Podcircle Podcast

Mickenzie Vought: 00:00

Welcome to the Podcircle podcast where we bring you practical tips and insights for every podcaster.

Kyle Cummings: 00:06

From aspiring podcasters to experts with 100s of episodes under your belt and everywhere in between, these conversations dive into the topics that matter most to you.

Mickenzie Vought: 00:15

Today, we are diving into your expertise, Kyle. We're gonna be talking all about recording equipment.

Kyle Cummings: 00:21

That is my wheelhouse for sure.

Mickenzie Vought: 00:23

Yes. And as we got into this topic, I realized there was probably too much knowledge that you hold for just one episode. So we are going to have part 1 and part 2 of these conversations. And part 1 is gonna kinda walk through the basics of your initial setup and including a remote interview. And then the second part will really be diving into how to optimize both an in person and a remote setup.

Mickenzie Vought: 00:46

So all the questions that come with this topic feel like probably the biggest barrier. I know that they were a huge barrier for me as I started podcasting. So Kyle, how do you help clients overcome this barrier and even the fear that comes around this with the uncertainty?

Kyle Cummings: 00:59

Yeah. I think a lot of people have they hesitate to get started on their podcast because they feel like they need to be an expert in this or at least

Mickenzie Vought: 01:06

Mhmm.

Kyle Cummings: 01:06

You know, be proficient, and it's just not the case. So at Podcircle, what I tell people all the time is that you don't need to know anything coming into it. That's kind of our job is to educate and to guide. That's I think that's really how I see myself in these types of situations is just as a guide to get a client from a, which if that means they know nothing about gear, nothing about recording to get them from a to z, which is having a fully formed podcast where they're they feel really confident every time they sit down and record a podcast that is gonna be captured really well. And then they send us really great raw material to edit and produce.

Kyle Cummings: 01:47

So just to get started on that, I just let people know that they don't have to have it all figured out, that we have researched the best equipment for pretty much every podcasting scenario where whether we're talking about in person podcast recordings or remote podcast recordings like this. We're using Riverside. Some folks use Zoom. And if they wanna have a bit of a a mix between both, a hybrid setup, we've got the right gear for those types of scenarios.

Mickenzie Vought: 02:12

Let's talk gear. Tell us about your favorite mic.

Kyle Cummings: 02:15

Yeah. There's a mic called the Shure MV7 that came on the scene a couple of years ago. It's modeled after another really famous podcast mic called a Shure SM7b. Mhmm. The big difference with this one right here, and if you're watching this on YouTube, you can see

Mickenzie Vought: 02:32

We can be Vanna White if you're watching on YouTube

Kyle Cummings: 02:35

Exactly. Below. There it is. But this mic's great because it's a USB mic, so you can plug it right into a computer, and it's truly plug and play. You actually just got your setup today.

Kyle Cummings: 02:47

I did. And you really just you plug it in, and it it just works, which is awesome. What's also great about it is that you can use it for in person Mhmm. Conversations. So sometimes in those cases, you actually will will wanna plug a mic cable into the back, run that into a recording device.

Kyle Cummings: 03:04

But it's it's really a great hybrid mic. It's a it's just a great podcast mic in general. So it plugs straight into your computer. Yeah. It travels really well.

Kyle Cummings: 03:12

Some of you might know that I live remote. I'm a digital nomad. My family and I have been traveling for the past couple of years. I threw this thing in a in a bag, in a box, and in my kinda my go bag. So it works great for that.

Kyle Cummings: 03:24

You can lock in your settings with it, which is really awesome. So if, again, if you travel, if you're kinda moving around a lot Mhmm. You can kinda dial in your microphone settings, and then there's, like, 2 buttons on here. If you press them both at the same time for a few seconds, it'll lock in your settings so that they don't change, they don't get bumped, they don't get they don't move, things like that. So I really, really like that as someone who's oftentimes training people on how to use gear, people that aren't technically savvy, who aren't thinking about like, oh, is my mic level perfect for this?

