Best Podcast Microphones For Your Voice & Budget

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Hey, everyone. Welcome to Feed you'd brand. I'm Tracy Hazzard along with my co host, Tom Hazard, and this is one of his favorite subjects. It's such a favorite subject that he is showing up, even though his voice is all rough and he's been sick. He had a little sinus infection and so it's still affecting his voice and he's on the mend, but his voice sounds rough. And ironically, we're going to talk about today the best podcast microphones for your voice and budget. So I guess you can't do it for all aspects of your voice, right?

Yeah. I was going to say the subtitle for this episode today should be irony.

Yes.

Because we're talking about the best microphone for your voice. And when you hear my voice, you know, listening to this as a podcast after it's published, you might be thinking, okay, Tom, why the heck didn't you just wait until you were over this sinus infection entirely to record it? Well, there's a good reason why exactly.

Well, because we're live and we want to make sure we do it live. But also, I think, Tom, actually, it's a really good thing because we have such a high contrast between how my voice sounds and your voice sounds. And we're actually using the same microphone.

We are.

Yeah. And it. So it can cover that deep sound and gravelly sound, and it can also just go to the higher registers and the more energy and excitement. It doesn't matter. Right. So this is some of the things that we're going to talk about today, and I want to introduce this episode in a way that people understand why we're talking about this again, because there's a blog out there for this. It's. It will be linked in the episode description. So if you're on your app, you can go straight to that. If you're not a member of our community or you're listening to this or watching this somewhere, hopefully it's in the description. If it's not, go to podcasters united.org and type in best microphones and you'll get exactly where you need to go. But we did this episode a few years ago.

It was in 2019. I looked it up. Tracy.

Oh, that's a lot longer than I thought.

Yes.

Although we did, I think, update the blog with pricing and some other things over time. So I think we did make a blog update. I remember doing it maybe 20, 21, 22. So I think we did do that. And this is something that you should regularly do. That blog ranks at the top of the list on Google all the time. And because it ranks so highly, you either want to continually update it and keep it or you want to do an update. And we're doing an update today because it needs to be done because it's been so long and, you know, different microphones are out there. There's also, I mean, there's a reason we're live streaming this. The week of Thanksgiving, Black Friday. Sales are out there for microphones, and you don't want to miss those.

You're right, Tracy. And, you know, it's interesting, as I went through this and I went back through the episode we'd recorded, and that episode was a bit different because I took eight different microphones, had purchased them, did all sorts of detailed unboxing videos, and then recorded myself speaking on each microphone. And those recordings are embedded in that blog post for you to hear unedited, raw, what the recording quality is of each of the microphones, went over the pros and cons and all that. And so I was considering, well, for this update episode, was I going to do the same thing. And I'll tell you, I decided not to. There's still a lot of really good information here to help you podcasters make a decision. But the reason I didn't review any newer microphones, it's really amazing to me, as much as things have changed in podcasting when it comes to microphone hardware, not all that much has changed in the years since we've recorded this. In fact, all of the same microphones that were available that we reviewed that back then are available today. The only thing that's changed in some cases is the price. Some went up and a lot went down, too, which is really interesting. And there's a couple new ones that I'm going to mention, but I didn't actually get it in test because, again, there are some good reasons why. So we're going to talk about all that today.

Absolutely. And the thing about microphones in general are. And this is really what we're pointing out. So this is going to be sort of the summary where all the details are still in that original blog and you can go back to them. But in the summary of. We really want to talk about the idea that the microphone you choose has to be right for your voice, your environment and your budget. Now, I can say clearly that Tom and I have bought a lot of microphones for clients over the years. I mean, I think we brought thousand, at least, maybe thousand microphones we probably.

Ordered, and I'm sure we have because not only did we initially buy them domestically, but then we started ordering them directly from the factory in Asia, which I'm probably not going to do in 2025, I'm thinking, depending on what happens with all these tariffs. But anyway, they're, you know, actually, I mean, the tariff would be on once whether we import them or they're in the stores. But still, we did direct import a lot of them and sometimes conditions make it so that we won't. But you're right, we've got easily a thousand microphones that we've bought.

