(phone ringing)
(upbeat music)
- [male Voice] Hello
- Hi, my name is Tom.
This is the enthusiasm project
and today we're going to talk all about how
to take phone calls on the Rodecaster Pro.
- [Male Voice] Never call me again.
- Let's talk all about how to take phone calls
with the Rodecaster Pro.
Because as you may or may not know,
that's one of the coolest features about this unit.
And I've gotten so many questions from people
about how that works,
how to get the best audio quality,
and how to effectively incorporate phone calls
into your podcast or your live stream.
Now there are two ways to bring in phone calls
to the Rodecaster Pro.
You can use either the wired TRS channel.
Or you can connect your phone
or your computer via Bluetooth
and bring in a phone call that way.
We'll compare both of those today.
So you can see the difference in audio quality.
And we'll also run through some options
to give you better than phone call quality in your show.
So how do you connect your phone via Bluetooth?
It's a pretty simple process.
Actually. There's this giant blue button right here.
If I press that it will say the Rodecaster Pro
is now discoverable.
Tap Rodecaster Pro in your device Bluetooth settings.
So then all I need to do on my phone is hop over
into Bluetooth settings
and the Rodecaster Pro shows up.
If I tap on it it will connect automatically
there are no passwords or anything.
For some reason it's Thomas's iPhone,
even though my phone is just Tom's iPhone,
but whatever.
Now my phone is connected via Bluetooth
to the Rodecaster Pro.
So that's connected the Rodecaster Pro will basically
just play any audio that's coming from the phone
through the Bluetooth channel.
So I'm gonna switch over to the Rodecaster Pro's
audio right now.
So that's what you're listening to me on
and we will blast some of my favorite royalty free jams
right now.
(upbeat music)
There we go.
(music playing)
What you'll notice
(music playing)
is this audio quality is actually really good.
It sounds the same as if it were plugged in.
Sounds as if I added this in post production,
but I didn't.
I can just turn it down right there.
So the Bluetooth channel can work really, really well
for music and other audio.
But what about phone calls?
Obviously.
So if I call myself.
(phone ringing)
Hello?
Okay, so, okay.
Hello, how are you?
What's happening here?
Hello?
Actually, actually, this is way too hard to do by myself.
Let me actually
Okay, so we're gonna wait for a phone call.
So I asked Heather now to call me.
(phone ringing)
There's my beautiful ringtone.
I'm going to accept it.
Audio to the road caster.
Hello.
- [Heather] Hi, can I speak to my husband please?
- That's me.
I am speaking.
May I speak to my lovely wife please?
- [Heather] Hello, that's me.
- How does this sound on your end?
- [Heather] Clear.
- Does it sound like you're listening
to a podcast right now?
- [Heather] No, it sounds like you're on the phone.
- Oh, it just sounds like a normal phone call?
- [Heather] Yeah, but it's a clear phone call, right?
Well, I'm talking to the Podcast mic,
if I play a sound effect, can you hear that?
(sound effect)
- [Heather] Yes.
- Okay, was it annoying or loud or anything?
- [Heather] No
- Just as annoying as usual.
Okay, so this for you
just sounds like a normal phone call, right?
- [Heather] Yeah.
- Okay, cool.
And then for me, there's like a slight
slight delay of like half a second.
Cause I can hear you on the other side of this wall talking.
And then I hear it come through the phone.
- [Heather] I had a cover my other ear because
I was getting confused with the way...
- Right, but if we weren't in the same place,
like if you were just calling in your show,
this would work right?
Like we could talk.
- [Heather] Yeah.
- Okay, cool.
Well, thanks so much.
I'll see you at home in about a minute.
- [Heather] Okay, bye.
- So that worked pretty well.
For our end.
It was like we were just having a normal phone conversation.
There was that slight delay,
which you would never really notice
if you're not actually able to hear the person on the phone.
What I will say though,
is that as soon as Heather called the phone here,
it automatically went to the iPhone speaker.
And so I did have to tap on audio
and select the Rodecaster Pro
before the signal was sent to the Rodecaster Pro.
But that's actually kind of a good thing.
Because if you wanna screen calls
before incorporating them into your show.
Like imagine you're doing a live show
and you have a couple of hosts talking here
on these channels.
And you're over here as like the producer,
and somebody calls in
and you don't want them to just as soon as they call in
now they're part of the show.
You can just talk to them on the phone,
explain what's happening.
And then when they're ready,
you can tap broadcaster
and now they will be ready to go on this channel right here.
So there is no real easy mix minus feature
that's gonna let you talk to them on here
without being part of the show over here.
