One of the main reasons I got hooked on NPR is the sound of it. It's a close, intimate sound that makes you feel like you and the commentator are sitting together in a small room.
In fact, it's an expensive microphone that's sitting in the room with the commentator, and it's recording his or her voice so well, you instantly feel that intimate connection. Three key ingredients help create the "NPR sound": smart people with pleasing and distinctive voices, studio acoustics, and good mics and other audio equipment.
Podcasting shares a lot in common with broadcasting. Content is obviously the most important element, but people won't listen to the content if the sound quality is bad. And they'll listen longer and more often if the sound quality is really good.
I went on a quest to find out if it's possible to achieve NPR-level sound quality in a podcast you make at home. Working under the premise that no one piece of gear could cost more than $1000, I set about trying to assemble the equipment I thought would give me the best chance of sounding like such names as Bob Edwards or Corey Flintoff.
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