Easily a thousand microphones we bought over time. And the reality is, is that we chose the one we chose. And that's what we will talk about is we chose the one we chose because it is much more universal for voice and it is a good budget price. But here's the thing. I personally have been podcasting for a decade and I am only on my third microphone that says that even at a low cost price, those microphones last pretty long. And I can say that I probably, you know, I traveled with it. I move it around. The more you move it around, the more you travel with it, the more likely it will go, like it will get damaged in that process. So I think two of those microphones that I, you know, probably happened because I threw them in my bag badly and didn't protect them well and damaged the little connector. And so it's the connector that doesn't work, it's not the microphone itself. And then one I had, I had where the mechanism on the inside had like started rattling. And I don't know whether it was from traveling with it or if it just started came loose on its own. Like, I have no idea because probably was me.

Well, I think you're also forgetting we've done a couple of trade shows where we threw all those mics in a box and shipped them. And while we tried to protect them, who knows what that happened in UPS's hands.

Well, that's, you know what, that's really true and it's highly possible because I will just take whatever's like the cast offs and not a brand new box one. And so I probably didn't take the first quality microphone for myself at the time. So anyway, I've been through three and 10 years and so that's what, at the price that we've been paying for them, like let's just say it's $75, even though I know we paid less than that. But on average, so that's not even $225 or whatever that is that I've spent in a decade to keep podcasting. That's nothing.

Right? It's very, very little. And if you dial it down to press per episode with as many episodes as you've done, it's incredibly insignificant.

Yeah, I don't think, I think we're talking, you know, a dime a diamond episode maybe. Yeah, so yeah, I didn't even think about it that way. But so true that though that you don't have to sacrifice long term sustainable quality though for a lower priced microphone. The costs of the microphones themselves have just come down so much and the mechanisms within it are not as complicated. There's not a lot of chips and electronics and it's just not overly complicated on a microphone nowadays still that it has to cost too much.

Well, and the other thing that I want to share with our listeners today is I have a very different perspective on this whole issue of what microphone should you use now than I had when we recorded that episode back in 2019. And there are some good reasons why I have different perspective. I think anybody who's been podcasting for as many years as we have and who started podcasting before 2020 probably have a different perspective on it. And while yes, I do have an absolute recommendation for all of you new podcasters or existing ones that may want to step up your hardware and you know, if you want to trust me and what I say is the best microphone you want to update and get something new, I'm going to give you that recommendation in this episode before we're done today. But what I want to say is the pandemic gave me a different perspective because I'm sure many of you will remember as we were all at home, not traveling much, not commuting to work, everybody working from home for more than a year, if not better part of two. And I know many people who still have not gone back into the workplace. Today we're seeing in the news how certain big corporations, Amazon and others, are trying to get their workers to go back into the office. Those who had never returned but what we would see on television, and I think a lot of us watch television a lot more during that time to have connection with the outside world. You saw on a lot of programs, especially live programs, where they'd have a lot of contributors who are getting on a program from their home. They would just use the built in microphone to their computer as their microphone. And it drove me absolutely bonkers. Seriously. And that's a technical term. No, it really bothered me, yes. Because I was a podcaster. It probably bothered me more than most people, but I'm like, are you kidding me? You are a contributor to this program sometimes on a daily basis. Get yourself a darn microphone so that we don't hear the echo in your room, the space you're recording in, which is truly not a recording studio. It's not like it was built for the best sound, where you then could get away with maybe the built in microphone or certainly a basic one. So pandemic drastically changed my opinion, which is now much more, make sure you have a better quality microphone than the one built into your computer. If you're using your computer to record and you're not going into a studio or. And don't have a more sophisticated studio setup, which, by the way, I don't think any podcaster truly needs. A couple caveats on that about your environment you're recording in mostly. But my opinion is as long as you have at least a microphone connected, at least by USB to your computer, you're already doing better than the majority of people out there, and especially even people on national broadcast tv. I still see it today. And Tracy gets tired of me yelling at the screen. I say, get a damn microphone. But I do. Once in a while.

