Equipment

I’ve always wanted to share information on how we make the show, so here it is: all the equipment/software we use to record our show.

Hosting

  • The podcast audio files are hosted by Libsyn.  I’ve been using them for over ten years and I’ve never run into any problems.  I cannot recommend them enough.
  • The rest of the hosting (the main website, the forums, other miscellany) is through BlueHost.
  • The website itself (the one you’re looking at right now) is run on WordPress.  I use the Blubrry PowerPress Podcasting Plugin for managing the RSS feed’s media enclosure on the site.

Audio Equipment

  • Boston uses the Audio Technica AT-2020 USB mic, with a short stand (On Stage adjustable desk stand) a shock mount (generic) and a pop filter (generic).  Moonpir and TheNimp use the Blue Snowball with a adjustable mic arm and a pop filter.
  • While I no longer need multiple sound card support like in the old days, I still use the latest version of Adobe Audition.  I’m subscribed to Adobe Creative Cloud, which does off Audition standalone.  I’m still using it because it makes my production pipeline super easy and its crash handling is fantastic.

Audio Settings

  • For the audio, after putting in all the music and additional sections, I normalize the entire episode to -1db.  I then compress the audio down into a 96000kb mono MP3.
  • To edit the ID3 tags on the episodes, I use MP3tag, which I can’t recommend enough for podcasters.  It makes ID3 tagging much, much easier.

Remote Audio Recording

  • Now that we’re not recording in the same room anymore,  Skype is a necessity.  Each host records their own mic output themselves using Audacity or Adobe Audition.  After recording, all the individually recorded tracks get edited together using Adobe Audition.

Video Equipment

  • For livestreaming, I use XSplit, which is hooked up to restream.io to stream to as many services as possible.

Video Settings

  • I record and stream in native 1080p at 60 frames per second.  The stream settings are kept the same when posted to YouTube.

Production Computer

  • Boston’s computer is a self-built machine.  It has an Intel Core i5 7600K, 32GB of RAM, and a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Dual 6GB.  The podcasts are produced using Windows 10 Ultimate.