How Podnews records podcasts on the move

When they travel, a lot of podcasters swear by complicated flight cases with foam inserts; portable audio recorders with SD cards and XLR adaptors, and some even take microphone stands with them.

Podnews records a podcast every weekday - the Podnews Daily - and a ninety-minute weekly podcast, the Podnews Weekly Review. I have to be able to record everywhere - in hotel rooms, on conference show floors, in airport lounges, on the banks of the River Thames, in all kinds of places. I need to record interviews in noisy coffee shops, or on the show floor. So I need a decent microphone to take with me.

When at home, I use the Lewitt Audio Ray (with the fancy laser thing turned off), and a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2.

But I learnt quite early on to avoid packing a big microphone into our checked-in bag. My microphone, wrapped carefully in t-shirts, was examined by the TSA - the just left on top of the clothes, and spent the remaining 27 hours being clattered from one side to the other of the bag. It didn’t work at all when we got it home. (RØDE repaired it - free - which was nice of them).

So instead, I use the Shure MV88+. And here’s why…

It’s a tiny, handheld microphone that comes with a squidgy travel case with enough protection to be thrown into a backpack. The travel case has separate slots for a USB cable, a headphone cable, and - for that one time when I forgot my headphones - a pair of cheap Sony earbuds that sound every bit as cheap as they look.

It can record in stereo if you want it to: something most unlike any typical microphone for podcasting, but great for immersive atmosphere.

It’s got built-in dynamic compression, limiting, and EQ. You can tell it to record in stereo or mono, and even tell it what kind of pickup pattern you want.

All its settings can be changed using Shure’s Motiv software on your PC or phone. (And for the avoidance of doubt, you don’t need to run this software at any other times if you don’t want to - it just tells the microphone what to do).

To record with it, I either a) plug it in, using a USB-C to micro-USB cable, to a MacBook: and record directly in Hindenburg; or b) plug it in, using a USB-C to micro-USB cable, to an iPhone: and record directly onto the Shure Motiv software there. (By the way, that Motiv software even works without a microphone at all, just using your phone).

It comes with a little stand, but I don’t use that (it’s in a drawer at home). Instead, for a microphone arm, I use, um, my arm. After, at the time of writing, 780 flights (298 longhaul), I’ve never once forgotten my arm. Seriously, since the microphone is so light, it’s easy to hold in one hand; there’s no appreciable handling noise.

I’ve done countless podcasts with it, including many different guest spots; I’ve been live on the BBC with it (both Radio 4 and Radio 5 Live in one day); and conducted a number of ad-hoc interviews on show floors of podcast conferences. It’s never, once, let me down (although doubtless writing this, it now will do).

The only tips I can give you are: first, make sure you tell it to record in mono, and secondly, pack it in your carry-on (it goes in the bottom of my backpack). In airport security, take it out and lay it in the tray next to your bag - from some angles, it looks a little too much like a cigarette lighter in the X-ray machine, so you’ll save everyone time if you put it separately on the tray.

I use Bose QC35 headphones with it. These are noise-cancelling Bluetooth headphones, good for the plane ride; but have a line input for the microphone. They charge using the same cable as the microphone uses; but when you use the the line input, you don’t need to turn the headphones on, or use noise cancelling. I use these at home as well: as any former radio presenter will tell you, use the same headphones, always. They’re on their fourth headset pads.

And that’s it. No flight case. No foam inserts. No complicated portable audio recorders. No SD card. Just one, US $250-ish, microphone. Sorry to disappoint.

• As a disclosure: I used to use the Shure MV5, a ball-shaped thing. When I excitedly pointed this out to a Shure representative on their stand at The Podcast Show one year, he gave me this ex-demo MV88+ to use “because it’s better”. It is; but at no point did they ever tell me to review it.