You do. You get really, like a pet peeve, you know, like space junk for me.

Yeah. Don't get Tracy started on space junk. All right, moving on.

Yes, exactly. What I want to add to that, and this is absolutely true, is that the professionalism of this microphone is so critically important. I cannot tell you how many times I give a speech or I'm just in a networking group and it's my turn to speak on Zoom. And I speak into this microphone. The credibility it gives me back for being a podcaster, for owning a podcast company. Right. Like is tremendous. It's the first thing people will comment on and they will message me and go, what microphone are you using? Like, they're amazed at the beautiful sound that comes across from it and the fact that you don't hear the environment around me, that you don't hear all of those other things. But I think we were headed towards recommending these types of microphones and I'm going to have you talk about the technical about these types of microphones for quite some times because we had had such bad results from the blue Yeti, from the Snowball, from all those other microphones that are considered like surround sound, like better microphones that people paid a lot of money for. So they didn't want to give them up, they didn't want to stop using them, in fact, even though they were hurting their podcasts. So it was hard for us to convince them to get rid of those microphones, but they weren't working well because the combination of that microphone and the environment was part of the problem. And then the last thing that I want to add to what you're saying is that the next thing we want you to get rid of are those stupid AirPods and use non microphone earbuds like cheapy headphones with no microphones on them. Because people make a lot of mistakes about where the microphone location is when they have options. Your computer makes an automatic selection and it screws things up so often. So even when you have a great mic, those things are interfering and are causing you to have to take extra steps to make sure your settings are right.

That's a really important pro tip, Tracy, and it deserves just a little more emphasis. And I tell our podcasters we support a politize this all the time and I say, hey, your guest, you can't control whether they have a microphone or not. If you're recording them remotely, some are going to have it, some are not. I think if they've been a guest on a lot of podcasts, they should have invested in a good microphone, but they may not have one. But I do tell them if they have a wired earbud and I'm holding this up in the video for any of you that or watching the video now, but where it has a microphone built into the earbud, using that often will be better or can be better than the built in microphone to your laptop or your computer. And I do think there are appropriate situations when you should use it. But you're right, Tracy, for the most part the biggest issue is making sure. And by the way, this issue has changed a lot over the years since we recorded this episode. It represents the biggest change in podcast recording is the software with which you record has changed. What program are you using to connect with remote guests and to record them and record yourself for your podcast. A lot of advancements have happened there. Even though there have not been as many advancements in the hardware, the microphone hardware itself, you got to make sure you are aware how to configure that software and that the microphone you're speaking into is actually the microphone that is being used to record. Because often you get surprised after the fact and you're like, damn it, why does it sound as good? Well, you're speaking into your nice microphone, directly into it, nice and close. And you didn't realize your software wasn't set to use it.

Yeah, absolutely. This happens all the time. But I also want to remind you is like the more expensive mic picks up sound everywhere. So if you are not using headphones, it's picking up your guest. And so we hear that bleed over happen a lot more in those types of microphones than we do in the more directed mic. And that is really a big difference as well. So that's one of the reasons there's just too many variables to those more expensive blue Yeti style microphones that we just try to get everyone to stop using them. We've been saying that for a decade. It's like not good.

And I can't tell you how many people I encounter who are existing podcasters. This is usually what happens. It's what I would call transition podcasters. People that are already podcasting and then learn about politics and then come to us for support. Newer ones don't jump on the blue YETI as much as they used to. Although it's still marketed, it's still out there, same as it was. But I get people who they've. They're 50 episodes in, 100 episodes in. And I asked them, you know, what microphone you're using, what microphone you record with it. Oh, I've got the Yeti. They do a really good job of marketing, obviously.

Well, that the real reason is, is because it's all affiliate. You guys understand that, right? Like, it's affiliate marketing. Because the microphone is more expensive, you make more money off of recommending that microphone than you do any other one.

And it is more expensive for the quality of audio that you get out of it honestly than it should be. And they also did a really good job with the design of it. There's two microphones that did a really good job of the design and they make the microphone's incredibly heavy. So the box feels heavy. And Americans, I don't, I'm not going to speak for other countries, but Americans seem to equate heavier weight with higher value.

We buy by the pound.

We do A lot of the time buy by the pound, which is unfortunate for the environment because we're, you know, spending more fuel transporting them all. Yeah, yeah, well, so the blue Yeti, if you actually uncouple it from its desktop stand, you're gonna feel this thing and it's like, oh my gosh, there's nothing to it, it's nothing in it. Yeah, definitely. The stand in the Rode podcaster is another one that's the same incredibly heavy microphone. It's the microphone itself. It's just the body of it, not a stand. And actually it makes it tough when you put it in the stand, especially if you have one of those spring arm table mounted mounts, you've really, it'll sag because of the weight if you don't have all those joints really tightened up. So I know we're talking about a few things today that really are not necessarily all about the audio quality, but all these factors really do play a role in what's the right microphone for you. Now, even though I have a recommendation still coming up as to the best microphone each of us, depending on our situation in our environment, there might be a different microphone that is right for us, or a better way that I would say is there may be multiple microphones that can work very well for you. Because if you have this room with wall to wall carpeting, you've got drapes on the windows, there's sofas or a bed in the room, a lot of soft surfaces, guess what those are sound absorbing surfaces that are going to reduce the amount of echo in the room. So a blue yeti in that environment may sound perfectly fine, but you put it in a room that has a lot of hard surfaces. And if a lot of you are recording in your place of business, your office, places like that, generally you probably have a lot of hard surfaces. You don't go spending a lot of money on drapes in an office. Right.

But you also have to think about the positioning of your microphone because for the most part, like I'm looking directly at my laptop, so I am looking directly at the screen, my camera. There's only hard surfaces in front of me, so everything is bouncing back off of that. And then to top it all off, I have a glass top desk. So you know, there's hard surfaces everywhere. So where you also are, what you've located on those surfaces matter also, not just the environment around you.

And if this isn't already obvious, we really don't recommend the blue Yeti. There's one situation I'll mention that the Blue Yeti and other microphones like it are actually really good for. It's when you're interviewing multiple people in person, sitting at a desk or around a table. If you were doing your shows the equivalent of, like, the View, right. TV show, and there's four people participating, and you only have one microphone, and you want to put one microphone in the center of the table to pick everybody up equally. The Yeti is your mic for that. It's designed to pick up everybody equally. But the unfortunate reality of the mic is it also is going to pick up every bit of white noise and background noise in that room.

If anybody, every time somebody wrestles in their chair, you're going to hear it. Like every. You know, you got the dog on the floor.

If a dog's barking in the next room, you're going to hear it or even in your room, you know. And honestly, with my mic, my dog will be sleeping under my chair at my feet. And if it barks at something, most of the time, you won't even hear it in my recorded audio. With the mic, we use because of the mic, not because of the software. So it can work. Blue Getty can work okay. And so can any of the microphones that we tested in that old episode.

Yeah, absolutely. There are places where that is better than what you would do if you had all the individual mics or you did all of that set up. The headache of all of that is also very difficult, too. So it makes it less spontaneous, less of a great interview. You're going to be stressed and worried about all the equipment if you do it another way. So there are real reasons to be utilizing those in certain situations. But for the most part, Tom's and my goal, with what we recommend, is to create the least amount of stress possible for the podcaster, the least amount of equipment and parts and pieces and all kinds of things so that it's not a tech stress for those of you who might not be tech savvy. And to create the best output possible because there is only so much. Even our editors say this all the time. There is only so much they can do if the audio file, the raw audio file is bad. Like, there's just only so much you could do in post production. So the best quality you can achieve at the beginning of it is really going to give a significant impact into that outcome that you receive on the final audio file. And there's nothing worse than bad audio. I can put up with bad video, but I cannot put up with bad audio. It's just too. It's in my ear. It greets my head. I can't listen. And you will lose listeners fast with bad audio.

