The beauty of podcasting is that anyone can do it. It’s a rare medium that’s nearly as easy to make as it is to consume. And as such, no two people do it exactly the same way. There are a wealth of hardware and software solutions open to potential podcasters, so setups run the gamut from NPR studios to USB Skype rigs (the latter of which has become a kind of default during the pandemic).
We’ve asked some of our favorite podcast hosts and producers to highlight their workflows — the equipment and software they use to get the job done. The list so far includes:
This week, Alex Goldman shares his setup. A former producer for WNYC’s On the Media, Goldman co-founded Reply All with Emmanuel Dzotsi in 2014. The wildly popular Gimlet podcast explored how the internet shapes us — and vice versa. A decade later, Goldman is back with Radiotopia’s Hyperfixed, a “help desk for life’s most intractable problems,” which he produces from the comfort of his podcasting basement.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, so much of podcasting is actually done remotely, so you have to make a little space in your house where it’s comfortable to do it. Mine is a little 8×8 room in the basement of my apartment, and it’s surprisingly cozy. So when you listen to my new podcast Hyperfixed full of hope, helpfulness, and adventure, know it’s coming from this torture closet.
I mean, sure, it looks like the cabin in “Evil Dead,” but all the gear being on in here keeps it nice and toasty compared to the rest of the basement, and I like to think I’ve made it my own to a certain degree.
Engineers act like prepping a room to record is difficult, but really it’s about making sure there isn’t too much open space or hard surface for sound to reflect off of. The more cluttered a room, the better prepped it is to record.
That’s why I have this giant Black Sabbath Vol. 4 wall flag. Behind the flag is a wool blanket I’ve hung on some nails to keep the place sounding good, and I just wanted something I’d like looking at. Because that album is so good. “Changes”? “Snowblind”? Oh my god. To the left and right of my desk are sound baffles that minimize echo, and then all the other crud I’ve filled my office with helps to keep echo down as well.
I started in public radio, which means that I learned audio editing on Pro Tools, a program that remains the industry standard despite being the most expensive, overpowered, buggy program available to audio editors. Fortunately they have recently started to offer a $10 a month license instead of buying a license outright for $599 like the old days.
My mic is a Shure SM7B, which has been the public radio standard for 20 years, and a mic that, once you know its profile, you will see everywhere. I even saw Metallica’s James Hetfield barking into one recently during a rewatch of “Some Kind of Monster.” For audio interfaces, I have a Focusrite 2i2 and a Focusrite 18i8; the former is basically the little brother of the latter. I like the 18i8 because it is very useful for recording directly off your desktop, but the 2i2 doesn’t need to be plugged into the wall, which just makes it easier to use.
The music for the show is made by either The Mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder or myself. I am a very, very amateur musician, but it’s pretty easy, and to do that I most often use the Sequential Circuits Prophet 6 Synthesizer. It’s based on a synth from the early ’80s (named, believe it or not, the Prophet 5) that was used by folks like Gary Numan, The Cars, and Soft Cell, and it’s just impossible to make a bad sound with it. If I need great big fat synth bass or super thick synth leads, I use the Moog Matriarch, a more temperamental but still really wonderful and versatile synth.
For drum sounds, I mostly tend to use stock drums from Ableton, but I also have a couple of samplers and drum machines (the Erica Synths LXR-02 and the SOMA Pulsar-23) that I like making little broken beats with. I recorded an album a couple years back under the name Slow Fawns, and I have been known to cannibalize those completed songs for music cues on podcasts as well.
Also I’d be remiss if I didn’t address the elephant in the room, or the rubber glove in the room, as it were. When I started renting this apartment, this room was full of a previous tenant’s junk, and I got it all out and set everything up before I noticed the rubber glove on the floor there, just to the right of my synthesizer. At this point it’s so much a part of the room decor, I barely even notice it.