[0:00] - This microphone, the RØDE NT-USB MINI
[0:03] has always been a popular
option for streamers
[0:05] looking for a high quality microphone
[0:07] that won't break the bank.
[0:08] But last night, this got a
huge and free software update
[0:11] that might just make this
the best streamer microphone
[0:13] under $100.
[0:15] Let's take a look.
[0:16] (upbeat music)
[0:20] So, the NT-USB MINI has been around
[0:22] for a couple of years now.
[0:24] It's a condenser microphone
[0:25] with a cardioid pickup pattern
[0:27] and a built in pop filter.
[0:28] It comes with an included desk mount
[0:30] or it could be attached to a Mic cam
[0:32] and it comes in at just shy of $100.
[0:34] So what's changed then?
[0:35] Well, yesterday, RØDE
released a new application
[0:38] for windows and Mac
iOS called RØDE Connect
[0:40] which completely elevates this
microphone to a new level.
[0:43] What it allows you to do
[0:44] is to mix all of your
audio sources together.
[0:46] So your microphone, your game audio,
[0:48] and your discord chat
[0:49] and then it handles
all the rooting for you
[0:51] so you can send just one audio source
[0:53] to your streaming software
[0:54] and can control a mix.
[0:55] All of your audio from one place.
[0:57] It also doubles as software
[0:59] that you can use to record podcasts
[1:00] with separate channels
for each of your guests.
[1:02] But I'm going to focus here on
the live streamers perspective.
[1:05] Now, those of you that
watch my Elgato wave review
[1:07] might recognize this software
[1:09] as something that closely
resembles Wave Link
[1:11] and you're not wrong,
[1:12] but there are some key differences.
[1:13] Firstly, road connect supports up to
[1:16] four separate microphones
on a single computer
[1:18] whereas Wave Link currently
only supports one microphone.
[1:21] This is obviously a big advantage
[1:23] if you're doing a two
or more person stream
[1:26] or if you ever want to have
a guest on for a podcast.
[1:28] Being able to control four
separate USB microphones
[1:30] from a single computer
[1:32] is something that used to cause issues.
[1:33] RØDE Connect also allows you to
[1:35] add some filters and
effects to your microphones,
[1:37] such as the noise gate, compressor,
[1:39] big bottom effect and an oral exciter.
[1:42] And those can really enhance
the sound of your voice.
[1:44] Currently Elgato's Wave Link,
[1:46] doesn't support adding
any filters to your voice.
[1:48] So you have to do this
through the streaming software
[1:50] and adding some VST plugins.
[1:51] But one area where Wave Link wins out
[1:54] is it allows you to record
nine separate channels
[1:56] consisting of your
microphone plus eight others.
[1:59] Effectively allowing you find a control
[2:01] over more audio sources.
[2:03] Whereas RØDE Connect currently supports
[2:04] three separate channels
[2:05] consisting of your
microphone, system sounds
[2:08] and your chat application.
[2:09] I don't see any reason
[2:10] why RØDE won't be able to
increase this over time
[2:12] so that you can have more channels
[2:14] and more control over
different applications
[2:16] because it's just about them
adding another virtual device
[2:19] on your computer.
[2:20] So, let's test out the
NT-USB MINI with RØDE Connect
[2:24] and get it set up with OBS Studio
[2:25] so we can see exactly how it sounds
[2:27] and what kind of control you get
[2:28] for your live streams.
[2:29] Okay. So the first thing you need to do
[2:31] is head to the RØDE website
and download the connect app.
[2:33] I'll leave a link down
in the description below.
[2:36] RØDE do require you to
choose an operating system
[2:38] between windows and
Mac and enter an email,
[2:40] but you won't be included
in their newsletters
[2:42] as long as you don't check the boxes.
[2:44] So it's just for software updates.
[2:46] Once that's downloaded,
[2:47] unzip the file and just
install the RØDE Connect app
[2:50] by going through the wizard.
[2:52] Once that's finished installing,
[2:53] launch the RØDE Connect app
[2:55] and then you can connect the NT-USB MINI
[2:57] to the computer with the USB cable.
[2:59] Once you're connected,
you can click get started.
[3:01] You can see here that my NT-USB MINI
[3:03] requires a firmware update.
[3:05] So I'm just going to do that now.
[3:06] And if you have the same,
obviously update that
[3:09] so you can get the best functionality
[3:10] out of the NT-USB MINI with RØDE Connect.
[3:13] Now that the firmware update is complete,
[3:15] we can drag our NT-USB MINI
[3:17] into any of the four channels here.
[3:19] So I'm going to drag it into channel one.
[3:21] And as you can see here,
[3:22] you can plug in four
different NT-USB MINIs
[3:25] into a single computer
[3:26] and still use all the
functionality of RØDE Connect.
[3:28] But for me, it's just one microphone.
[3:30] So drag it into one and then click next.
[3:32] Next we can drag our
system and virtual devices
[3:35] into these available channels.
[3:36] These are effectively going
to be our system sounds.
[3:39] So all the sounds coming
through our PC like our game,
[3:41] and our virtual device is going
to be our chat application.
[3:44] So something like discord
and then click next.
[3:46] Okay. So here we are
in the RØDE Connect app
[3:48] and you can see we have
three separate faders.
[3:50] One for our microphone,
[3:51] one for our system sounds
[3:53] and one for our chat application.
[3:55] First of all though,
[3:56] let's look at what controls
we get over the microphone.
[3:58] So by clicking on the channel,
[3:59] we bring up some options
for the microphone controls
[4:02] such as the gain of the microphones.
[4:03] So we want to end up in
this green section here
[4:05] as well as options to enable
the noise gates and compressor
[4:08] that run on the digital signal processor
[4:10] built into the microphone.