And it makes a big difference for those of you that are also recording and putting your podcast out there as video. And this is something that has increased a tremendous amount in the years since we recorded the first microphone episode. Far more podcasters are recording and putting out their video content on YouTube and on your website and using it on social media than ever did back then. And certainly when we started 10 years ago, it was a very small percentage. I mean, less than 10% of podcasters did that. Then when people are video viewers, first you can get away with that audience with audio quality that isn't as good because there's a visual component to it that is engaging them. Sight and sound. When your people are listening to podcast audio only true podcast listeners that bad audio can get to the point where it's like fingernails on a blackboard. And you really don't want to be that podcaster.

I've chosen not to go on some shows because their audio is bad. Like, even though I thought it sounded like a great show. But I was like, no, because I don't want to share that with anyone. I don't want to create clips of it. So those things happen and they are a consideration into your professionalism as a podcaster. You could hurt your guests and definitely does hurt your listeners and subscribers. So, Tom, let's get to the microphone part and can you talk to people about what type of microphone? Like, because this is the technical terms and things that they might have heard.

Well, there are some technical things. There are a lot of mics out there that are condenser mics, and that's what the blue Yeti is in it. So its technology is a little different. And that's why it's good at picking up multiple people with one micro. It's also why it picks up a lot of background noise, too. So pros and cons, again, the best microphones for USB for computer connection are the cardioid dynamic microphones. That has not changed over the years. That's the technology that still existed when we started and we still recommend and use today in our recommended microphone. There are microphones that are meant more for studio application that connect not to USB, but connect through an XLR cable to some other audio interface. Now, they can still be connected with a computer, but that audio interface would then convert it to USB to plug in your computer or go into a mixing board that's recording without A computer potentially, or going into another recording device. Now, I'm talking about the majority of podcasts that are using a computer to record. There are other situations that don't do that, and if you're one of those, I would say 5% of podcasters that are active today that are going into recording studio and using some service to help you, or have your own studio set up with microphones and a mixing board, you may not use a computer at all. All right. In order to record it. In some cases, a computer might be involved if you're still connecting with somebody remotely. But in those situations, most of the time you're not using a computer at all. And the XLR microphones are perfect. Connected into a mixing board will do a great job, but they're also a lot more expensive and it takes a lot more equipment to put together, maintain, configure, set up. The degree of difficulty for you, the podcaster goes way, way, way up. And yet the frustration factor can go.

Way, way up when you're talking about adding mixing boards and XLR cables and all of those other things. But the microphones that we recommend very often have XLR capability, so you can utilize them. So like, let's say you start out in the USB model and then you decide to add in mixing boards and do some more complicated things as you go on because you feel more comfortable in that these can grow with you. And that's one of the reasons we chose the microphone we did.

Right. There are some that do cross over and provide both connection methods. And, you know, especially if you want to buy one microphone that will work in all situations, that's a good choice to make. I do want to mention a couple mics, just so you understand. One of the microphones for XLR connection that is often regarded as one of the best microphones is the Heil P40. And I just want to let everyone know, the cost when we did our episode before was for that microphone was $327. That microphone has gone up in price. It's $349 on Amazon today. Now that is prime. So you know, if you have prime, you don't have to pay for shipping. So some microphones have gone up. The Yeti, which when we did our episode was $99 microphone. There are versions of the Yeti. The main blue Yeti is less expensive and $83 today it was 90 on Amazon. Now there is. I think it deserves a mention that there is a blue Yeti X that is a newer model, has a lot More controls on it. It's right now $115 on Amazon as I'm recording this. So a little more expensive, but it's pitched as it can be used for many different things and has a lot of onboard controls right on it to try to justify that higher price and to set itself apart a little bit. But it's really complicated and it's going to be a lot of trial and error for you to figure out how to configure that and remember those configurations and use them every time. So I'm still not a big fan of that.

