The BEST Microphone For Streaming Under $100

[00:00] - This microphone, the RØDE NT-USB MINI

[00:03] has always been a popular

[00:05] looking for a high quality microphone

[00:07] that won't break the bank.

[00:08] But last night, this got a

[00:11] that might just make this

[00:13] under $100.

[00:15] Let's take a look.

[00:16] (upbeat music)

[00:20] So, the NT-USB MINI has been around

[00:22] for a couple of years now.

[00:24] It's a condenser microphone

[00:25] with a cardioid pickup pattern

[00:27] and a built in pop filter.

[00:28] It comes with an included desk mount

[00:30] or it could be attached to a Mic cam

[00:32] and it comes in at just shy of $100.

[00:34] So what's changed then?

[00:35] Well, yesterday, RØDE

[00:38] for windows and Mac

[00:40] which completely elevates this

[00:43] What it allows you to do

[00:44] is to mix all of your

[00:46] So your microphone, your game audio,

[00:48] and your discord chat

[00:49] and then it handles

[00:51] so you can send just one audio source

[00:53] to your streaming software

[00:54] and can control a mix.

[00:55] All of your audio from one place.

[00:57] It also doubles as software

[00:59] that you can use to record podcasts

[01:00] with separate channels

[01:02] But I'm going to focus here on

[01:05] Now, those of you that

[01:07] might recognize this software

[01:09] as something that closely

[01:11] and you're not wrong,

[01:12] but there are some key differences.

[01:13] Firstly, road connect supports up to

[01:16] four separate microphones

[01:18] whereas Wave Link currently

[01:21] This is obviously a big advantage

[01:23] if you're doing a two

[01:26] or if you ever want to have

[01:28] Being able to control four

[01:30] from a single computer

[01:32] is something that used to cause issues.

[01:33] RØDE Connect also allows you to

[01:35] add some filters and

[01:37] such as the noise gate, compressor,

[01:39] big bottom effect and an oral exciter.

[01:42] And those can really enhance

[01:44] Currently Elgato's Wave Link,

[01:46] doesn't support adding

[01:48] So you have to do this

[01:50] and adding some VST plugins.

[01:51] But one area where Wave Link wins out

[01:54] is it allows you to record

[01:56] consisting of your

[01:59] Effectively allowing you find a control

[02:01] over more audio sources.

[02:03] Whereas RØDE Connect currently supports

[02:04] three separate channels

[02:05] consisting of your

[02:08] and your chat application.

[02:09] I don't see any reason

[02:10] why RØDE won't be able to

[02:12] so that you can have more channels

[02:14] and more control over

[02:16] because it's just about them

[02:19] on your computer.

[02:20] So, let's test out the

[02:24] and get it set up with OBS Studio

[02:25] so we can see exactly how it sounds

[02:27] and what kind of control you get

[02:28] for your live streams.

[02:29] Okay. So the first thing you need to do

[02:31] is head to the RØDE website

[02:33] I'll leave a link down

[02:36] RØDE do require you to

[02:38] between windows and

[02:40] but you won't be included

[02:42] as long as you don't check the boxes.

[02:44] So it's just for software updates.

[02:46] Once that's downloaded,

[02:47] unzip the file and just

[02:50] by going through the wizard.

[02:52] Once that's finished installing,

[02:53] launch the RØDE Connect app

[02:55] and then you can connect the NT-USB MINI

[02:57] to the computer with the USB cable.

[02:59] Once you're connected,

[03:01] You can see here that my NT-USB MINI

[03:03] requires a firmware update.

[03:05] So I'm just going to do that now.

[03:06] And if you have the same,

[03:09] so you can get the best functionality

[03:10] out of the NT-USB MINI with RØDE Connect.

[03:13] Now that the firmware update is complete,

[03:15] we can drag our NT-USB MINI

[03:17] into any of the four channels here.

[03:19] So I'm going to drag it into channel one.

[03:21] And as you can see here,

[03:22] you can plug in four

[03:25] into a single computer

[03:26] and still use all the

[03:28] But for me, it's just one microphone.

[03:30] So drag it into one and then click next.

[03:32] Next we can drag our

[03:35] into these available channels.

[03:36] These are effectively going

[03:39] So all the sounds coming

[03:41] and our virtual device is going

[03:44] So something like discord

[03:46] Okay. So here we are

[03:48] and you can see we have

[03:50] One for our microphone,

[03:51] one for our system sounds

[03:53] and one for our chat application.

[03:55] First of all though,

[03:56] let's look at what controls

[03:58] So by clicking on the channel,

[03:59] we bring up some options

[04:02] such as the gain of the microphones.

[04:03] So we want to end up in

[04:05] as well as options to enable

[04:08] that run on the digital signal processor

[04:10] built into the microphone.

