The Gear…
In the beginning
When we began, Michael (Remember, he has theater background!), dragged out an
8 channel mixing board
microphones and stands
,
cables
headphones
splitters
preamps
and
adapters
galore to connect the output to a
computer.
It was magnificent! And it took about 30 minutes to set up and another 30 minutes to tear down. Yike! Actually, This setup worked very well for large groups. We got great audio. The downside was a lack of portability and it was so time consuming to setup and put away. 
Of course, we did experiment with alternative microphones
but these proved to be too complicated for some of the geeks to operate!
The Setup We Use Today
I (Tom) got fed up with the burden of getting our podcasts setup. So I began to look for alternatives.
We tried Skype. It works, but we couldn’t be in the same room with each other! It’s nice for guest’s that can’t be with us, but it kind of spoils the “togetherness”.
I tried to “mix” USB headset/microphones. That almost killed me. (See the 22 Easy Steps to Crack USB Audio)
I tried to connect several kinds of microphones directly to the computer. They just didn’t work well. They usually had too low of an output and needed a pre-amp, or they were too directional and you could only hear the people in front of them.
Finally! I saw a USB microphone on the MacBreak video podcast #4, called the Snowball 
I don’t think it does anything for Michael’s look though…
The snowball is a plug-n-play USB microphone. It has a switch to change from omnidirectional (picks up from all directions) to cardioid (picks up mostly in front of the mic). We always use it in the omnidirectional mode. When we plugged it into a Mac, it worked! When we plugged it into a Windows XP laptop, it worked! When we plugged it into a light socket, we ordered a new Snowball! We love this microphone. We just put it on the table, start the recording software, and “Get ready to get geeked!”
The Software We Use
We’ve used several different sound recording programs. I’ll try to give the pros and cons of what we’ve used so far.
WireTap Pro: Ambrosia software, $19, Mac OS X, records directly to MP3. Easiest Mac recording software ever. Not for editing. No training required.
i-Sound WMA/MP3 Recorder 6.60 Professional: Abyssmedia, $29.95, Windows XP/2k/98/ME, records directly to MP3. Easiest PC recording software ever. Not for editing. No training required.
Audacity: Open source, full featured sound recording and editing software, available for all OS’s, sometimes crashes when you really don’t want it to, requires LAME plugin for MP3 conversion (That’s SO Lame!). This program requires some learning/practice. It’s very powerful and easy for a nerd, but normal folks need some help.
Apple’s Garageband: Apple OS X, part of iLife suite, $79, full featured sound recording and editing, and podcast publishing software, Stong integration with Apple software. This program requires some learning/practice. Make sure you’ve got at least a 733 MHZ G4, 512MB RAM and 10 GB of free hard drive space. It’s very powerful and easy for a nerd, but normal folks need some help.
Gigavox Levelator: Software that adjusts the audio levels within your podcast for variations from one speaker to the next. Free!
