One of the most common questions people ask me is, “what kind of cables do you recommend?” Lots of people think of big companies like MONSTER Cable as the norm, and you shouldn’t expect anything less. However, that’s not really true anymore.

What I’m about to say may shock you: In my personal studio, I have the two top microphones in the broadcast industry (the Heil PR-40 and Electrovoice RE-20), as well as top of the line shock mounts and boom stands (Heil SM2, EV 309A both on Heil PL2Ts), and very high end processing boxes, mixers, and interfaces, all connected with… cables I got in a few 5 packs for $9.99 from Amazon, eBay, and a few other various sources along the way. And let me tell you: it sounds amazing.

In the old days of analog systems, there was a definite difference in sound quality based on cable quality. Now, however, things have gone digital. When audio goes into your soundcard, it’s converted to a digital signal. if you use a firewire or USB digital audio interface, or even a USB microphone, sound is converted to a digital signal before things even reach the computer. (I recommend this sort of setup because having things digital before you reach the computer tends to yield better quality audio). If your signal becomes digital anywhere along its path, which it should in almost all setups today, the kind of cable doesn’t matter.

When things are digital, cables have two standards of quality, and they’re incredibly easy to see. A cable works, or it doesn’t. Audio, video, or data either makes it through, or it doesn’t. And, no matter how expensive the cable it, you won’t notice any difference in quality whether you use a cheap purple XLR cable or a gold-plated Monster deluxe-o-rama… thing. There’s really no difference anymore, and it’s been a big money saver.

Hopefully this tip helps you save a few bucks next time you’re putting together a home theater, home studio, or even your home office.

Not only does it let you listen to piano music, but The Microphone Home Page has information on frequencies, pick-up patterns, and all sorts of other information about TONS of different microphones commonly used in the broadcasting industry. The site also includes biographies of many important figures and personalities.

This website is an excellent resource for anyone looking for a new “professional” microphone.

Call Graph is a brand-new plugin for Skype that can easily record calls, and it’s free. However, it’s only available to Windows users, making it less than appealing for a large chunk of the podcasting community.

Call Graph is a simple and good plugin for Skype as far as recording calls is concerned. It can be pretty handy for creating podcasts, as it directly stores the audio in 128 Kbps Bit rate in MP3, which is considered ideal for podcasts.

• Call Recording: record your calls in an mp3 file, automatically.
• Full Skype Support: record Skype to Skype, SkypeIn, SkypeOut calls.
• Completely Free: no limits or restrictions of any kind.
• Manage Records: use tags to mark your records.
• Integrated Search: use tags to search through your calls records.
• Simple and Un-intrusive: minimal interface, easy to use, un-annoying.

The news was first released today by George Ruiz on Twitter, linking to a very recent blog post that Veronica had put up on the topic, entitled Moving on to new projects. Jason Calacanis, CEO of Mahalo and “Craft Services” for Mahalo Daily posted on Twitter later today, saying:

good luck to @Veronica … sad day at Mahalo, but we’re all excited about your big news. who should be the next host?!

So far, Veronica has not released what her future plans are, but we can be sure she’ll be moving on to something great.

REVIEW:
Samson’s first USB condenser is still one of the most popular mics in that category currently on the market, and is often a common choice for podcasters looking for an inexpensive setup that yields satisfactory audio quality, just behind the Snowball microphone in popularity.

When bought alone, the C01U ships in a plastic package, sporting a sticker that it’s “perfect for podcasting!”. The package includes a nylon drawstring bag that does absolutely nothing more than protecting the microphone from dust, and a 10 foot USB cable. It also includes a standard mounting clip which attaches the mic’s screw-on connector to a stand. This microphone is fairly heavy, weighing in at just a little over a pound. Proportionately, it really isn’t like any other condenser microphone you’ll see. The actual microphone portion is fairly small, compared to the rest of the body housing the processing equipment for the USB connection. It has a small LED light on the front that illuminates when the mic is connected and functioning. The C01U also is shipped in more expensive packages including stands, software, and/or shock mounts.

I found the noise factor of the C01U to be a little bit dismal. During some tests, a small hum would be picked up, and the off-axis noise rejection is exactly the opposite. It doesn’t reject anything, so keyboard and mouse clicks show up very strongly in unprocessed recordings. However, it sounded fairly good for a stand-alone microphone. It has a fairly flat tone, and doesn’t have much proximity effect until you’re almost eating it. Popping was a problem, but moving the mic a bit off axis and above in a standard plosion-rejection position seemed to do the trick.

The C01U uses a special preamp download from Samson’s website that they call SoftPre. It allows you to amplify the microphone just as you would on hardware, right down to the texture on the slider. It also includes a phase inversion switch and low cut filter, but neither seemed to do a very good job. It’s an okay program, but it froze up a bit when recording and isn’t the most convenient way to adjust this microphone’s volume. I tend to like hardware setups particularly more in this area, as they give you much more control.

Overall, this is a pretty good microphone. The price and usability makes it an easy candidate for a quick recording in a hotel room, or to be used in a space where mixing hardware and other equipment isn’t possible or wanted. The noise factor makes it low on my list for professional recording studios, but having a quick and easy setup like this that yields audio of this quality makes it a great choice for a podcast wanting fairly good audio at a low price.