What equipment do you need to record a podcast?
The internet will sell you a podcast studio one cart item at a time. The real list is four things long.
- Audio
- 7 September 2026
- 5 min
- Kreators, Alfama
This is the equipment installed in our recording room in Alfama, and the reasons each piece earns its place.
One dynamic microphone per voice
Dynamic microphones reject the room, which is why they are the broadcast default. We run Shure SM7B and Rode Procaster microphones — one per person, never shared, because a shared mic costs more in the edit than a second mic costs in the room.
The SM7B's published sensitivity is −59 dBV/Pa, which is low: it needs a recorder with serious clean gain behind it.
A recorder with enough gain
The microphones go into a Rodecaster Pro II, whose preamps are specified at up to 76 dB of gain — enough to run an SM7B without an inline booster. For multitrack sessions a Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 records every voice to its own track, and a Zoom H6 covers recording outside the building.
If your own interface runs out of gain, the fix is an inline booster before the preamp, not more level after it.
Headphones, so problems are heard in the room
Every recording problem is cheap at the start of the session and expensive in the edit. Closed-back headphones on every voice catch the rustle, the knock and the clipping while there is still time to fix them.
A quiet, dressed room
The fourth item is not equipment. A room with a table, soft furnishing and curtains is the difference between raw files that are usable and raw files that need rescuing. Our set in Alfama is dressed permanently for exactly that reason.
What you do not need
A condenser microphone in an untreated room, a mixer with more channels than voices, and anything bought to fix a problem the room is causing. Rent the room first; buy the gear when the show has a schedule.
Short answers
- 01
What equipment is needed for a podcast?
One dynamic microphone per person, a recorder or interface with enough clean gain, closed-back headphones, and a quiet dressed room. Everything else is refinement.
- 02
Is the Shure SM7B good for podcasting?
Yes — it is a broadcast standard — but its −59 dBV/Pa sensitivity needs a preamp with around 60 dB of clean gain, such as the Rodecaster Pro II.
- 03
Can I record on this equipment at Kreators?
Yes. The Alfama recording room has Shure SM7B and Rode Procaster microphones, a Rodecaster Pro II, a Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 and a Zoom H6, from €450 for three hours including VAT.
More from the journal
The Shure SM7B needs more gain than you think
It is the most photographed microphone on the internet and the most badly gain-staged. Here is how we run it in the Alfama podcast room.
A video podcast is two productions at once
The failure mode is always the same: the episode looks fine and sounds like a conference call, or the other way round. Plan both, or drop one.
How to record a DJ set that is worth sending
Promoters listen for thirty seconds. A phone recording of a room tells them nothing except that you own a phone.
Come make something in Alfama.
Your need, your hour, Apple Pay. Walk up the hill, press record, and leave with the work done.
Kreators produces. bridgr connects. Kreators is the production studio and event space of bridgr, the creative residence and community in Alfama, Lisbon.