My Podcasting Rig

Since starting the Ungeniused podcast late last year, I’ve had numerous questions about my setup. So, here’s my gear:

  • The Blue Yeti USB Microphone is the heart of my rig. It’s a great vocal mic for the money. With its tri-capsule array, it’s easy to set this mic up for one or more voices. It’s plug-n-play with OS X, and includes built-in gain control, pattern selection and a headphone jack for monitoring your own voice.
  • The mic is mounted in a Blue Microphones Radius Microphone Shock Mount. This mount has totally changed the quality of my audio, isolating the mic from noises caused by me bumping the table, writing and even typing. If you are serious about isolating your voice from the environment, a shock mount is the only way to go.
  • The Nady MPF–6 6-Inch Clamp On Microphone Pop Filter is a little large, but I like to move around when I’m talking, and this gives me the freedom to do so. I have it clamped to my stand with the built-in hardware.
  • To be honest, I’m not super in love with my mic stand. While I hope to mount my rig on an arm in the future, right now, I record Ungeniused in an empty conference room at work. That said, I use the 8–13 inch Atlas Desk Stand. It’s well made, but I do wish it were heavier — or that the base were larger. It feels a tad wobbly with the heavy Yeti hanging out over the side of it.
  • I use the Sennheiser HD–280 PRO Headphones all the time — not just for podcasting. They’re closed-backed, so audio doesn’t leak, and comfortable, so I can wear them for hours without getting a headache.

On the software side of things, I record my local track in QuickTime X. The trick here is to make sure that the application is using the Yeti to record.[1]

To record both ends of a Skype call, my go-to application is Audio Hijack Pro. That said, however, Piezo looks like a nice option, too.

On the cloud end of things, Ungeniused is hosted at Buzzsprout. Buzzsprout is great, and dirt cheap. It allows for fast uploading, easy-to-edit metadata, useful stats and more. There’s no reason to host a small to medium-sized show on your own.

Feedburner has the Buzzsprout feed, so I can change the backend without iTunes or Instacast knowing.

This setup isn’t the best money can buy, but I’ve found it to be a great rig for the price. Just about everyone at 70Decibles uses a similar setup, and it really shows.

Update: See my new rig here.


  1. Likewise, Skype’s settings must be adjusted to use the Yeti for audio in and out. It’s a silly application.  ↩