A couple of months ago I bought the RØDE iXY microphone. But alas I only received it yesterday due to the new shipment coming in direct from Australia!
Everything about it looked so positive – it’s size, portability, the fact it comes with a windshield and a hard zip carry case, attaches directly to the iPhone or iPad, and with RØDE’s own dedicated recording app, it’s able to produce excellent broadcast quality results.
I’m certainly hoping, upon further testing, that this could become my future mobile recording setup of choice, purely for it’s amazing portability factor. Safe to say, I’m so far very impressed indeed.
Have a listen for yourself:
Obviously, take into account this was it’s very first test, it’s far from perfect. Things need to be adjusted, settings played with, mic positioning and distances away from my gob to take into account. This was literally an out-of-the-box test, normalised, and uploaded to SoundCloud. But, even with this being an absolute primary test, I really like the sound it generates. And I’m preferring it immediately to my Apogee MiC I bought last year.
It’s amazing how technology has moved on in recent years. Something like this would have seemed like a fantasy a few years ago! The RØDE recording app is very easy to use, and you can edit material directly within the app. Upload is possible to SoundCloud direct, Dropbox, FTP, iTunes sync, and a couple of others. For the voiceover artist on the move, this could easily be an exceptionally viable solution, given the fact you can put it in your pocket!
More info on the iXY can be found by clicking here.
Taken a few pics so you can see what it’s like.
Thanks, Richard. Very impressive out-of-the-box demo too. Enjoyed that.
Would this do, do you think, to provide more than demos or audition reads on the go? Or do you anticipate being able to produce client-ready takes with this and iPh5? Has anyone hooked it up to iPad 3 or 4 with similar results?
Interested, as you can tell I’m sure.
Thanks again and best wishes, Colin
Thanks Colin. No worries….
Yes I was eager to get it out of the box and play with it immediately and hang the consequences! I wanted to see how it’d react from raw plug’n’play.
Yes, I bought it on the proviso that it would (when settings/positioning etc are all experimented with and sorted) be THE equipment I’d use to take away with me along with iPad/Laptop, so yes I think it would be perfectly capable in handling a proper paid client job.
I’ve not hooked it up to my iPad yet, no – I’d more than likely record on phone as it has higher capacity (64Gb) then upload to Dropbox, then drag and drop that file into Logic on my MacBook Pro. But I can’t see why the results wouldn’t be exactly the same if recorded on an iPad.
The good thing is, it’s at a price point where I didn’t have to umm and aah too much – I paid £145, which was £30 cheaper than what I paid for my Apogee MiC last year. And I think this RØDE mic will sound better than the Apogee long term.
Well worth finding a supplier local to you so you can try one out maybe, record some tests onto your phone so you can play with the tracks in the comfort of your own home.