At least that I could find out that's not super clunky.
But that's an easy way to do it.
Just talk on the phone like normal
switch over to Rodecaster when you're ready to go
and it basically just solves that problem.
But now, let's try it the other way.
Let's flip over.
Can I call you again.
So instead of using Bluetooth,
I'm gonna take Bluetooth off.
I'm actually gonna even unpair my phone.
So it's very clear
that we are not using Bluetooth at all.
And we're gonna go into the TRS channel
just so you know,
I am using the official Rode TRS cable.
Which has three rings.
And the reason for that,
is if you have a phone that's not giving you enough gain,
this cable should boost the signal a little bit
and let you equalize it
and mix it in with the rest of your show more easily.
So I'm just gonna connect this to my phone.
Just like before I have this plugged into the TRS channel
If I play music,
(music playing)
it's the music's still there.
Just like normal.
But we will make a phone call.
(phone ringing)
- [Heather] Hello,
- Hello, can I speak to my lovely wife?
- [Heather] Yes. Does she ever help you?
- Hi, how are you?
How does this sound?
- [Heather] It sounds great.
- Does it?
I've noticed it's actually a little low on my end.
Can you believe that?
Oh, oh.
So your your volume was a little too low here
and I actually need to on my phone,
boost the volume and now I think you're gonna sound clearer.
- [Heather] Got it?
- Yes.
Oh, that's nice.
Yes, it actually does sound a lot clearer.
So that was something when you're plugged in with the cable,
you got to make sure to adjust the volume
right here.
So how's your day going?
Can you give us a nice sample of audio quality
so we can compare these things?
- [Heather] Sure.
Right now I'm playing Animal Crossing.
- Nice
- [Heather] Covers on our island,
- Of cause
- [Heather] So I am looking for communicator parts.
- Terrific.
- [Heather] And yes, it's almost gonna rain in our island.
- Great.
Well, I don't wanna stop you from that important work.
So I will let you get back to it.
(Heather laughing)
Thank you for being a part of this show.
As always.
I don't there's no ending.
It's just a phone call.
Thank you.
I love you.
- [Heather] Love you bye bye
- Bye.
So both of these channels almost sound the same.
I would say that the Bluetooth channel
is not quite as good with the phone calls
as the TRS channel is.
It just sort of like kind of sounded
a little muddier and more compressed,
whereas the direct channel was just more clear sounding
like a regular phone call.
That makes sense.
It's being plugged in, there's no Bluetooth staff.
Both were totally usable.
But on the TRS channel,
you do need to make sure to monitor
the volume of the phone call on your actual device.
Because you could be cranking this all the way to the top.
But if your phone is set really low,
you're still not gonna get a great signal.
On the Bluetooth channel,
it's important to make sure you select the right
audio source.
Now what you might notice with both of these channels
is when I played music through them,
it sounded terrific.
It sounded great.
It sounded CD quality.
But as soon as we switched to a phone call,
it was easy to see a decline in the audio quality
and it just sounded like a normal phone call.
That may or may not be an issue
if you're just doing like a radio show
where people call into the radio show.
Everybody's very used to that phone call sound
that phone call interview sound.
But if you're doing a podcast
an hour long podcast and you wanna have a guest,
it can really be tiresome for your listeners
to hear that sound for the whole hour.
And it always sounds better
if you can find ways to make it sound like both people
are in the same room at the same time.
And with so many of us working from home lately,
I think we've all gotten used to using Zoom
and those kind of apps,
you could set up a Zoom cam
and just use an auxiliary cable or this TRS cable.
Connect it to your computer
and just bring in the audio from your Zoom call.
But if you've been on Zoom calls,
you know that that audio isn't always reliable
or the best quality.
If you have the budget.
You could sign up.
For a Voip.
VOIP
Voice over internet protocol service
Which is basically designed to deliver high quality audio
over the internet,
and that could help you do that as well.
But I recently discovered that Anchor has an option
for free.
That really helps of course is not sponsored
but I did put together an entire video
on why I use Anchor to host my podcast.
I really liked it.
And this is just one more thing I literally discovered today
that makes that easier.
So, same thing
you could set up either via Bluetooth
or TRS.
I'm using TRS because it did deliver a little bit better
audio quality.
So let's switch over to the Rodecaster right now .
All you need to do is open up Anchor on your phone
and go into tools and there's going to be a button
that says invite friends to join.
If you tap on that, it's gonna say record with friends.
We should hear
(hold music)
there it is.
We got some hold music happening.
And basically,
it's kind of like a Zoom meeting .
This is this is the waiting room.
I really recommend though having your phone connected
the way that you want it.
