Advice for recording an actual play podcast?

[firesnakearies]

I'd really like to audio record the sessions of my upcoming campaign and make them an actual play podcast. I have no experience with this, however, and no recording "stuff".

I'll be running these games in my home, and have a desktop PC at the table.

Any advice for what kind of microphone or software would be good for this, as well as setup/placement tips and the like?

I'd also like to get into this as inexpensively as possible, for now. So the cheapest hardware that'll do the job would be ideal.

Thanks!

 

[Kafen]

I would try one of these USB Mic if you can find one at a music store. It works for picking up on audio at family gatherings for myself without spikes in audio and bursts of static. The range is wide enough that you can get the full range of most words and voices into the raw file.

Otherwise, I would pick up a boom mic stand and a boom mic with something like this from your local music store.

I would sit down and first look at what hardware you have on hand. You would need to get the full tech specs of the input and output of the card you are processing the audio with on your PC. It is going to be your limiting factor in what hardware you settle on. If you have a system that has "ok" audio, you could make do with something as simple as the mic in the second link.

Dynamic range compression - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This link goes into what any band member knows. It will help you decide how much you want to invest in hardware and what items you want to include if you plan on spending anything over a hundred bucks on it.

TIP: If you have any aging friends that have 'garage band' stuff laying around, you could pick up a compressor for pennies on the dollar if the spouse is fed up enough with it.

 

[PaulofCthulhu]

If you're doing it with virtually no money and the cheapest possible way, then...

As already mentioned a USB mic (preferably with a long cord). Depending on your computer it may make fan noise and that can be picked up on audio.

For placement, I'd suggest setting the mic a little nearer the DM as he's controlling the story. A good place to place the mic is to hang it from above (e.g. from a light fitting) - but that all depends on your set-up, essentially you don't want it being knocked around the table. However if it's all running from a computer at the table that may not be possible.

A free audio program like Audacity should help you edit the file. If you're not recording stereo then I would suggest putting them out at 64kbps mono MP3, max.

When/if you decide you want to invest more, there are plenty of options. We've been doing it for over seven years, and now talk into a disembodied head.

 

[Steel_Wind]

I would try one of these USB Mic if you can find one at a music store.

This. Damn straight.

Excellent advice. The Blue snowball is a great microphone for your purposes when used in Omnidirectional mode 1. Using anything else at the consumer end for audio (except maybe Blue's improved version, the Blue Yeti) and you'll be unhappy with the results. Put the mic in the middle of the room/table. It will pick up everybody's voice without any difficulty at all. It's made and designed to do just that -- and it does it very well.

Make sure you have the hard drive space and record your session. Use Levelator to even out your sound before you do other processing/editing on the recording afterwards with Audacity. (Audacity also requires you download and install the LAME mp3 codec to encode to mp3, but that's a pretty trivial one time dl).

And you should be good to go.

 

[EnochSeven]

The snowball mics are great.

I use a program called Levelator The Levelator® from The Conversations Network to level all the audio. It's a fabulous 'normalize' program.

You have to record in a raw wave to use Levelator. Then I take the output and drop it into Audacity. Then I remove the noise, but be careful not to overdo it or your audio will sound wierd. Just a little noise removal.

 

[grizzo]

I would ask your players first if they want to be recorded. Some people might object.

 

[Steel_Wind]

I would ask your players first if they want to be recorded. Some people might object.

A Blue Snowball microphone is about as obtrusive as you would expect a softball sized object on top of a one foot+ tall tripod would be when it sits in the middle of the table...

Which is to say, not very stealthy

I think the discussion with the players is pretty much a guarantee We're not talking stealth technology from Spytech here.

If you just mean to say -- talk to the players before spending your money on a mic? I agree.

 

[firesnakearies]

Thank you for your help, guys. That looks like it'll work well.

And yeah, of course I already asked all of my players how they felt about it, and they all like the idea.

 

[TarionzCousin]

En-un-ci-ate.

Make a test run before recording an actual session. Replay it in front of everyone. Then you can adjust the microphone(s) and berate the people who slur and mumble.

 

[weem]

I have been curious about this for a while - not sure who would want to hear my games, but I have liked the idea of giving this a try. I know my players would be into it.

Great information, thanks all