Interviews

“It’s always good to record as much as you can”

Interested in making a podcast? But have no idea where to get the right equipment or where to find a quiet room? Jon Reed, the digital media and audio production specialist at Northeastern University’s Snell Library, recently visited the School of Journalism to offer tips, tools and techniques for podcasting.

The schedule for reserving rooms and information for borrowing equipment are all available on the library’s website, Reed said. Students can use the equipment inside the studios, or can borrow equipment for 24 hours. And there are always specialists around who are willing to help students.

Reed spoke at “Pizza, Press & Politics,” a free weekly speaker series offered by the Northeastern School of Journalism, on Oct. 3.

On the second floor of Snell Library there are four digital media studios: one for the video, one for audio, and two for media editing.

Reed showed students in attendance equipment that can do audio recording, podcasting, and voiceovers. He started by showing both external and wired microphones, which can all be found in the audio recording room at Snell. 

The most ubiquitous mic used in studios for classes, podcasters, bloggers, and streamers is the Blue Yeti microphone, which is USB-powered and therefore can be plugged straight into computers. 

It uses a few different pickup patterns to triangulate the sound for different users, which he demonstrated. Volume is shown on the mic so it can be monitored through headphones to make sure the levels are correct.

A newer option is the Shure MV 88 plus, a high fidelity condenser microphone, which can connect to a smartphone. It can use a phone’s camera to shoot video and also collect high-quality audio. It works on both Android and iPhone. It also comes with a great tripod.

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Reed also showed other microphones, such as the Zoom h4, a kit of portable audio devices, and a shotgun mic, which can be plugged into a camera.

Huilin Li
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