Who we write for
Beginner and intermediate podcasters, streamers, course creators and small-business owners across the United States who are setting up a space to record or broadcast, and who would rather understand why something sounds the way it does than keep guessing.
Everything here lives in one category, Podcast Gear: choosing between USB and XLR microphones, treating a bad room on a small budget, setting up cameras and lighting for streaming, understanding interfaces and mixers, and picking hosting and editing software.
The idea behind the site
Podcast and streaming gear is sold on the promise that the next purchase will fix the sound, and most of the time it will not. A decent microphone in a bare room, a good one a hand too far from the mouth, a laptop fan running under a quiet voice: these are the problems, and none of them is on a gear list.
The order in which you fix things matters more than the price of any one item, and almost nobody tells you the order.
Principles
- We fix the room before the gear. Echo, noise and distance cause more bad recordings than any microphone model. Each article says which problem comes first.
- We explain the signal path. Knowing why a microphone is quiet, or where a hiss enters, tells you what to change. A spec sheet does not.
- We say when the cheaper option is right. A well-placed budget microphone beats a mispositioned expensive one, and we say so.
- We total the whole cost. Cables, stands, pop filters, subscriptions and hosting fees arrive in addition to the headline price. We add them up.
- We revise rather than repost. Software and prices change quickly. When they do, the article is updated and the change noted.
Who writes here
Marcus Ellery — Editor. Marcus spent eleven years as a broadcast audio engineer and then a studio manager for a small production company in Nashville, recording voice-overs, corporate podcasts and live events in rooms never designed for sound. That is why this site starts with the room and the microphone position, not the shopping list. He writes MicStage Lab for the person who wants to sound good without buying everything twice.
Where we stop
Music, licensing and consent to record. Using music, recording calls and publishing guests’ words involve rules that vary by state and platform. We tell you they exist and send you to a qualified attorney. We do not clear anything for you.
Electrical and mains wiring. We explain how audio equipment connects. We do not give instructions for mains wiring, power conditioning or opening equipment.
Platform and monetization rules. Streaming and hosting platforms change their terms often. We tell you to read them and do not interpret them.
Funding
Running MicStage Lab costs money, and two things cover it: display ads selected by third-party networks, and the occasional affiliate link. We never see the ads beforehand, advertisers cannot touch our copy, and a commission has never changed a conclusion — a good deal of our advice is to improve your room and your microphone distance before buying anything, which is the least profitable advice a gear site can give. The details are in the Disclaimer.
Corrections
Nobody is right all the time. Gear and software change, and we make our own mistakes. Use the contact form to point out a mistake; we check it against the source, correct the article and say what we changed.
Contact us
Questions, disagreements and topic suggestions are welcome through our Contact page. We cannot listen to your recordings or review your exact setup, but we can usually tell you which two things to change before you spend more.