Good audio starts with quality gear. Your laptop’s built-in microphone sounds decent, but we want you to sound way better than decent.
When you become an egghead instructor, we hook you up! As soon as you have a draft lesson almost ready to publish, we’ll send you a waterproof Pelican case full of professional-grade audio recording equipment. 📬
[Image: Case]
Here’s what you’ll be getting:
K & M 23150-500-55 tabletop microphone stand with 5/8" threaded connector and mini boom arm
Shure BETA 87A microphone
Shock mount to attach the mic to the stand
Shure X2U XLR-to-USB signal adapter
1 XLR cable to connect the microphone to the USB interface
Badass by Kathy Sierra(to inspire your great ideas)
[Image: Contents of case]
Let’s go through each piece of equipment and explain how you’ll use it.
Microphone boom
[Image: Microphone boom]
The boom is a stand for your mic. Booms can range in size and shape.(Action movies require bigger booms than egghead lessons.) This is a very nice, sturdy boom from Germany that folds down for easy storage in the case.
The microphone
[Image: Microphone]
Obviously an important piece of equipment! The Shure BETA 87a is a supercardioid mic, which refers to how it picks up sound: It’s forgiving and blocks out ambient noise.
You can go crazy with mics, spending a huge amount for a smidge better sound quality. You might not use this mic to record a #1 banger, but it still fits into the"sounds very good" column. 👍
Positioning of the mic is important. You should be 2–6 inches away for optimal volume levels. For extra credit, here are loads more positioning tips:
[Image: Microphone settings]
(We don’t really give out extra credit, but you might sound slightly better.)
Shock mount(right)
[Image: Shock mount + USB audio interface]
This little piece connects to the boom, and the microphone slides into it before being attached to the XLR cable. It will dampen any footsteps or other vibrations that might be picked up through the stand to the mic.(You’ll most likely be sitting down, but who knows what your kids or roommates are up to.)
USB audio interface(left)
The mic we’re giving you is built for professional audio applications, not necessarily for capturing audio on a computer. This interface connects the mic to your computer, and converts XLR analog signal into 1s and 0s for the computer to store. It has an XLR input(from the mic) and a USB output(to the computer).
Microphone boom
The microphone
Shock mount (right)
USB audio interface (left)
XLR cable