Equipment Diagrams

by Cliff Ravenscraft on July 25, 2009

Hey folks,

I’m just posting this here to let you know that one of the many services that I provide is personalized equipment setup consults, even if you have purchased your equipment elsewhere.

This morning, I had an hour long consulting client who had purchased the following equipment elsewhere. (He said in the future, he’ll buy from me)

Shure SM7B Mic
Behringer 1204 Mixer
Edirol R-09HR Recorder
DBX 266XL Dual Compressor/Limiter/Gate

He was looking for a podcast consultant because he had no idea how to hook all the equipment up and what cables to use.

Within one hour with me on the phone (AND SHARING MY SCREEN WITH HIM using GoToMeeting) we did the following.

I pulled up images of all his equipment and created a setup diagram with him, while we were on the phone, explaining every step in the process.

I was able to walk him through what each of the buttons and knobs are used for on his mixer, I was able to give him advice on how to get the PERFECT audio levels every single time he records, and soooo much more.

In the end, he felt as confident that he knew exactly what to do and was on his way to a local store to pick up a few cables to build his studio setup.

I might mention that folks who have hired me to help them do this usually spend MANY HOURS researching this stuff online before they actually come to me for help. In one hour with me, they know what they need to know to get up and running so that they can do more important things LIKE RECORDING THEIR CONTENT. ;)

After each of these calls, I save the equipment diagram and email it to them.

Here’s an example….
Equipment Setup Consultations

  • Ahh I get you - higher quality through that route!
  • Not a stupid question at all!

    If the client has the equipment to do so, I ALWAYS instruct that they should NOT record their audio into a computer if they can avoid it.

    Recording into a digital audio recorder provides a great number of advantages over recording into a computer.

    1) Reduced incidence of "Ground Loop Noise" in the recordings.

    2) Absolute solution to any buzzing noises in audio caused by internal computer component interference.

    3) Absolutely no "Blue Screen of Death" nor "Beach Ball of Doom" during any podcast recording sessions!

    4) No worries of other software programs changing the internal settings of your sound card. (ie Skype) from recording to recording.

    5) Ability to monitor Volume Input Levels during the entire show, even if using the computer to look up information or for any other computer use.

    6) Frees up computer to be easily used for playing audio clips into your show.

    7) Frees up the computer for use with Skype to do a mix-minus so that you can bring in a co-host or an interviewee.

    Those are just a few of the reasons why I choose to record into a digital audio recorder.

    I suggest if there is a desire to do a "backup" recording of your podcast, that the computer should be the "backup"...


    Again, all of this is only IF they have a digital audio recorder or are thinking about getting one.

    There are other benefits of just having a digital audio recorder for in the field recording.. But if they have one or want to get one because of the benefits listed above, I instruct them to to record to the recorder and then transfer the audio file to the computer for editing.
  • Hey Cliff

    Stupid question here - if this is a podcasting setup, why is the board's output going to the Edirol? Wouldn't you be taking input from the Edirol (stuff you recorded in the field) and sending mixdown to the PC?
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