Podcasting, studio mics and ham radio oh my!
Since I am now podcasting, I want a good quality microphone and compressor that I can use for both in-studio podcasting and also for my ham radio station. What I plan to do is interface the new studio mic (more about that in a moment) into a PreSonus BlueMax compressor and then feed that input into the Midiman 24 channel XLR FineLine mixer. The (police) scanners and radio monitoring receivers will also be sent into the mixer as needed for off air recording. Then finally the output of the mixer will be sent to an M-Audio USB interface. I could then monitor that input (with a monitor output on the USB interface) to a Midiman Multimixer 10 mixed with the ham radio receivers and computers outputs to my headphones. This way I can monitor both my mic quality as well as the radio receiver (if I am doing ham radio at the time) and any computer samples I am inserting as well as any play back from the computer. Because of the complexity of the station, the majority of the analog equipment and the multitude of operating systems in use at the station (Linux, Windows and OSX), I am not looking for a software mixer or compressor. I will likely be normalizing and leveling the audio (podcasts) in post production.
Now as to microphone choices: a SM7B outta do it! No seriously at a street price of $350 that will certainly break my “beer” budget. Ok now for some mics I have actually heard in use: AT2020 and the Shure SM57. The problem with the 2020 mic is that it is a Phantom powered which I am not setup for (or would have to create a supply).
There is of course a lot of cable connections going on and a lot of conversions as well. A real interesting site I have come across on this topic is NU9N. He details a lot of the conversion issues involved. For instance the mic and mixer inputs are XLR and 1/4″ phone while the radio outputs are mostly 1/8″ mono and the Kenwood HF microphone is 8 pin. This article by NU9N illuminates some problems associated with wiring all this together most notably balancing.
Now finally this needs to look professional. Well mainly the mic needs to swing out of the way when not in use. Dave Matthews (K3MV) mentioned these vendors of studio arms: O. C. White and K&M.