Kyle Cummings: 03:55

So that I love the kind of set it and forget it ness of that.

Mickenzie Vought: 03:57

I just did it in real time with you. I set it. Exactly. Locked it in real time.

Kyle Cummings: 04:01

It's really, really easy. There's just, like, a slider. So you just slide your finger and it's more or less. It's pretty fantastic. I think it looks great on camera.

Kyle Cummings: 04:10

You can put it on a little desktop mount. You can put it on a boom mount. It just works, which is what you want. You and I, we both use a a little desktop stand here. Again, if you're on YouTube, you can you can kinda see.

Kyle Cummings: 04:20

It folds up. This this tripod here folds up really nice and easy. You can store it, really easily. But if you want something that's a little more that gives you a little more flexibility, you can get what's called a desk mounted or a table mounted boom stand. Mhmm.

Kyle Cummings: 04:36

And it just clamps right onto the edge, and you can kinda swing it around wherever is most comfortable for you. And that's that's a great solution if you just kinda have a static situation where, you know, you're not moving around, you're not changing locations a lot, that can just kinda be your podcast studio space. That tends to work really well. In fact, I'm considering getting one for my travels as well and because they actually fold up pretty pretty nice and easy too. So

Mickenzie Vought: 05:01

So it just attaches to a table, and you can easily move it around with you too.

Kyle Cummings: 05:04

Exactly. And there's a few different kinds. Some of them, they kind of telescope a little bit, which means they sit up high. And some of them, they've started coming out with mon ones that are more low profile. So the Yeah.

Kyle Cummings: 05:16

The they they kinda go across your desk and then just come straight up. I think both are great options. It's just a matter of preference.

Mickenzie Vought: 05:22

Great. I told you that I would be, just a novice in this conversation. I think I used the word the dummy, but realistically, I think I wanna ask the questions that we're all thinking because this is your expertise. So thank you for leading us through this gently. I really do appreciate it.

Mickenzie Vought: 05:37

And I think just from an aesthetic standpoint, this mic looks very official. So if you're looking for a mic that feels official and looks official, every clip I see on Instagram, someone's using a Shure mic in my mind. So

Kyle Cummings: 05:49

Totally. And they have, ones in white too, which are kinda nice. I've got a few clients that have the the white version. So and I'm sure that they'll continue to come out with different colors.

Mickenzie Vought: 05:59

Awesome. Well, so we've got the mic locked in. We suggest this is the one you get because it works for both in person and virtual interviews and remote interviews. Yeah. What about headphones?

Mickenzie Vought: 06:08

I think a lot of times, originally, maybe 4 or 5 years ago, a podcast setup was very static. Everyone had the same, like, big headphones and, you know, the official mics that were hardwired in and a lot of tech and all of that. What do you recommend now?

Kyle Cummings: 06:23

Yeah. So, basically, I break it down in into basically 3 options. If you do want kind of the over the ear, the bigger headphones, you're gonna get better sound quality with those, which is really nice. You're gonna get better sound isolation with those. The con is that they're more expensive than at least one of our other options and that most people don't like how they show up on camera, especially in a Zoom recording where you have a or a Riverside recording in this case where you have a camera right in front of you.

Kyle Cummings: 06:51

They just tend to be big. You know? So a a few alternatives to that are that you can just get really simple, cheap, $10 Sony in ear, just earbuds, basically. I recommend that people plug them straight into their computer and you can get them in any color, truly like white, black, different colors. They're just really minimalistic, and they're very, very inexpensive.

Kyle Cummings: 07:16

Yeah. A lot of people these days also have AirPods. You might notice that Mackenzie and I are both wearing our AirPods.

Mickenzie Vought: 07:22

Rocking the AirPods.

Kyle Cummings: 07:23

Yeah. I mean, you can barely even tell that they're in. They're just so minimalistic. They work great. I like that they're wireless.

