- This microphone, the RØDE NT-USB MINI
has always been a popular option for streamers
looking for a high quality microphone
that won't break the bank.
But last night, this got a huge and free software update
that might just make this the best streamer microphone
under $100.
Let's take a look.
(upbeat music)
So, the NT-USB MINI has been around
for a couple of years now.
It's a condenser microphone
with a cardioid pickup pattern
and a built in pop filter.
It comes with an included desk mount
or it could be attached to a Mic cam
and it comes in at just shy of $100.
So what's changed then?
Well, yesterday, RØDE released a new application
for windows and Mac iOS called RØDE Connect
which completely elevates this microphone to a new level.
What it allows you to do
is to mix all of your audio sources together.
So your microphone, your game audio,
and your discord chat
and then it handles all the rooting for you
so you can send just one audio source
to your streaming software
and can control a mix.
All of your audio from one place.
It also doubles as software
that you can use to record podcasts
with separate channels for each of your guests.
But I'm going to focus here on the live streamers perspective.
Now, those of you that watch my Elgato wave review
might recognize this software
as something that closely resembles Wave Link
and you're not wrong,
but there are some key differences.
Firstly, road connect supports up to
four separate microphones on a single computer
whereas Wave Link currently only supports one microphone.
This is obviously a big advantage
if you're doing a two or more person stream
or if you ever want to have a guest on for a podcast.
Being able to control four separate USB microphones
from a single computer
is something that used to cause issues.
RØDE Connect also allows you to
add some filters and effects to your microphones,
such as the noise gate, compressor,
big bottom effect and an oral exciter.
And those can really enhance the sound of your voice.
Currently Elgato's Wave Link,
doesn't support adding any filters to your voice.
So you have to do this through the streaming software
and adding some VST plugins.
But one area where Wave Link wins out
is it allows you to record nine separate channels
consisting of your microphone plus eight others.
Effectively allowing you find a control
over more audio sources.
Whereas RØDE Connect currently supports
three separate channels
consisting of your microphone, system sounds
and your chat application.
I don't see any reason
why RØDE won't be able to increase this over time
so that you can have more channels
and more control over different applications
because it's just about them adding another virtual device
on your computer.
So, let's test out the NT-USB MINI with RØDE Connect
and get it set up with OBS Studio
so we can see exactly how it sounds
and what kind of control you get
for your live streams.
Okay. So the first thing you need to do
is head to the RØDE website and download the connect app.
I'll leave a link down in the description below.
RØDE do require you to choose an operating system
between windows and Mac and enter an email,
but you won't be included in their newsletters
as long as you don't check the boxes.
So it's just for software updates.
Once that's downloaded,
unzip the file and just install the RØDE Connect app
by going through the wizard.
Once that's finished installing,
launch the RØDE Connect app
and then you can connect the NT-USB MINI
to the computer with the USB cable.
Once you're connected, you can click get started.
You can see here that my NT-USB MINI
requires a firmware update.
So I'm just going to do that now.
And if you have the same, obviously update that
so you can get the best functionality
out of the NT-USB MINI with RØDE Connect.
Now that the firmware update is complete,
we can drag our NT-USB MINI
into any of the four channels here.
So I'm going to drag it into channel one.
And as you can see here,
you can plug in four different NT-USB MINIs
into a single computer
and still use all the functionality of RØDE Connect.
But for me, it's just one microphone.
So drag it into one and then click next.
Next we can drag our system and virtual devices
into these available channels.
These are effectively going to be our system sounds.
So all the sounds coming through our PC like our game,
and our virtual device is going to be our chat application.
So something like discord and then click next.
Okay. So here we are in the RØDE Connect app
and you can see we have three separate faders.
One for our microphone,
one for our system sounds
and one for our chat application.
First of all though,
let's look at what controls we get over the microphone.
So by clicking on the channel,
we bring up some options for the microphone controls
such as the gain of the microphones.
So we want to end up in this green section here
as well as options to enable the noise gates and compressor
that run on the digital signal processor
built into the microphone.