[04:11] You also get some options here

[04:12] to enable the Aphex Aural

[04:16] These are effects that are typically found

[04:17] on much more expensive interfaces,

[04:19] things like the Rode caster pro

[04:21] you can enable them here

[04:22] to enhance the sound of your voice.

[04:25] So next let's make sure that

[04:26] we set up our system sounds

[04:28] to be running through this system channel.

[04:30] So on windows, you need to head

[04:33] which you can get to

[04:35] and just make sure your output device here

[04:37] is set to system output RØDE Connect.

[04:39] What this effectively means is that

[04:41] now any sounds that happen on your PC

[04:43] are going to be coming

[04:45] The only thing that we're

[04:47] is our team chat into

[04:50] So to get discord audio

[04:51] to come through this virtual device here

[04:53] we want to open up discord,

[04:54] go to user settings, voice and video,

[04:57] and we want to set our input device

[04:59] to be virtual input RØDE Connect

[05:01] and our output device to be

[05:04] So find these two devices,

[05:06] make sure they're set up in discord,

[05:07] and then you can close back out of discord

[05:09] and all of your discord audio now

[05:11] is going to be coming

[05:13] So the last thing that we need to do

[05:14] is actually set up our streaming software

[05:16] to take this mix of

[05:19] and make sure that our stream can hear it.

[05:21] So open up your streaming

[05:22] For me that's OBS Studio,

[05:24] go to settings and then audio tab

[05:26] and make sure that we set

[05:29] to stream input RØDE Connect.

[05:32] So make sure you have this one selected,

[05:33] add that as the audio source,

[05:35] and you can see here my microphone

[05:36] but also my discord chat

[05:39] my game sound will be coming

[05:42] And if you need to make any

[05:45] you can do that from the RØDE Connect app.

[05:46] This is where you're going to control

[05:47] all aspects of your audio.

[05:48] So your teammates, your system sounds,

[05:50] your game sound, your microphone,

[05:52] all controlled in RØDE Connect.

[05:53] And then OBS is just

[05:56] and sending it out to your stream.

[05:57] Okay. So I've swapped the audio over

[05:58] now from the shotgun

[06:01] to the $100 NT-USB.

[06:03] So you can hear exactly how it sounds.

[06:05] One thing I would recommend

[06:06] like I do with all microphones is

[06:07] not to use the included desk mounts

[06:09] because they just make the microphone

[06:10] too far away from your mouth

[06:12] and much closer to your keyboard sounds

[06:13] get it up on a boom arm,

[06:16] or even just a cheap Amazon alternative

[06:18] and get that microphone

[06:20] As you can see here in

[06:22] I have all of the options enabled

[06:24] and my game's set to around 25.

[06:26] If I disable these effects.

[06:27] So this is how my microphone sounds

[06:29] without any of the effects enabled.

[06:31] I'm going to enable them again.

[06:32] I do think it's a little bit limiting

[06:34] that these are just check boxes

[06:35] and you have no extra controls.

[06:37] I guess it's a little bit

[06:39] that you can just enable a

[06:41] But, personally, the know that I am,

[06:43] I would love to dive in and be able to

[06:45] adjust the threshold of the

[06:48] and things like that.

[06:49] I would also love if RØDE

[06:51] built in functionality to be able to mute

[06:53] and change volumes of sources

[06:54] into something like the Stream Deck.

[06:55] I realized, that's probably

[06:58] because effectively RØDE

[07:01] and they built a very similar

[07:03] So it's probably a bit of a pipe dream

[07:05] but at least if RØDE could

[07:07] keyboard shortcuts to at

[07:10] that would be really

[07:11] I'm excited to see where this app goes.

[07:13] I said before, I'd love for

[07:16] That's a bit more competitive

[07:18] but the fact that you can

[07:21] in one PC is really great.

[07:22] And I'd love to see, is RØDE

[07:25] that Shure has done with the MV7

[07:27] and turn some of their

[07:30] like the RØDE Procaster

[07:32] into USB alternatives that

[07:36] Hopefully this video has been helpful.

[07:37] If it has to, give it a thumbs up

[07:39] and let me know down in the comments,

[07:40] what do you think of the $100

[07:42] or sub $100 NT-USB MINI

[07:45] now that the RØDE Connect app

[07:47] allows loads more control

[07:49] I'd love to hear your thoughts

[07:50] and I'll catch you in the next video.

[07:52] Peace.

[07:52] (upbeat music)

[07:58] Jimmy Fallon has the budget

[07:59] and the ability to hire a

[08:03] (chuckles)

[08:04] If he reached out to me,

[08:05] I'd do him a deal.

[08:06] I told you about this last week,

[08:08] 10 grand and I'll help you serve OBS.

[08:10] It's easy.

[08:11] - Jimmy come on, we've got

[08:13] - I mean, come on Jimmy, just hit me up.

[08:15] I'm only a Google away.