The nice thing about podcasting is that everyone can do it. It is a rare medium that is almost as easy to make as it can be used. And as such, no two people do the same. There is a wealth of hardware and software solutions that are open to potential podcasters. Therefore, the setups carry out the NPPR studios on USB -Sskype -Irigs (the latter of which became a kind of standard during pandemic).
This week we spoke to Jody Avirgan, who organized together “Summer album / winter album” With the front man of the American indie rock band The Hold Steady, Craig Finn. In each episode, Avirgan and Finn discusses whether a classic plate should be classified as a “summer album” or “winter album”.
Avirgan, who previously organized shows for radiotopia, Ted, Fivethirtyight and ESPN, told us about his podcasting set-up of the choice. Here he is in his own words:
“Even if I worked on ESPN/Fivethirtyight, I always had a recording on the home recording. Since the departure -which coincidentally coincided with the beginning of the pandemic -I have made my basement recording studio my main house. It is actually the kitchen of a basement studio apartment, so there is a refrigerator (socket), a sink and many cupboards directly outside the frame behind some curtains.
“But I hung tons of curtains, scattered soft things and added some silencer cladding. I think it’s both cozy and quite warming now. My microphone is an electro-voice re27n/d, a $ 500 studio microphone.
“To be clear: I don’t earn RE27 any money. We bought this microphone when I was 30 for 30 years old. I left ESPN three weeks before the pandemic hit, and somewhere I wrote an e -mail in which I asked if they should return the microphone. I never got an answer and certainly didn’t write a follow-up. So I kept it. This is probably the reason why Disney Stock has dropped by 20% in the past five years. It’s a very warm microphone, but it’s a giant.
“When I’m on the go, I pack an AT2020 USB+that connects directly to my computer, and can switch from everywhere to switch off-normally under a ceiling in a hotel cabinet that is a natural habitat of a podcaster.
“I lead my microphone through the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, a simple but powerful interface with which I can control my microphone levels and flood directly into my computer, where I often connect to people via zoom or riverside. I always record a local backup file with Hindenburg, which I then save on Dropbox. All roads finally lead to Dropbox.
“The only place I reject the typical Podcaster 101 kit is in my headphones. Everyone has the Sony MDR-7506, and I went through my appropriate share through it, but I really like the Rode N-100 headphones. They are only a little more comfortable, look a little more chic, and so far the upholstery has not broken down as the padding of the Sony is inevitably the case, which finds small black spots in their ears after recording.
“How many podcasters I have been doing more and more video things lately. I have used Descript for years, but how the worlds of audio and video brought together, I do almost all of my arrangements in it at that time. I make social videos of our conversations for “This day” And “Summer album / winter album“But also original things with which I played on Instagram.
“I do a series every week in which I Try to guess the title From the New York cover this week and I take this directly in the descriptions and turn it over in 20 minutes with a template that I created. Descript – I am a big fan. It is very versatile and it is nice to work with a program that apparently gives a crap about what podcasters want, in contrast to protools.
“I assume that I also had to think about my visual furnishings. I bought the webcam that the Wircutter recommended, but honestly I prefer the appearance of the MacBook camera, so I usually only use it. In my background I set some books to prove that I know how to read; A signed photo of George Mikan, about which there was running in the “Death in the People” – and fake plants worth 28 US dollars from Ikea.
“I block the view so that I don’t believe that people can even see that the plants are there. But I want to know that they are there and will always be there because they are plastic forever. “
We previously asked others of our preferred podcast hosts and producers to highlight their workflows -the equipment and software with which they do the job. The previous list contains:
