Need help with podcast sound quality

Hi,
The members of my podcast and I are looking for new equipment to increase our sound quality, but we are having some trouble finding the right type of equipment within our price range. We currently have up to 6 people doing the podcast at any time, but usually have about 4 people. Right now our sound quality is terrible, and I have to do most of the modifications in post. We are currently using one condenser microphone and trying to speak over each other to be heard, not to mention the problem of all the background noise.

We want to find a solution that would allow us all to have personal microphones that we can plug into our 6 channel mixer. We were thinking about using lavaliere mics that would be wired directly to the mixer until we can afford the wireless transmitter and receiver system, as we were unable to find a system under $400 that would support up to 6 mics simultaneously.

We also need to keep a small footprint since we don't have a permanent place to record yet, and use various conference rooms around our office. Any comments and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I would recommend going with dynamic microphones. The most inexpensive solution I can think of is the AT2005 Dynamic mic. Its around 50 dollars and sounds really good.

We looked at that, but the amount of equipment to bring in is too high. We are forced to keep the amount of equipment small. The last two shows were done with just a mixer, condenser mic, 1 mic stand, and a laptop. Previously, we used 2 condenser mics, two stands (one for each side of the table), mixer,2 laptops (1 to record 1 to view the internet and update our feeds), headphone amplifier, and a ton of cabling. That was way too cumbersome though.

I really appreciate the response though.

Would the solution I provided above be doable until we had more money to invest in the premium equipment when we find a permanent place to record?

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Originally Posted by jboucher

We looked at that, but the amount of equipment to bring in is too high. We are forced to keep the amount of equipment small. The last two shows were done with just a mixer, condenser mic, 1 mic stand, and a laptop. Previously, we used 2 condenser mics, two stands (one for each side of the table), mixer,2 laptops (1 to record 1 to view the internet and update our feeds), headphone amplifier, and a ton of cabling. That was way too cumbersome though.

I really appreciate the response though.

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You should have a look at the mics that Andrew has sugested or the ATR2100. They come with neat little desk stands so you could use them instead of full size stage mike stands. Another idea would be to use headset/mic combinations for all presenters which would keep mics at a constant distance from the talent and remove the need for stands at all. You can get some reasonable quality units relatively cheaply. Pair them with your mixer and a $40 Beringher headset amplifier. Either solution should improve what you are trying to do.

Hey Andrew
The 2100 is back down to $36.00 :-)

Yea the ATR2100 is another great microphone. Its pretty much the same thing as the AT2005 but its silver. BTW The ATR2100 is down to 34 dollars now on amazon.

I love the atr2100. I got it for $40 a few months ago thanks to Mike Phillips. Def worth getting. As far as using 1 mic for two people, I would not recommend it.