Podcast Equipment Guide

If you've ever wondered what podcast equipment you actually need at different budget levels, this video breaks it all down. In Podcast Equipment: £0-£150, £150-£600 & £600+ Guide, I walk you through three realistic budget tiers so you can start podcasting without overspending or getting lost in gear rabbit holes.

Whether you're just getting started with basically nothing, looking to upgrade your current setup, or ready to invest in something more professional, there's a tier here that fits where you are right now. I cover microphones, audio interfaces, headphones, and more, with honest recommendations based on real use, not just spec sheets.

The goal is simple: help you make a smart buying decision based on your budget and your goals. No fluff, no upselling you on stuff you don't need. Just clear, practical advice so you can focus on making a great show. Watch the full video and find the setup that works for you.

• Chapters

  00:00 - Podcast Equipment Overview

  00:45 - Budget Tier One: £0 to £150

  01:20 - Samson Q2U Microphone Review

  02:10 - Headphones for Podcast Recording

  03:05 - Using Your Phone as a Camera

  03:50 - Recording Software: Riverside Free

  04:30 - Budget Tier Two: £150 to £600

  05:15 - Shure MV7 Microphone Explained

  06:20 - Webcams & Key Lighting Options

  07:40 - Paid Recording Software Options

  08:30 - Budget Tier Three: £600 Plus

  09:10 - Shure SM7B & Audio Interfaces

  10:45 - DSLR Cameras for Podcasting

  12:00 - Studio Lighting: Softboxes

  13:10 - Time Commitment of Each Setup

• Transcript

  SPEAKERS

  Chris Hall-Franzkowiak

  Chris Hall-Franzkowiak  00:00

  What equipment do you need to start a podcast? Is one of the most common questions we get asked. So in this video, we're going to go through three tiers of equipment that you can get to start your podcast, from naught to 150 pounds, 150 to 600 pounds, and then 600 pounds and up. So there are so many different pieces of equipment that you could buy that are all over the internet. So want to make a really clear guide on three different levels that will allow you to just start your podcast. And the big thing to remember is that a podcast that starts on the nought to 150 pound budget is going to be far more successful than a podcast that never happens because they're waiting for that big budget to come in to buy all that fancy equipment. So let's get into it. In this budget, we are looking at getting equipment that will cover you, whether you're doing an audio and video podcast, still so this is still possible within a nought 150 pound budget, so you're going to need a microphone to capture the audio, a camera to be able to capture your video footage, if you're going to be releasing a video podcast too, and you will also need a pair of headphones to help you with the editing of it if you are going to be editing yourself. So in terms of microphones, really good quality microphone within this budget, the Samson Q 2u which comes in at about 80 to 90 pounds. And with that, you will get a microphone that is both USB and what's called XLR. So you can see on my microphone here, I've got this cable that comes out. It will go into an extra box called an audio interface, and that plugs into your computer. So in this setup, that's where you've got this extra expense. But with the Samsung Q 2u you can use it as a USB microphone, which plugs directly into your computer and mitigates this need for extra equipment. USB microphones have become better and better over the last few years, so they are really good quality microphones. It also then gives you the capability if later down the line, you are looking to either record more than one person in a room, and you're going to need that audio interface for that, you can still use your Samsung Q 2u with an XLR cable to do that. So that is a great microphone that allows for quite versatile recording headphones. So you're going to need headphones to either potentially record with, or definitely to edit with as well. So you will want some closed back headphones. They're called so the ones I have here, you can see the grille, which means they're open back. These are kind of professional quality for editing and things like that, but they would not be very good for recording, because all the sound spills out of these. So you want something closed back, like K, RK, KNs, 6402 headphones. They're at 40 pounds roughly, and they will be brilliant for both recording and editing. So between the microphone and the headphones, we're looking at about 120 pounds. And that is our budget spend for this. Because if you are filming, what I would recommend is using your phone. So on the back of pretty much everyone's phones these days, we've got 4k cameras so you can record really high quality video. Always keep it in landscape, because that will be what you need for your YouTube videos and your podcast episodes going out on Apple and Spotify if you're putting video up there too, you can always cut clips into vertical format later on. So never record on your phone in vertical for podcasts. Always do it in landscape. So what you will need is some kind of phone stand, which you can get, again from Amazon for about 1015, pounds as well, to hold your phone up. So you've got a microphone, headphones and a camera there, and the software you're going to use to record on is called Riverside, and that will have a free account as well that you can use to record your podcasts on. There are some limitations to using the free account, like the amount of time you can record over the month, the type of editing features that you are able to use if you are going to be editing your own podcasts on Riverside as well. So that is our naught 150 pound budget, and that will be a great starting point to get you going with your podcast in tier two. We're going to look at the 150 to 600 pound budget, and this will take your quality of recording, both audio and video up a level. This time, for a microphone, we are going to be going up in quality. And for that, we're going to go to the Shure MV seven. So there are quite a few different versions of this. So the MV seven plus is the latest one that would be for individual podcasters do. Just like my setup. This is the older version of the MV seven, and it is a brilliant microphone for recording at home, there is a dynamic microphone like the Samsung cue to you. So great quality. And with newer versions to mine, you've got things like gain control on the microphone. Again, you can choose between USB or XLR, so you've got that versatility for your setup. So you can use the USB to plug in and go straight away. It's got really clever stuff, like technology that will allow you to de noise when you're recording, to clean up the quality of the recording as you are capturing it. This is an industry standard microphone, so I would definitely recommend going for this one, for your audio capture, for the video capture, we can start to look at things like webcams. So there are some really good 4k webcams out there at the moment. So the Insta 362, or the link to see is a bit more expensive, but the Insta 362 you can get for between 100 and 150 pounds, and they give you really good quality for capturing at home without having to go for really expensive DSLR cameras. The additional thing you will need at this level to take your video recording to a higher quality is a key light. So you've got things like the key light Neo, which is a new key light from Elgato, or for a little bit more, the Elgato key light itself. But the main thing you want to look for in a key light is the ability to be able to control