Podcasting Hacks author Jack Herrington turned me on to a bunch of excellent interview podcasts that I've been following ever since. One show in particular, Morning Stories, has a lovely informal feel, and part of the secret is the clever recording technique host Tony Kahn uses. Instead of jabbing a giant mic in the interviewee's face or forcing him to hunch over one in a studio, Kahn uses a tiny lavaliere mic taped to the brim of a baseball cap.
Morning Stories' Gary Mott and Tony Kahn record a relaxed conversation at WGBH thanks to their hat mics. Kahn's initial inspiration was wanting a mic setup that would let him put his feet up.
As Kahn explains in this YouTube video, the hat-mic trick also allows interviewer and interviewee to relax and use body language, producing a more natural conversation.
Podcaster Adam Weiss, whose helpful tip on mic placement I covered recently, lists four more advantages of hat miking on his blog. That prompted me to head over to the Giant Squid Audio Labs site to check out its lavaliere mic selection.
Podcaster Adam Weiss refined the hat mic technique with clip-on Giant Squid mics and an iRiver iFP-799 MP3 recorder.
From the descriptions on the site, it appeared Giant Squid's powered mics might work with my portable WAV and MP2 recorders, which have only line-level inputs. (I didn't want to mess with a separate mic preamp.) So I e-mailed proprietor Darren Nemeth to confirm. He responded promptly, saying his mics "will not work in interview situations with [your recorders] or most other line-in recorders." He added, helpfully, "The iRiver 895 is better for the application, IMHO, and can be found at eBay and Buy.com for under $80 these days."
I don't need another MP3 player, so I'll probably wait for Mark Nelson's next round of portable digital recorder reviews before diving into hat miking. On the other hand, my digital voice recorder does have a mic input, so I may give it a hat-mic present while I plot my next move. The voice recorder is not my ideal interviewing tool because it records at a crusty 64kpbs and squashes dynamics, but the natural vibe of a hat-mic interview could certainly make up for that sonic deficiency.
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