- It's no secret that the RODECaster Pro is
an awesome audio tool, but it has so many features
that it can sometimes feel overwhelming.
Today I'm gonna share my top five RODECaster Pro tips
to help you down the road faster of becoming a pro
with the RODECaster Pro.
(upbeat music)
And of course I am recording this video directly
into the RODECaster Pro with the PodMic
and the WS2 windscreen, the classic combo,
and the RODE PSA1, all my favorite things.
The first tip to share is really a reminder
that the RODECaster Pro is not just for podcasts
and recording audio, but it is an incredible tool
for live streams, video calls and basically anything
where you need high quality audio.
I always keep my RODECaster connected to my computer
via USB, and I use it in anything that requires audio.
So when I'm teaching my Zoom classes,
the RODECaster pops up as a source in Zoom.
Actually, let me show you.
This basic process should work the same
in any of your streaming software.
So right here in the Zoom audio settings,
you can see that the RODECaster Pro pops up
both as a speaker and as a microphone.
I didn't have to do anything, it's entirely plug and play.
And the same thing is true over here on Ecamm Live,
where the RODECaster just pops up as an audio device.
It will do the same thing in FaceTime,
in OBS, in StreamYard, in YouTube Studio,
directly through your browser.
Basically anything that requires an audio input,
you can select the RODECaster.
And if you have a RODECaster, I don't see any reason why
you shouldn't be using it all the time
for all of your audio, even beyond recording podcasts
and stuff like that.
And you can even take it one step further than that.
For example, with the iPad Pro you can connect the USB-C
from the RODECaster into your iPad
and use it as a source there.
I did an entire video all about that, where I recorded
a song into GarageBand through the RODECaster Pro,
but also I really wanna thank both Dee Nimmin
and Diana Gladney for explaining to me how to use
the RODECaster with an iPhone,
which is not something I knew that you could do.
Basically, you just need an actual TRRS cable,
connect it to the smartphone channel on your RODECaster,
connect it to the Lightning adapter on your iPhone,
and then all the audio from the RODECaster
will go in to your iPhone.
So you can even use RODECaster audio
when you're doing any kind of audio work on your iPhone.
That's definitely a step up and a game changer.
So thanks to Dee and Diana, Diana and Dee, indeed,
for sharing that with me.
Now, I won't wanna miss this next tip by subtracting it
from the list, and that is mix-minus, which is one
of the most useful things you can do with the RODECaster.
And there are actually two different ways to approach
using mix-minus, and essentially, what that is,
if you're not entirely sure, is you have audio running
into the RODECaster, but you don't want it to end up
on your final recording, or you don't want it to be
output to your stream, your Zoom call, whatever else
you're using the RODECaster with, like we just talked about.
And it might sound strange at first that you would want
audio coming in to the RODECaster but not going out
of the RODECaster, but there are
a lot of reasons why it's really helpful.
I use it almost every single day with my Zoom classes,
where I want to be able to hear it when people ask questions
or make comments, but I don't want it to go back out
into the Zoom thing because then they hear themselves
and it becomes this crazy echo situation.
I also like to use this a lot when I'm doing
remote podcast interviews and the person is recording
high quality audio on their end, because I'm not gonna
record that same quality audio here, but I still need
to hear them to be able to talk to them,
so I use a mix-minus feature there.
And there are actually two,
so let's start with USB mix-minus.
And USB mix-minus is in the advanced audio options.
You can click advanced, go to audio, go to processing.
And right there, you've got USB mix-minus turned on
and that will basically remove this USB channel
from your finished recording.
And I do usually have USB mix-minus turned on,
pretty much all the time, but sometimes I need
to remind myself that it's on, if I need to turn it off
and I don't wanna forget that it's on,
but there is one way around that
which is another way of handling mix-minus.
And that involves the mute and the solo buttons
on the bottom of each channel.
And so right now for this video I'm using channel three
on the RODECaster Pro, just because that's the blue channel.
I always use channel three, but if I wanted to use mix-minus
I can press the solo button on my channel
and that's gonna pull just my audio out in the recording.
So I can actually do this while I'm recording
for this video, and it's not gonna have a negative effect,
or at least it shouldn't.
If the audio suddenly changed here
that would mean something went wrong.
And then on another channel, like, say for example
I am bringing in a phone call, and I want to include
that person as well, I would need to solo them
because when the green button is on, only that channel
is gonna make it through to the final mix.
