Podcast Academy

November 2004 marks my first exposure to podcasting. At the time I was experimenting with spoken word recording. My gear rig consisted of a Motu 828 MkII interface, a Samson condenser mic, and a dbx 266 XL dynamics processor. It was the perfect basic rig for podcasting.

Three years later all three components are long gone but definitely not forgotten. In fact, the dbx 266XL became one of the most popular devices within this community. I’ve lost count on how many people purchased this device based on the recommendation on my original Podcastrigs.com site. It’s affordable and it offers good results. The funny thing is that is not designed to be used as a vocal processor. Processing stages are limited to compression and downward expansion.

dbx supplies an excellent piece of documentation: Compression 101. This paper lists suggested settings and specifies a clear explanation of dynamics compression in general. Recently I noticed the long standing link was broken. It looks like things are now fixed. If you have not reviewed this documentation I suggest you head over to the site and read through it. Great resource …