Check out the zoom r16 and four dynamic mics like shure sm58. The r16 (now replaced with the zoom r24) has eight inputs and 16 tracks so it can record each person separately and be mixed down to a stereo track. The controller can also be connected to a computer and used with a DAW to act as an interface. This also runs on batteries and records directly to the SD card when used in stand alone mode.

I would suggest obtaining some kind of headphone amp and four sets of headphones for everyone to have a pair. One thing the zoom r16 cannot do on its own is provide a special mix of a particular track but if you need to do that, you can use a small mixer.

A more elegant (and still affordable) solution would be to purchase a compact mixer with Firewire- I suggest the Mackie Onyx 1220. This would provide you with the necessary interface to the PC or laptop as a recorder/mixer (which you'll need for the podcast, anyway). The 4 seperate mic channels each get fed to a seperate track in the DAW, where you'll be editing.
The added advantage is that there are extra "stereo channels" on the mixer to bring in analog sources (music beds from CD/MP3 players and the like) if needed, and there are pre/post fader Aux sends on each channel to set up a monitor/phones mix.
BTW, try to get 2 or more little SD recorders lined up (in time) when dumped into a DAW is a real PIA. Shure SM58's are really good vocal-range mics, and there really isn't anything better for less than their price ($100/pop). I have found that the Heil PR20UT ALSO works well for broadcast apps, and it has a more defined sound for spoken word, plus a bit tighter pick-up pattern. This is a good thing in your situation, where you want maximum isolation between mics and a minimum of "room sound" picked up. These mics are available from BSW at the same price as a 58. Of course, you can always go with the venerable E-V RE-20, if price is of no concern ($400/pop)..:)

So the dude would have to have the computer, power, microphones, and Mackie Onyx 122 in order to do a podcast.

Not sure how this is more elegant and I certainly wouldn't buy anything mackie.

I guess elegant comes at the cost of complications and confusions. My setup does not require a computer interface during the recording but I'm not surprised a mackie snob is not pleased with the zoom since the zoom outperforms the mackie so easily.
Of course any dynamic microphone would work but I good all around one that the op may already have is the sm58. I would recommend the re20 but I certainly wouldn't pay $200.

WHOA!!
First off, the OP stated:" Lets assume we have an unlimited budget for this"...He doesn't, but still...your suggestion wasn't the only one, don't get your panties in a wad, Rastaboy.
BTW, I have a Zoom H4, it's great...for it's intended purpose- just like I'm sure the R16 is. You do any broadcast work? The Onyx is heads above in terms of headroom over what that little home recorder can handle.
And as far as your snotty remark about the RE-20...That is THE standard in broadcasting and better quality podcasting...and if you can find me a few MORE to add to my locker for only $200, I'll gladly snap them up...
Put that in your pipe and smoke it...

Hey Guys,

First off I want to say thanks for the help! I'm hoping that you guys haven't killed eachother yet and might be able to help me along with a couple of noob questions.

We're intending on buying a copy of Pro Tools for our project (yay for legit software). I've been using the software at home (cough under the table) to get used to the interface etc. Can this be used as a DAW? I've looked up digital audio workstations and these things are like hundreds of thousands of dollars to set up! While we're probably going to drop some cash on this project, we don't have enough to create a home studio!

I also wanted to say thanks for the suggestions on the mics. The idea of going this way (as opposed to one mic in the middle of the room to pick up everyone) is so that we have control on the levels of each voice, but also that we eliminate the "room noise". We're gonna set up a couple of egg carton walls to help with some echo (for larger apartments), but we still want the ambient noise to be as quiet as possible.

Lastly to clarify, both solutions (whether recording to an SD card via the Zoom r16 or the Mackie Onyx) record multiple tracks.

In the zoom case, we record, put the sd card into the computer and out pops all the tracks associated with each input (mics in this case).

And the Mackie plugs directly in to the computer and records via say Pro Tools on each input (mics) to an individual track.

Thanks again for the tips and info!

Pro Tools IS a DAW...
And the last time I looked, a computer is required to do a podcast, but maybe that's changed in the last few months...:)
You're on the right track, just be careful about the egg carton thing, it's a fire hazard.

Hello all, first post.
I want to do something similar here to the op, but real quick, why does it seem some record their podcasts to the h4n, and not record the show to their computer?

I had a h4n already from some video work I do, so I do have one...I was thinking to record the show to the h4n, but perhaps I should get a USB mixer and record straight to my Mac?

Look at this from google, notifying we may be in copyright infringement. Seems someone reported the title or something lol! I certainly don't see anything in question, do you?
I countered to avoid any inconvenience.

"Notice of DMCA removal from Google Search

To: Webmaster of https://recording.org/,

Google has been notified, according to the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), that some of the material found on your site allegedly infringes upon the copyrights of others. Although some of these URLs may not be available in our search results now, we are retaining these notices and will act on them if at some point in the future we do crawl these pages for inclusion in search results.

The notice that we received, with any personally identifying information removed, may be found on the website of Lumen, a third-party aggregator of legal complaint notices, at http://lumendatabase.org/notices/15046766.

Please note that it may take several weeks for the notice to be posted on the above page.

What you can do next:
File a Counter Notice

If you feel that your sites or pages were mistakenly removed due to a DMCA request filed against you, Google can reinstate these materials into our search results upon receipt of a DMCA Counter Notification.

Speak to a lawyer

If you have legal questions about this notification, you may wish to speak to your own lawyer.

