Introduction
In the fast-paced world of podcasting, figuring out your setup can be a whirlwind!
Join Mikkel Svold, founder of Montanus, in this exciting episode of the Content Universe as he unpacks the ultimate podcasting dilemma:
**What’s the right setup for you?**
Mikkel dives into three different podcast setups—from the detailed Full Monty to the breezy Quick and Dirty.
🎤 **What’s in it for you?**
You’ll get the scoop on each option’s perks and pitfalls. Plus, Mikkel spills his top tips to keep your podcast running smoothly, whether you’re going high-tech with cameras and mics or keeping it simple for maximum output.
**Why does this matter?**
Learn why consistency beats fancy gear and how overthinking can zap your creativity.
Ready to transform your podcast game? Don’t miss Mikkel’s expert insights that could be just what you need to launch or refine your show!
Hit play and dive into the full episode now—your podcasting journey starts here!
What You’ll Learn
1. Discover three podcast setups for different complexity levels.
2. Understand how complexity can lead to project paralysis.
3. Learn why frequency and consistency beat audio quality.
4. Get tips on using a Full Monty vs. simple setup.
5. Explore the benefits of a “quick and dirty” approach.
6. Bonus tip: Recording guests online with high-quality apps.
Episode Transcript (AI Generated)
Quand est-ce qu’on travaille alors ? Hello and welcome to the Content Universe! Today I want to go through three types of podcast setups that you want to consider if you want to do a podcast. Before we get started, you need to know who I am. I am Mikkel Svold, and I am the owner and founder of Montanus, which is a content company. We produce content for other clients and we do… That’s going to be a little bit messy, this introduction. We do podcasts for our clients, and we do social media posts, all kinds of stuff. Content-wise, that’s what we do. Anyway, we are going to go through three setups that I want you to consider. And it’s three different setups with different complexities. I’ll go through the full setup, so to say, I’ll go through a simpler setup and I’ll go through what I call the quick and dirty, which is basically what I’m doing right now. Now, first and foremost, why do you want to consider what podcasting setup you choose for your company or basically also for yourself? Why consider the complexity? Well, first of all, the more complex, or the more professional actually, the setup you create or want, the more complex it gets. And with the complexity, that can sometimes paralyze people a little bit. It gets a little bit harder to get done. It requires more. It requires, well, more people involved. And it also often takes a lot more time. So complexity can lead to some kind of paralysis. And I want you really to consider whether it’s worth stalling your podcast project just because you want the most professional setup you can get. That’s one thing to consider. The other thing to consider is that basically frequency of publishing and consistency in publishing is more important when we’re talking podcasts, it’s more important than the quality of the recording. And that is not the same as saying the quality of the content because that’s my last point. The content and the quality of the content within the podcast is more important than the quality of the recording. So right now, the recording, as you can probably hear, that I’m doing right now has a little bit of reverb. The room that I’m sitting in is not like a studio room. This is just my everyday office, but because I’m doing it here, it means that I actually get this podcast out the door and flying. Okay, so let’s go through the different podcast setups that I typically see out there. So there’s the one that I call the FullMonty setup. The FullMonty setup has, of course, cameras, mics, and guests. Well there’s not of course, but of course, has mics. So it’s those really good microphones that probably is like a Shure microphone. It’s a typical brand for podcast microphones it’s like the industry standard, I would say. So either the Shure mic or the Rode mic, anyway, the good quality microphone, but also oftentimes the FullMonty setup or the FullMonty setup, always in my definition, it also has video recording of that same podcast. And with the video, that is where it gets really complex because video does not just require one camera, it requires at least one camera per person interviewed and often also an overview camera. So quite quickly, you get to three or even four cameras that you need to have rolling. And with that, in order to get a good camera recording, you also need a complete light setup. So going from basically a podcast recording where you just need a microphone, you now also need a complete video studio setup. And with that also comes the fact that you really need to have a technician working with you, you can’t just do it yourself because looking at three or four cameras, at the same time while also adjusting the light, well that’s just not gonna do it if you’re also the host of the show. Okay, so the full monitor setup, while it looks really good and it is super professional to look at, it is a bit of a mouthful. And if you’re just starting out with your podcast, I