When it comes to starting a podcast there’s a lot of things that can be overwhelming, and one of the biggest things is the equipment you need and the price of it.
When confronted with various microphones and costs the prices can often take us by surprise, after all everyone has been telling us how cheap and accessible podcasting is for everyone right?
So when you start looking at microphones and other tech and things start to seem a bit expensive it can be all to tempting to consider short cuts like sharing a microphone, but I’m here to tell you right now:
“DO NOT BUY JUST ONE MICROPHONE AND SHARE IT AMONGST MULTIPLE HOSTS”
When starting a multi host, or interview format podcast People often think they can save money by buying just one microphone and having people lean in when it’s their turn to talk.
These are all the reason why you should never do that.
Background sound
When you start, you might start hearing about omnidirectional, condenser microphones. These magical devices can be set to pick up all audio around them, which sounds perfect if you have multiple people right?
Wrong.
If you have a microphone set to omnidirectional it will pick up ALL sound. Yes it will pick up all the hosts, but it will also very loudly pick up the every sound you make as you move. Papers shuffling, chairs scuffing, clothes ruffling and even people talking in another room.
This will all come through into the microphone and your listeners will hate it.
For more info on condenser microphones and the more affordable and frankly better option, dynamic microphones, check out our explainer:
People forget
You’re expecting people to remember that when it’s their turn to talk they should lean in closer to the microphone.
This point is pretty easy to understand, but when you are mid conversation, getting excited, you are not going to remember to lean forward towards a microphone every time you talk.
Suddenly the volume is off and people are sounding soft and then loud and once again it will annoy your listeners.
People talk at different volumes
This has the end result as the previous point, but you have to understand that people talk at different volume levels. With individual microphones you can set each one to the correct persons volume in order to keep the volume levels perfect.
The last thing a listener wants is for one person to be very quiet, so they boost the volume only to have their ears blasted when the next person, who is louder, starts talking.
So invest the money, buy the right gear and please for the love of god do not use one microphone with multiple hosts.
You can find an affordable list via our gear guide HERE.
