One of the most exciting and most crucial times in a podcaster's career is either buying gear for the first time, or finally upgrading after months or years of steady growth and eventual justification for spending all that hard earned cash. However, there's a lot of unanswered questions when it comes to "what gear should I buy". The WORST answer to this question is any answer at all. Sounds strange? You're still in the right place.   In order to record a symphony, you need LOTS of gear to capture all the intricacies of every voice, every sound, every wandering and resounding tone in the ensemble, but did you know that your gear is a symphony entirely in and of itself?! I even worked in the name of my interface into that metaphor! Let me know when you find it.   BUT, it's true, your gear, everything you use to record your podcast is a signal CHAIN. And what do we know about chains? They're only as strong as its weakest link   Every component in your chain needs to serve its purpose, and it needs to mesh with all the other components. Your microphone must be a good fit for your voice, your preamp must be a good fit for your microphone, your interface needs to accommodate all the voices in your room (voices in your head do not need to be accounted for), and all of these must be careful considered and selected to work together as 1 very special unit, the unit that broadcasts your voice and your message to the world.   Read the full show notes at www.cleancutaudio.com/podcast/7     Links: Learn more on my YouTube Channel My Input Gain Video on YouTube All About Interfaces, Gain Ranges, EIN, and THD+N   Gear mentioned: SSL2 Motu M2 Scarlett 2i2 Behringer UMC22 Zoom H4N Audio-Technica AT2005 Audio-Technica ATR2100 Samson Q2U Shure SM7b Electro-Voice RE20 Electro-Voice RE320 Røde Procaster Neumann U87 Neumann TLM103 Cloudlifter     Closing Song: Wait a Midnight by Joakim Karud http://www.joakimkarud.com       My Signal Chain   Hardware: Audio Interface: Apogee Ensemble Microphone: Shure SM7b Headphones: Audio-Technia ATH-M50x Earbuds: Klipsch R6i II Studio Monitors: Yamaha HS7 Mic Stand: Rode PS1A Boom Arm   Software: IzoTope RX6 De-Mouth Click IzoTope RX6 Voice De-Noise FabFilter ProQ3 Waves LinMB Waves Vocal Rider Waves L2 Limiter Waves WLM Meter Waves Durrough Meter     -Save 10% off the plugins above with this affiliate link from Waves!-     *most of these links are affiliate links*     For more info, or to ask any questions, check out my website and reach out to [email protected]