- Today we're talking about
the Rode VideoMic Me-L directional,
little shotgun microphone that goes right into your iPhone.
Now if you're an Android user, keep watching this video
because they make the Rode VideoMic Me
that has a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack
that will go into your Android.
But for this video, I went out
and I did some tests with the VideoMic Me-L.
I plugged it into my iPhone, and I went to Hanoi, Vietnam,
one of the noisiest places I could possibly find.
Well, I didn't take it there to do it,
but I was there and I had it with me.
So I shot some video inside of my hotel room
to show you what it sounds like in a quiet environment,
and I took it outside to a noisy street corner
to show you what it sounds like
in a really noisy environment.
And we're going to get to those a little bit later,
but first I want to talk about the microphone itself.
Now this microphone isn't exactly new.
It's been around for almost a year,
but I've been getting a lot of requests from you.
You want more videos on audio choices for your smartphone.
So I went out and I grabbed a bunch of microphones
and I have more videos coming about microphones.
So at the end of this video if you like the way this sounds,
go down and leave a comment and let me know
if there's another microphone you want this compared to.
If I have that microphone and enough of you want this video,
I'll make a future video on it.
Now this microphone has a cardioid polar pattern.
It picks up sound coming from the front of the microphone
in a heart shape pattern.
But whatever you point it at, that's the direction
that it's gonna pick up the audio.
It's more sensitive in the front of the microphone,
and less sensitive in the back of the microphone.
The Rode VideoMic Me and Rode VideoMic Me-L
also come with a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack located
on the back of the microphone.
You can plug your headphones into this
and monitor the sound that's coming through your microphone.
This is a great feature.
It also comes with a very large dead cat,
or windsock, or windscreen, whatever you want to call these.
And I'm gonna talk about this a little bit later
in the video that you see
when I'm on the streets of Vietnam.
And it simply slips over the top like this.
It is kind of big.
Kind of big?
It's actually really big!
I do believe Rode could probably do a better job
on the size of this thing,
but I mean this thing's huge.
Before I run the audio test, I do want to mention
that the iPhones, they do record in stereo.
So when you're listening to the sound
that's recorded in the iPhone,
you're gonna hear more of what's happening around you.
You're gonna hear more room noise.
You're gonna hear more ambient noise,
things in the background.
But when I plug in the microphone,
it's going to focus its direction towards my voice.
It's not going to eliminate the background noise,
but it is going to lower it because it's focusing in
on my voice or whatever it is
that you're pointing it towards.
Now if you're ready to head to Vietnam
to see what this microphone sounds like
please buckle up, raise your tray table,
and put your smartphone in flight mode, we're taking off!
I'm standing on a street corner in Hanoi, Vietnam.
There's a lot of noise, a lot of traffic,
a lot of horns, a lot of motor bikes.
And, yeah, it's kind of chaotic right here.
But I want you to hear the audio
that you're listening to right now.
This is coming directly from the onboard microphone
on my iPhone XS.
There's no external microphone plugged in.
I'm gonna plug in that microphone in just a second,
and let you hear the difference.
And I want you to go down and leave a comment,
and let me know if you can tell a big difference or not.
Now the audio that you're listening
to is coming from the Rode VideoMic Me-L
and I have the windscreen, or the dead cat, put on it.
If you're shooting outside, if you're vlogging outdoors,
the dead cat, or the windscreen, is gonna be very important
because it's gonna cut down on the wind noises
that you're gonna hear from the microphone.
I'm gonna take this off in just a second.
However, it's not very windy today,
so I don't know if you're gonna hear any wind noise,
but when I remove it.
And we're gonna talk about this in just a second here.
When I remove this you might hear some wind noise right now.
I'm not sure.
If I started walking around,
or if a gust of wind came through,
you would definitely hear some wind noise.
But for run and gun, this is great
and if it's windy, pop this on.
If it's not windy, if you're recording indoor,
then you really don't need this
unless you find that your voice is causing a lot
of plosives or a lot of wind sounds
that are coming out of your mouth
and hitting the microphone.
I also want to say that if you are vlogging
and you're outside and you're walking around,
especially if you're walking around
in a place you're not familiar with,
before you take off walking down the pavement,
have a look at it to make sure
that some of the bricks or some of the tiles
or there's not holes or sewer covers
that have been lifted off the sidewalk.
Yesterday in the Old Quarter, in Hanoi,
I watched someone who was vlogging,
walking with their camera, some of the bricks were
off of the sidewalk, he tripped on it, and he fell down.
I don't know if the camera broke or not.
But dude, if you're watching this, you took a hard fall.
Leave a comment and let me know
if your camera survived that fall or not.
(laughs) Gotta be careful out here, man!
I also want to mention that I'm shooting this
with the front-facing camera on my iPhone XS,
using the native camera that comes with my iPhone.
I'm not using FiLMiC Pro or the Moment app.
Everything is default and right out of the box
and I'm shooting in 1080p
because I wanted to show what it looks like
and what it sounds like (horns honking).
Hey, what's going on? (horns honking)
Hey, yeah! (laughs)
Wanted to show you what it looks like
and sounds like with your phone right out of the box.
Riders ready?
(vehicle engines revving)
Go!
I'm back in my hotel room.
This is probably the quietest place
that I can find to test this microphone.
I've turned off the air conditioner.
The TV is off and I barely hear anything coming
from the street through the window.
And the audio that you're hearing right now is coming
from the Rode microphone.
I'm gonna unplug this and let you hear
what the audio sounds like coming
from the iPhone XS directly.
