RØDE Microphones Procaster Broadcast Dynamic Vocal Microphone

The Rode Procaster is a solid, high quality broadcast dynamic microphone, especially if you are on a budget and want something that gets you close to a Shure SM7B without paying SM7B money. With a bit of EQ, this mic sounds clean, professional, and very well balanced. I have been using it as my daily driver since I bought it and I could not be happier with it. It handles vocals really well, rejects background noise nicely with some extra EQ , and has a nice warm broadcast sound that really makes your voice pop in recordings. Once you phone that it in, it easily holds up in general content creation and podcasting. This was a clear step up from the Rode PodMic for me both in sound and overall presence. If you want to look and sound more professional without jumping straight to the SM7B price range, the Procaster is an excellent choice and still feels like a long term mic you will not outgrow quickly.

What a value! So smooth, beautiful, rich, saturated tone. Build quality is great. Just a heavy mic. Make sure you pair this mic with an interface with 60 or more decibels of gain because it needs 50 and you don’t want to max out your interface and get the noise floor(airy sound) creeping into your audio

I was using the Audio Technica AT2020 condenser mic for quite some time. While it is a very good microphone, it was very sensitive in picking up my background noise. I needed a dynamic mic that would only capture just my voice with very little to possibly no background noise. I read up on the Procaster and thought, even though it's a microphone that has been available for quite some time, it looks to be the mic that I needed. And that it was! First impressions, the mic is built like a truck. Solid metal casing, nice grilles along the top end, and even though I have no experience with any high end or expensive studio microphones, I just knew the procaster would meet my expectations based on the construction. Not only is it built solidly, but it has some serious weight to it. It's about 1.5 to 1.7 lbs, so my cheap boom arm was not going to handle it. I have read that you need a cloudlifter or some sort of preamp to use with the mic, which is somewhat true. The input or sound is very low. However, I didn't need one as the mixer I have had more than enough preamp ability to provide sufficient gain to the mic. If you have a mixer with a good preamp, then you don't need to spend the extra money for an additional preamp. The procaster is exactly what I needed. It captures my voice (which is deeper) extremely well. Most notably, it does not pick up much of the background noise that my AT2020 would. Perfect! I just had to adjust to keeping my mouth near the mic to maintain sound. It comes with a built in pop filter, which I can confirm works great. I could use the foam pop filter I had lying around, but the mic just looks sexier without it. It does not need any phantom power to work either since it is a dynamic microphone! The mic came in a nice leather pouch, with an adapter and some docs in the box. I was very please to see that I could register and get the 10 year warranty for the mic. 10 years! That tells me RODE is confident in their products. Overall, the quality, the performance, and price, just outstanding across the board! When I need additional equipment, RODE will be the very first in line for my business!

The Setup: I use the Rode Procaster as my primary microphone for home podcasting. It is mounted on a Rode PSA1+ arm with a PSM1 shock mount. Because this is a gain-hungry dynamic mic, I run it through a Triton Audio FetHead into my Pyle 12-Channel Mixer, which feeds my Tascam DR-60D MKII. ​Audio Quality & Performance: The Procaster delivers that deep, "broadcaster" tone that makes any voice sound professional. The tight cardioid pattern is its best feature; it does an amazing job of rejecting background noise like PC fans or room echo. With the FetHead providing clean gain, the signal is dead quiet and crystal clear—no hiss at all. ​Build & Design: ​Tank-Like Build: This mic is heavy and all-metal. You definitely need a quality arm like the PSA1+ to hold it, but the build quality feels like it will last a lifetime. ​Internal Pop Filter: It handles plosives well on its own, though I added a Rode WS2 for that extra layer of "safety" during high-energy segments. ​XLR Reliability: The connection is solid, and it plays perfectly with my mixer and live phone call setup. ​Final Verdict: If you want your podcast to sound like a professional radio station, the Procaster is the answer. When paired with a good preamp like a FetHead, it rivals mics that cost twice as much.

