![You Need About $50 of Gear [Day 21 30 Days of Podcast Notes]](https://images.beamly.com/fetch/https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.rss.com%2Fstreamlined-podcaster%2Fpodcast_cover_20260916_122857_a7aaeae9723ee3f8a0758f9d13809543.jpg?w=365)
There's something like ten thousand dollars of gear on my desk, and you need almost none of it. I've had the same Shure SM7B for eight or nine years because it's a workhorse, but if you're starting today the minimum viable setup is the phone you already own plus a clip-on USB-C mic — a DJI Lav or the Hollyland Lark L2, which is my everyday carry. That's fifty dollars. If you want something that looks like a podcaster's mic, the Samson Q2U is about a hundred, and the Shure MV7+ around three hundred and genuinely good in a noisy room. But you don't need it. The microphones got good enough that gear stopped being the barrier.
Resources & Links
- Full tour of my desk and gear — casabona.org/desk
- Mentioned: DJI Lav, Hollyland Lark L2, Samson Q2U, Shure MV7+, Shure SM7B, Rodecaster Pro 2
- Join my newsletter for solo business owners: streamlined.fm/join
- Podcast hosting by RSS.com (affiliate link): rss.com
Disclosure: this episode description was generated with AI.
00:00:00 --> 00:00:04 Hey everybody and welcome to episode 21 day 21
00:00:04 --> 00:00:09 of 30 days of podcast notes. As a reminder, this
00:00:09 --> 00:00:13 series is for international podcast month. I
00:00:13 --> 00:00:19 started it officially on September 7th. I backdated
00:00:19 --> 00:00:23 the first six episodes so that we would have
00:00:23 --> 00:00:26 one episode per day for anybody who finds these
00:00:26 --> 00:00:30 later. And to deliver on the promise of 30 actual
00:00:30 --> 00:00:34 days, I will be doing a seven day retrospective
00:00:34 --> 00:00:37 series from October 1st to October 7th about
00:00:37 --> 00:00:40 how this whole process went. But today, I want
00:00:40 --> 00:00:44 to continue this little mini series in these
00:00:44 --> 00:00:47 30 days of what podcasting looks like today.
00:00:48 --> 00:00:51 Yesterday, I talked about the mission statement.
00:00:51 --> 00:00:54 Today, I want to talk about gear because gear
00:00:54 --> 00:01:00 has maybe changed more than anything else in
00:01:00 --> 00:01:03 the space. As I record this, I am sitting at
00:01:03 --> 00:01:06 my desk and I have, I don't think this is like
00:01:06 --> 00:01:08 a secret, like I'm not, this is not, I have a
00:01:08 --> 00:01:11 full breakdown of my desk over at Casabona .org
00:01:11 --> 00:01:17 slash desk. I have possibly $10 worth of
00:01:17 --> 00:01:22 gear on my desk, right? I've got the Shure SM7B
00:01:22 --> 00:01:25 and the Rodecaster Pro 2. multiple monitors,
00:01:25 --> 00:01:29 a teleprompter, a camera with an expensive lens,
00:01:29 --> 00:01:35 the Mac Studio, my speakers, two other cameras,
00:01:35 --> 00:01:40 as a matter of fact. And so I've invested a lot
00:01:40 --> 00:01:42 of money in my gear. I've been podcasting for
00:01:42 --> 00:01:45 about 15 years. And when I first started, sound
00:01:45 --> 00:01:49 quality was the most important thing to me. And
00:01:49 --> 00:01:51 so I tried a bunch of microphones and I kept
00:01:51 --> 00:01:54 upgrading. I've had the Shure SM7B for I think
00:01:54 --> 00:01:58 nine years, eight years maybe. And it's just
00:01:58 --> 00:02:00 such a workhorse and there's no reason for me
00:02:00 --> 00:02:03 to change it. But if you're starting today, what
00:02:03 --> 00:02:07 do you need? This has changed dramatically. I
00:02:07 --> 00:02:12 think you could get away with maybe, I'm not
00:02:12 --> 00:02:16 gonna tell you the microphone on your phone.
00:02:16 --> 00:02:18 If that's all you have, then yes, you can get
00:02:18 --> 00:02:21 away with it. But if you are investing any amount
00:02:21 --> 00:02:25 of money in gear, I think you could get away
00:02:25 --> 00:02:31 with a DJI lav microphone or the Holleyland Lark
00:02:31 --> 00:02:36 L2, which is a lapel, like a lav microphone,
00:02:36 --> 00:02:39 really small, plugs into your phone or your computer.
00:02:40 --> 00:02:42 I think you can get away with those. The sound
00:02:42 --> 00:02:45 quality is good enough on those, and the editing
00:02:45 --> 00:02:48 tools, which I'll talk about tomorrow, are good
00:02:48 --> 00:02:51 enough. You do not need to invest thousands of
00:02:51 --> 00:02:56 dollars in gear anymore Now we'll also talk about
00:02:56 --> 00:02:58 video and so let's let's kind of touch on this.