Kyle Cummings: 07:29

There's a lot of pros, and they sound I've got the AirPod Pro headphones, so, you know, they're great. You can even go into noise cancellation mode if you kinda wanna block out some background noise that might be distracting you. The cons are that they are the more expensive they are the most expensive option, at least the pros are. I haven't priced out just the regular AirPods in a while. But, the other thing to consider with those is that you need to make sure you have a full charge on them going into a podcast recording.

Kyle Cummings: 07:57

So that's just something to be mindful of. But if you have to ask my pick out of the 3, it's for sure it's for sure AirPods.

Mickenzie Vought: 08:04

AirPods. I have been in a situation where my AirPods died in the middle of an interview. Mhmm. And I was using Riverside. And what you know about Riverside is that you have to signal, like, hey.

Mickenzie Vought: 08:13

I'm wearing headphones when you start. So it kind of, like, throws it for a loop. You have to hop back out, hop back in. So make sure you're charged. But I will say I love the noise canceling on it.

Mickenzie Vought: 08:23

It's helped me in a lot of situations where I just wanna, like, zone out, and maybe my mic's not picking it up, but I'm, you know, getting distracted, so that helps. And I've had mine for 3 years, and they still work fantastic. So

Kyle Cummings: 08:35

Same.

Mickenzie Vought: 08:35

It's a great investment, and they continue to, in my mind, pay back. So Apple's not paying us, but if Apple wants to pay us, we would be willing to let them.

Kyle Cummings: 08:43

Totally. Well, I use enough of their products. So and have

Mickenzie Vought: 08:55

to just frankly recording in their homes. And so if you're on YouTube, you can see that we're both recording in our homes, and you can actually we're just gonna call it out. I'm recording in my closet. And behind me, I have a curtain rod and a blanket over top of it so that you're not seeing my husband and I's messy closet and clothes. You can get creative, but I think we care more about sound and aesthetics, but sound first.

Mickenzie Vought: 09:19

So tell us from a sound perspective what we need to be looking for in a space to record.

Kyle Cummings: 09:23

Yeah. So just really quickly, my background before I was ever in podcasting was I was a record producer in Nashville. Yeah. I had a full production studio that I kind of hand designed. And so this is something I care a lot about.

Kyle Cummings: 09:37

And also, I'm a pragmatist when it comes to it. So I there's hills that I'm not willing to die on when it comes to when people ask me, do I need to go out and buy, like, really expensive sound absorption panels and all this stuff? I had all that stuff. If you're making music for a living in that kind of environment, that stuff's really important. For podcasting, I just I think that small moves can make for big results.

Kyle Cummings: 10:02

So I'm gonna give some best practices around just the kind of room that you can can be in. So I kind of think about it in a couple of different ways, a room that has good sound. So I'm thinking bedrooms, office space in your house. Bedrooms are good because oftentimes, sometimes they are and sometimes they aren't. They're carpeted, or they have a rug.

Kyle Cummings: 10:24

There's obviously a big bed in the room. Maybe there's a a loveseat or another piece of furniture. All of these things soak up sound, and that's exactly what you want. Some folks record in their in their closet. I have mixed feelings about that.

Kyle Cummings: 10:38

Obviously, the sound is gonna be good, but the vibe may not be so much, especially if it's a small closet. Now if you have a large walk in closet that maybe has a window in it, I don't know how many of those have windows in them. But

Mickenzie Vought: 10:51

I know that that's not normal, but that's what I currently have in front of me as a window.

Kyle Cummings: 10:55

Oh, I think it's that might be ideal because you've got clothes and, you know, you've got all that good stuff to soak up the sound. But you also wanna record in a space that is inspiring to you, that you actually look forward to recording. And I think that makes a big difference. But also you wanna consider too your aesthetic. Like, what's in the background?

Kyle Cummings: 11:13

Yeah. You wanna think about things like lighting, especially if you're gonna be recording video. I always encourage people to record video because even if they're not recording a video podcast, you wanna be recording video for those social media assets where if you're like us and you pull clips for clients and, you know, match them with the video, they just perform so well on on social media. So those are kind of a few of my high level tips in terms of deciding what an ideal recording space could be.

