Over the past couple of years my family and I have gradually been producing more and more podcast. Of course the primary element of any successful podcast is quality audio.

To achieve quality audio, a quality microphone is the most important piece of equipment. In this area you can spend a lot of money, but we have found a great deal of success with the very reasonably priced Blue Microphones Snowball USB Microphone

A second key piece of equipment is a 6-Inch Clamp On Pop Filter. For less than $15 (or less if you use a pair of pantyhose, a coat hanger and duck-tape) you can take the sound quality to an even higher level of quality. The filter greatly reduces pops and cracks that can happen as we speak.

If you are regularly interviewing others through your computer or just so that you can do effective editing, a good set of headphones is essential to avoid feedback.

If your interested in getting started with all of these items, you can get a nice set through Amazon:

We are getting ready to setup a second recording station at Burtons Media Group due to our increase in pod and vod casting.  We have been so happy the Blue Microphone Snowball, we plan to continue using them for our new station.

I have friends in the recording industry that have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on equipment.  But they are recording for the music or movie industries.  Fortunately for the podcast/vodcast industries, we can get started for a lot less!

So, what do you use?  How happy are you with the equipment and cost?