Let’s Start a Podcast – Part Three – The Equipment

Now you know what direction you want to take your podcast, it’s time to get technical. What equipment do you need? Surprisingly, you don’t need an entire sound studio in your basement, just a few key pieces of hardware and software will do the trick.

Microphone: Radio Shack offers a simple $20 microphone that will still be much higher quality than the microphone on your computer. Or check out Plantronics headset/microphone combination. This ranges from $50-$80, but is excellent quality.

Sound editing: Audacity is free software that you can use to edit and mix your audio files. It offers a handful of audio effects and multiple tracks. Many podcasters use it for editing. Another free tool is WavePad. This is an audio recording and editing program. It also comes with a Master Features option, which is only $30.

Finally, there’s Sony Sound Forge. While it is more expensive than these other options, it is considered an industry-standard program if you decide to get into a lot of audio editing.

Hosting: I recommend Bluehost as a great, affordable host to manage multiple domains with lots of storage. But whoever you choose, make sure to check your bandwidth and storage. Or, consider using Audio Acrobat to host your audios, which will save you storage space on your hosts’ server.

Read More: Let’s Start a Podcast – Part One – The Basics and Let’s Start a Podcast – Part Deux – The Keys

[tags]Rebecca Zwar, podcasting, virtual assistant, podcasting equipment[/tags]

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