Another important piece of equipment every podcast recording studio should have is a pair of headphones or a set of good speakers. To record and mix podcast, you need to be able to hear what was produced and the result of the mixing process.

Monitors is the term used to name the gear that allows us to hear the sound and audio playback. Monitors could be speakers or headphones, which function is to convert data from digital to analog.

Introduction

Which monitors do you purchase gets back to how much time, money and energy you want to commit to building and using a digital studio. If you love music and often use your computer for playback then you need a solid quality speakers.

In another case, when you use your recording studio just to record podcast and do some business work, a good pair of PC speakers will suffice.

It is not uncommon nowadays that people use a computer as a central media player and entertainment station.

Add a DVD player on a mid-end of high-end computer system, and you instantly turn a computer into an entertainment system that could give you hours of fun. If you require professional sound effects and get involve in a lot of mixing work, good speakers are a must.

If you are recording music and you like every detail of it audible clearly, you may want a set of studio quality monitors, which include headphones and speakers.

Bottomline, it depends on your budget and requirement.

Speakers, Headphones or Both?

The short answer is this: both.

If you are really serious into recording and/or publishing a podcast, you want both of the monitors.

Having a set of monitor speakers should be obvious. You don’t have headphones on while watching a movie or listening to music. At least not all the time.

Headphones, on the other hand, allow you to turn off speakers and still hear to what was being recorded, and also the result of the recording or mixing.

Headphones are important for podcasters because when you are recording, you want to hear only what was being recorded, and nothing else. If you are interviewing a guest, you don’t want to hear the voice of hers from both the source and the monitors.

Choosing Your Monitors

Home studio monitor speakers usually start with computer speakers. For professional recording this is not enough. Sooner or later you want solid powered studio monitors.

For home recording, near-field monitors are very common. Near field monitors are speakers that are designed to be positioned close to you.

High quality monitor speakers cost several hundreds to thousands of dollars. Headphones can range in price from $10 to several hundreds.

Of course, you can always start with rather inexpensive monitors and upgrade when you think you need those. I personally don’t need to spend more than $200 for both speakers and headphones because I find them more than enough for recording and mixing podcasts. They are more than enough to listen to radio show, talkshow podcasts or even for music playback while blogging or relaxing. Your mileage may vary, of course.

Some professionals really like the sound coming from a specific brand of monitors. Others contend that the most important of all is familiarity with the monitors.

For talkshow podcasters, all of these don’t matter. If you need to record musical instruments, I am sorry I cannot give you any solid information.

Types of Monitors

Near-field monitor speakers come in two varieties:

• Passive monitors: This type of monitors don’t include their own amplifier, so you have to buy it separately. Not all amps are created the same, and they may sound differently too.
• Active monitors: These monitors come with their own amplifiers. This type of speakers are actually recommended because you don’t have to buy a separate amp and you will get the best sound from them.

Headphones come in both closed-back and open-back. Open-back headphones bleed. If you are recording while listening on headphones at the same time, be careful with bleed. Bleed is simply the situation when the sound leaked from the headphones into the room.

For this reason, go for a closed-back headphones. It is not always obvious if a set of headphones is actually open or closed-back, but a quick glimpse on the specification should reveal that information.

Recommendations

Mackie HR824 are one of the most popular self-powered pro monitors. This set of speakers feature an extremely flat response. It gives you details so you can actually hear the distinct tonal qualities. These speakers will exceed what you need if what you need is voice recording and some PodSafe music mixing. Even professionals should find these speakers adequate for home studio recording.

For more budgeted monitors, I find M-Audio DX4 Active monitors more than satisfying. Certainly you can’t get the same quality from cheaper speakers, but this type of M-Audio speakers introduces quite a high standard audio quality for your desktop computer.

A good pair of headphones I personally recommend is Audio Technica ATHM40fs. These closed-back headphones allow you to get details of your recordings. Basically, a steal for the quality compared to the price.

If you only need to record talkshow podcast, a cheaper headphones might do it. Save your budget for other podcast equipment or software.

Shop around. You might be able to find a good deal of high quality monitors that suits your budget.

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