In this interview we learn more about Michelle Burton, a Pastoral Support worker working on Develop’s Children in Need project. Michelle talks about what she does, her path to the job she is doing now, how she supports young learners and how the course she delivers can help young people make positive changes in their lives. The Children in Need project is a 9 session course called “Like It, Live It”. It is funded by Children in Need but is run by Develop. The course helps young people develop their confidence, team working skills and mental wellbeing.
Techie stuff: A big change in this episode as I try and use a recording set-up which is advised by podcast experts.
I use the Zoom H4n as my recorder for the interview. This is sat in the middle of the table between myself and Michelle but it is not using its own internal microphones to do any recording. Instead I have two dynamic cardioid microphones plugged into the XLR ports on the Zoom. One of the microphones is a JTS TM 929 microphone – which is a relatively cheap (in price) mic I bought from the Bedford Music shop. The other microphone used was an Audio Technica ATR 2100 (Michelle speaks in to this one). So many books, articles, podcasts and videos I have studied have recommended this microphone.
It is regarded as having good quality for an affordable price but also its adaptability is recommended because it can be used as a USB microphone plugged into a laptop or used as an XLR microphone when you start moving up in complexity of your podcasting projects, connecting to mixers.
In this interview I had the two microphones set up in table-top microphone stands. These are cheap stands (in price) with big heavy metal bases (looking like ugly weights from a dumbbell) and a simple upright pole connecting the microphone. The stands I had had limited adjustability in terms of heights – I needed to get the ends of the mics as close to my and my guest’s mouths. Many podcasts set-ups I have seen while researching the topic seem to prefer boom arms which can be clamped to a table and swung into almost any position. Not yet sure if I should change to these.
My mic stands do not have shock mounts. Shock mounts are little rigs suspending the mic with rubber bands. If the stand is knocked or the table is bumped the shock mount should absorb this and prevent an ugly sound going into the recording. To make up for not having a shock mount I placed each mic stand on top of two layers of foam.
Also in this set up, I used a small Behringer headphone amplifier. This connects to the Zoom and then myself, Fiona and Hannah each have a set of headphones which plug into the amplifier. Using the amplifier you can adjust your volume. I thought that I could get away with a headphone splitter when working with multiple headphones (a simple little device which plugs into the audio jack/headphone port and then has five output ports for multiple headphones to be plugged into). The downside of using a splitter is that the volume shrinks with each headphone plugged in.
The Behringer headphone amplifier I use is relatively cheap and works well to keep volume up and I will continue to use it for these kinds of interviews.
The kit took a bit of setting up but not too long and I had some things pre-prepared, such as mics already in stands and cables attached.
No road noise this time but still ambient noise - a builder hammering away at points during the recording. Oh-my-days. What can you do?
Music: Love Chances by Makaih Beats from the Free Music Archive. This music is licenced under Attribution-Non Commercial Licence.
In this interview we learn more about Michelle Burton, a Pastoral Support worker working on Develop’s Children in Need project. Michelle talks about what she does, her path to the job she is doing now, how she supports young learners and how the course she delivers can help young people make positive changes in their lives. The Children in Need project is a 9 session course called “Like It, Live It”. It is funded by Children in Need but is run by Develop. The course helps young people develop their confidence, team working skills and mental wellbeing.
Techie stuff: A big change in this episode as I try and use a recording set-up which is advised by podcast experts.
I use the Zoom H4n as my recorder for the interview. This is sat in the middle of the table between myself and Michelle but it is not using its own internal microphones to do any recording. Instead I have two dynamic cardioid microphones plugged into the XLR ports on the Zoom. One of the microphones is a JTS TM 929 microphone – which is a relatively cheap (in price) mic I bought from the Bedford Music shop. The other microphone used was an Audio Technica ATR 2100 (Michelle speaks in to this one). So many books, articles, podcasts and videos I have studied have recommended this microphone.
It is regarded as having good quality for an affordable price but also its adaptability is recommended because it can be used as a USB microphone plugged into a laptop or used as an XLR microphone when you start moving up in complexity of your podcasting projects, connecting to mixers.
In this interview I had the two microphones set up in table-top microphone stands. These are cheap stands (in price) with big heavy metal bases (looking like ugly weights from a dumbbell) and a simple upright pole connecting the microphone. The stands I had had limited adjustability in terms of heights – I needed to get the ends of the mics as close to my and my guest’s mouths. Many podcasts set-ups I have seen while researching the topic seem to prefer boom arms which can be clamped to a table and swung into almost any position. Not yet sure if I should change to these.
My mic stands do not have shock mounts. Shock mounts are little rigs suspending the mic with rubber bands. If the stand is knocked or the table is bumped the shock mount should absorb this and prevent an ugly sound going into the recording. To make up for not having a shock mount I placed each mic stand on top of two layers of foam.
Also in this set up, I used a small Behringer headphone amplifier. This connects to the Zoom and then myself, Fiona and Hannah each have a set of headphones which plug into the amplifier. Using the amplifier you can adjust your volume. I thought that I could get away with a headphone splitter when working with multiple headphones (a simple little device which plugs into the audio jack/headphone port and then has five output ports for multiple headphones to be plugged into). The downside of using a splitter is that the volume shrinks with each headphone plugged in.
The Behringer headphone amplifier I use is relatively cheap and works well to keep volume up and I will continue to use it for these kinds of interviews.
The kit took a bit of setting up but not too long and I had some things pre-prepared, such as mics already in stands and cables attached.
No road noise this time but still ambient noise - a builder hammering away at points during the recording. Oh-my-days. What can you do?
Music: Love Chances by Makaih Beats from the Free Music Archive. This music is licenced under Attribution-Non Commercial Licence.