Before inviting people to join your call.
I have found that if I just have my phone like normal
and like I call someone and then they call in
and then I try to plug it in or switch.
We have trouble hearing each other.
So I have this plugged in and ready to go.
You can hear the whole music
(music playing)
and then all I need to do is tap on invite friends,
and it gives you a bunch of ways you can just send a link
you can message someone.
You can go directly with Anchor friends.
I'm just gonna bother Heather again
and send her a message.
And it's basically a thing that just says
come join my Podcast and they don't need to have the app.
They don't need to have anything special.
They can just tap on that link and they should pop up
into your recording pretty quickly.
(music playing)
Let's wait and see.
Hello.
- [ Heather] Hello.
- Oh, you sound so nice.
Is this my lovely wife Heather again?
- [Heather] It is .Is this my lovely husband?
- It is.
How are things going over there on
our Animal Crossing Island.
- [Heather] They're great.
I am shopping for new clothes
for my character at the moment.
- Your voice sounds so clear right now
and it doesn't seem like there's as much of a delay
as there was with the phone.
Cause I can still Heather is just basically on the other
side of this blue wall by me.
- [Heather] I know same here.
it kind of sounded fuzzy but I just figured not
not on this thing.
But on the previous one and I figured that was just the
That the cordless phone.
But it's like super crystal clear on here.
- Yeah and you're just on your iPhone, right?
- [Heather] Yeah, of course cause I sent it to you.
I'm gonna try a sound effect again.
Hey Heather, do you know
how you prepare for a party in space?
- [Heather] How?
- You plan it?
(sound effect)
Did you hear my sound effect?
- [Heather] I did hear your sound effect.
- Yay.
And while we're on it,
Anchor is also just recording automatically.
So it's saving a clip directly to Anchor of this.
But I'm recording it into the Rodecaster
so I could do my own thing with it later.
So your voice sounds really clear.
There's like slightly digital,
like guggliness around it a little bit,
but it sounds like 100 times better
than a regular phone call.
So this is a great option to bring in people as guests.
We could listen to this conversation.
At this quality easily for the length of an episode.
I think.
- [Heather] There you go.
- There you go.
So thanks so much.
Again, I'm sorry to keep bothering you
with like 10 phone calls,
- [Heather] Its okay babe.
- I love you and I'll see you in a minute.
- [Heather] Love you, bye bye
- Bye.
And then on here,
now that she's done,
I just hit finish recording.
And that's it.
I don't use the recording directly in Anchor.
So I actually don't even need that.
I have everything recorded here.
So that was super quick and easy.
The Anchor desktop app has a similar version,
but it's hard to argue with the simplicity
of that right there.
Heather didn't need to have anything special.
She just needed her phone.
I just sent her the link and it was good to go.
Now there are two final things
that I would like to point out when doing this.
The first is there are these two channels,
right Bluetooth or TRS.
You don't necessarily have to make a choice,
you could use both at the same time.
So you can have your computer
or device plugged into the TRS channel.
And you could have your computer or another device
connected via Bluetooth.
And you can use the two together.
Maybe one is playing music
and one is doing an interview .
Or you have more than one guest.
Now with the Anchor record with friends feature
that I just used.
You can have up to five people in the call
with you
It might get a little chaotic,
but you could bring in five guests there
and then another guest on Bluetooth
and that six other people in addition to the four people
that are already potentially on your show here,
so that's 10 people on the show.
That is insane.
I don't think I'd ever want to do that.
But it's great to have that flexibility in that versatility.
And of course, you have the USB channel too.
So I guess that even opens up more options
cause you could connect your computer.
There's a lot of options with the Rodecaster Pro.
The other thing is,
how do you set up phone calls safely
to bring in guests to your show.
So using Anchor was super easy,
cause I can just text them or email them a link,
they tap on the link and we're done.
But if we are doing the old school phone call route,
you probably don't wanna just give out your personal
number to everyone.
So I really recommend you use something
like Google Voice.
Where you can set up a phone number
that will just forward everything directly to your phone
so that way,
there's nothing at risk if you put that number public or
people get that number.
But you don't have to give out your private phone number
to everyone just to have them be a guest on your show.
Little things things like that are very important
to think about because that's gonna help keep you safe,
keep things sustainable and keep things practical.
So being able to bring in phone calls
and phone guests is just one of those many problems
that the Rodecaster Pro,
does solve.
As I'm sure you know by this point,
I have a boatload of videos about the Rodecaster Pro.
If you wanna learn more about it
or basic Podcasting stuff from me,
check those out and I will see you over
in one of those videos.
(upbeat music)