Which one was that one again?

A blue Yeti X, which, by the way.

Yeah, that's.

They're also marketed under the brand Logitech now, which I think may have acquired the Blue Microphone brand. So you'll find them out under that as well.

So I did want to mention, Tom, back to the Heil. The Heil is a US Company. Now. There's no guarantee that any of those parts are actually US parts. I'm going to just straight out say that to you. I have no knowledge of that. But it is a US company. So if you are thinking about that and that's important to you, that's part of the reason why the price probably went up. But it's also maybe something that is.

Important to you, I tend to think it's more about the brand. There's no way Heil's making all those microphones in the United States. My educated guess of, you know, obviously we have experience in product design and development, taking a few apart careers and. Yeah, yeah. I mean, there may be some aspects of it that are maybe value added in the us But I guarantee you the majority of it is made overseas, as most electronic parts are. So there are some new ones to be aware of. Heil even has a couple other new models since we did our episode years ago. But they're all XLR microphones. So the same principle applies. You need more equipment to make them work and get the best out of them. It's a. Think of it as higher maintenance. Right. And a higher degree of difficulty. So coming back to the microphone itself, what is the number one microphone that we recommend and we still use today? It is still a commercial grade microphone. Right. It's considered one and it is by Audio Technica. It is the AT2005.

It sometimes called ATR AT2005. Like there. It just depends on what the codes on all of Amazon and other places that you go might be different in different places, but the 2005 is the one that we've been buying. And I don't know that it had something to do with the year because I think it came out way after 2005. So I don't think it has anything to do with that has to do with their model numbers.

So, yeah, the ATRs are more of the consumer grade ones. 82,005 is the one. And you'll find it on Amazon now for about $59. It used to be 99.

Yeah, I noticed that there's a sale that there's 59, 99 and includes the stand and it's like a whole spring desk stand, like the kind of more pricey one. So that's a really good deal for 99 cents extra.

Well, yeah. You'll always find different bundles if you're looking on Amazon at different times. And sometimes it's prime, sometimes it's not. I find it amusing when it gets put in a bundle and on Amazon, the seller calls out, oh, there's an XLR cable included. Like, that's something you wouldn't get if you bought the mic not in a bundle. And that's not true. This microphone does come with a USB and a XLR cable most of the time. So be careful there. I also found it amusing. I saw a bundle where this microphone included a polishing cloth and I'm like, what?

In this bundle, don't touch your microphone.

Like, that's polish. I don't quite understand that. So look, buyer beware, obviously. I mean, there's nothing wrong with bundles. If they come with things you want, it's a good deal, by all means do it. But the microphone itself, a heavier stand.

Is always a good idea. I'm just going to say that because for a girl who talks with her hands like, I can't tell you how many times I've knocked that silly little stand and microphone over. That's why I have a boom mic setup that's actually really heavy and it's hard for me to do it, but I. My hands go under and over it and there's no problem here. So that's really important. Foam covers for your microphone are also. Or pop filters. They might be called any of those things. I don't like the external pop filter because I just. I hit it with my hand. It's big. But. So I like just the general ball foam cover.

We use what they refer to as a windscreen kind of a foam ball cover for it. And rather than a pop filter, they both function similarly. One's just a little more compact and a little I think easier to deal with.

Yeah. And so once you have that on, there's nothing to polish. Like, there's nothing left to polish on the thing. And then of course, we're big fans of the mic block. Right. Like adding that with your branding on it and, you know, all that stuff. But those are, you know, that's it. Like, I mean, keep it simple.

