Need advice: Best way for recording an audio-only podcast?

[samesung]

I have an audio interface and a B2 Pro. I have another dynamic mic, but I figured since only two people will be present in this episode, just the B2 should do. Recording directly to DAW on laptop, I'm using Reaper so if there's any particular function it has, please mention it

Can you give any tips how to get the best sound right away without having to do to much in the post? It will be voices only. What levels do you record at? How do you EQ for an extended pleasant listening (I figure it will be similar to audio books mix?) ? How do you get rid of noise - gate right away or try to remove it in the post?

Links to existing articles are appreciated too

[yinz]

The best sound comes with a good treated room, or dynamic mics to minimize reflections. Personally I use two sm57's with the a81ws windscreen and a v7 from sE. You should't need to do much at all, just good mic placement and if you are in a noisy environment I suggest treating it in post with maybe waves ns1, clarity, rx voice de-noise or just reafir since you're already on reaper (can also use it real-time). I record with -12db peaks, with just a limiter on the master and a really soft compression hitting -1, -2db of reduction. I find that a gate is hit or miss when recording a podcast.

[samesung]

The best sound comes with a good treated room, or dynamic mics to minimize reflections. Personally I use two sm57's with the a81ws windscreen and a v7 from sE. You should't need to do much at all, just good mic placement and if you are in a noisy environment I suggest treating it in post with maybe waves ns1, clarity, rx voice de-noise or just reafir since you're already on reaper (can also use it real-time). I record with -12db peaks, with just a limiter on the master and a really soft compression hitting -1, -2db of reduction. I find that a gate is hit or miss when recording a podcast.

Yeah, unfortunately, it's an amateur podcast and it's recorded in the host's living room. I doubt installing the sound proof padding is an option, at least for now. Is there something else that could be done - like moving to the wardrobe room and pad it with clothes? However, even if that would work, I doubt the recording session would be as comfortable for the people being recorded.

I have RX - do you apply de-noise and other plugins on the whole track or do you comb thru it and automate on the select sections?

I agree reafir is good for the background noise. I tested gating with quite low threshold, it's ok too, but it can mess up some of the spoken word sections especially when the person is speaking quietly.

Thanks for the level input. I went with -18db and limiter too - had to lower the levels because I had only 1 mic and two people with noticable difference in how loud they speak. If you have suggestions for a good enough mic for podcasting that's not too expensive, I'm all ears I will add some compression - what att and rel values do you use, and what knee values?