dananrg wrote...
My first podcasting attempt was a complete and utter
failure. Figures.

Really had no more time to research the issues, and ended
up buying a Samson CO1U USB Studio Condenser Mic.

Probably a decent choice for use in your home studio
for recording a podcast narration etc. Not particularly a
good choice for recording conferences in the field.

Heard it had low gain, but that it was easy enough to normalize
the (mono, voice only) tracks later with Audacity.

Always better to get the levels optimized while recording
rather than "fixing it in the mix".

For the next event, with this particular presenter (and he
was fabulous! It's a huge loss to not have caught the audio
of his presentation), he's getting a "lav" mic

That was one of the previous suggestions, but some people
need to do the experiment for themselves. :-(

or I'm having someone in the audience use a shot gun mic
and follow his every move. :-)

You can TRY this experiment, but we can tell you ahead of
time that its not worth the effort. NOT recommened. I'll say
it again, a $20 mic clipped to the presenter is better than a
$2000 mic 10 feet away.

What about those el-cheapo electret table-top meeting
mics sold by RatShack for $30 - $40. Do they work well
enough on a 4 person table? If it's AM radio quality, that's
fine.

[Radio Shack 33-3022, the "replacement" for the PZM]

It may work OK if the four people are equal distances from
the microphone. i.e. if they are sitting around a round table.

If they are lined up along a rectangular table like for a panel
discussion, you will need at least two of them, one between
each two people. The rule here is that each person must be
an equal distance from a microphone.

Note that those boundary mics tend to be more sensitive to
unwanted noises because of their omnidirectional pickup,
and also because they are on the table where they will be
great for picking up shuffling paper, drumming fingers, etc.
(And farther away from the mouths of the people.)

I realize this is rec.audio.pro and not "podcasting 101 / record
cheaply and poorly...", so if there's a better newsgroup for
sympathetic replies (I don't expect personal sympathy, just
constructive criticism without spending more $$$ than I have).

This newsgroup will atrophy into irrelevance unless we
keep up with emerging technology and help new users
understand the basic fundamentals (which can't be violated
without consequence) vs. where new technology can allow
cheaper/better/faster shortcuts.