- The RODECaster II has a ton of built-in features
but it's fun functionality can be expanded
when you connect it to a computer or a mobile device.
So, that's what we're going to talk about today,
but before we get started,
I want to remind you that I am using beta firmware
on the RODECaster Pro II right now.
So, you beta believe there could be some changes
between this and the actual release version.
The best news is that if you're really eager
to get going down the Rode to awesome audio,
the RODECaster Pro II is totally just a plug and play device
for both Mac and PC.
As soon as it's connected to your computer,
you will see it become an available input/output device.
So, here's my audio in Ecamm Live but this will be the same
for basically any application or interface.
If I click on that, you can see "RODECaster Pro II Main"
and "RODECaster Pro II Chat,"
and we will chat all about that a little bit later.
The same is true for output.
So, I'm just using Ecamm as the example,
but if I go into my Ecamm preferences
and I go to audio, my speakers, again,
can be set to the RODECaster Pro II, as well.
So, you can use it as both an input and an output device,
just as soon as you connect it to your computer.
This means if you want to use it with like ZOOM calls
or streams or anything like that, it's just plug and play.
Same is true for the original RODECaster Pro.
And I've been using it that way for many, many years.
Now, as is the case with pretty much any Rode product
that you connect to your computer, the Rode Central app
is central to some of the functionality.
And again, this is a beta version,
so some things might look different,
but right here I can click on RODECaster Pro II,
and we've got audio set up.
This mirrors a lot of what is
on the actual physical RODECaster Pro
where I can rearrange my channel order, what's virtual,
what's physical, all that functionality.
Through here I can also do some basic configuration,
like the display brightness.
I have a bunch of flexibility over output controls
and I also have some system settings, as well,
specifically, this one right here, MIDI control,
which we are gonna talk about later
because it's pretty exciting.
You can customize your SMART pads here.
I'm not going to click continue right now,
since I am recording onto the RODECaster.
Well, actually I think I'll need to stop recording,
just to double check this.
So, I'm gonna stop recording on the RODECaster.
Now you're listening to just my built-in shotgun microphone,
but that's okay,
because I can show you a few important things here.
If I click on customized SMART pads,
it's gonna put the RODECaster Pro into transfer mode
and on the display here, you will see it's in transfer mode.
This is where I can adjust some of the settings,
change the colors of the pads, go through pages of the pads,
and, through the Rode Central app, is also
where I can transfer recordings.
This has been hugely beefed up from the RODECaster Pro I
and it's really exciting to me.
For example, here's the recording
that is the start of this video.
As you can see, I have some
basic editing functionality built-in.
I can also add markers.
I can see all of my recordings here.
I can even color code my recordings, which is really cool.
I have the same presets that I had before.
So, if you know, like I use Buzzsprout,
I want to upload my podcast audio to Buzzsprout directly,
I can do that and it's going to optimize it
for that specific service.
We can also choose our format here or sample rate.
And you can even normalize the loudness.
So, if you want to be negative 16 LuFs,
you can just do it right there.
And I LuF that feature.
And one really cool thing that I was so excited to see is
when the RODECaster Pro II is in transfer mode,
you can still play audio through it.
So, previously with the RODECaster Pro I,
whenever I put it in transfer mode,
it would just stop all audio coming in and out of it.
So, if I was listening to a podcast or music
or something else, and I transferred audio,
that would just come grinding to a halt and it wouldn't work
until the RODECaster Pro was out of transfer mode.
Now, even though the screen says, it's in transfer mode,
if I have audio playing through it, it will continue to play
while the RODECaster Pro II is in transfer mode.
Another thing that's delightful is the built-in,
micro SD card slot, has a built-in card reader
that's incredibly fast.
So, transfer speeds are much, much faster than the original.
I don't have exact benchmarks
because there are so many variables with that.
But even if you're doing a multi-track file,
you're not going to be sitting around waiting
and waiting and waiting for your whole show to transfer in.
And now I'm back recording on the RODECaster Pro II.
So, the Rode Central app, a really big thing to point out
is, while you can do a lot with the RODECaster there
and it's super easy to use,
basically, everything you can do there,
you can do directly in the RODECaster Pro II itself.
It's much more of a standalone unit
where you could potentially never even need to connect it
to a computer if you don't want at all.
But you do have a lot of flexibility and functionality
if you do connect it.
I definitely leave mine connected all the time
because it's my main audio input/output interface.
The Rode Central app is also
where you can install firmware updates.
But if you don't want to do that,
you can just use the RODECaster Pro II's built-in wifi
and just do them over the air.
And it just works really well.
You could also use the built-in ethernet port
for that as well, which is important to remember.
So, now let's take a minute
and talk about MIDI functionality
on the RODECaster Pro II and ad-MIDI-tly,
my MIDI knowledge is a little bit mini.
So, I'm going to do my best to showcase
and explain some things.
So, as we've talked about before,
when it comes to the SMART pads,
you can assign MIDI functionality to them,
you can assign them as triggers, actions,
all that kind of stuff.
Which means the possibilities are endless
when it comes to the potential there.