So any channels that have the green button on
will make it through.
So in this case, no matter what the other channels
are doing, nothing is gonna come through
except for channel three and the smartphone channel.
But if I don't want the smartphone audio to actually make it
to the recording, then I also mute it.
And now this is basically mix-minus from here.
This is the only thing going to the recording.
This, I can still hear through my headphones
but it's not going to make it into the output.
And the same thing then, if I wanted to add in sound effects
that everybody could hear, I can add that here,
if I wanna add in the computer, and I don't wanna
turn on USB mix-minus, I can do the same thing there.
I use this a lot, especially when recording remote podcast
with just one other person, like when Peter Lindgren
and I do our podcast, that's pretty much how
I'm doing his audio, 'cause he has a RODECaster on his end
all the way over in Sweden, he's gonna get better sound
recording there in his studio,
that I'm gonna get through FaceTime over here.
And so I use that version of mix-minus so I can hear him,
we can talk, and then he just sends me
the high quality audio file.
Did a whole video all about that too.
Now this can get out of hand pretty quickly
'cause what you could find is that you want
multiple channels to be included but then
multiple channels to be excluded, but still heard.
And eventually you end up with like almost all the channels
except for one or two being either soloed or muted or both.
And that brings me to the next point, or the next question,
which is, when to use multi-track.
The multi-track feature on the RODECaster Pro
is pretty amazing and I'm sorry to say
it took me so long to fully embrace it.
But you access it through the advanced menu.
Again, you click on audio, and then you go to multi-track.
Right now for me, the SD card option is not there
because I'm actually recording to the SD card,
but you can also do USB multi-track output.
You can have your multi-track ignore any processing,
which would mean if you're streaming or whatever,
the processing will be heard there
but it's not gonna make it to your finished recordings.
The times when I use multi-track the most are
when I have basically more than one track
that I would wanna mute and solo.
So if it's like just me and one other person,
I like to just do it that way
because it keeps things simpler.
I'm just importing one stereo file to my computer.
As soon as you dive into multi-track you're importing
all of the tracks, even if you're not using them.
It just takes a lot longer, especially if you've recorded
for a while, like an hour or more,
which is not uncommon for podcasts.
And it's just an easier workflow
to work with one simple file.
So that's what I try to stick with as much as I can,
but multi-track can be super helpful
if you have more people, more inputs, and you just wanna
make sure you have the ability
to go back and fix everything later.
It's also great if you do wanna keep a backup.
So sometimes if I'm doing an interview for a podcast
or something, even if they are recording high quality audio
on their end, I might just use multi-track over here.
So that way I can have their track as a backup audio source.
Even if it doesn't sound perfect, at least I know
that if something goes wrong on their end
and they can't send me the file, or after the interview
they just decided to ghost me because they don't like me,
I still have their audio and I can still use it.
I really wanted to include this point because I get
a lot of messages that are questions about multi-track
and it seems like a lot of people feel like they need
to make a decision about their workflow with the RODECaster.
Do I use multi-track, do I not use multi-track?
Make the decision and then stick with it.
And I really wanna remind you
that you're not married to that decision.
You can change it at any time
and you should always use whatever's best
for what you need at the given moment.
It's not uncommon for me personally to switch between
multi-track and the stereo file mode several times
within the same day, depending on what I'm working on.
So just know what tools you have in your toolbox
and then use them when it's gonna best help you
accomplish whatever it is that you're trying to do.
Speaking of accomplishing things, I don't know
if you know this, but I found my old iPod and it was broken,
but it finally started working again,
it just needed some time to heal up.
And then I podcast, I podcast,
I do podcast, actually, I have three podcasts.
You could check them out in the links below.
So let's move on to tip number four,
which can really affect your audio.
And that is the, are the, is the onboard effects
in the RODECaster Pro.
I think it can be really tempting when you first get
your RODECaster to go into your audio processing,
turn everything on, and then just think
that you need all these things all the time,
but I really don't recommend that.
So if I turn on the high-pass filter,
turn on the compressor, turn on the noise gates,
turn on the aural exciter and the big bottom
and turn on the de-esser, it's really going to
have an effect on my sound.
And the biggest thing with the effects
is to really keep them subtle.
So let's go a little crazy right now.
I'm gonna go over here and go into the high-pass filter,
and if I just crank that all the way up 'cause I feel like
I wanna use that and I wanna turn on the compressor and go
a little crazy with it and make things a little louder.
