Editor’s note: Casting Gear is a series about podcasting and the tools used in the process. In this series, we hope to demystify the podcasting process and show the wide range of tools and methods that different podcasters use to produce a show. In addition to listing the software and hardware used, a brief rundown of the work-flow for the given podcast will be provided. Delving into technical minutiae isn’t the goal here, it is to provide a window into the different approaches that are in practice.

The following text, unless otherwise noted, is written in-full by Hilden of Drunken Gamers Radio -Derek

Hello, friends, Hilden here. I’m pleased to be talking with the CastMedium community this week about how we create an episode of our podcast, Drunken Gamers Radio. John, Moe and I have been recording episodes of DGR weekly for almost five years and as you can imagine, our process has changed quite significantly over that time. While we started recording the show with pretty simple equipment, this article will show you what gear we’re using now and the process that we’ve developed over that time. In all cases, every piece of equipment or software we use has been focused on two main goals: achieving radio quality audio and creating a workflow that is fast and efficient.

Hardware:

• Hilden: Studio Projects C3 – $500
• John: Audio Technica AT2020 – $100
• Moe: AKG C-1000 – $300.00
• Guests: Shure SM57 – $100.00

Outboard Gear:

• Audio Interface: MOTU 896mk
• Behringer XENYX 16 Channel Mixer
• Compressor: ART Pro VLA II
• Behringer Headphone Amp
• Noise Gate: Alesis 3630

All of the hosts of DGR are musicians and as such, sound quality is pretty important to us. When I started recording DGR, I used whatever equipment I had at hand and took what audio quality I could get. As the show went on and became a more important part of our website, I decided that I really wanted to get a professional “radio-like” sound.  I did quite a bit of research into how radio stations create their signature sounds (and even visited a couple) before purchasing the equipment we now use.

Also, it bears noting that John, Moe and I used to do a college radio jazz show while we were roommates. Although we managed to be kicked off the air as a collective group rather quickly, the whole idea of being surrounded by radio gear and microphones felt natural after that. While you can get the kind of sound we get with software, there is something about using outboard gear that has always appealed to me and that’s why I choose to have analog gear recording DGR.

Moe had his AKG microphone at the start of our recording process and we all loved that condenser microphone sound. Because of that sound, we started moving in the condenser mic direction during the first year or so of the show. The Studio Projects C3 microphone that I use is a godsend and while it is a little pricey, the mic has more than paid for itself over time. It’s a large diaphragm condenser and the moment we plugged it in, we all heard the difference.  John’s Audio Technica soon followed, but truth be told I can’t wait to get rid of it for something better.

The other pieces of outboard gear on the list all help us achieve a more radio show sound, from the compressor (a broadcast booth standard) and noise gate to the EQ tools at the back end that help shape the final sound of the show. If I had to choose one indispensable piece of gear that we use on the DGR, it’s the MOTU audio interface, which allows us to route audio on the fly quickly and easily and gives us a great sound that we can manipulate like crazy. I really can’t live without it now.

Software:

• Skype (free)
• Ubercaster ($80.00)

We don’t use a lot of software to record DGR and that’s because we’ve found only one program that does the job we need. That’s Ubercaster. I’m not sure we’d still be doing this show without Ubercaster and it may be the most important thing we have in our “studio”. When I start talking about our workflow, you’ll see why. But it’s the best damn $80.00 I’ve ever spent.

Workflow:

1. Pour drinks.
2. Record the show into Ubercaster
3. Edit the show in Ubercaster
4. Release the show via Ubercaster

We seem to be one of the rare podcasts in the sea of gaming shows that record all together in the same room. That affords us the luxury of not having to rely on Skype or differing recording programs in order to create Drunken Gamers Radio. We all meet, every week, around the same set up and that helps us out a great deal in terms of consistency. It also makes for faster editing later.

The three of us record into the MOTU audio interface, where some EQ is applied to each of our voices separately. Again, this is to get our voice quality to match as best as possible. Our three voices are then summed together and run through all of our outboard audio processing gear and then into the computer via Firewire. Again, this is all due to the MOTU interface and its ability to route audio in a lot of different ways. Our combined and processed voices are recorded as a single track into Ubercaster.

For our voicemail/Drunk Dial segment, we run Skype from John’s laptop into the mixing board as if it were another person in the room. We run that into the MOTU and record that as a separate track in Ubercaster in order to edit wherever needed. Any interviews we do are recorded the same way: via Skype with another laptop treated as if it were another guest in the studio and run into the MOTU.

One of the most time consuming tasks in creating a podcast is the music that runs underneath certain segments. Dragging audio into a recording program and then leveling/editing it took a lot of time and this was how we did it for years. One of the main reasons we use Ubercaster is that the program has the ability to cue up and play music at the same time as we record our voices. All the music gets recorded to its own track in Ubercaster, allowing for quick edits and tweaks. Having the music recorded at the same time as our voices and being able to mix it on the fly has reduced a large amount of editing time.

When it comes time to editing the show, I simply use the built in editing features in Ubercaster. I have to admit that the editing can be pretty clunky. Again, not having to export and import audio from one program to another saves me a ton of time though.The same thing goes for exporting and uploading the show. I use the Release feature in Ubercaster to set the encoding, show notes, graphics and metadata for the show. Ubercaster also uploads the show after encoding to our server.

What’s great for me is how all these settings can be saved in a template that I can use over and over again and it all happens with one click. Anything to make the editing process faster and smoother is a must and not having to import files into iTunes or some other program to encode and upload saves a lot of time. When it comes to putting a show together smoothly and quickly, Ubercaster really delivers. It’s an absolutely indispensable tool and one of the reasons why we can put out a show consistently each week.

Damn it. Those Ubercaster guys should be paying me for all this free advertising.

At the heart of it, DGR has always been a time for three friends to get together and talk about a hobby they love. Everything we use to record the podcast simply has to work well and stay out of the way of the conversation and not hinder the good time. We feel this selection of equipment and this workflow lets us do that and put out a quality sounding product on a consistent basis.

That about does it for me, if you have any questions about what’s in this article or something I missed, please don’t hesitate to contact me at hilden@robotpanic.com or mailbag@drunkengamersradio.com

Good luck in your own podcasting endeavors and thanks for reading!