really recommend not going for the full monitor setup. So ditch the cameras in the first place or keep the cameras really simple. Just use your phone, use smaller mics, easier to use mics. Maybe consider not even having guests. And that actually leads us right into the next type of setup that I would call the simple setup. The simple setup is where you come out with a recorder and two microphones, right? So you can have guests, but it should be just a simple one where one maximum two guests and then have just two mics into a recorder, a very simple recorder. I would recommend the Zoom H6. It’s one that I use myself. And it’s just a brilliant little recorder. It’s super handy, and it fills nothing more than an iPhone basically. It’s the same size, well, not in thickness, but it’s not a big thing to carry around. And with that, you get a setup that you can easily transport, but it also does not require either a technician nor a full light setup, you can basically record anywhere. And now, if you still use those Shure microphones, those are the ones that I use myself for the bigger interviews or the interviews that we do where I’m not just talking into my phone like I am right now, if you use the Shure mics, they’re very, very good even in bad sound conditions. So you can often do a lot of stuff with them in post-production. But again, that is one thing that complicates the matter, post-production. So in the Full Monty setup, you’ll have a full post-production. In the simpler concepts, you should really consider whether you want to post-produce at all because having to go through post-production, again is a step that just complicates things. So what you really get with the simple setup where you just use maybe good microphones, but no post-production, and no cameras, that simple setup is just gonna be so much easier for you to kind of keep the frequency you want because it requires less planning, it requires a lot less logistics, and it requires a lot fewer resources. All right, and then there’s the last and the setup that I have right now, I call that the quick and dirty setup, and the setup I have right now is just myself. It’s no guest podcast, it’s just a smartphone recording. I myself have a little lavalier microphone from Rode just plucked into my iPhone, and on the recording, my iPhone is the recording device, right? So that makes it super easy and super handy to always have with you. So what I actually do is in my bag, I have of course my, well in my pocket I have my smartphone and in my bag I just have this little lavalier mic just always with me because then I can always just record an episode if I find something that’s worth recording for. So the quick and dirty setup is by far the easiest one to do, it is the one where you don’t have any camera. As a guest you could actually have like a camera set up where you talk into your smartphone as well. But it makes it easier if you don’t want the camera, if you can kind of, if you don’t need the camera. It makes it so much easier. So what I do in my quick and dirty setup is I just jot down like three to four bullet points on the piece of paper, like just anywhere, or on my computer, anywhere, I just jot down the points that I want to come through and then basically I start the recording and start talking. I know this is very different kind of format than what you’d get from a Full Monty setup with guests and cameras rolling and everything. But if the Full Monty setup compromises on frequency and consistency, you should go lower. You should really lower your expectations. And one bonus tip for if you want to have guests onboard, because getting guests on board, I’ve mentioned this in a couple of other episodes as well, but having guests on board requires so much planning and so much logistics, especially if you want them to sit in the same room as you. So what I really recommend if you want to do a frequent podcast, then settle with online recordings as well. You can find brilliant software out there that will keep the recording quality very high. Riverside is the one that I use. Riverside.com, anyway, Riverside is called, Google it. And that will make the online interviews so much easier to plan. Without compromising too much, you will compromise some, but without compromising too much on audio quality. So that is a little bonus tip for you. But again, the three setups that I really want you to consider are whether you need a Full Monty setup, whether you can do with a simpler setup where you just have good microphones, but it’s still a real podcast setup, or whether you should go for something more quick and dirty like the one that I’m doing right now. Consider that complexity leads to paralysis, that frequency and consistency and quality of content are more important than quality of recording. All right, that is it for today’s Content Universe. I hope you enjoyed. And if you did, share with someone who would be interested in listening as well. And of course, remember to click that subscribe button and little bell so you get the notification next time I publish a short podcast, quick and dirty podcast like the one that I just did. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed and see you on another planet in the universe.
