Hey, are you looking for the best USB microphone on the market so you can record amazing quality sound directly into your computer? Well, so was I. So I purchased the RØDE NT-USB to see how it performed. In this review and test, I’ll share everything you need to know. Stay tuned.
Rode NT USB on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2nXlr8g
Grab your FREE Facebook Live Cheat sheets: http://saranguyenonline.com/special/facebook-live-cheat_sheets/
———Equipment Used To Shoot This Video ——-
Camera – Canon 80D
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Lens – Canon 18-55 Lens
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Teleprompter
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Microphone Rode Smart Lav+
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Microphone Boya By-M1
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Microphone adaptor – Rode SC3 3.5mm TRRS to TRS Adaptor
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Rode extension cable: http://amzn.to/2lPjStl
Lighting – Halo Prismatic Ring light
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Tripod – Manfrotto Compact Advance
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Rode NT-USB Microphone Review and Test Video Transcript
Hi, I’m Sara Nguyen, on this channel, I make tech and social media easier for awesome entrepreneurs like yourself. If you’re new to this channel, consider subscribing for all of the latest product reviews, social media tips and tutorials. You can also check out the description for links to everything mentioned in this video.
The RØDE NT-USB Microphone is a plug and play microphone, meaning you can take the cord, plug it into your Mac or PC. And this baby is meant to deliver high-quality audio with the convenience of it being a USB microphone. Inside the box you get: the microphone, the pop filter, the tripod, and a tripod ring mount.
You also get a case, an I love RØDE sticker and the user manual. The microphone has two nozzles. The top nozzle here allows you to select the microphone sound or a mix between the microphone and your computer sound if you’re recording with music. You also have a headphone jack where you can plug in your headphones and listen to the playback.
This nozzle on the bottom allows you to adjust the volume of your playback. The RØDE NT-USB doesn’t have a button to adjust the gain setting to control the volume level of the sound coming in. You can still adjust the gain or the microphone on your computer, just not on the microphone body itself.
There’s a gold dot here which marks the front of the microphone where you should speak into. Don’t do what I did and speak into the back of the microphone. Always speak into the front of the microphone and have it about 15 centimetres or 6 inches away from you at a slight angle. You also get an extremely long 6-metre cable that connects your microphone to the USB port of your computer.
The microphone base feels sturdy, and when attached to the microphone body, it doesn’t feel like everything is going to topple over. The pop filter and the ring mount also feel like they’re quality made. I do feel that the tripod is a little too short to use as a desktop microphone.
I found it frustrating trying to prop up the microphone with books and boxes, so I ended up purchasing the RØDE PSA1 which is a boom arm compatible with the RØDE NT-USB, and I love it. It allows me to have the microphone at a better height for me, and I turn it on the side so I can see my screen when recording content.
When I’m not using the microphone, I can just swing it to the side out of the way. The RØDE NT-USB microphone comes with a 12 months warranty. If you register the product online with RØDE, that will extend the warranty for an additional two years.
That’s pretty cool. I threw out the box of the microphone before I registered it and I emailed RØDE. They were really amazing and said that they would honour the warranty. And if I had any issues with microphone, all I had to do was contact them and provide proof of purchase, so go RØDE.
So all of these features sound really great, but what it really comes down to is the quality of the microphone. Let’s have a look at what the microphone sounds like when recording directly into my computer.
So here’s what it sounds like using the audio of the inbuilt microphone of my laptop computer. And here’s what it sounds like using the RØDE NT-USB plugged directly into my computer. As soon as I plug the RØDE NT-USB into my computer, the computer was able to detect it as an audio device without any issues.
The sound, as you can see, is significantly better with the RØDE NT-USB. I didn’t have to play around with any settings to get this quality sound, and now I’m going to be quiet so you can listen to the ambient noise.
Overall, I found that the RØDE NT-USB microphone delivered on its promise to give you good quality sound. It’s plug and play, so you don’t need to fiddle with any of the settings, and it’s quite easy to use.
As usual with any microphone, the quality of the sound also depends on the environment that you’re filming in, but I do think it’s up there as being one of the best USB microphones on the market.
I use it for recording video content and tutorials as well as when I’m live streaming, instead of using the inbuilt microphone of my webcam. If you found this video useful, give me a thumbs up and don’t forget to subscribe to my channel.
And if you’re interested in using Facebook live to grow your business, having a fantastic microphone is just one part of the equation.
You also need to figure out what to say, what topics to talk about, how to go live, and what other equipment you need to use.
So I’ve put together a Facebook Live Cheat Sheet. It’s a super simple guide that walks you through the basics you need to get up and streaming on Facebook live even if you’ve never hit record before. To get your hands on it, simply click on the link in the description below and thanks for watching.