both the brightness and the colour temperature. If you can control the colour temperature, then you can start to kind of create a mood, a feel to the lighting of your footage. And you can also start to work with the webcam, with the settings between the key light and the camera itself, to again enhance the quality of your footage. So some will just do brightness. You want to go for something that does colour temperature and brightness. For the headphones, we can go for exactly the same type of headphones as in the lower budget the KRK, KNs 6402 are brilliant. They can just work across all budget areas, really, because they're a good quality headphone that will allow you to do both recording and editing. So for this one, in terms of the software that you need, you will want to go for a paid account of either something like Riverside or descript, both great platforms for recording podcasts, they will have much more time that you can record per month, and you will also get all of the editing features that they have available too. They come in at around $24 a month. So that's something you want to factor into the lifetime of your podcast, and that will be potentially your home for recording and editing your podcast if you're doing it all yourself. So in this budget, you've got your Shure, MV seven, Insta 360 camera, your Elgato light your headphones and your recording software. And finally, tier three, our budget of 600 pounds and up, we are looking at really professional quality equipment that is going to be almost like a podcast studio that you're going to be setting up. So for this in terms of audio capture, the Shure SM 7b is the industry standard microphone that you will use to record your podcasts. So they are again dynamic microphones, but they only come with XLR cable inputs, so you will not be able to use USB with these to plug these directly into your computer. So this means that you will have to get some kind of audio interface. Now what you want to think about is your recording scenario. So is it again, still going to be just you recording to your camera, or are you now going to be having people with you in a live setting? So regardless, you will need to get an audio interface which allows you to plug that microphone into and then that will plug into the computer. So audio interfaces can come in all sorts of different formats. So you can get some that you can plug one microphone into, or you can get others that you can plug four or more into. So you've got to think about how many people am I going to be recording with, and get an interface that will allow you to do that. So a couple of examples of interfaces. One would be the Focusrite Scarlett series. So you've got all sorts of different ones here that will allow you to plug either two microphones into or four in this case, so you're looking at between nearly 305 100 pounds for those, or another really good quality one that is used a lot in the podcast industry is the rodecaster Pro two, which comes in at a. Over 600 pounds, and this will allow you to plug in four microphones, and it's got all sorts of stuff in there that you can do live podcasting with, like putting in effects or different sequences. You've got all sorts of stuff that you can use with that, which is a really great piece of kit. Again, you will need headphones of some kind, to be able to both hear what you were recording. So this is going to be really important with an audio interface that you're going to plug your headphones into that interface to be able to hear live what is coming through your microphone again, particularly at the beginning, so you can make sure everything is set up and going incorrectly, because you don't want to start recording come back to it later, and you can't hear anything because something wasn't set up, right? So again, the KRK headphones will be great for this as well. Another area of a much bigger expense will be lighting, because you're going to be looking at things that are going to be used more in professional studio setups. So these could be things like softboxes, which give a much softer, more natural light, and can give lights to different individual people. Because, again, if you've got multiple people in a live recording setup, they're each individually going to need to be lit up and lighted with a soft box from above that'll be out of shot. And also, then you're going to be starting to think about how you want your scene to look so the lighting in shot. So quite often you see people doing the fashionable thing of having neon lighting and stuff like that around, or it could be simple lighting that gives depth behind. So you don't have to go for what lots of people do with the neon stuff. If that's not your style, you but you do want to think about different bits of lighting to create depth and interest in your scene around you, as well as softboxes. So goddox softboxes are a great option to go for. Again, you can get a couple here for about 760 pounds. So finally, in terms of cameras, this is where the expense can vary massively. So we're going to look at one that is still at the lower end of DSLR camera budgets. And these are the Sony ZVE 10 cameras, and they are roughly about 500 pounds. So these capture really good quality 4k footage, so you can get additional lenses as well to get wider shots and things like that. So you could be looking at, again, if you've got multiple people, having to have a few different cameras, so a camera on each person, possibly a wide shot camera as well. So you've got to start thinking about your setup and what you're going to need to record your podcast, DSLR, cameras can go into the 1000s. So you could be looking at different cameras that could be worth a couple of grand each. So you can see that this budget could be anywhere from the lower end of that 600 pounds plus all the way up to 10,000 pounds, very easily, when you're buying lights, cameras, microphones, audio interfaces, all this different stuff. And the thing is, with this kind of setup, you're not really going to be using Riverside or descript to capture it. You're going to have to have dedicated software to capture that audio and video. So whilst all of this stuff is great, it's going to look amazing, sound amazing, there is going to be a lot more time involved in then producing the end product, which is where you could be actually working with someone like us that will edit and produce all of that for you. But you have to be aware of that time commitment that that will add onto your project. So there we go. You have your three different budgets for three different types of setup to get going with your podcast. Every single one does have that hidden cost of a time commitment to then produce it. So if you are looking to record your podcast, no matter what budget you're on, you have to factor in the time it will then take to produce and edit it. And like I say, if that is something you as a small business or business owner need support with, that's exactly the kind of stuff we do for all of our podcast clients, no matter if it's that lower end budget of recording all the way up to that studio grade, professional quality recording as well. And the other thing to remember, like I said at the beginning, getting started with that lower end budget setup is going to far outweigh delaying and not getting started, because you're constantly waiting to have the money to get that high end budget. So if you like the video, do give us a like and subscribe. Ask any questions you like about any podcast setups in the comments. I would love to get back to you on that, and I will see you in another video next week.