00:02:58 --> 00:03:02 What's the minimum viable setup? the minimum
00:03:02 --> 00:03:09 viable setup is Your phone as a camera and one
00:03:09 --> 00:03:12 of those USB -C microphones I just mentioned
00:03:12 --> 00:03:15 and the reason I'm saying that's minimum viable
00:03:15 --> 00:03:17 is because if you're using your phone as the
00:03:17 --> 00:03:19 camera it's going to be set far away from you
00:03:19 --> 00:03:22 and you do want a mic close to you so you don't
00:03:22 --> 00:03:25 shout and so it's not picking up a million other
00:03:25 --> 00:03:29 things but that is assuming you would have bought
00:03:29 --> 00:03:31 the phone anyway and it's just something you
00:03:31 --> 00:03:37 have you're in for 50 bucks that's it we'll talk
00:03:37 --> 00:03:39 about the tools tomorrow maybe your investment
00:03:39 --> 00:03:42 increases a little bit but as far as the gear
00:03:42 --> 00:03:48 goes 50 bucks or less Because the microphones
00:03:48 --> 00:03:51 have gotten so good and now if you want an actual
00:03:51 --> 00:03:55 podcasters microphone If you want to spend a
00:03:55 --> 00:03:57 little bit more money, I recommend something
00:03:57 --> 00:04:04 like the Samsung q2u. That's samson q2u I'll
00:04:04 --> 00:04:06 have a link in the description. I'll at least
00:04:06 --> 00:04:09 have a link to like a gear guide that I have
00:04:09 --> 00:04:11 But that's about a hundred bucks. It's a USB
00:04:11 --> 00:04:15 microphone and it works really well. If you do
00:04:15 --> 00:04:18 want to go next level, I would probably recommend
00:04:18 --> 00:04:23 the Shure MV7 Plus. That is a little bit more
00:04:23 --> 00:04:28 affordable than the SM7B, and it is purpose -built
00:04:28 --> 00:04:31 for podcasting. And so especially if you're in
00:04:31 --> 00:04:35 a noisy environment, the MV7 Plus is probably
00:04:35 --> 00:04:37 going to be really good. But that's assuming
00:04:37 --> 00:04:40 you want to buy a 300 or so dollar microphone.
00:04:41 --> 00:04:44 I don't think you need that anymore. At least
00:04:44 --> 00:04:46 not to get started, right? If you're like an
00:04:46 --> 00:04:51 audiophile, sure. But the DJI clip -on mics or
00:04:51 --> 00:04:55 USB -C mics or the, I really like the Hollyland
00:04:55 --> 00:05:00 Lark 2, Lark L2, because it's round, it's got
00:05:00 --> 00:05:03 a really low profile. And it's, you know, I think
00:05:03 --> 00:05:09 the DJI mic for phones are more obvious, which
00:05:09 --> 00:05:12 may not matter. Right. If you're just podcasting,
00:05:12 --> 00:05:16 but I like the I feel like the Hollywood microphones
00:05:16 --> 00:05:18 are hidden a little bit better. And so that's
00:05:18 --> 00:05:24 my I have a bunch of these and the L2 is my everyday
00:05:24 --> 00:05:29 carry. That's like always in my my bag in case
00:05:29 --> 00:05:32 I want to record on the go. So that's the gear.
00:05:32 --> 00:05:34 That's it. This is such a short episode. Right.
00:05:34 --> 00:05:36 I used to have like a half hour dedicated to
00:05:36 --> 00:05:40 this. Now it's inside of 10 minutes. So that's
00:05:40 --> 00:05:44 it for this episode of 30 Days of Podcast Notes
00:05:44 --> 00:05:47 on the Streamlined Podcaster. That's day 21.
00:05:47 --> 00:05:51 Hope you enjoyed it. If you have opinions about
00:05:51 --> 00:05:55 gear, there will be a voice note. You can leave
00:05:55 --> 00:05:59 a voice note now through my host rss .com. I'm
00:05:59 --> 00:06:02 the YouTuber in residence and evangelist over
00:06:02 --> 00:06:04 there and that's where this podcast is hosted.
00:06:05 --> 00:06:07 So you can leave a voice note if you have opinions
00:06:07 --> 00:06:10 about gear. If you're a solo business owner who
00:06:10 --> 00:06:12 has a podcast to support their business and you're
00:06:12 --> 00:06:15 overwhelmed by everything you have to do, my
00:06:15 --> 00:06:19 newsletter can help give you advice, tips, tricks,
00:06:19 --> 00:06:24 gear and tool recommendations for saving you
00:06:24 --> 00:06:27 25 hours per month. You can sign up for that
00:06:27 --> 00:06:30 over at streamlines .fm slash join. That's it
00:06:30 --> 00:06:32 for this episode of the Streamline Podcaster.
00:06:33 --> 00:06:35 I will talk to you tomorrow.