I'm pretty frustrated at this point. For days, I've been researching what type of equipment I'll need to record, and it's not as simple as many websites and other blogs claim. That's because they're usually speaking to a podcaster who will be sitting alone in his or her room. If that's the case, then it is easy. The essentials usually recommended for this scenario is a usb microphone and a recording device (in other words, your computer). You plug your microphone into the usb slot, you use recording software, such as Audacity, and you're ready to go.

But what about when you have a cast of say three podcasters sitting around a table all talking together? Generally, websites quickly gloss over this telling you you'll need get several microphones and a mixer with a power supply. The idea is to use the mixer as a "digital funnel" where you plug your microphones into the mixer and the mixer into the computer. With one input into your computer, you've simplified what your computer has to record. Sounds great, right?

Well, the devil is in the details. When I'm considering a microphone online, sometimes they show you what kind of plug it has and sometimes they don't. Some have an audio jack, some have a connection called an XLR—a three pin format. From what I can tell, knowing what type of plug is important, because if I'm going to buy a mixer, I need to buy the right kind of mixer to accommodate all my microphones. I don't want to come up short.

I've found that mixers have anywhere from one to four "mono" audio ins and several stereo audio in. But wait, I thought I was dealing with an audio jack or XLR connection. What's this mono and stereo business? How do I know which is which? And to make matters more confusing, most of the images of mixers you find on websites are not large enough to read what's on the mixing board.

All I know is that I want enough slots of 3 microphones and possibly a midi for pre-recorded sound effects.

For now, I'm mired deep in trying to figure out what connects to what. My next stop is wikipedia to see if some audiophile has created a page on podcasting. To the internets!