You also get some options here
to enable the Aphex Aural Exciter and big bottom effects.
These are effects that are typically found
on much more expensive interfaces,
things like the Rode caster pro
you can enable them here
to enhance the sound of your voice.
So next let's make sure that
we set up our system sounds
to be running through this system channel.
So on windows, you need to head through your sound settings
which you can get to from the control panel
and just make sure your output device here
is set to system output RØDE Connect.
What this effectively means is that
now any sounds that happen on your PC
are going to be coming through this system channel.
The only thing that we're going to separate out
is our team chat into this virtual channel.
So to get discord audio
to come through this virtual device here
we want to open up discord,
go to user settings, voice and video,
and we want to set our input device
to be virtual input RØDE Connect
and our output device to be virtual output RØDE Connect.
So find these two devices,
make sure they're set up in discord,
and then you can close back out of discord
and all of your discord audio now
is going to be coming through this virtual channel.
So the last thing that we need to do
is actually set up our streaming software
to take this mix of audio as a single input
and make sure that our stream can hear it.
So open up your streaming software of choice.
For me that's OBS Studio,
go to settings and then audio tab
and make sure that we set the mic slash auxiliary audio
to stream input RØDE Connect.
So make sure you have this one selected,
add that as the audio source,
and you can see here my microphone
but also my discord chat and any system sounds,
my game sound will be coming through this single channel.
And if you need to make any changes to any of your audio,
you can do that from the RØDE Connect app.
This is where you're going to control
all aspects of your audio.
So your teammates, your system sounds,
your game sound, your microphone,
all controlled in RØDE Connect.
And then OBS is just taking that one audio mix
and sending it out to your stream.
Okay. So I've swapped the audio over
now from the shotgun microphone I was using before
to the $100 NT-USB.
So you can hear exactly how it sounds.
One thing I would recommend
like I do with all microphones is
not to use the included desk mounts
because they just make the microphone
too far away from your mouth
and much closer to your keyboard sounds
get it up on a boom arm, like the RØDE PSA one
or even just a cheap Amazon alternative
and get that microphone closer to your mouth.
As you can see here in the RØDE Connect app,
I have all of the options enabled
and my game's set to around 25.
If I disable these effects.
So this is how my microphone sounds
without any of the effects enabled.
I'm going to enable them again.
I do think it's a little bit limiting
that these are just check boxes
and you have no extra controls.
I guess it's a little bit more beginner friendly
that you can just enable a noise gate with an option.
But, personally, the know that I am,
I would love to dive in and be able to
adjust the threshold of the gates and the compressor
and things like that.
I would also love if RØDE
built in functionality to be able to mute
and change volumes of sources
into something like the Stream Deck.
I realized, that's probably not going to happen
because effectively RØDE and Elgato are competitors
and they built a very similar application to each other.
So it's probably a bit of a pipe dream
but at least if RØDE could implement some way of saying
keyboard shortcuts to at least mute certain sources
that would be really handy for us streamers.
I'm excited to see where this app goes.
I said before, I'd love for them to add a few more channels.
That's a bit more competitive with the Wave Link app
but the fact that you can record multiple microphones
in one PC is really great.
And I'd love to see, is RØDE going to go down the same path
that Shure has done with the MV7
and turn some of their really popular broadcast mics
like the RØDE Procaster
into USB alternatives that will use the RØDE Connect app?
Hopefully this video has been helpful.
If it has to, give it a thumbs up
and let me know down in the comments,
what do you think of the $100
or sub $100 NT-USB MINI
now that the RØDE Connect app
allows loads more control over your stream audio.
I'd love to hear your thoughts
and I'll catch you in the next video.
Peace.
(upbeat music)
Jimmy Fallon has the budget
and the ability to hire a team that can make this good.
(chuckles)
If he reached out to me,
I'd do him a deal.
I told you about this last week,
10 grand and I'll help you serve OBS.
It's easy.
- Jimmy come on, we've got connections for you man.
- I mean, come on Jimmy, just hit me up.
I'm only a Google away.