The sound is buttery and rich; miles ahead of the $65 generic USB mic. I didn't realize how big a difference it would make! This mic needs a pre-amp of some kind. If you just use a mixer, you need to turn the gain up quite far, so you'll need a decent mixer to make sure the signal is clean at those higher levels. (I'm using Behringer gear, and above about 75%, you start to hear unwanted line hiss. Installing a Cloudlifter fixed that problem. Whatever the case, this mic requires that you spend more heavily on the rest of your gear. Definitely the next level up from cheap beginner YouTubing, and you'll pay for it. The Procaster has good sound rejection from the sides and rear. With the right adjustments and a less clacky keyboard, I find I can get rid of typing noises from the desk. The mic, as others have indicated, is much heavier than your standard budget mic, so bear that in mind when working out your mounting solution. I was about to get another two of these, (I have two condenser mics I was quite happy with in terms of sound quality, but they pick up everything from far away, from the other sides of walls, so dynamic mics are the answer.), but instead of dropping $600, I instead spent half that to get the next tier down; two Rode Podmics. Judging by YouTube comparisons, they don't sound as nice out of box as the Procaster, but I'm hoping with some compression tricks and equalization, they'll serve. I also like that they have a slightly greater effective speaking range than the Procaster. When interviewing guests who are not necessarily trained in audio work, I want people to feel comfortable not being right on top of their mic. But we'll see. If they don't work out as I hope, I'll return them and get another two of these Procasters. **********Update: The cheaper Podmics worked; they're nice little mics, and with compression and tweaking they do nearly sound as good.., but not quite. There's just something nagging at the edge. I ended up buying another Procaster and am very happy with that. An expensive experiment!

Excellent quality microphone for voiceovers, podcasts, and broadcasts

This is a superb dynamic mic that is a serious alternative to the Shure SM7b. Whilst the SM7b has some advantages like better internal shock mounting, I prefer my voice on the Procaster. As many people have pointed out, this mic needs a lot of gain and +50dB without hiss is a lot of ask of many interfaces, hence the advice to use a Fethead or CloudLifter. An interesting, albeit slightly more expensive alternative is to get a dbx286s. This is a slim 1U rackmountable unit that gives you a lot of clean gain, it also includes a de-esser, a gate you can use to hide background noise, along with a low frequency control that gives you that "radio voice" and a high frequency alternative that adds a pleasant crispness. Now you could do some of those things in post-production if you are recording, but it is a great option if you are live (or like me have a huge problem with external noise from the street). I realise I'm in danger of reviewing the dbx rather than the Rode, but they make such a perfect combination for live streaming I think it is worth mentioning. This setup really brings out the best in the Rode mic. The Procaster itself is incredibly solid. I think it benefits from the Rode shockmount and boom arm, but that's a personal choice depending on how you intend to use it. I think it needs some sort of pop filter, you can get 3rd party alternatives to the Rode foam pop filter, which is a bit expensive. A more visually attractive option is the metal grill available from Roxdon. It is expensive but custom made for the Procaster. If your mic is in shot then it looks really nice. It is great for use in untreated rooms or noisy environments, so a very forgiving choice if you are recording or streaming from a room you cannot treat for sound. To some extent this would be true of any dynamic mic, but this has a large diaphragm to capture a full rendition of your voice and rejects lots of sound from the sides and behind. Naturally the Procaster will work better with some voices than others e.g. I'm not a singer, but if I were I'd be a light tenor. I use some breathing exercises so I am speaking from my diaphragm and not my throat, which would have a more constricted sound. So while this mic is good out of the box, you can also learn to sound better on it e.g. finding the sweet spot in terms of distance. BTW if you literally just want to record straight onto your computer and avoid all XLR type stuff then there is the Rode Podcaster, which is basically the same mic but with USB and a socket for your headphones. XLR mics give you more options for the future, but I appreciate some people might want to just plug it in and record.

Super mais bien faire attention au type de micro. Il faut être bien en face et avoir la carte son adaptée. Beaucoup de paramétrage et réglage pas adapté aux débutants.

I have been making a living from online videos for at least a decade. Through this time I purchased MANY microphones. I made the mistake early on by purchasing condenser mics for my vocal recordings. I had tried dynamic mics in the past but found the impedance was too high and left me with post recording processing to remove noise. This mic comes in with very good volume and no detectable noise at all. The internal pop filter works perfectly. I am simply using the Rode WS2 windshield and find its working perfectly. Vocals sound really smooth and broadcast quality. Build quality is typical Rode high quality. If you are looking for the best value mic for podcasting vocals and don't want to have to filter out noise later this is the only choice in my honest opinion. Well done Rode!