[4:11] You also get some options here
[4:12] to enable the Aphex Aural
Exciter and big bottom effects.
[4:16] These are effects that are typically found
[4:17] on much more expensive interfaces,
[4:19] things like the Rode caster pro
[4:21] you can enable them here
[4:22] to enhance the sound of your voice.
[4:25] So next let's make sure that
[4:26] we set up our system sounds
[4:28] to be running through this system channel.
[4:30] So on windows, you need to head
through your sound settings
[4:33] which you can get to
from the control panel
[4:35] and just make sure your output device here
[4:37] is set to system output RØDE Connect.
[4:39] What this effectively means is that
[4:41] now any sounds that happen on your PC
[4:43] are going to be coming
through this system channel.
[4:45] The only thing that we're
going to separate out
[4:47] is our team chat into
this virtual channel.
[4:50] So to get discord audio
[4:51] to come through this virtual device here
[4:53] we want to open up discord,
[4:54] go to user settings, voice and video,
[4:57] and we want to set our input device
[4:59] to be virtual input RØDE Connect
[5:01] and our output device to be
virtual output RØDE Connect.
[5:04] So find these two devices,
[5:06] make sure they're set up in discord,
[5:07] and then you can close back out of discord
[5:09] and all of your discord audio now
[5:11] is going to be coming
through this virtual channel.
[5:13] So the last thing that we need to do
[5:14] is actually set up our streaming software
[5:16] to take this mix of
audio as a single input
[5:19] and make sure that our stream can hear it.
[5:21] So open up your streaming
software of choice.
[5:22] For me that's OBS Studio,
[5:24] go to settings and then audio tab
[5:26] and make sure that we set
the mic slash auxiliary audio
[5:29] to stream input RØDE Connect.
[5:32] So make sure you have this one selected,
[5:33] add that as the audio source,
[5:35] and you can see here my microphone
[5:36] but also my discord chat
and any system sounds,
[5:39] my game sound will be coming
through this single channel.
[5:42] And if you need to make any
changes to any of your audio,
[5:45] you can do that from the RØDE Connect app.
[5:46] This is where you're going to control
[5:47] all aspects of your audio.
[5:48] So your teammates, your system sounds,
[5:50] your game sound, your microphone,
[5:52] all controlled in RØDE Connect.
[5:53] And then OBS is just
taking that one audio mix
[5:56] and sending it out to your stream.
[5:57] Okay. So I've swapped the audio over
[5:58] now from the shotgun
microphone I was using before
[6:01] to the $100 NT-USB.
[6:03] So you can hear exactly how it sounds.
[6:05] One thing I would recommend
[6:06] like I do with all microphones is
[6:07] not to use the included desk mounts
[6:09] because they just make the microphone
[6:10] too far away from your mouth
[6:12] and much closer to your keyboard sounds
[6:13] get it up on a boom arm,
like the RØDE PSA one
[6:16] or even just a cheap Amazon alternative
[6:18] and get that microphone
closer to your mouth.
[6:20] As you can see here in
the RØDE Connect app,
[6:22] I have all of the options enabled
[6:24] and my game's set to around 25.
[6:26] If I disable these effects.
[6:27] So this is how my microphone sounds
[6:29] without any of the effects enabled.
[6:31] I'm going to enable them again.
[6:32] I do think it's a little bit limiting
[6:34] that these are just check boxes
[6:35] and you have no extra controls.
[6:37] I guess it's a little bit
more beginner friendly
[6:39] that you can just enable a
noise gate with an option.
[6:41] But, personally, the know that I am,
[6:43] I would love to dive in and be able to
[6:45] adjust the threshold of the
gates and the compressor
[6:48] and things like that.
[6:49] I would also love if RØDE
[6:51] built in functionality to be able to mute
[6:53] and change volumes of sources
[6:54] into something like the Stream Deck.
[6:55] I realized, that's probably
not going to happen
[6:58] because effectively RØDE
and Elgato are competitors
[7:01] and they built a very similar
application to each other.
[7:03] So it's probably a bit of a pipe dream
[7:05] but at least if RØDE could
implement some way of saying
[7:07] keyboard shortcuts to at
least mute certain sources
[7:10] that would be really
handy for us streamers.
[7:11] I'm excited to see where this app goes.
[7:13] I said before, I'd love for
them to add a few more channels.
[7:16] That's a bit more competitive
with the Wave Link app
[7:18] but the fact that you can
record multiple microphones
[7:21] in one PC is really great.
[7:22] And I'd love to see, is RØDE
going to go down the same path
[7:25] that Shure has done with the MV7
[7:27] and turn some of their
really popular broadcast mics
[7:30] like the RØDE Procaster
[7:32] into USB alternatives that
will use the RØDE Connect app?
[7:36] Hopefully this video has been helpful.
[7:37] If it has to, give it a thumbs up
[7:39] and let me know down in the comments,
[7:40] what do you think of the $100
[7:42] or sub $100 NT-USB MINI
[7:45] now that the RØDE Connect app
[7:47] allows loads more control
over your stream audio.
[7:49] I'd love to hear your thoughts
[7:50] and I'll catch you in the next video.
[7:52] Peace.
[7:52] (upbeat music)
[7:58] Jimmy Fallon has the budget
[7:59] and the ability to hire a
team that can make this good.
[8:03] (chuckles)
[8:04] If he reached out to me,
[8:05] I'd do him a deal.
[8:06] I told you about this last week,
[8:08] 10 grand and I'll help you serve OBS.
[8:10] It's easy.
[8:11] - Jimmy come on, we've got
connections for you man.
[8:13] - I mean, come on Jimmy, just hit me up.
[8:15] I'm only a Google away.