Over the past couple of years I've had to do a couple interviews and make a few screencasts. And in those situations you can do alright with a generic microphone but they tend to pick up a lot of background noise and unfortunately I've become a bit of an audio snob so that just won't do. The easiest way to improve the audio quality is to get a better microphone.
Over the past two years I've acquired a dynamic microphone, a mic stand, and a shock mount. It's not sound booth quality but it's pretty nice for doing podcasts or screencasts from your home. And all together it costs around $300. Expensive but not too bad for the quality you get.
Later this month I'll be moving into a condo and since I need to move the equipment I thought I might as well come up with an efficient way to move this equipment. And here's what I came up with:
My audio equipment in a case for moving & storage
What's in the Box
1 – Rode Podcaster USB Dynamic Microphone – $230
2 – Rode PSM 1 Shockmount For Podcaster – $39 – this prevents any sort of vibration like you resting your arm on the desk from affecting the mic.
3 & 4 – ProLine MS112 Desk Boom Mic Stand – $32 – (3 is the base for the stand)
And the case itself is Xit XTHC40 Medium Hard Photographic Equipment Case with Carrying Handle (Black)
The case was $38 and it protects my equipment for the move and now I can easily store this somewhere in the house and keep my desk clean for the 29 days of the month when I'm not doing a screen recording or interview. The case has pluck foam so you can make it fit just any anything that's less than 17″ in length.
I plucked out the foam and got the case 100% ready to go in 10 to 15 minutes. One small thing I wish I did was only pluck the foam when it's impossible to fit something in. Foam is supposed to be squishy so it's fine to squish things into their place. Not too big of a deal but it would prevent any sort of movement when you pick up the case.
The shockmount does stick out above the foam a bit but the foam at the top of the case is very squishy so everything fits pretty snug. If you want you could get a case that's another 1.5″ deep so it fits in.
If you're looking for audio equipment I highly recommend all of the above. You can hear me use the Rode Podcaster in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FUogUHxKiY
Happy recording!