Mickenzie Vought: 11:43

Those are really great tips. And I'm even thinking, like, how do I make it prettier in this space? Like, I love the idea of finding an aesthetic or finding a place that you feel excited to be in because Yes. Like I said, I've been recording remote podcast for almost 3 years, And it's always been like, oh, okay. We have to find a space.

Mickenzie Vought: 12:00

Let me do that. And my company that I work for has created, like, an intentional space. And that just changed the way I show up for podcast too. So Yes. If you're able to do that, if you've got a constant space that can be your podcasting space, there is a feeling that comes with that that's so encouraging.

Kyle Cummings: 12:15

Totally. And whatever your space is, and I'm I have people that are starting out in mind.

Mickenzie Vought: 12:20

Yeah. You can always

Kyle Cummings: 12:21

change it, improve it, things like that. So don't Yeah. You know, you I just don't think that you have to go out and spend a whole bunch of money and buy a neon sign that's in your back. Like, maybe at some point, but Yeah. Just keep it simple.

Kyle Cummings: 12:34

I think the the majority of it is just some decent lighting. Maybe invest in a ring light and a neutral background. I I've got a client who uses a a really cool kind of shower curtain as her backdrop, and it works. You know, is it the best thing in the world? No.

Kyle Cummings: 12:50

But does it work for for her brand aesthetic? It totally does. Yeah. And at some point, I'm sure she'll upgrade, but I would deter people from being too perfectionistic about it.

Mickenzie Vought: 13:00

Yes. I think across the board, especially when it comes to launching something new, you're in those early iteration stages. I always say done at 90% is better than not done at a 100%. Because I think so much, especially with launching a podcast, you can get in your head and you start to get nervous about it, and then you just don't do it because it's not perfect. So do it not perfectly.

Kyle Cummings: 13:23

Yes.

Mickenzie Vought: 13:24

Alright. Let's hit one more point about just those basic setups and the basic things that you need for every single podcast episode. And let's talk about camera. So we've already said, we want you to be recording. We encourage you to be recording with absolutely every episode you do so that you can use it for other things.

Mickenzie Vought: 13:41

Even if you don't have a video podcast, even if you're not putting it on YouTube, it's so great to be able to pull for social clips. But the best camera for your remote podcast interviews is your phone?

Kyle Cummings: 13:54

Your phone.

Mickenzie Vought: 13:55

Your phone.

Kyle Cummings: 13:55

That's that's what I think. And I'm talking about what's attainable for people to get started.

Mickenzie Vought: 14:01

How do we get started?

Kyle Cummings: 14:01

Yeah. Are there other nicer, more expensive cameras that you can spend over a thou of course. And plenty of folks have those. I'm trying to get people rocking and rolling with a setup that works and works well.

Mickenzie Vought: 14:14

Yep.

Kyle Cummings: 14:15

So these things can record in 4K. I think if you have Yeah. I know that mine's, an iPhone 13 pro. I know that it can. I'm not Mhmm.

Kyle Cummings: 14:23

Sure how far back that goes. But even if you're not recording in 4 k and you're recording in 1080p, great. That's awesome. There's a couple of apps that make this possible. So on your iPhone, you'll you'll download an app called Epiccam.

Kyle Cummings: 14:36

I believe it's epoccam, and you'll wanna download the pro version of that. I think it's, like, $8, and I think it's a one time fee. And that basically just turns your your phone into a webcam. You'll plug your phone into your computer, that will power it and also, establish a connection. And then depending on whether you're Mac or PC, there is maybe a driver that you need to download

Mickenzie Vought: 15:02

Mhmm.

Kyle Cummings: 15:02

To get that to work. It sounds complicated, but it's once you get it set up, it's really fantastic. And you can even adjust the color and the saturation if you want to even go to that level. But it looks really nice. I just trained a client on this on Friday, and they couldn't believe the difference between their built in webcam and what their phone was able to produce.

