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

Charles Maxwood had asked about intro and outro music. First of all, I think it's 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 master 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 “overdriving” 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 webinars, 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 microphones 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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About the Author
Owner of the School of Podcasting. Also produces the "Ask the Podcast Coach." He is also the author of the book "More Podcast Money" and is a regular speaker at podcasting and media conventions.
3 comments on “USB Headset Test
  1. Richard says:

    Hello –
    Love your show and thank you for teaching us. I will disagree with the view of USB mikes – I have a Rode Podcaster – You plug earphones into the mike so no latency to monitor what you are recording. There is NO noise and for a bass voice this mike interprets sound very well. You get what you pay for but I really must defend this USB mike what works just fine with Skype and Audacity and so on. Your advice on Compressors cleans it up nicely. Thanks Richard

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