- 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)
