These are the tools I use on a near-daily basis to create my podcast, livestreams, and beyond.

Hopefully you find it useful!

I decided to build my own Windows machine instead of going with an Apple MacBook Pro for a couple reasons.

One was how easy it is to set up virtual sound devices within the Windows operating system. I kept seeing nightmare scenarios on YouTube about Macs not playing nicely with the streaming software OBS, so I went with Windows.

I am completely not a computer builder, and you can watch me livestream the whole 4+ hours I spent trying to get it together.

At the end of the stream it's still not done.

Once I figured it out, I've been incredibly happy with it.

This is a workhorse of a setup.

The Sony a6400 has great autofocus, lowlight capability, and exports a clean video signal to my computer through the Atem Mini Pro. That was the most essential detail for me: will it show all the cluttered icons in the video feed? Nope; not one icon comes through and that's exactly what I wanted.

The shotgun mic is there for talking head videos when I'm out of the studio, and it's super helpful. The sidemount is there for the mic so I can see the flip up screen while I'm recording.

The lav mic is there for when I want to have better sound than the shotgun mic and I don't mind having it show up in the shot.

Years ago I started with the Blue Snowball.

Then the Yeti.

Now I'm using a "real" XLR mic into the Zoom H6 into the computer via USB.

I love it.

Ambiance!

It's all about the lighting.

I have the softboxes for the main illumination, and the LED lights on the floor to provide color accents on the drapes behind me.

It's a small detail but it makes a huuuuuuge difference.