First Look: RØDECaster Pro II Audio Production Suite

I’ve been using a RØDECaster Duo mixer for a little while now, and as regular readers will know, I am amazed that, like Blackmagic Design with the Blackmagic Design ATEM Mini Pro, the company has managed to pack so much functionality into such a small space.

If you are not familiar with the RØDECaster Duo, it is a multi-channel audio mixer with XLR, ¼”, USB and Bluetooth connectivity for mics, musical instruments and other devices such as PCs, smartphones and tablets. There are also banks of touchpads which can store audio stings, special effects or act as MIDI triggers.

And I love it!

It lets me effectively and easily create the tutorial and reviews in conjunction with the Blackmagic Design ATEM Mini Pro and a set of either Sennheiser wireless or XLR / ¼” TRS mics. Not more than a few years back, such a device would cost in the $1,000s but you can have one today for around AUD$700.

Enter the RØDECaster Pro II

But if you need to add more mics or instruments, you need the RØDECaster Pro II, which turned up yesterday.

This unit allows up to 9 input devices to be connected with 4 combo XLR / ¼” TRS ports, 2 wireless receivers for RØDE wireless mics, Bluetooth connectivity and twin USB-C ports.

It is correspondingly bigger and heavier than the Duo, but not that big I can’t still fit it on my desk along with the Blackmagic Design ATEM Mini Pro, a DaVinci Speed Editor, Loupedeck CT and of course, keyboard and mouse.

Initial setup is via a built-in wizard run from the touch screen of the RØDECaster Pro II although you can also do a manual setup from here, or alternatively, use the RØDE Central app. It’s all pretty straight forward, especially if you are using all RØDE gear of course.

Tweak Time

If like me you use a combination of mics and other input devices, plus send output to speakers as well as the Blackmagic Design ATEM Mini Pro for video recording, allow a bit of time with tweaking however, especially on choosing the correct mic types for each of the faders and the setting the appropriate dB levels and any processing you might want.

I admit it took a fair amount of time to get the Duo set up perfectly, but that background knowledge became invaluable for the Pro II – although I still have a bit of playing around to do to get this setup exactly as I want it.

But I did have a fully working system within 20 minutes of unboxing.

I’ll have further detail on that sides of things in a separate story shortly.

The RØDECaster Pro II costs AUD$849 and is available from retailers such as digiDirect Australia, Kosmic Sound or DJ City.