Mickenzie Vought: 15:23

And That's awesome. Yeah.

Kyle Cummings: 15:24

It's it's really fantastic.

Mickenzie Vought: 15:26

Awesome. And so if you're recording video, you're gonna need some kind of platform. Right?

Kyle Cummings: 15:30

Yes.

Mickenzie Vought: 15:30

So we love and use Riverside. We're currently using it. And I've been using it for, like, 3 years, and I really just the biggest deterrent for me in doing remote interviews was technical glitches. And I always had trouble, like, asking the guests to do a backup recording on their end and getting that from them, and there was a lot of logistics that were hard to manage. And so once I discovered Riverside, I think you actually suggested it to me for the first time.

Mickenzie Vought: 15:57

I loved it because it's high quality audio and video that doesn't glitch when your wifi does. Yeah. So for a few minutes ago, you glitched on me, but I knew you were gonna come back because it's recording locally in your computer, and then it uploads into that. And so Yeah. Let's say someone does lose service, it'll always come back and it'll record locally on your computer.

Mickenzie Vought: 16:15

And all you have to do is give them a simple little link, and it'll record all their recordings and make sure it's stored there. And so it has saved me more than once, and they're all stored right there in your Riverside platform. Yep. And we just absolutely love it.

Kyle Cummings: 16:29

Yeah. It's it's really great. And no system is perfect. Does Riverside have its quirks from time to time? Of course.

Kyle Cummings: 16:35

Yes. Is it light years better than recording via Zoom? Yes. Mhmm. Absolutely.

Kyle Cummings: 16:40

Yes. The recording quality is is fantastic. And like you said, what you and I see on the screen here is basically Zoom call recording. So if the Internet does get a little bit glitchy, I don't know if you noticed, but every time we start a new recording, it it says something to the effect of what you see on your screen is lower quality than what's being recorded in the background. Yeah.

Kyle Cummings: 17:01

And it's cool too because I can see up in the top, my recording speed is really fast. So 99% of my video and audio is already uploaded, which is fantastic. So you can kinda keep tabs on that. And there's a another really great feature about Riverside where if you end an interview and then you end a recording and then your guest hops off before their recording is fully uploaded, all you have to do is send them a link. I think it's just Riverside dot FM slash upload, and then they can finish their recording.

Kyle Cummings: 17:34

Good to go. You'll be able to see when that pops up. So they've really made great strides, I've noticed, in the past couple years to address some of these, like, common issues, because there's a lot going on with Riverside. There's a lot of data transfer, and so they've just gotten really smart about how they handle bandwidth issues and things like that. So without getting into a whole lot of specifics there, all you need to know is that it records really high quality audio and video for each participant.

Kyle Cummings: 18:00

So everything's separate separate files for everybody. And then you can also have a com a producer log in as a producer, and then they can actually control people's volume. It's just really, really nice. It's it's they've done a really nice job with it, and all they do is continue to improve on it. So we're really big fans of it.

Kyle Cummings: 18:18

If you wanna check it out, we actually have an affiliate link with them, so we get a small kickback. But, I'm constantly turning people on to Riverside and and and actually even training them on how to use it, and people seem to really enjoy it. And it houses everything, your downloads and everything. You don't have to transfer it over to Dropbox and share the files. It you don't have to do any of that.

Kyle Cummings: 18:37

It's all it all exists within Riverside. So

Mickenzie Vought: 18:39

Awesome. Well, Kyle, I think we've hit our time on this one. So we're gonna do a part 2. So if you've been furbishly taking notes in this episode, let me calm your nerves. We actually have already done the work for you.

Mickenzie Vought: 18:51

You can head to our show notes and get our complete podcast starter kit that has an entire equipment guide for you so that you can get access to everything we've talked about and get started on the right foot. Alright. We'll see you back here for part 2.

Kyle Cummings: 19:04

Alright. See you then.