And then I wanna turn on the noise gate
and then I'm gonna turn on the de-esser,
get rid of all those S's and then I'm gonna turn on
the big bottom to add some bass in my voice
but I'm also gonna turn on the aural exciter to really
just sort of give me that nice, like crazy radio tone.
Is that everything, oh, bring in the big bottom
more into the mix.
And now obviously I'm taking this to the extreme
to make a point.
I don't think anybody would just do that, but I think
it can be very tempting when you get your RODECaster
to kind of go in and go a little crazy.
This is a highly processed audio.
This right now is just the PodMic
with basically a little bit of a big bottom processing
and little bit of a high-pass filter.
But a lot of times I will just turn off all the effects
altogether and let the natural sound come through.
And if I wanna edit it I can do that
in Adobe Audition or something like that.
So I'm not saying don't use the onboard effects,
they can be incredibly helpful.
Just, it's like cooking you don't wanna just dump
like all of the salt and all the seasoning into your dish.
You wanna just be subtle with it, so that way it brings out
the flavor and it doesn't overwhelm the flavor.
That was a great analogy.
And my last tip has to do with the protection
of your RODECaster Pro.
I strongly recommend that you always use
some kind of cover, case, or dust cover
when you're not using it just to keep it
in perfect working order.
For the past year or so, I've been using this cover
from decksaver.com.
This is not sponsored, they did originally send me this
when they started making it, they sent it to me for free
but since then I've purchased others as gifts for people.
So it's free, but I've also bought some.
And when you put it on your RODECaster
it just keeps all the buttons from getting moved.
It keeps all dirt and dust from getting in there
and it just keeps the whole unit protected.
And I love that and it's a really snug, really good fit.
I've gotten into a pretty good habit of putting this
on my RODECaster when I'm done using it every day
and taking it off in the morning every day.
And it really helps, I live in the desert
and we have two very sheddy dogs.
If you do any kind of audio stuff, you know that
once dirt gets into the knobs and into the sliders
it can really have a negative effect
on your overall sound quality.
And of course, what would a video like this be
without a bonus tip and/or trick,
and I don't wanna phone it in.
So let's talk about headphones with the RODECaster Pro.
And this is sort of, this really is more of just a tip
and a bit of general guidance.
The headphone pre-amps on the RODECaster Pro,
I'm sorry to say, just aren't that great.
It is amazing that there are five headphone outputs
built into it, and everybody can listen
to what's being recorded, and I love that,
and individual volume knobs are great,
but it's not the quietest preamp.
And what that means is oftentimes when you're listening
with headphones, you're gonna hear
a little bit of hiss and a little bit of noise
that's not actually going to be on the final recording.
And I bring this up because I also get
a lot of messages from people asking.
They're like almost going insane trying to get rid
of this hiss and they can't find the source of it.
And it turns out it's not actually even affecting
their recordings or their streams or the output,
it's just the headphone preamps.
So all in all, it's not the end of the world
because whatever you're hearing in your headphones,
the final recording or the final output
is actually gonna be higher quality.
So that's kind of a good thing.
It's a good idea, do some test recordings, play those back,
you know, on your computer or something,
and listen to what it actually sounds like.
Don't rely on the headphone preamp for 100% accurate
reproduction of your sound quality.
And now that I've said that, the bonus tip sort of became
a negative, and I don't want the negative to outweigh
the positives of the other tips that I gave.
So let's end this video on a really positive note.
The RODECaster Pro, I've said this, time and again,
is one of the best tools I've ever invested in.
It's not unusual for me to get comments where people
are asking for cheaper alternatives to the RODECaster
with all the same functionality, which just doesn't exist,
or they just say the price is too high,
at about $600 usually.
And I really do want to invite anyone who feels that way
to price out, individually, items that will do all
of the functionality of the RODECaster,
and then factor in how you have to daisy chain them
all together to create your audio setup
that is accomplished in this one compact unit.
And I say that because I've done that, many times,
and even more than that, I'm just such a fan
of the RODECaster Pro community, because the people
who are excited about this and using this,
it's just a really exciting group to be a part of
and everybody's making stuff.
And that's just really exciting.
And I get psyched when something helps people make stuff.
And so here is a playlist all full of videos to help you
master the RODECaster Pro.
There's a lot of sound advice
for your sound device up in there.
(upbeat music)