ITauthor

I've been on holiday for a couple of weeks: not doing anything much, just using up annual leave. One of the things I have done is fix up an audio recording setup in the little room that is now my home office. Here's how it looks:

 

The latest edition to my recording is a smart new microphone on an anglepoise arm:

It's a Rode Procaster and the main difference between it and other microphones I've used is that it's a dynamic microphone. Previously I've used condenser mics that need phantom power, but I've always had problems with hiss. The Procaster gives a great sound and wasn't break-the-bank expensive. I think it's very good value for money.

You can hear it in use on ITauthor Podcast #33.

      
The other bits of kit are things I've put together over a number of years:

M-Audio FastTrack Pro

This is really just a very nice external sound card. I need one of these because the sound card on my Dell Vostro is really, really, really awful. Even just for listening to audio normally it's bad: terrible hiss and interference from the spinning of the hard disk.

I have two of these so that I can route Windows sounds into Skype, so that the person on the other end can hear sound files I play.* This is a luxury: you don't need this. And if you're lucky enough to have a good sound card you don't need either of these (but I love these things anyway - you great great sound out of them).

*I just copied Joel Spolsky's Skype setup podcasting setup: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/PodcastEquipment.html
       

Behringer XENYX 1002FX Mixer

I bought this years ago and it's probably the bit I'd replace because it's not digital, so I lose a bit of sound quality by sending an analogue signal through this. But it's useful to have physical knobs to turn to get the levels right, and it allows me to do the Joel Spolsky method of Skype recording.
        

M-Audio Microtrack 24/96

 

This is something else I've had for a few years now. It's a very simple little recorder but it does the job and is handy for recording away from home because it's small and very lightweight.
       

AKG HSC 271 Headset

I wasted money on this. This is a great set of headphones: very comfortable to wear and a nice, warm, bassy sound, but I never managed to get good sound out of the microphone. As I mentioned above, this is a condenser mic and, through my setup, it always gave me hiss. It also has a thin, tinny, metalic sound that was really disappointing because this was an expensive headset.