You really do keep it simple. By the way, that little stand that comes with the at 2005, it's actually really good for travel if you're taking on the road with you because it's very compact, it doesn't take up much space at all. But for your regular recording situation, then definitely there's a stand that I will put a link to in the blog post, which, think about it, we've been podcasting for over a decade. We started with what was really the only major commonly available mic stand that was kind of a boom mic with a shock mount, you know, and all this stuff. It kind of looked like the base of a Luxo lamp, if you're familiar with what Alexa lamp was. We don't really. They aren't really used very much anymore.

But such an architect and designer thing to say.

I know, spring loaded boom arm, right? But it would have like a C clamp that would attach to your table or your desk. I got so frustrated with that kind of stand, I threw it across the room because that C clamp always comes undone. And I'd even tried because our first podcast was on 3D printing. I even 3D printed these little amounts and drilled a hole through the top of my desk, which was not glass at the time, to put in a little sleeve to hold that thing. That was better for a while, but eventually it still didn't work very well and I just was done with it. Now I use a tabletop stand. A tabletop stand that sits on any desk or table. And it is pretty heavy and it's got a swing arm and a boom. You can move it away and it stays very stable. And guess what, it's like $27 for that stand. It's not very expensive for what it is. And I'll put a link to that recommendation in the blog post for this episode on podcasters united.org and you can search it if you, if you Search up at 2005 microphone on Amazon and then you search on tabletop microphone stand, it's going to come up for you in the search pretty quick. You know, once it sees you looking for a microphone, then it'll know, oh, you mean a stand for the microphone. It'll link them together and it'll pull it up. But I'll give you a link to it so you have it. I highly recommend it. We recommend it to our customers as well.

Yeah, absolutely. We use the Innogear. That's the one I've ordered, like, I don't know how many times, probably like 20 times. I keep reordering the same ones over and over again, and luckily they're still there. And it's not expensive at all. And I love it. I think it's the best mic stand we've ever had because it is so weighty. And right now it's not even. It's 2799 on Amazon.

Yeah, that's what I thought. About 27 bucks. Yeah. And in fact, I didn't use it at first. Tracy did. I was still using the other one, and then I saw what she's doing and I'm like, the heck with this. I'm getting that one. It's a lot. It's a lot better.

Gear envy. Right? Like, this happens to every podcaster out there. But, you know, this is the other thing is that, like, I am going to put a link into a special link into the Podcasters United blog and offer you our 3D printed mic blocks that can be customized for you. All you gotta do is pay shipping and it's yours. So we will do that. If you go through that link, you can't do it on our website because it costs. I don't. I don't know how much.

Our mic, it's like 50 bucks.

50 bucks on our site. Yeah. We charge for them because we don't, like. We don't want to make a bunch of them. But if you sign up to the newsletter and then go through and get that link, we'll send it to you for shipping costs. So we'll just do that for fun. You know, we're not here promoting that. I mean, we're certainly not a profit center for us or anything like that, but. And any of our clients who need a new one haven't gotten one. You just reach out to us. I mean, at any time, we were always happy to do that. If you got a blue yeti, it's not going to fit.

It will fit a lot of different microphones, but conventional ones that have a thinner handle like you would be a handheld microphone. It'll fit those.

Yeah, it'll fit any of those. It has, like an adjust. It has a little foam in there. So even if it's a Little bit off in size. It fits nicely. So anyway, message us about that so that you can have the most professional. You could give it as a gift to your favorite podcasters. You don't even have to do it for yourself. Right. So that would be a fun and personalized gift. So let's wrap it up here. Tom, like, you know, I think the most important thing that we want to get across is that you're a podcaster. The microphone matters and people will come out of the woodwork and ask you what microphone you recommend. So. Or what microphone you use. It will happen all the time. There's a lot of audiophiles out there who care about that kind of stuff. So make sure, you know, have a handy link. I can't tell you how many times I've like, I just have it on this, like a short link on my phone because people ask me all the time and I have to drop it in Zoom Chat or drop it into, you know, text message to someone and send them right to it. We don't make any money. We don't do any affiliate links, any of the links that we've used in our blog posts or anywhere that we're not affiliating ourselves. We're not making any money off of recommending these mics. It's a decision Tom and I made a long time ago that we wanted to be able to rotate our recommendations and we want to get make podcasting as inexpensive as possible. So we don't need to add our own margin on there. Right. So we just don't do it so we can hold our heads up high and say, hey, we're recommending this for your good, not ours.

