USB Headset Test

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Today I answer a few questions about intro/outro music.

Charles Maxwood had asked about intro and outro music. First of all I think its important to have into and outro music. It sets the tone of the podcast. It gives it a professional feel. The music I use for this podcast’s intro and outro music I got off of a CD and sounddogs.com back in the day. It was around $70 but I got a whole CD, and I’ve used the other music for other podcasts. For the music in the podcast, I use Mike Stewart’s two buck themes where you get 5 songs a month for $10. It’s a great deal. Also you can try musicalley.com to find music. You do have to note it in each episode that it came from musicalley.com. If you don’t want to do that, you can find the music on musicalley.com and then contact the musicians directly to obtain their permission.

Allan Newsome
Two Chairs No Waiting Andy Griffith Show Fan Podcast http://www.TwoChairsNoWaiting.com/wanted to know about setting up your mixer settings. One key point is the channel volume slider should not be higher than the maser slider. If this was in normal numbers you would not have your channel volume on 10 and the master volume on 8. This is called “over driving” the master volume and can result in distortion. Also when you get the sound you want, take a picture of the board, or write down your settings in the event you have to move your studio, etc you don’t have to go through the testing phase again.

USB Headset Test

While USB microphones seem like a great solution. You simply plug them in and it works. That is true, but you may also find out that their audio quality is not the best. You may also find that if you try to participate in weibnars, websites like gotomeeting.com and webex don’t always recognize a usb microphone.

When I tried this headset (I believe the Logitech H530) you will see where there is a significant amount of noise when I’m not talking. Also these microphones are geared to only pic up vocals and often sound very “nasal.” These microphones can run from $20-$80 and for me, I would rather spend the extra money to get microphone such as a Sure SM58 and a mixer and have more flexibility. I have other recommendations on my podcast equipment page.

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