Here are the affected URL(s):
https://recording.org/threads/round-table-podcast-recording-on-multiple-tracks.49653/%22

Need more help?
• The DMCA is a United States copyright law that provides guidelines for online service provider liability in case of copyright infringement. We’re in the process of removing from Google Search results the materials that allegedly infringe upon the copyrights of others. If we didn’t do so, we could be subject to a claim of copyright infringement, regardless of its merits. See this DMCA FAQ for more details.
• Read about the Google legal removal process in Legal Removal Requests in our Help Centre."

i am not a lawyer nor do i play one on TeeVee but after reading the entire thread, the ONLY thing i can find that could be considered a copyright infringement would be the use of the term "Round Table". seeing how we are not talking about pizza or any other kind of Italian food, i don't see it as a problem. perhaps someone is going off half cocked? anyway, if it's a problem for you delete the thread. nothing here so important to get in a squabble about.

Kurt Foster, post: 457841, member: 7836 wrote: i am not a lawyer nor do i play one on TeeVee but after reading the entire thread, the ONLY thing i can find that could be considered a copyright infringement would be the use of the term "Round Table". seeing how we are not talking about pizza or any other kind of Italian food, i don't see it as a problem. perhaps someone is going off half cocked? anyway, if it's a problem for you delete the thread. nothing here so important to get in a squabble about.

agree.

I don't see anything in this particular thread that would be a DMCA issue either. I think their complaint is BS and can't imagie who would have any claim to the content, but I don't know if it's worthwhile to dispute it.

seems to be a few urls with this title on google, even Sweetwater. https://www.google.com/search?q=Round+Table+Podcast+Recording&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b

Meanwhile, Google has no problem putting torrent sites that steal music in their search results for our recent album.

dvdhawk, post: 457843, member: 36047 wrote: I don't see anything in this particular thread that would be a DMCA issue either. I think their complaint is BS and can't imagie who would have any claim to the content, but I don't know if it's worthwhile to dispute it.

Agree as well. Out of curiosity I'm inclined to let it role and see what becomes of this.
I wish the complainant sent me a note asking me to remove it instead of something shitty like this.

I'm thinking whomever complained is on google trying to promote this in one of those videos and likely doesn't want any forum threads related to them now.

dvdhawk, post: 457845, member: 36047 wrote: Meanwhile, Google has no problem putting torrent sites that steal music in their search results for our recent album.

good point.

Also looks like this thread was posted years before those videos. . I'll wait and see what google has to say with my counter otherwise we look guilty deleting it eh? Might as well wait to see how these things play out for future reference.

dvdhawk, post: 457845, member: 36047 wrote: Meanwhile, Google has no problem putting torrent sites that steal music in their search results for our recent album.

Geese, Dave. That's terrible. People already doing that to you guys. Human beings... the older I get the more I just want to drop out.

As a music copyright holder I'm investigating the process of filing a legitimate DMCA complaint against the torrent sites. And in that situation Google warns me I can be sued if my complaint causes the removal of legit material.

We've had to accept the fact that people who use those kinds of shady sites were never going to pay for it anyway. Still, it's annoying that Google is a willing accomplice and the burden of proof is on me instead of the pirate.

audiokid, post: 457849, member: 1 wrote: Geese, Dave. That's terrible. People already doing that to you guys. Human beings... the older I get the more I just want to drop out.

It was on an overseas site within a few days and on a couple dozen more within the first month.

Isn’t the 21st century just awesome?...

The technology is certainly a double-edged sword.

Below is the response from google.

Hello,

Thanks for reaching out to us.

As described in 17 U.S.C. 512(g), we will forward the counter notification to the complainant. If we do not receive notice that the complainant has brought a court action within 10 business days, we will reinstate the material in question.

Regards,
The Google Team

When replying to this message, please do not change the subject line. Doing so may prevent us from receiving your message, and will cause you to receive a "bounced" auto-response. If you receive that "bounce" response, please resend your message by replying to this original email without changing the subject line. If you still receive an auto-response, submit a new request through our forms at https://support.google.com/legal.

I'm trying to understand what the material is. This seem too stupid or way out there.

Q: Can anyone simply send google an email if they don't like a title to a forum topic. DUH. And google actually has someone go to all this trouble. This is so bazaar. Its almost reads like google removed something in this thread. Am I missing something?

i think they removed their link to the thread, not content from RO.

I think someone believes they own the trademark to the words "Round Table Podcast", and they blindly fired off a DMCA complaint for every Google result containing those words.

The words are used in their generic sense in this 7 yr old thread and in no way refer to anyone or anything in particular. I still don't see any infringement here. They chose a title for their podcast that uses common words. I'm not going to send them a royalty check every time I use the word "table".

dvdhawk, post: 457876, member: 36047 wrote: I think someone believes they own the trademark to the words "Round Table Podcast", and they blindly fired off a DMCA complaint for every Google result containing those words.

The words are used in their generic sense in this 7 yr old thread and in no way refer to anyone or anything in particular. I still don't see any infringement here. They chose a title for their podcast that uses common words. I'm not going to send them a royalty check every time I use the word "table".

Agree.

Whomever this complainant is, if you are this serious about whatever it is you are so worried about, simply ask us to remove the thread. Try kindness first.

update

"Pursuant to the counter notification you sent us, we have reinstated the following URLs:

https://recording.org/threads/round-table-podcast-recording-on-multiple-tracks.49653/

Regards,
The Google Team"

bizarre ----