The best podcasting microphones for 2022
If you are looking to upgrade your podcasting equipment for your home, or on location recording then listen on up!
Here at Bamby Media we test a lot of equipment and I have a few absolute favourites that I'll be recommending for you on today's episode.
With any equipment upgrades, the first thing to check is what you actually NEED. If you already have gear that's working well then don't upgrade. Don't buy things you don't need. I want to get that off my chest first because I am not a fan of pushing people into buying things because they're on "sale".
With that aside, here are my personal recommendations for quality gear that will last the distance and will give you that extra level of professionalism that you may currently be lacking.
BEST SMALL USB MICROPHONE
Our favourite little microphone that packs a serious punch!
Fantastic small microphone that you can easily bring with you on location if you’re recording remotely too.
Very simple to use and has an in-built pop filter so you don’t need to buy a separate one.
A great all-in-one option for entry level podcasters. It is quite small, so attaching to a boom arm is a good option to get to the right height.
BEST STUDIO MICROPHONE
High quality USB microphone with a wide spread frequency response and pop filter attached.
You will need a stand or boom arm for this microphone.
A dynamic microphone with both USB and XLR outputs so you can start using it just with your computer via USB, and then if you upgrade your home studio setup and you switch to XLR, then this microphone is still usable!
Connect via USB and explore additional set-up features and Auto Level Mode within the ShurePlus™ MOTIV app, to control your vocal tone, and distance from the microphone.
BEST MICROPHONE ACCESSORY
The PSA1 is a professional studio boom arm that allows easy and precise placement of a microphone.
It features an innovative parallelogram design that keeps the mic direction constant as the height is adjusted, as well as internal springs for quiet operation.
The gold standard for microphone boom arms and a crowd favourite here at Bamby Media.
The latest release from Rode and has a few significant improvements from their OG model.
The biggest difference is the almost silent operation when moving the microphone around as its fully damped internal springs and neoprene arm cover eliminate mechanical noise for completely silent operation.
Integrated cable management ensures your setup is tidy and its extended reach and full 360-degree rotation make it easy to position your microphone exactly where it needs to be.
If you need any other recommendations, head to our Gear section of the Bamby Media website:
Transcript:
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00:00
Welcome to Pump Up Your Pod what are the microphones that I personally recommend? This is important for me to release today I'm going to just do it straightaway here I just did a whole Instagram Stories tirade of microphones, because Amazon is actually doing a media sale. So if you are listening to this on Tuesday, the seventh of June, you have until midnight tonight to actually get some really good discounts on a few things. And I'm just going to let you know what my favourites are here so that you can decide if you've been looking for an upgrade in some of your equipment, then today is the day to do it. I believe that is free shipping on a bunch of stuff as well. So yeah, I'm never a person to say, hey, buy more stuff, I certainly don't like to do that. But if you're in the market for some gear, this is the time definitely to do it.
So the first thing that I wanted to advise you of is a microphone called and I've mentioned it before the Rode NT USB mini. This is such a good microphone for on location, if you're going on holidays, if you don't have a lot of room in your suitcase, your bag, and you just want something that's going to sound good when you are out and about somewhere, and you're not in your normal setup at home. It's also great for the home setup. So it is good, something that you can use in both locations. And it means that you just have the one microphone, knowing that it is nice and small and compact, it's got a little magnetic stand that attaches to it too, which is really cool. So you can have your own stand with it, or you can attach it to a boom, and I will explain what a boom arm is a bit later on. So it's a great versatile little microphone, it's got its own inbuilt pop filter. So you don't have to have a pop filter that actually attaches to the outside, it's not the best pop filter, like it still has some plosives. And when I'm talking here, you can understand what I mean by plosives. It'll make an extra big, poor sound. So it does reduce a lot of those, but it isn't perfect. It's such a good little microphone. And it is brought to you by Rode, which is my 100% Best favourite brand for microphones, especially in the podcasting space. They're really doing some fantastic things for podcasting. And although there are plenty of other microphones that I love for music and singing, and you know those sorts of things, podcasting is a different space, because it's it's like just talking, you know, it's speech, it's not being really loud and singing and projecting and you need different kinds of microphones for that purpose. And Rode is really niching down into the podcasting space at the moment, which is really, really cool.
So this would definitely be a recommendation that I would say, if you need a small microphone, go and get this because it is such a good microphone, I have two of them myself, I actually gave one to one of our staff dad, but to use for all the Zoom meetings and anything like that. It's just a great little microphone to set up. And it really boosts that quality as well. As it is small, you need to put it on something to get it up to the right level of your mouth. Because if you just put it on the desk, it's so far away from your mouth that is ridiculous. So you need to have a stamp, like an extra stand or some books, you know, maybe shoe box or something doesn't have to be fancy if it's not going to be on camera, but you need to get it to the level that it needs to be for you to actually sound perfect location and quality microphone. So it's currently on sale on Amazon at the moment for $129. That's 24% off the regular price. This is in Australian prices. So it's normally 170 bucks. Really, really good time to purchase that and we will put links to this stuff in here for you. So that's my recommendation for a small mic that is great for both on location and also in your studio as long as you have something to boost it up to the level of your mouth. USB microphone.
