In this episode will be unboxing the
RODECaster from RODE and setting it up so we
can get podcasting in minutes.
When first I heard about the RODECASTER I thought
nice but really, why would I need
something like that? The thing is it's
not for me, it's for any person that
wants to reach like-minded people
through a podcast and the great thing is
you don't have to be very technically
minded to use it. I just had my kids play
with it and they've never played with
any audio equipment before, and whilst no
one got into the really big advanced
stuff, they did get going and started
recording within minutes. If you want to
podcast in a really simple and efficient
manner then this could be the solution for you.
It's easily navigated and takes over
much of the work so you can focus on
producing your podcast without worrying
about all the technical stuff. This week
I'm going to unbox and show you an easy
setup. In the next episode we'll look at
the functionality and show you the setup
in action. So here it is; the RODE
RODECaster in it's box. Beautiful.
We open it up and the first thing of course
we notice, are these massive cards and
everything. Well it basically tells you
where everything is, what everything does
and gives you good oversight of the
whole machine even before you know where
you're going. So there's our cards. Lovely
bit of plastic and woo... look at this.
That is incredibly incredibly neat. I'm
so very, very impressed.
We have everything in the box coming
apart from an SD card. There's power
supply with IEC. We have USB C on
there as well. So let's have a look at
this machine. This is the RODECaster
proper, okay it is just so neat it's
unbelievable. When you consider that all
the components for a radio studio or
radio production, headphone distribution
and all these sort of things is just in
one neat little machine and the
construction you know. You can hammer
a nail out with this thing. It feels like
it's just beautiful. Really solid lovely
chunky knobs, and we got all our pads and
we'll go through each individual
component now in a second. So here it is
out of the box the machine. We're just
gonna power it up. RODECaster PRO.
And I just want to run through the
components on here.
So these first four channels are
your microphone pre's from the back... and
I'll show you those now in a second. The
next one is your USB. We've got a fader
for your phone input, which is a hardware
going in the back, and then a Bluetooth
with one big old blue button here... to
pair your machine... and this fader allows
you listen to these pads and these pads
are the sample pads for music stings or
sound effects to punctuate your show.
You got a beautiful touch screen here... nice
and big, so you can see exactly what's
going on and where. We got the big old record
button. So you hit that and what happens
but it records, and then we got these
four big chunky lumpy knobs here, that's
comes off don't mind that, and this is
your individual headphones. So when
you're interviewing your granny and your
auntie and your mammy. Granny wants a
whole lot more headphones than say mammy
or auntie. Okay so you have the
individual control for everyone's
headphones, so everyone's comfortable
and you can have a really good conversation
stroke interview and here's the main
output. So if you're using this machine
for say a conference you can plug
it into your PA, and everything will go
through here, and it'll come out of the
mains. Okay and I'll show you what's
going on in the back now. Now the back is
where all the business happens... isn't that
right. So there is your individual
preamps. So each of these takes a
microphone, and one, two, three, four
corresponds to one, two, three, four on
your desk, your faders. You next have the
3.5mm jack for a phone... if you want to
hardwire a phone into that. Next we have
our four headphones so each of your guests
has a headphone - you plug them in one,
two, three. Let's suggest you keep the
presenter using headphone one, because
that allows them hear these solo and mute
buttons at the end of each fader. Solo
and mute buttons will only be heard by
whoever's wearing the first headphones
plugged in here, and then each of these
is controlled, volume wise with the
most comfortable level for whoever's
wearing the appropriate numbered
headphones. Next you get your live outs.
So this will going to a PA in a live
situation, or you could plug them into
speakers, but I don't know how that's
gonna work for you. Next we're looking at
a micro SD. Plug in your micro SD and
that's where everything gets recorded to.
The machine will format the SD for you
and it will record both your stereo and your
multitrack versions. You can plug out your
SD bring it to your post-production guy,
and he will deal with that or else this
can be seen via our friend here the USB.
This connects up to your computer, and
if you have your computer's sound output
and input set to RODECASTER, then you'll
be able to put audio in and out of your
computer into this machine. Then we just
have power and your power button. We have
our USB here okay, so we want to connect
that up to the usb on your computer be
it a Mac or PC.
Close on there... and then we got that
there, and this is the RODE website and
with the RODE website they allow you
download one; the latest firmware.... and two;
the RODECASTER application, which
allows you to drag and drop, you know your sound
effects onto the pads. Also with the USB
you can send the sound out of your
computer, so you could play tunes into
your podcasts and you can also record
via USB into your computer, and you need
to set up your sound recorder to receive
the sound from there. Be it in stereo, in
your hardware you'll see that as RODECaster.
Setting it up as your audio
interface in your hardware.. or else if
you want individual tracks you will have
to set it up to RODE multi-channel. Okay
it's simplicity itself lads. You got your
microphone lead from your lovely
microphone into mic 1. That's your
preamp. Bring up the fader and there is your
levels working away. Simply plug in your
headphones into input 1. Bring up
the volume of output 1 from your
headphones, and I can hear myself
beautifully. Simple as simple can be.
Same with connecting your phone. 3.5
mil jack in there into the jack output of
your phone... and then get yourself a
little SD card.. this is a 16 gig card. I'm
getting about 15 hours of recording time
on here. I presume that measures in
stereo get that in there.
Click it in and it says 'do you want to
format your card?,' Okay there we go, 15
plus hours. It's ready to go.
So each mic for each guest. Headphones
for each guest. Big record button. Hit
record and you are recording your first
podcast. Simple. Now that we've
everything set up, next
week we'll be going over how to use
it in practice. It's so exciting.
I'm Keith Alexander and you've been
watching Adorama TV.
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