Earlier in the year, I decided that if I was going to take podcasting seriously, I neeed some decent kit to do it with.

Naturally, seeking out audio and computing expertise, I went to the local Harvey Norman, where a fine gent suggested a $120 gaming headset. I was after a decent set of cans so that I could listen to playback and run noise adjustments and wanted an all-in-one solution.

But while the Steelseries Siberia V2 I bought has a lovely pair of phones, the microphone sucks.

It’s so sensitive that even with it away from my mouth I get a lot of pop and boom from when I spoke plosives or long wind sounds (‘p’s and ‘f’s).

After I interviewed Gavin Dunne for Episode 5 of Paid to Play, I decided once again that I wanted to invest in quality sound – nothing says “buck your game up” quite like talking with a smooth-voiced Irish fella who’s using a US$600 microphone and you’re talking on a gaming headset with a sock over the mic.

This time I went to the Allans Billy Hyde franchise store in town to talk microphones. The gent there went through a few options, then showed me a Behringer Podcastudio USB set that was priced at around $230. It was a big box with not just a microphone and headset, but also a miniature mixing board and a USB sound card.

He knocked it down to $120.

I jumped at the chance.

So far, the results have been pretty good, although I wish I could play you the result of my most recent interview.

Unfortunately, the freeware Skype plugin I use to record my over-the-‘Net interviews decided to stuff the great interview I did with Elizabeth Vaughan, cutting out little chunks every second and rendering the whole thing unlistenable.

Beth was gracious enough to agree to my request to re-do the interview this coming weekend, for which I will be ever grateful. In the meantime, though, I’m in the market for a Skype plugin that consistently gives quality results.

But I’m also thinking about other things – like how I’ve laid out around $250 on this project so far, yet haven’t seriously put any work into making it pay for itself.

That’s something I want to change.

But just how do I make the Paid to Play Podcast let me get paid to play?

Next Questions

What value could the Paid to Play Podcast have? To whom?

Are You Stressing?

What did you do when faced with the possibility of turning your passion into an income? What were the first steps you took?

Image of Behringer Podcastudio USB sourced from behringer.com