But a really cool feature is the ability
to use the RODECaster Pro to control a DAW,
a digital audio workstation.
So, within the RODE Central app
or the RODECaster Pro itself,
that's where we can go to system, click on MIDI
and make sure that MIDI control is turned on.
And that's gonna make sure you can use the physical controls
on the RODECaster Pro II,
to control stuff within your computer.
So, I think the most logical thing for me
to do right now is open up Logic Pro.
Now, I have a blank project file, but if we go down here
to channel one, right here, you notice
that I'm recording into the RODECaster right now.
I'm going into channel one on the RODECaster Pro
and my fader is up.
And that's where my level from this PROCASTER microphone
is coming from.
But I've got fader two set to control the volume
within Logic over here.
So, you can see when I slide this,
the fader there corresponds with my action, perfectly.
And my audio is still coming through channel one
on the RODECaster Pro,
you can see my audio levels popping up there
in Logic, as well.
I've also just for the sake of example,
taken the headphone two knob, this green knob right here,
and I've had that set to adjust my panning,
in Logic, on this specific channel.
So, basically you can take any
of the physical functionality of the RODECaster Pro
and have that control software functionality in your DAW,
which is just flat out DAW-some.
In fact, you might say that it
blows my mind-ind-ind-ind... (voice echoing)
Remember the sound effects from the other day?
I programmed those to some SMART pads.
Whoa. (high pitched ridiculousness)
Anyway, back to business.
I will close out this project and start a brand new one.
Now, I'm just using Logic for this example,
because I'm such a logical person
but of course you could do this
with something like GarageBand, Pro Tools,
whatever your DAW of choice happens to be.
We are just going to do an audio track.
I'm just going to make five tracks,
just for the sake of this example.
And then I'm going to press X on my keyboard
to bring up the mixer interface within Logic Pro.
Now within Logic Pro, I do have the RODECaster set
as my main input and output device.
So, as soon as I created this, whichever one
of these channels I go on to,
you see the RODECaster's audio being used
for that channel at that moment.
So, there are a few different ways
that you can program MIDI functions.
One of the simplest ones within Logic,
is to just press Shift + Option + K, and then it's going
to bring up this controller assignment window.
There's an easy view and an expert view,
even though I'm no expert, I use the expert view.
And then you just click on learn mode.
And, basically, from here, I can just click on what I want
to teach and then start using a fader with that.
And then click learn mode when I'm done.
And now I've got channel two, fader two,
on the RODECaster Pro II set to channel one,
but I've still got channel one on the RODECaster Pro II,
controlling the actual input for my microphone.
So, it's currently functioning both as a regular interface
for my mic, but also as a MIDI controller for Logic Pro.
If I want to make the volume knob control pan options,
I just click on learn mode, click on the pan control
and then turn the knob that I want it to use,
unclick learn mode and there we go.
And as I mentioned in my initial walkthrough video,
you do have eight pages of SMART pads.
So, this is page one for me,
which is mostly just sound effects,
like, why did the bicycle fall over?
It was two-tired.
(ba-dum-tsh)
And of course my amazing voice effects
that are totally mind blowing-ing-ing-ing-ng-g (voice echoing)
But, I can also go over here to page two.
I've got a bunch of empty settings.
So, if I go into these SMART pad options,
I can click the plus
and you'll notice there's MIDI trigger right there.
So, I can go in here
and now start configuring MIDI functionality
to the SMART pads directly from
within the RODECaster Pro II,
or from within the RODE Central app.
Now, while we're talking about different ways
to add inputs into your computer,
there is something I forgot to mention,
in my initial walkthrough video.
Which if you haven't seen that yet,
I highly recommend it because it kind of shows all
of the physical functionality or at least a lot
of the physical functionality of the RODECaster Pro II.
But to show you this, I'm going to stop recording there,
back on the shotgun microphone.
And now, I'm going to go into the menu and go to faders.
So, now, either from the RODECaster Pro II
or from within the RODE Connect app,
I can make these changes here.
And you see whatever I change on the app,
changes on the actual RODECaster Pro II itself.
If there's something I don't want,
like I don't need channel four or channel three,
I can just get rid of those.
And then on the home screen here,
you'll see those are just blank, but I can click the plus
and then add things back to them.
Now here's something that you might run into.
If you have a sweet keyboard or synthesizer or some kind
of instrument or peripheral that has stereo outputs,
you can use that with the RODECaster Pro II.
So, what you do is you go into your fader options.
There's a little thing that says stereo below inputs one
and two, two and three, and three and four.
And if I tap on that, what that's going
to do is actually link those two inputs together
and create a stereo pair.
And a stereo pair is very different
than a frightening nanny, which is a scary au pair.
Wait.
There it is. (sound effect doesn't play because this genius wasn't recording on the RCP)
And now right here, you'll see I have channels three
and four going into fader three.
So, if I had a left and a right input plugged
into channel three and channel four, both of those are going
into just this one fader that I'm controlling them with.
