds of mic stands Um you can see what these kind of are Right here and you can attach the mic He’s like a kicker I think these were Actually originally made to be a kick Drum Um I believe is what they were made for Like when they go on the ground you the Drum or something like that people use Them a lot on top of tables

Um for mics you can adjust them adjust Them down and stuff we also use the boom Arms Um and those are the ones that adjust Out and you attach them to the table a Lot of people use these I love what we Have right here these things I think are Unique and that they Bend they go Wherever you need them to go and they Stay there so for us for the let’s see Here how much we’re looking at 25 bucks A piece they attach right to the table That you have right here gives you a lot More adjustment than some of these other Boom arms do and no one else has them so I tend to like having the things that no One else has in their podcast and so I Would highly suggest they’re called the Zeal then we’ll put them up there Z-e-a-l Zeal sound microphone arm They’re 25 bucks a piece and they will Hold all of your mics all the sure ones We talked about earlier you can Definitely use those I’m lighting lighting is uh we’ve got The newer lights these are your mid Grade lights everybody they run you About 269 let’s see what I got here yeah I Bought 269 300 Um these are the newer 660 Pro RGB LED Lights Um I like the color spectrum we’ve used That as accent lights in the past

Um I highly suggest don’t just get the The yellow white stuff Um get something that’s got some color To it even though you may rarely use the Color if you’re doing something that may Be a little bit darker on your podcast Or you’re showing something that maybe Is a little more serious you may want to Back up your talk with uh maybe a darker Red or purple type color if you really Want to set an accent mood behind it Especially if you’ve got some depth to Your show or maybe you’re doing it on a Couch and you’ve got a living room and You’ve got all this stuff behind you Some good accent lights can make it more Visually aesthetically appealing so Don’t don’t cheap it out on the lights And get the ones that are like a hundred Bucks go ahead and get some good lights They come come in two packs and you Can’t go wrong with those talking about Our cameras I know I’m jumping around Here a little bit everybody but just Kind of going by my notes lenses we get Asked about that all the time if you’re Using Sony for instance Sony has its own Lenses a lot of these camera companies All have their own lenses I get it most Of the time they are better lenses to be Honest there are differences in lenses If you’re doing a podcast though you Don’t need to buy the most expensive Lens Sigma

Tamron are two of the ones that we’ve Used here that you could call them Off-brand lenses I also have a couple Sony lenses too for the purpose the one That you are watching this on right now Is a 28 to 75 our middle camera that we Have is a 17 to 28 hamron all that means Folks is that it’s adjustable so we can Zoom in with the lens we can zoom out a Little bit and we can have a wider shot Versus more tight end on me or on our Guest gives us a lot more flexibility Than simply more of a stagnant lens Where we might have like a 55 or you Know we might have in I think we’ve got A Sony 80 Um that’s in there right now 8085 a Camera 1.8 so I suggest just getting a Lens that’s adjustable Um if you’re working with Sony products The Tamron Sigma all those are good Um they’ll still run you they’re Expensive they’re still going to run you 899 799 bucks depending on the ones that You’re looking for Um but worth the investment get a good Lens so that people can see you right There Finally I want to talk about Blackmagic Mini you’re going to see this attached Right up there to our laptop when we are Running multiple cameras this is kind of The Hub right here everybody this is Exactly what is being plugged in for all

Of those HDMI cords I talked about for For the cameras are all going into the Blackmagic it is where the switcher Happens so the person or engineer that Is running our podcast switches between Those cameras depending on on who’s Talking and and gives it that that feel Um of a more of a I guess a television Feel and also you’re going to want to do This because you don’t want three Cameras running and then have to do what You have to edit three different camera Views and post that is going to be a Heck of a project along with audio I Have made that mistake before do not do It to yourself buy the Blackmagic mini It’ll run you 269 dollars right there And uh you’ll be you know 295 dollars I’m sorry it’ll run you that and again It works it’s great it’s simple to use It’ll plug right into your laptop we use A program called stream Labs there’s Probably about 15 others that you could Choose from streamlabs is pretty easy For our team to use and again you’re Just recording everything as the podcast Goes switching between your cameras and By the end of it you’ve got yourself a Really great product so that is our Basic setup that we use right here Um I I know we went through it quickly But I want to give everyone an idea of What we do there are probably a thousand Different ways you can set up a podcast

On top of that there are a thousand Different opinions about what works and What doesn’t there are different Switchers there are different uh Recorders and depending on how much you Need the power if you’re going to go Live if you’re going to just record Um audio versus visual those can all Vary what you’re going to need within Your podcast the most important thing is You find what works for you you find Something that works for you for your Team for where your journey is within Your podcast are you just going to do Audio so maybe you don’t even care about These the cameras all you care about is Having great sound these are decisions You have to make when you begin the Podcast Journey my biggest thing I’ll Tell you is that you know don’t get Bogged down by you know trying to be how Would I put it don’t try to be you know Valuetainment or Ben Shapiro the first Time around these are people that have Equipment that you know is Studio grade And it’s very tough to mimic some of That I know we see so many of our Podcasts on YouTube and we can tend to Get down on ourselves that maybe you’re Just beginning your journey don’t don’t Let that get you down go ahead and start Somewhere and continue to upgrade little By little get more comfortable with the Equipment learn a little bit and you’re

Going to actually improve as you go I Can assure you of that last thing I want To mention because I did say I would uh One of the options you have Um we have them here I didn’t bring it With me but we’ve got the rode ntg Shotgun mic I’m along with we have a Boom arm if if you wanted to a lot of Times when you see these podcasts Um where maybe they don’t have a mic Like this or they don’t have a headphone Just out of the picture if we were to do It here we would drop in a boom mic Directly above where the picture is and That mic would serve in the middle of The table as our sound you see this a Lot when you have like a round table Everybody where you’ve got some people Sitting around they’re gonna actually Gonna drop a mic directly in the middle Just out of the picture frame and that’s How they get the sound from everybody I Don’t suggest doing it this way I think You you get some inconsistent sound when You do this depending on where someone Is at a table or how loud someone speaks Having the mics in front of individuals Give you a lot more flexibility and I Think a lot more control over the sound But you’ll see it done in different ways You have to be the judge for yourself Especially if you’re only doing audio Highly suggest go to the microphone Route don’t go the shotgun route even

Though it can’t be it can be sometimes Easier with multiple guests all right I Think we tackled everything we’ve got Cameras we’ve got tripods we’ve got Cords mics stands everything you could Possibly need I think that would cover It for a podcast for you if you found This informational if you like what we Had here make sure that you do comment Below let us know what you liked what You didn’t like what you want more Information on we’ll try to put some Links in the comments but more than Anything just look for the stuff on Amazon or if you’re like us we shop Everything local almost all I’m gonna Say almost all except for just a couple Of things here we’re about locally Colonial Photo hobby here in Orlando so We try to buy local around here so we Can support some of these small Businesses but hey who knows where You’re at you can go right to Amazon and We’ll put all the links for that Directly and this in the comments and if Not we’ll have pictures of them so that You can see directly on the video here What we were looking at alright hope you Have a great day over there make a great Podcast go out there and start your Journey or upgrade what you currently Have until next time everybody is to Patrick car show have a great one