“Lyre” upgrade for Videomic pro

Microphone manufacturer Rode has had a relationship with British mic accessory-maker Rycote for quite a while, with the latter’s “Lyre” suspension system turning up in products such as the latest version of the Rode Blimp windshield.

Now the two have teamed up again to put the Lyre onto one of Rode’s smaller offerings, the VideoMic Pro.

Beloved of many a video maker for its compact size, low price and decent sound, the VideoMic pro is a mini shotgun mic that elevates the audio quality of consumer camcorders and many a DSLR by providing much better sound than any built-in microphones. Its built-in battery-powered amp also means you can shove a decent level of signal out of a VMPro so as to be able to turn down the horrid preamps in the camera, thereby making sweeter music together.

The new version – dubbed VMP-R (for Rycote) – suspends the mic in the fiendishly flexible (and almost unbreakable) Lyre plastic instead of using old-school elastic bands. It should mean even less handling noise is picked up and also a longer life for the suspension with less chance of snapping a band.

Better still, they’ve gone a step further with a new mic capsule promising “higher sensitivity and lower self-noise”. As a result the mic is slightly bigger than before.

Get the full gen over at www.rode.com/microphones/videomicpro