In Episode 2 I talk a bit more about my recording setup for pod-casting, what I’ve learned so far, and some more of my thoughts on developing and understanding personal minimums for image quality.

Podcasting Revisited

Two episodes recorded and I’m talking about podcasts again. I’m somewhat amazed how much I think I’ve figured out in just 2 sessions. Though, like all things audio, I know I have a long way to go.

For a mic, I’m using my [Rode NTG2][] shotgun mic. It’s not ideal for podcasting, but it’s the best quality mic I have on hand. I’m considering possibly replacing it with an Audio Technica AT2035^{(Affiliate Link)} . Though without having one I can’t say for sure how or even if that will improve things.

For recording I’m using my Zoom H4n, it works, but I’m quickly finding shortcomings in it and my Tascam DR–60D^{(Affiliate Link)} that I don’t really care for. The new Zoom H4n Pro^{(Affiliate Link)} might rectify some of the issues, but I haven’t seen anything online yet to confirm that.

The workflow I used to record [episode 0][] was to use the H4n as a USB audio interface, and do the recording in Garageband on my Macbook Pro. While that worked, and I didn’t have any problems with the H4n, Garageband is, in my opinion, less than a stellar program when it comes to audio editing. So anything I recorded in Garageband I’d have to transfer to my workstation to edit in Adobe Audition (I still am not a Creative Cloud user, and I don’t have Audition CS6 for my Mac).

Using the computer as the recording interface, also has the problem of requiring a computer. I can’t just take the mic and the recorder and record something and deal with the editing later.

Mobility, has it’s own problems with the H4n’s battery life on AAs being absolutely abysmal and the devices inability — at least based on internet reports — of not cleanly shutting down before it runs out of power.

So 2 episodes in, I’m recording to an SD card in the H4n, using wall power, then dumping the file directly into Audition to clean up and convert to a mono-MP3.

The YouTube podcasting and audio production tutorials for Adobe Audition I mentioned were by Mike Russell

Personal Minimums

Earlier this week I posted an article on personal minimums in photography, if you missed it you can find it here.

The target and procedure I use for testing and acclimating to a new camera.