Rode Rodecaster Pro

Ok lets discuss how amazing this piece of audio equipment is considering i've come in at this time to buy something that way essentially released over 2yrs ago. With very useful updates along that period of time has made it an absolute pleasure to use. If you got £500 for an audio output or general all-round equipment then this will not do you wrong. It has a plethora of settings & the sound pads are fun to use plus are customisable to whatever audio you associate with a pad. So since i work in Radio, i can customise the pads for idents rather than using up a cart in Virtual DJ so it gives me more room to work with music to plan ahead in a show.

If you're in Radio like i am & running an online Radio station but if you're in small scale FM Radio station, then this still applies as well - you will not regret it and your presenters will love you because of how easy it is to use. I cannot stress that enough. Rode have done a fantastic job & i cannot wait for more useful updates that will unlock more potential out of the Rodecaster Pro.

If i was to give a Con for this then i'd be struggling to even name one. My personal & first-time experience with something like this has made me wonder why i didn't buy it sooner instead of buying a Behringer Mixer over a year ago which is now sitting around waiting to be sold off!

Rode won't release another one of these Rodecasters anytime soon within the next year or whatever, so i highly recommend you get this now, especially with it being at Firmware 2.1 that has added more useful & granular control on what sort of output you want for every individual channel or the whole output of it.

I bought this for streaming on YT and as a newcomer to that aspect initially the device seemed not to offer much other than what is basically a simple mixer.

But of course that's far from the truth. Once you get a bit more familiar with it, the advantages of those jingle buttons whether you use the preloaded stuff or create your own adds an air of professionalism to the show... and the hooking up of a cell phone for incoming calls is really cool.

I also bought a Rode microphone but was a little disappointed with the volume levels - even though the Podcaster is a Rode product too... and a bit noisy to get decent output. Ultimately to fix that I bought one of those Clark-Technic mic boosters to fix the levels of that - and frankly it was surprising that I had to do that... especially as both devices were seemingly designed to work with each other - bear that in mind.

I like to see the software upgrades from time to time and that's useful as they often add extra features... and I also liked the MicroSD card recording too for over dubbing if necessary in production later.

If you consider the Podcaster overall and its features against any competition then this unit wins for most of the comparable other devices out there... so I went with the leader in this price range... the Podcaster.

Recommended.

Good build quality. Premium feel and looks.
Limited input and outputs frustrate your workflow.
The pres arn't done have enough clean gain and if they had combi XLR/Line in for a decent pre amp would be much better and more flexible. Monitor outs are very noisy.
Micro SD a pain, should be usb or SD.
No talkback feature and screen is placed to high so you always have to look over the top of the console.
Rode firmware updates are good.

This is a good all in one solution for podcasting or live streaming.

It's very easy to set up and get going.

Positives (for me):
- good mixer
- feels well made
- simple to use
- Rode keep adding features!

Negatives (for me):
- the effects (compressor, noise gate, etc) added a lot of noise
- the headphone output wasn't very good

My use case was connecting an SM7B which is hard to drive, sound was clear without the effects, but once I turned them on there was a lot of aliasing.

I tried it with IEMs (Grado GR10e) and there was way too much noise. I switched to my Beyerdynamic DT 1990s and it felt like there wasn't enough power to drive them properly.

I don't think this would be a huge issue just for podcasting and streaming through unless you are focussed on music (which I am)