Podcaster, White

I've been podcasting on and off since late 2005, and I've had a lot of different mics. I've even had an Electro-Voice RE20, and more recently, an Electro-Voice RE320. I like this mic better. It is so easy to get clean sound out of this mic, and to not get the fuzziness and scratchy sibilance I was getting with the more expensive RE320. It's just dead silent when I'm not speaking, and when I am speaking, it's clean and clear and not at all fuzzy or noisy. I think you could probably get the same sound with the RE320 if you had it going through a very clean and powerful interface, but it wasn't happening for me, and I tried two different preamp/mixer combinations and a Shure X2U as well. Granted, I don't have thousands of dollars to spend on really good equipment. It's just clean and clear and sounds great. The true test was when I guested on another podcast and heard how good I sounded even recorded over Skype. It sounded great. With my previous mic, even if I sounded fine in my own recordings, I always sounded terrible on everyone else's, but with this mic, it just sounds good. On the Mac, you will have to crank the input volume for this mic up quite a bit. I have mine set to 83%, and it sounds quiet on recording before putting it into Logic with my EQ and gain settings. On the other hand, the volume was perfectly fine to others when I have used it on other podcasts or just conversing with people on G+ or Skype. If you're a podcaster, you could buy a bunch of equipment, and maybe you think you want to. But you don't. Unless you're running a ton of inputs into your system, you don't need a mixer, and you don't need a Heil PR 40. All you need is this one mic, and preferably the boom arm and the shockmount. You'll not regret it.

I love this microphone. It being USB makes it super easy to set up and configure, looks great, voice quality is amazing. I can't really say enough good things about it. Highly recommend.

For recording my voice (baritone), it does a great job. For extra warmth that means close-miking, which in turn means not popping your p's, etc. If you hold it close to your mouth but don't directly face it end-on, that's easily done (or get a pop filter). [...]. The microphone electronics are extremely quiet - the audio is sampled at 18 bits. It comes with a warranty which is easily extended to 10 years for free. The real-time headphone monitoring is a great idea and works well. It's a bit heavy (part of being built like a tank), and you need to think a little about how you're going to mount it, since some cheap desktop stands can barely manage it. Some things to keep in mind are: 1) It likes close-miking (at least for male voices) 2) It is USB-only 3) It is a on the bit large and heavy side. If those don't bother you, and the price is in your range, then you will probably like it a lot.

The first one arrived DOA (headphone monitoring jack had no audio), but other than that it had been very nice to work with. The Rode tech support called me back within an hour of submitting a case on the DOA product and offered a fast turnaround by sending it directly to them. I was going to send it back to the Amazon vendor, get a refund, and then order another one, but the support team convinced me to just send it straight back to them for a faster turnaround. And to be honest, looking at a few scratches here and there on the one that I was shipped left me with enough to suspect that I may have been sent a used/broken one by the Amazon reseller anyway, so I didn't want to send it back to them only to have it shipped out again to some other poor soul down the road. In then end it cost me an extra $25(ish) to FedEx the mic to them and the whole turnaround took about 8 days (they sent it Ground back to me, which is really my only complaint there, especially for a DOA product that was sent to them 2-Day Air). Still, what arrived back was a brand new replacement unit that has worked perfectly and I am quite pleased with the purchase and remain comfortable that any support issues will be reasonably addressed.

I just started using the mic for podcasting. It is a good fit. Simple plug and play with good sound. A good friend (Allan Tepper, from TecnoTur) recommended I try his and see if I liked it. I also tried the Heil PR40 (which he had) and the sound quality was very close. I believe I sounded better with the Podcaster. My podcasts are very short (Educational Exporting) and not having to buy additional equipment to connect the mic was a definite plus. I had echo in my first few tests and tech support assisted. They did have me run a few test and the issue was clearly identified to be software rather than the hardware. The tech support was not what I expected. Hours of operation are 2pm - 6pm PST. This makes it challenging when you need support. Also, the support came via email. The support was very good (which is why I did not grade them down for it). Wish list: Better hours of operations for support. Overall: Very Good. Will be buying another when I am ready for interviews

I had a few audio projects coming up and I didn't want to rely just on my built-in laptop microphone. But I am not an audio engineer and didn't want to have to buy racks of equipment just so I could record high-quality audio. I also wanted my setup to be portable and durable. So after shopping around I decided on the Rode Podcaster USB Microphone. This is a hefty microphone -- very solid design. Also, using it couldn't be easier. Just plug it into my laptop's USB port (Mac) and start recording -- no need for external power supplies or other interface gadgets. On a Mac, just plug in the mic, fire up Garage Band, and start recording. I've already mentioned the heft of the microphone -- this means that you will likely need a solid mic stand to support the mic, especially since it connects to the stand at the base of the mic, and so the result makes the stand and mic a little top-heavy. But I am very happy with this mic -- easy to use, durable, and makes high-quality recordings. (review by Kendall Giles)

We send the RØDE Podcaster to all of our new blogging and podcasting clients. We like it because it is heavy-duty, and dead simple to operate. You plug it in and get great sound. Nothing to adjust. Røde's warranty is superb. We've only ever had one mic fail and they repaired it with no questions. (We think the client may have dropped it, but no matter...it was fixed and returned to us). If you're thinking about recording solo audio or Skype audio calls, this is a great choice. If you're doing webcam video, it looks darned nice too. It's a big, heavy mic. Do yourself a favor and grab the shock mount if the mic will be sitting on a desktop stand. If you're using a boom arm, it's less important, but you should still consider it. Besides, it looks cool too. Our clients love it because of the simplicity and the cool factor of having a good-looking microphone on their desk. It gets conversations started about their podcasting! We've tried other mics (AT2020, Apogee Mic, Blue Nessie, etc) We keep coming back to the Podcaster because of sound, simplicity and reputation.

I wanted a microphone that actually worked consistently and projected my voice well. This is an amazing microphone. I wanted USB, rather than running a USB interface and an XLR input, something that could just stay in place turned on and ready as meetings come up through the day. This microphone plus Rode's boom work perfectly for this purpose. I figure I'm going to be presenting myself remotely for the foreseeable futre, at least I certainly hope I'm able to stay remote, and this makes the quality of the interactions go to a whole new level.