I’m considering lit podcasting (others’ writings and my own). Can anybody recommend a good PC microphone for less than 50 bucks? (USB connection preferred.)

Heya Pete.  Ed Champion here.  $50 will get you a Radio Shack mike.  But how serious are you going to get with this?  Because to get a decent signal and save yourself some postproduction work, you’re going to spend a little bit more.  At the moment (although an upgrade is in the works), I’m using two Shure SM-57s with popscreens (about $90 a pop) for my interviews and they get the job done.  And you can really hear the difference in audio if you listen to early Bat Segundo shows when I was using crappy Radio Shack mikes.

Ed, thanks for the feedback. Considering you’re the Grand Poobah of lit podcasters, I should have just come to you first. I’m not planning to get heavily involved in this--maybe one podcast a month, maybe even less. Also, it would just be solo, so no need for a second mic. What, if anything, eliminates the harsh “s” sound from the recording process--a good mic, or postproduction work? I’m sure you know what I’m referring to, but if you don’t, listen to Deborah Eisenberg’s recent reading on the NYT site. I had to abandon listening to it because of all the “s” harshness.

Pete:  Ah yes.  I haven’t heard that clip, but it definitely sounds like sibilance.  You get a lot of that kind of thing with either poor mike placement or a microphone without a pop filter or a windscreen.  (Full confession:  I’ve just started using a pop filter and the plosives and sibilance pre-post has curtailed considerably.) Of course, you could also manually edit this stuff in Sound Forge like I do.  But that’s work you want to save yourself (assuming you’re as anal about this stuff as me). 

I should point out that you can get a microphone filter for about $3 at any guitar shop. 

Again, I recommend the SM57.  Your choice here is between a crap microphone—a purchase that, as you listen to these things later, you’ll find yourself regretting—or a half-decent $90 microphone. 

Here’s a thought:  Have you tried Chicago’s Craig’s List?  Perhaps you might be able to find a mike used for $50-60.

Are you recording these directly into your computer?  If so, I recommend the freeware program Audacity, which I still use myself (along with the excellent Cakewalk Sonar and Sound Forge).

I had a plantonics headset mic that didn’t have that hissing sound. It was great, and then it died. I think I’m probably going to give up podcasting, so it’s no big loss. I use garageband on a Mac for recording.

Anyone have suggestions for a USB headset that is Mac-compatible? My wife’s current unit is an analog job that has to plug in to a “Parrot” analog-to-usb converter. Really clunky!