And, of course, I also have full pan left right
functionality, which I guess would just defeat the purpose
of creating a stereo-linked pair.
But hey, you've got all kinds
of functionality built-in here.
Now we're also back to recording on the RODECaster Pro II.
Which means you couldn't hear the rim shot
when I did the rim shot after my stupid au pair joke.
Womp womp. (sad failure trombone)
Let's take advantage now of exploring that second USB-C port
on the back of the RODECaster Pro II.
Basically, there are essentially two interfaces
inside this one RODECaster Pro II.
Maybe that's what the two stands for.
It doesn't, but it could, because there's two of them.
So, what that means is while I'm connected to this computer,
I can also be connected to something else.
Fortunately, as the content creating millennial that I am,
I have a MacBook Pro right here.
So, now I will connect the RODECaster to the MacBook.
So, now just for an example, I've opened up ZOOM
and I've gone to the audio settings.
And right here, you can see as soon
as I connected the RODECaster Pro II,
it says RODECaster Pro II Secondary.
So, there is a primary and a secondary USB output.
So, right now I've got two computers connected
to the RODECaster PRO II, and I am recording into it here.
This one is my RODECaster Pro II, secondary computer.
My Mac Mini is my RODECaster Pro II main computer.
But that's not it.
So, just with that setup, basically any of the audio
that's coming from the Mac mini through the first input,
can go into the RODECaster on USB one.
And any of the audio that's coming from the second computer,
will go on USB two.
So now what I can do, since I don't have any friends
at the moment to chat with, so sad, is I can set my output
on my computer, to the RODECaster Pro II Chat.
And now if I play some beautiful Artlist
royalty-free music.
(calming royalty free jams)
You can hear that on my chat channel.
And I can turn it up or down with this knob right here.
I could also make that a physical channel,
if I don't want it to be a virtual channel.
But the benefit of being able to do that
is I can now have two inputs to the RODECaster
from one single computer source.
Which means I can have my main USB
sending whatever signals I want
and then I can also have the chat channel,
which, in this case I was using for music,
but it could be a chat
and then that can also be a USB mix minus situation.
So, if you want to be able to hear people in a chat,
but you don't want to have the infinite loop going back,
you can turn on USB mix minus, you can drop that out.
There we go.
My XLR cable is going bad...
...so if you're hearing weird fuzz
or anything throughout this video, it's the cable,
it's not the RODECaster Pro II.
I need those new RODE colorful cables.
ALL of them, I need all of them.
So what this means is now you can have two USB inputs
from your main computer.
You can have the chat, and then the main
and while that's listed as chat, I think that there's a ton
of flexibility in there, as you can probably see,
for routing all kinds of audio, dual audio
from a single computer source into the RODECaster.
And then we've also got our secondary computer source.
We can also connect something like a phone via Bluetooth.
And then, of course, we've got our other microphone
and instrument inputs.
That's a lot of different stuff.
But even that is not all.
If I unplug my secondary computer here
and I don't need this anymore.
I have that secondary USB port.
And now, I can connect an SSD,
which is SSD-elightful because now I can record here,
in addition to my memory card, in addition to a DAW.
But as soon as I connected it right up here,
at the very top, it popped up with USB
and it says I have 12 plus hours of recording time.
So, I'm going to stop again.
Stopped recording on the RODECaster Pro,
just so I can go into these settings and show you.
So, now that you're just listening to the shotgun mic again,
if I tap on these icons for the SD card and the SSD,
it will bring up my storage screen,
which will then show me what I have.
So, I have 61 gigs on my SD card left,
781 gigs on my USB SSD left.
I can eject those right here
and I can also turn them on or off.
So, I can choose which one I want to record
to at any given time or both, simultaneously.
And notice I didn't have to format this drive
before using it.
I can format it if I want,
but since I already have a lot of files on here
and I just want to quickly connect it
to the RODECaster and add a show
because maybe I forgot an SD card or something,
or I just want extra redundancy.
I can do that without having to lose what's already on here.
And then I can just connect this
to my computer and drag the files over.
And now we're back to recording it on the RODECaster Pro.
And while I'm recording and starting
and stopping throughout this video,
I think it's important to mention,
you do have the same functionality as the original,
where if I hold down the record button,
it will turn orange after a few seconds
and recording is paused
and I'm using a different microphone.
And as soon as I tap it again,
recording will resume and I can pick up back here.
But on top of that, you can do the same thing just
by tapping the record icon on the display itself.
So, you have multiple ways to actually start
and stop recording, which is very, very fun.
And you might have seen this QR code that's on the front
of the RODECaster Pro II and wondered what it's all about.
Basically, if you get stuck with any of this stuff
because there's so much, you can just use that QR code
to go directly to the information and support guide,
which is actually very, very helpful.
It's very nice that that QR code can come to the rescue, R.
Speaking of things that come to the rescue,
thank you to everyone who helped support my channel
through Patreon and YouTube Channel Memberships.
And if you haven't yet seen it, please be sure
to check out my initial walkthrough of the RODECaster Pro II
to see all of the awesome things it can do...for you.
(Cue that outro)