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Upgrade Your Podcast for Under $200Not too long ago I wrote a tutorial on recording a podcast, covering the absolute basics using one of those disposable microphones that ship with many home PCs. The quality of recordings produced with those cheap mics is never very good and they are notorious for picking up all kinds of room noise (which often includes the computer fan noise). Audio clarity ultimately suffers and it becomes vital to seek out better quality tools. If you do any vocal recording with your PC, whether the vocal tracks are talking, singing, yodeling or making strange grunting sounds, having the right equipment for the task is a must. Three specific hardware components are needed to record quality spoken audio tracks: a microphone, phantom power and a compressor/limiter. In general, you get what you pay for when you buy audio gear. The cheap stuff does not sound as good as the expensive stuff, but there are varying degrees of cheap and expensive resulting in smart compromises within budgetary limitations. Without making a large quality tradeoff you can get a decent sounding audio setup for about $200. One of the best companies for quality gear at affordable prices is Behringer. They make audio gear with pro-level sound quality at budget prices. The trade off is the gear doesn't hold up well to the wear-and-tear of traveling with it, which makes the brand impractical for touring musicians. For basement recording purposes where hardware sits on your desk, the quality is more than adequate. Microphone
Mixing Board and Compressor
A mixing board might seem like overkill at first, because all you're doing is connecting one microphone, but with some experience, you'll quickly discover uses for the extra channels on the mixer. Behringer is an obvious choice for filling the mixer/phantom power dual-role. They offer several mixing boards with built in power options, giving you room to expand your setup to accommodate things like a second microphone, outboard gear like a turntable or CD player, or patching in telephone recordings before passing the signal to your PC recording software. The Behringer XENYX 1002FX model is currently the smallest unit I recommend. The XENYX 1002FX provides power for 2 microphones and offers enough channels to connect a total of 10 external devices (including the 2 powered mics). With some smart comparison shopping, you can easily find the Behringer XENYX 1002FX for under $100. A decent compressor is something you don't want to be without. Compressors are used to keep the change in volume between quite tones and loud tones less dramatic and effectively prevent you from recording sounds at a level capable of distorting the waveform. The compressor sits between your microphone and line-in on the PC. In the configuration we're talking about here, you connect the microphone to the With some smart comparison shopping, you can easily find the XENYX 1002FX mixer and it handles compression by configuring a setting on the FX selector. Standalone compressors come with a wide range of features at prices ranging from $50-1000. The XENYX 1002FX is quite limited in configuration options for compression, but as an entry level solution on a budget, it does the job nicely. With some smart comparison shopping, you can easily find the Behringer With some smart comparison shopping, you can easily find the Behringer XENYX 1002FX for under $100. for under $100. Just make sure it's the 1002FX you're buying and not the standard 1002, which does not include the compressor onboard.
Note: I previously recommended the dbx MC6 Mini Comp which was recently discontinued AccessoriesTo make all the necessary connections, you'll need a few accessories. At the very least you need a desktop microphone stand, an XLR microphone cable, two patch cables with male ends and a 1/4-in to 1/8-inch adapter. The stand is for the mic. The XLR cable connects the mic to the mixing board. One patch cable connects the mixer to the compressor; the second one connects the compressor to the adapter, which in turn connects to the line-in on your sound card. A microphone stand shouldn't run you more than $15. The combined cost of the 3 cables and adapter will be roughly $30, if you buy 5-foot lengths, based on my own shopping experiences. Here's the gear rundown:
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For a variety of reasons, you want a large diaphragm condenser microphone. Using a condenser microphone results in warmer more accurate representation of your voice than using a dynamic microphone. Condenser mics require an outside power source, which is why phantom power is listed as one of the three requirements here. To get a microphone radio pros consider acceptable, you need to spend somewhere between $300-500 dollars. On the other hand, we're recording everything in a podcast with the intent of compressing it to MP3 format, so using a much more pocketbook friendly alternative should work just fine. Behringer offers their 
The original version of this article recommended using the Behringer UB802 mixer and the now discontinued Alesis Smashup Compressor. Behringer has since revamped their product lineup and Alesis discontinued the smashup. In the new Behringer product line, I'm recommending the XENYX 1002FX as a good substitute for both products. The mixer includes onboard compression, which will do the job without too many confusing settings. 
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