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Rode Podcaster, White

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Customer reviews

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

339 global ratings

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Rode Podcaster, White

byRode

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Top positive review

Positive reviews›

spence.munsinger

great microphone for zoom meetings...

Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2023

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.

Top critical review

Critical reviews›

Really Bad for the PRICE

Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2010

I'm not sure why this thing has gotten so many 5-star reviews. Must be because people haven't really compared it side-by-side with other mics. I got it a couple of months ago and was not happy with the spoken voice recording quality from the start. But today when I had an opportunity to compare it to another (and much cheaper) mic, I was really disappointed in the Rode.

You can use audio mixing software to add a few little effects to it that have the net effect of getting rid of the tinny sound. But it starts with a very tinny sound and that's not a good place to start.

To give you an example check out this page... since Amazon doesn't allow URLs anymore search on this phrase: "Grateful as some are that Apple builds microphones into the iMac and its laptops" and it should be the top article... the one in pcworld.

Scroll down and you'll see some links to recordings this guy has done from several different mics, including the Rode podcaster. Listen to the AKG (which isn't a USB mic), then listen to the Marhsall MXL then the Samson G - then the Rode's. I think you'll hear the difference.

For spoken word recordings this mic is almost totally unusuable IF you care about tonal quality. In other words, every voice will sound much higher pitched than it really is. And you'll sound like you're speaking from inside a tin can. You can fix some of that with good audio software... but it's not the same as capturing it right the first time, during your live recording.

Kind of like digital cameras... you can "fix" and enhance images on your computer. But if you start out with a poor quality image you're gonna end up with poor quality image -- even if the software enhanced image is better than the original.

This mic would be fine if it cost say, $30 - $50... then it would be about what you expect. It is better than the real cheap-o $19 mics. But for the current price of 230 it's REALLY BAD!

I just replaced it with a $115 Audio-Technica (also from Amazon) and that mic is far better when it comes to spoken word recordings. It really captures your voice in a more realistic way. It's comparable to the Marshall and Samson mics mentioned above.

Good luck!

41 people found this helpful

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From the United States

spence.munsinger

great microphone for zoom meetings...

Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2023

Verified Purchase

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.

Customer image

Great mike but can't control gain

Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2023

Verified Purchase

I don't know the technical reason why (perhaps it's because it's USB only connection and there's no pre-amp) but you can't control gain on this microphone. Translation: if you want that rich radio voice sound you need to be very close to it, with your mouth 1-2" from the pop filter.

Beautiful clean sound with no fussing around

Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2013

Verified Purchase

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.

24 people found this helpful

Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2022

Verified Purchase

I like it so far the sound is awesome. Picks up my voice a little to well cause now I know I have a slur to my voice but that’s not going to stop me

Solid Product - The 2nd Time Around

Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2010

Verified Purchase

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.

5 people found this helpful

Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2022

Verified Purchase

The sound is crisp and beautiful. The only issue I've had is it records lower than my previous mic so I had to really work with my settings to get it to a good level without it distorting in my editing software. It's an amazing mic though. Worth every penny.

Really Bad for the PRICE

Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2010

Verified Purchase

I'm not sure why this thing has gotten so many 5-star reviews. Must be because people haven't really compared it side-by-side with other mics. I got it a couple of months ago and was not happy with the spoken voice recording quality from the start. But today when I had an opportunity to compare it to another (and much cheaper) mic, I was really disappointed in the Rode.

You can use audio mixing software to add a few little effects to it that have the net effect of getting rid of the tinny sound. But it starts with a very tinny sound and that's not a good place to start.

To give you an example check out this page... since Amazon doesn't allow URLs anymore search on this phrase: "Grateful as some are that Apple builds microphones into the iMac and its laptops" and it should be the top article... the one in pcworld.

Scroll down and you'll see some links to recordings this guy has done from several different mics, including the Rode podcaster. Listen to the AKG (which isn't a USB mic), then listen to the Marhsall MXL then the Samson G - then the Rode's. I think you'll hear the difference.

For spoken word recordings this mic is almost totally unusuable IF you care about tonal quality. In other words, every voice will sound much higher pitched than it really is. And you'll sound like you're speaking from inside a tin can. You can fix some of that with good audio software... but it's not the same as capturing it right the first time, during your live recording.

Kind of like digital cameras... you can "fix" and enhance images on your computer. But if you start out with a poor quality image you're gonna end up with poor quality image -- even if the software enhanced image is better than the original.

This mic would be fine if it cost say, $30 - $50... then it would be about what you expect. It is better than the real cheap-o $19 mics. But for the current price of 230 it's REALLY BAD!

I just replaced it with a $115 Audio-Technica (also from Amazon) and that mic is far better when it comes to spoken word recordings. It really captures your voice in a more realistic way. It's comparable to the Marshall and Samson mics mentioned above.

Good luck!

41 people found this helpful

Austin M.M. Wilkes

Make sure you have what you need.

Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2016

Verified Purchase

Absolutely a great microphone. The sound of this mic is great and the only place it really has any trouble is with the highs.

You should make sure you have a few things before you get this microphone. This is a very wide microphone and I could barely fit it in the shock mount I had. As well as wide it is VERY HEAVY. If you plan on using a boom arm I would make sure it can handle the weight of it. This as well goes for any stand you use. This microphone does not come with a stand. I would also recommend you get a pop filter or windscreen. It has a built-in pop filter but its really not that good.

Other than just needing a few things with this microphone ( Which you would need with any microphone ) it is a very good microphone overall and helps me keep out the noise of cars passing by.

17 people found this helpful

Shortcut Blogging

We send it to all of our clients

Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2013

Verified Purchase

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.

18 people found this helpful

Solid microphone for convenient high-quality audio

Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2009

Verified Purchase

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)

6 people found this helpful

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