As a podcaster, the sound of your voice represents you to the world. Yes, your content matters, but your standards are represented by the quality of your audio. Clear, clean sound invites your listeners to stay and listen to you; tinny, muffled, or distorted sound can annoy your listeners and drive them away. The microphone you select is the first step in presenting your audio persona. Do you want top notch sound for your listeners? Sure, you do! Here is an updated version of a classic microphone for vocals. It is an incredibly popular mic among professionals for a reason: top notch vocal quality and dependability at a reasonable price.
The Shure SM7B, manufactured by Shure Corporation, is known for its clean sound and excellent build quality. As a podcaster or field recording professional, you will like its broad, flat frequency response and ability to accurately capture voices in a cardioid pattern, single channel mode. The sound is clean and natural, capturing the band of audio spectrum suited to the human voice. There is a switchable bass roll-off, beginning to reduce amplitude below about 400 hz. Another switchable setting increases presence above 2000 hz through about 4000 hz.
The SM7B microphone is not as sensitive as the familiar condenser microphones often used for vocal work. Users should plan to use a preamplifier bring up the levels. Distortion is very low, and so is the internal self-noise, so the preamp should have similarly low noise and low distortion specifications.