I’ve been doing the Freestyle Podcast for almost a year now. I’ve described my podcasting setup before — here.

Then a few months back I wrote this post, describing a few updates and acquisition of a new USB microphone. I was going to just use the new mic for mobile situations.

Well, last night I recorded the podcast using only the USB microphone, rather than the usual mixing board, preamp, microphone setup. Guess what. It sounded better. A lot better. No annoying buzz from the preamp. No problems getting enough volume to compete with my partners on Skype. The Audio Technica AT2020USB Cardioid Studio Condenser Microphone worked like a charm. It delivered a rich, consistent, great sound.I’m very happy with it. I feel kind of stupid that I’ve been jacking around with the rest of that setup for nearly a year. In this situation, using the USB microphone is not only just as good, but a hell of a lot simpler.

So from now on, for the main recording of that podcast via Skype, I’ll just be using the Audio Technica USB mic.

I’m planning a couple of new, interview-oriented podcasts. In preparation, I’ve acquired a new digital audio recorder – the  TASCAM DR-40 4-Track Portable Digital Recorder – after consulting with my uncle, who does this stuff for a living.

So far I’m very pleased with it. I’ll be posting more details and some sample sound files this weekend, but let me just state now that the sound quality delivered by this little device is very nice. I think it was a good purchase.