The audio that you're hearing right now is coming directly
from the onboard microphone inside the iPhone XS.
Again, the air con is turned off
and very little street noise coming from outside.
This is probably what the iPhone would sound like
if you're shooting inside of your living room
or your bedroom.
So we have a good comparison for outside,
around a lot of traffic, and now you hear
what it sounds like inside a room with a bed and curtains,
things that are gonna stop your audio waves
from bouncing around.
(air con beeps) (lock clicking)
(upbeat music)
Elevators are so awkward.
(elevator beeps)
So that's the microphone sounds like
in a quiet room and on the streets of Vietnam.
In case you were to find yourself in Vietnam.
So you might ask yourself, who is this microphone for?
This microphone is pretty good for vloggers.
If you need a run and gun microphone,
you want something lightweight,
something you can toss in your bag
and not have to worry about it breaking or cables,
this might be a good microphone for you.
But what if you're wanting to make a podcast
with your phone or you wanna do voiceovers
with this microphone?
How does that sound?
So that's what we're gonna do right now.
I'm using the Rode Recorder app.
And I'm gonna record directly into the microphone
into my phone and I'm gonna play the audio back
so you can hear it directly.
So when I do play this back,
you're not gonna hear the audio
from my shotgun microphone, you're going
to hear the audio from this microphone directly.
Now the audio you're listening to
is coming from the Rode VideoMic Me-L.
And it's being recorded with the windscreen on
through the Rode Recorder app.
Now that the windscreen is removed,
you may or may not be hearing
my breath hitting the microphone.
I'm not sure, but if you hear a low, rumbling sound,
that is my breath hitting the microphone.
Now we've tested this microphone indoors
and outside, in a very noisy environment.
And we've also tested it in a quiet room,
with and without the windscreen
so you can decide if this microphone is right
for you or not.
And as always, go down and leave a comment
and let me know what you think about this microphone.
Do you own this microphone?
How does it sound?
I want to know.
Now, you're probably wondering
if I think this microphone is worth the price
and how much is it?
This microphone is currently selling for $79 U.S..
But here's the thing.
While it is a decent microphone for the price,
you gotta think about if you have a newer iPad, it's USB-C.
This doesn't work anymore.
If you're getting one of the newer iPhones,
if they put USB-C in the newer iPhones,
this also is not going to work.
However, if you have something with a Lightning port
or if you have the Android version
which has the 3.5 millimeter headphone jack,
these are gonna work just fine.
In terms of what I think of the microphone,
I think it's a little bit quiet.
But for the price, I think it's pretty good.
I love the fact that there's no cables.
I love the fact that it's pretty sturdy.
I actually dropped this twice right on hard concrete.
There's no problems with it.
I can grab it, toss it in my bag, throw it in my pocket.
It's really easy to run and gun with this microphone.
Is this the best sounding microphone?
No, it's not the best sounding.
You heard what it sounds like in different environments.
So you get to be the judge of that.
For me, it's not the best sounding microphone.
But, you know, it's a great backup microphone for me.
I usually travel with the Rode VideoMic Pro Plus,
which is a larger shotgun microphone.
I hook it up to my phone, do cables
and dongles and different adapters.
You've probably seen that picture on my Instagram account.
You know, you get what you pay for.
That larger shotgun microphone is $299.
This one is $79 and I'll probably travel
with this as a backup in case my battery goes dead
with my other Rode, I've got this in my bag.
I can pull it out, plug it right in,
and you don't have to worry about cables
or adapters or dongles.
In it goes and you're off and running.
Now there are a couple of negatives
that I found with this mic.
The first thing being that depending
on the case that you have on your phone,
you might have to take it off in order
for this to actually connect.
I'm using a Nomad Rugged leather case.
And this won't connect.
It won't stay in.
It will just start to go in, but it won't stay.
So I have to take the case off.
So your phone is unprotected.
Well, this phone is unprotected when I want to use this.
So if you drop your phone, you know
how the rest of that plays out.
But if you have a case and everything fits,
then you don't have anything to worry about.
The next problem that I had is
when you take this off,
if there's just a slight gust of wind,
you're gonna get a lot of rumble in this microphone.
It picks up wind noise really easily when you're outside.
Even times when I didn't think,
I didn't feel wind, but when I came back
and I listened to the footage that you heard.
I made a note in the video that you hear the rumbling
and you don't even feel it, but it's there.
So if you are shooting outside,
you definitely want to put this on.
So overall, is it worth it?
Is it worth $79?
Is it worth keeping as a backup?
Is it worth getting as your only microphone?
I would say that for the price,
it's a pretty good microphone.
And if you plan on keeping your iPhone
and not upgrading to a phone later
that might need a USB-C, then it's a great purchase.
If you have an Android and you're using the VideoMic Me,
then yeah, that's not gonna change anytime soon,
as long as you get a phone with a headphone jack.
If you have a phone without the headphone jack,
this one isn't gonna work.
And if you have an iPhone without a Lightning port,
this one isn't going to work.
However, if you have an older iPhone,
this one might do the trick.
My guess is as more devices are made with a USB-C connector,
you're probably gonna see a third version
of this microphone made by Rode.
But until that happens, this is what we have.
And these are pretty good microphones.
If you want to learn more about smartphone audio
or making content with your phone,
or you want to learn how to be a mobile YouTuber,
go ahead and hit the subscribe button,
followed by the notification bell
so you don't miss out on future videos.
Thank you so much for watching.
I do appreciate it and I'll see you in the next video.
(upbeat music)