Becoming a podcaster means more than creating content; it means organizing your time as well as your space. Our “How To Start a Podcast” guide gives you some more insight as to what to spend your time on, but what about your podcasting space? We sat down with Andrew Abrams of Gator to talk about podcasting gear, and tips on building your podcast studio.
Gator started as a company for musical instrument cases, with its first line being Gator Cases.
“Gator, as a whole, as a company, was founded in 2000 by Crystal Morris and her father, so it’s a family-owned business. It started with a case line, Gator Cases, which you may be familiar with. You know, a lot of people in podcasting do cross over to that musician’s side, and a lot of the people in the music industry have heard about Gator Cases.”
But as they grew, and their audience grew, they noticed that there was a growing audience of podcasters in need of studio equipment. So they made the decision to expand their Gator brand into lines of podcast studio equipment.
“So we started as Gator Cases and really started to expand into different lines. So now, today, and here we are in 2021, we’re a total of six different brands. In particular, in the music segment, we have Gator Frameworks which is the podcasting studio side, Gator Cases protecting all of those instruments, and then Levy’s Leathers that we recently acquired in 2018, that does guitar straps, and I can keep going from there. We house a bunch of different solutions and love every bit of it.
“Whether it’s podcasting or studio, the organization will stay the same. And really, taking care of your gear and having these simple solutions, it makes you look more professional. It organizes and cleans up your look, your sound, and your ability to just do what you love.”
So when it comes to best tools for your podcast studio, how do you choose the best tools? According to Andrew, it all depends on your space and what your needs are from your equipment. What might suit an on-the-go podcaster will be different from a podcaster whose content will be more stationary. Even something as simple as a microphone stand needs to be picked out to best suit your specific studio equipment needs.
“It all depends on the situation. Especially for somebody that is trying to have that cleaner, professional look, but also avoid the knocking around, avoid a lot of those vibrations and those tones that you may get from putting your arm down on the table, those kinds of things when recording, I would say the boom arm is your go-to. Your boom arms, especially for that [model] 3000 that we were talking about before, you know it has a built-in XLR channel. And that’s going to declutter your surface. It’s going to allow you – especially if you’re in the serious podcasting area, you need to have pen and paper in front of you, you need to have your tools right in front of you – that boom arm allows you kind of that free space and allows you a little versatility.
“Now, with the desktop mic stand, you know a lot of people will have used the desktop mic stands that you would mic a kick drum up with when you’re tracking, they can use that for the same purpose. However, that really allows you to be more versatile. So you’re not going to take a gigantic mic boom and shove it in your briefcase when you’re going and recording with friends. But the desktop mic stand allows you to be more versatile. Let’s say you have a recording session, you want to go into a studio, if you don’t have it at home, you can kind of being that gear along with you.
Every podcaster has different needs for their podcast studio, depending on their space and the style of their podcast. But there are still effective tools that Andrew thinks every podcaster should look into for their podcast studio not only to improve their sound, but to improve how they care for their podcast gear.
“The most effective things for you to have? One, because most people are referring to their information and a lot of times they’re not doing it on pen and paper, is a laptop stand. And we offer a full line of laptop stands. Whether it’s ones that you can clamp to the desk or put right on the desk, you elevate that laptop and you have your information out of the way. Of course, a mic boom, and the mic boom really allows that good recording and flexibility and cable management. And then on top of that I’d probably say a shock mount. A shock mount absolutely helps for that recording. For me, it’s about the sound, then also taking care of your gear.”
To learn more about Gator Frameworks, Gator Cases, and their other podcast studio solutions, check out their website and their Twitter page. Got your studio set up and ready to record? Check out our webinar on how to record your podcast for tips and tricks for recording your podcast!
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