Rode podcast gadget gets a boost

The “Rodecaster Pro” all-in-one audio mixer for podcast production has a new software version now available following user feedback and requests.

Firmware v2.0 offers the ability to save a snapshot of all settings to a companion app, so that getting ready for different podcasts can be done at the touch of a button. It can also now transfer podcasts from the inbuilt micro SD card to a computer.

Most usefully perhaps, at least for the real-time podcast production, is the upgrade to sound banks which enabled eight banks of sounds to be loaded to the eight hotkeys, thus giving 64 quickly-accessible sound effects, jingles, songs or whatever.

A new on-screen display also shows how long until each sound finishes and an indicator of which button is currently selected.

New features that befit the gadget’s “pro” label include a pre-fade listen so you can audition a channel without putting it live, an “off air chat” facility for callers, and the option to mute studio loudspeakers when microphones go live so as not to cause nasty mic feedback squeal.

Rode also says the sound quality should be better due to tweaks to the processing engine, although quite what a more “sparkly” recording means is not specified – it is to be hoped they’re not adding effects or compression that the user cannot defeat if required.

All in all, it sounds like a useful update to a neat piece of kit that would grace any podcasters studio, especially since they also added multitrack recording in the last update, the omission of which many folk had criticised in the original release.

Have a look at their video talking all about it: