The $100 Rode VideoMic GO II is EXCELLENT

hey guys caleb here and this is the new rode videomic go 2 and at 100 you're not going to find another microphone that has as many features as this tiny microphone does you can use it on cameras boom poles or even on your computer as an input and output with headphone direct monitoring there's a lot going on with this tiny microphone in a second we'll dive into the features and sound quality of this little guy but first a quick disclaimer rode did send me this microphone for review but they haven't seen this video they're not paying me and all of that said i have ordered two of these for myself because i'm a big fan the rode wireless go 2 is a super cardioid mini shotgun meaning it is fairly directional with a slight tail at the rear of the pickup pattern the go 2 comes with a rycote style mount which is adjustable and has cable management built in a front foam cover usb c to a cable and a super thin 3.5 millimeter cable for connecting to your camera the body of the microphone is tiny as you can see here compared to the rode video micro and rode videomic ntg the go 2 also has shielding so you can use it with devices like the rode wireless go 2 and there will be no hum or interference issues for inputs and outputs we have a usbc jack on one side and a 3.5 millimeter trs output on the other this mic uses plug-in power so you simply connect it to your camera and you're done but things get really interesting when you connect the go 2 to your computer or smartphone once connected the go to shows up as an audio input for your computer so you can use it for live streams meetings podcasting or even gaming and when you fire up the rode central app you can unlock a ton of additional options there is a pad which drops the output by about 18 db input level control when using the microphone with a computer or phone high pass filter for cutting out unwanted low frequency sounds a high frequency boost for use with the optional furry windshield and finally we have the monitoring options with the microphone connected over usb you can use it as an audio output for your computer and if desired you can also turn on direct monitoring with this button in the software once on you will hear the sound from the microphone with zero latency along with your system sound and you can adjust the output volume of the microphone to match your computer's sound using a slider in the software this is perfect for anyone using a microphone with a computer because you can perfectly balance out what you're hearing over your computer as well as what's coming from the microphone and get that mix just right on top of all that using the right adapter you can make all of these changes on your phone using the rode central mobile app all of that is great but how does the microphone actually sound well i did a comparison against the deity d4 mini which so far has been the best budget option at around 50 bucks i also threw in a recording from the rode video micro and compared them to the rode videomic go 2. these recordings were done with the microphones boomed just out of frame and recorded into my a7s 3 with levels set to 10 in camera and i matched the levels in post-production so let's take a listen this is an audio test my name's caleb pike testing one two three testing one two three four this is an audio test my name's caleb pike testing one two three testing 1 2 3 4. this is an audio test my name is caleb pike testing one two three testing one two three four as you probably heard the rode video might go to had a lot more going on when it comes to the lower frequencies compared to those other two microphones but what you couldn't hear was the level difference between this and those other microphones the go 2 is the most sensitive of these three with second place going to the dd d4 which was 3 db quieter than the go 2 and the rode videomicro was in last place as it was 7 db quieter than the go 2. so when it comes to sensitivity this microphone is great because you're going to have more output which means you don't have to push your cameras preamp is hard which in the end will result in lower noise which we always want so for this next setup we're going to be kind of creating a podcasting or live streaming setup using the rode go 2. so i have it mounted to this arm here this is also made by rode i just kind of covered up the branding because it's a little too in your face in my opinion but it's a great arm it works really well so when you're done streaming you just push it out of the way you're good to go when you're ready to film or record a podcast you just pull it out and you're good to go so we've got the microphone the usb cable is using the clips on the arm here that's connected to my macbook and you'll see here on screen i've got a recording going we have the rode central app up and i can go up to my audio settings and you'll see that i have the output set to the rode videomic go to i'll let go of that and i can press on the option key click it again and you'll also see the input which i can also set to the road go to with that done you can fire up any software and choose this microphone to use it what i can also do at this point is take my headphones and plug it into the microphone's 3.5 millimeter i'll put these on and now i'm going to switch to a recording of this output so you can hear exactly what i'm hearing so right now we can hear myself coming over this microphone i'm also going to open up a browser here and start playing gerald undone's video in the background but not wide angles where just now you can hear gerald i can talk over gerald and the beautiful thing let me pause that real quick is that i can control all these levels so that they're not you know fighting over each other so if i need to hear myself more and gerald less i could turn him down i could also go over to the road central app and under the direct monitoring we'll click that we have direct monitoring turned on you can see that with this icon here and i can turn myself up really loud oh my goodness or turn it really really low you can just customize all these levels which i absolutely love if the microphone isn't loud enough i can go into the input level here and make changes to that pretty straightforward stuff so that's the beauty of this setup is with a pair of headphones and this microphone and a fancy arm if you want you can have a really really simple setup using a single cable going to your computer and just to round out the test now i have the camera at arm's length with the microphone on top with the a7 s3 and we're just going to be able to see what this sounds like with the microphone a little further away from my face so this microphone is fantastic but there are three things i wish rode had done slightly differently or added to this thing first i wish rode had included that furry windshield in the box along with the microphone like they've done with the rode video micro i also wish there was an additional 3.5 millimeter jack that could be used as an output like the deity d4 mini that way you could connect a rode wireless go and have both mics fed into your camera or recorder and finally while the software options are great i do wish some of those settings had numbers associated to them so you could more accurately see where your levels are but even without those features this is now my favorite on-camera microphone i just love how many uses this thing has on a camera on a boom pole for software podcasting and even gaming which is how i'm going to be using one of the two go-to's that i purchased today so if you want to learn more about the go to check out the information in the description i want to thank you so much for watching hope you have a wonderful rest of your day and we will see you in the next video

Channel: DSLR Video Shooter

Views: 243,610

Keywords: rode, videomic, go, Rode VideoMic GO II, review, test, comparison, deity, d4 mini, audio test, budget microphone, shogun microphone, podcasting, streaming, best mic, mic, microphone, Caleb Pike, dslr video shooter

Id: rBvh327ErYg

Length: 7min 26sec (446 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 11 2022