The next one that I want to talk about is the Shure m v seven. The Shure and V seven is a microphone that is kind of like the little sister to or the little brother to the Shure SM seven be the Shure SM seven B is the big daddy of podcasting microphones. You'll see it everywhere. If you had a picture of it. You could be like oh yeah, I've seen that on on the all the big sort of podcasting or video podcasting. things on YouTube. You'll see it's a big ass microphone and it's great, but you need something called a cloud lifter, or a boost sort of signal, I guess to get it to a level that works for most amps or mixes and That's not great for most people. If you're looking for something that sounds as rich and full as the SM seven B but you don't have a cloud lifter or you don't have a mixer, then this is perfect because it's a USB mic and it goes straight to your computer. Really simple. It's got a some settings that you can change that has an app that goes with it. And it's a perfect little mic, it also has XLR and USB inputs. So if you are upgrading your system and then you do get a mixer, then this mic will still work so you don't have to upgrade again it will work in both formats. It's not as Bhumi not as full and rich as sound as the SM seven B which is still a very very good microphone. And it is currently on sale I believe for let me check to 99 currently on sale for 299. And it's normally 399. So that is $100 off, which is just a crazy price for this particular microphone, go and check it out and see what you think you will need a boom arm for this particular mic because it doesn't have like a stand. So that's something to be aware of. It does have its own pop filter over the top, which is good. And yeah, just really high quality love it love short products, I have a bunch of short products in our studio as well. So a plus to that.
The last thing I want to mention is again, a boom arm which I have mentioned a few times here already and the one that I want to talk about is the Rode PSA one. This is a swivel boom arm so it attaches to your desk. And it's fantastic because you can move it out of the way really easily like the mic is attached. Man just swivelled. The mic is attached to it. And you can swivel out of the way so that if you don't need a mic, then you can just push it out of the way and it's still attached to the desk, you don't have to set it up and do pack down and everything every time you don't have to clear space on the desk. It's already attached. And it just swivels in, I am in love with this stand. And it's currently on sale for 66 Australian dollars is normally $170. It is 61% off. It's so cheap, it's amazing. And the product is not cheap, the quality is top notch, there are not very many left in stock. So you may even see that there are none left by the time you get to this. But it's something that I want to recommend to you definitely go and check out that stand, I would highly recommend purchasing that if that one is not available.
There's also the Rode PSA one plus, which is the same stand with a few modifications and upgrades that's also on sale. The thing that I don't like about that stand like it's basically the same. But it's got this like neoprene kind of casing around the stand so that there's even less sound when you move it. There's a few little upgrades into the way it attaches to the desk and those sorts of things. Very high quality again, that next level up. And I guess that's why the other one is so cheap at the moment because they've got this new Plus version. It's also on sale for $152. And it's normally about 180. So that's actually really really good as well. Very good price on that. The thing I don't like about that is that it has this massive logo of road on it. And it's really confronting if it's on video, like if you're recording yourself on video, all you see in the shot is like, Hey, here's Rode, here's a massive road logo. I don't like that you can cover it with something, you know, you could try and scratch it off. I guess I have seen a few youtubers that I've actually done that they've just scratched off the Rode bit just because it is so in your face that can be done. But yeah, I don't I don't like that. So I believe that they need to do a version where the road branding isn't so massive. And you can also take the neoprene thing off, it's attached like it's sewn on. I mean, I guess you could technically unpick it and take it off. But then it kind of defeats the purpose of that extra sound barrier by having the neoprene thing there. So anyway, go and have a look. They're both amazing, I would say the cheap version $66. If there's any of those left in stock, go and get one because they're fantastic. They are a little bit noisier than the plus version. But for that price, if you're just getting into this, then definitely do that.
That's my recommendations for microphones and you know the accompanying accessory that would go with a microphone. For today. I really just wanted to get this done so that if you are in the market for something, do it today because it is very cheap, which is great. They don't have sales all that often. So it's a good thing to do now. And as I may have said already, there is free shipping today, which is cool. So a plus for that. We have a new gear section on our website just because this was a question that I got so often from people I can't believe it took me so long them to actually make a page on the Bamby Media site where people could just go and search for my recommendations of microphones. And I didn't have to link in emails all the time, like such a ridiculously long time for me to actually put this on the site. And it's been something I've been meaning to do for a while. So you don't get a heap of options on the website, you just get boom, boom, boom, these are the three recommendations I have for each thing, there's not too much choice, because the problem is when you have too much choice, you buy nothing, and you get confused.
So these are my recommendations based on what we use what clients use what I know, sounds really good. Go and check it out. If you're in the market for anything, there, they are our Amazon affiliate links. If you want to purchase anything through there, obviously, we get a little kickback for that. And I would really appreciate that. It's not a huge amount. But it is nice to test the waters as to what people really like and what we would potentially stock ourselves as well, if we decided to go down that route, which is something I'm thinking about doing as well, having a shop that is our own stock, which would be super fun. But yeah, I'll see what happens there. On the gear section of the site. There's also some headphones that I recommend and there's some mixers and a few other things that are really cool, as well. And I'm gonna add a video section for people like lighting and cameras and things that are great for filming for podcasting as well because that is an area that is absolutely booming. So yeah, I'll do that as I get to it as well and I'll let you know when that sort of stuff is up.
I hope you like this kind of episode where it's just me going through gear. I love doing it because gear to me is like one of my favourite things. I will always nerd out on it and I just love it. So yeah, let me know if this kind of stuff resonates with you if you like this kind of thing, and I will recommend other gear for you things that are for podcasting video and all that sort of stuff and give you my honest reviews on things. Yeah, that'd be great. Have a lovely day, guys. Thanks for listening to me and go and check out some here.
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