Broadcasting Your Message: Hardware

The first step in broadcasting your message is getting a good recording.  There are several expensive options out there, but we don’t like those around here.  Before we get into the recording, you’ll need some hardware.  Without a good microphone, it doesn’t matter how good your software is.  We use the the Audio-Technica Pro 88W/T.  It doesn’t seem to be available from major retailers anymore, but this one is similar.  We made our original purchase through US1Camera and had no problems. 

Now, depending on how technically skilled you are, you have two options for placing the microphone:

1. Make the speaker wear the included lav mic in addition to the normal sound system one. (we do this for non-sermon audio like my Confirmation audio.)
2. Take the output from your sound board into the input on the microphone transmitter pack. (we do this for sermons)  This method allows for recording more than just the main speaker if that’s an interest to you.  As an aside, if you only plan on recording from the feed from the sound board and have a computer right by it, you can skip the extra microphone system all together and just get a cable to go out of the board into the microphone in port on the computer.  This is harder to get a good signal from as it requires more knowledge of the sound board.

Make sure both the transmitter and the receiver are set to the same frequency (A or B). You’ll want to use the short cord that comes with the microphone to go from the Microphone Out port on the receiver into the Microphone In port on your computer.  Last, make sure the microphone port is turned on in Windows.  Here’s how:

1. Click Start
2. Click Control Panel
3. If you’re in category view, click “Sounds, Speech and Audio Devices” then “Sounds and Audio Devices”.  If you’re using the classic view, click “Sounds and Audio Devices”
4. Click the Volume tab (it’s probably the default selected tab).
5. Click “Advanced” in the Device Volume section.
6. This opens a box with some slider bars.  Click Options.
7. Click Properties.
8. Select “Recording” in the box that comes up.
9. Make sure Microphone is checked.
10. Click OK.
11. Make sure Microphone is clicked.
12. Raise the volume to about 75%.
13. Click the X on the top right to close the screen.

Up next: Recording Software