Well, and also change our recommendation if need be without it having a financial motivation. Ironically, we're still recommending the same microphone that we did the last time we recorded this episode. And really from the beginning of our time using microphones, we did start out with the ATR 2100, the more consumer model, but very quickly went and discovered the truly, we believe, better audio quality of the at 2005. So that was very early in our mic journey.

Well, and it was also better quality and longer lasting because. So that those two things went hand in hand. They lasted much longer. I think out of all the time that we've been using these microphones and sending them to clients, we've had two that didn't function like they should. They had a crackle or something and.

It was really or truly had some other defect. And that's always gonna happen with every you really have to expect usually a 1 to 2% defect rate in a well made electronic product. And we've experienced, I think less than 1%, quite honestly. But it happens and nothing's perfect. But this one is standing way above others through the test of time in our experience.

Yeah. And then the last thing I do want to mention to those of you who if you use a USB connector to your laptop, very often those go before the microphone. And I've had people who got rid of their microphone when it was actually the connector. They buy a whole new microphone and then it doesn't work and it still doesn't work and it's. So check your cables and your connectors and especially if you've got a Mac and you don't use the Mac approved ones, the Apple approved ones, they tend, the adapters, they tend to fail. And so those are some things to really consider there.

And actually I should mention there has been an update for the majority of these microphones today. Even though some of them are well more than 10 years old on the market, the USB microphones, they have updated their cables. So they used to only provide the old usb, the real large rectangular sort of plug. Now the I haven't seen any one of them yet that has not updated to USB C connector, which is what you'll find on most of your new computers today. I'm still actually using the older USB cord because my mic is older than USB C, but I have this USB adapter Tracy's talking about that plugs into your computer. So. But anyway, you still can use those adapters even if you're using USB C. Maybe you're just expanding to have more USB C ports. That's fine too, but. So they've been updated.

Yeah, I was going to say I've been through at least on this model of my computer, which isn't older than 2019. I've been through three of the adapters and not the microphone.

I'm actually about to need to get a new one myself because if I bump it, my video would go out. Because I use an external USB video camera, USB webcam, I have to be very careful not to bump it when I'm recording like this. Otherwise it'd be like that scene in Spaceballs where it's like, hey, who turned off the movie where it went black? Dating myself a little bit, but one of my favorite movies and favorite scenes. But anyway.

Well, anyway, I hope everyone enjoys Thanksgiving. Doesn't go crazy over. Over shopping. If you're listening to this live, we appreciate you and we thank you all for listening to our show every week and subscribing to our newsletters and our podcast. We so appreciate you. And so I just want us to give a shout out thank you to you.

Absolutely. I second that. I'll let Tracy do most of the talking I got. My voice is starting to get a little strained, but I hope it wasn't too bad for you all. It's, you know, we, we feel it's important to show up live when we say we're going to for the live portion. Hope you've gotten some value out of this episode. A lot more value to death from the blog post on podcast with united.org and we will be back in December for our next live what's up next.

Time, Tracy, you know, I don't remember.

I don't either. All right, well, you'll have to check.

Out the newsletter and then we'll listen.

To the next up episode, which we'll publish on Monday, December 2, I think. Right?

Absolutely. So, everyone, thank you so much for listening. We appreciate you. And we'll be back next week with another episode of feed you'd brand heard.

Something valuable today but didn't get a chance to write it down. No worries. We've got you covered. We partnered up with podcast podcasters united.org where podcast hosts like you can get free resources, free masterclasses, the largest podcast tip library assembled, and free promotion opportunities. While you're there, don't forget to follow us on YouTube and on SocialUnitedWePod so you can get feed your brand live. Until next time, keep podcasting.