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Rode has launched the new dedicated brand Rode X for streamers to get the best audio online

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Just about everybody in the photo and video industry knows who Rode is. They make the microphones that many of us use in various circumstances. They’re also quite popular for streamers and podcasters, too. But now, Rode’s separating out the podcasting and live streaming side of things to a whole new brand, Rode X.

They’ve launched the new Rode X brand with three new products. There’s the XDM-100 dynamic USB microphone, the XCM-50 condenser USB microphone and the Unify virtual mixer application. Both microphones are designed specifically for gaming and streaming. As such, they’re all-in-one self-contained systems that connect directly to your computer.

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This introduction to microphones explains the importance of good sound in your videos and how to get it

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There are more people creating video content now than ever before. This means there are also a lot of people creating bad videos than ever before, too. Many of them aren’t really bad videos, as such. They just often have really crappy sound. Newcomers to video often think that they can rely on the internal microphones of their mirrorless cameras or smartphones, but you really can’t.

This video from Sennheiser has been out for a little while now but we haven’t shared it here before. It offers up a lot of valuable information on microphone choice. Alex Knickerbocker introduces us to the main different types of microphones and when and how we might want to use them to get the best results possible.

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The best microphone to cover all your needs

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If you don’t know much about audio choosing a microphone can feel a little overwhelming. It’s like learning a whole new language full of omni-this and cardioid-that. But it really doesn’t have to be so complicated. Sennheiser’s Simon Beesley walked DIYP through choosing the best microphone for the job at hand.

So which microphone will cover all of your needs? “It’s a very good question,” says Simon, “realistically it depends on what you’re going to do, the type of working environment. There are lots of questions to be answered before you can select the ‘best’ microphone. There is no fix-all for all scenarios”

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SmallRig becomes a BigFish with new follow focus, battery and audio system

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SmallRig is on a mission. They may be small by name, but they have big plans. Initially known for their camera cages, rods and handles, they’ve been scaling at an incredible rate and are excited to be expanding their range of products to better serve their customers.

DIYP had a chat with Wilson Chen from SmallRig about where the brand is headed and what we can look forward to seeing in the near future from them.

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SmallRig joins the compact microphone market with the new W60 dual wireless system

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It’s like everybody’s jumping onto microphones right now and not being one to be left behind, SmallRig’s decided to have a go at their own system, too. It’s called the SmallRig Forevala W60 and like pretty much all of the other recent small wireless microphone releases, it runs on 2.4Ghz. It’s a dual microphone kit that comes with two transmitters with built-in omnidirectional microphones and one receiver.

It promises low-latency transmission (as low as 10ms) at up to 100 metres away, with adaptive frequency hopping to ensure 48Khz 16-Bit audio without interruption. You also get most of the usual features you might be used to, like a low-cut filter to get rid of rumble and background noise as well as mono or stereo output from the receiver.

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TV & movie boom operator explains why you’re probably using your shotgun microphone wrong

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I’ve been following Mike Delgaudio, otherwise known as Booth Junkie, for quite a while now. Mike’s a professional voiceover artist and so he makes a lot of videos about how you can record voiceovers, typically on a low budget, at home. He’s usually using large-diaphragm cardioid condensers and shotguns but rarely ventures from the comfort of his booth to record audio out in the real world. You know, the way filmmakers do.

It occurred to Mike that he had a lot of different microphones with the same pickup pattern that all seemed to do the same job and… well, in the voiceover booth they probably do. But he wanted to find out more about the real-world differences between them. So, he had a 25-minute chat with movie & TV boom operator Allen Williams, who goes by Sound Speeds on YouTube to talk about where and how you’d use these types of microphones out on the set of a movie or TV show.

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The best microphones for vloggers to buy in 2022

If, like me, you use your cameras for video as well as photography, then at some point (probably sooner rather than later) you’re going to need to think about sound. While audio setups can get extremely elaborate, especially once you start doing more serious video, you’ll want to at least get some kind of microphone that you can plug right into your camera, regardless of whether you’re vlogging or trying to sync up separately recorded audio in post.

Here, we’re going to look at some of the best microphones you can get for vlogging that plug directly into your camera in 2022 and go through some of the advantages of each and where it might be worth spending a little extra money. We’ve split this up into two categories. First, there are the on-camera mics which as the name suggests, sit on top of your camera. The other are the wireless microphones which allow a little more freedom of movement in front of the camera.

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Joby just dropped a whole bunch of new microphones for content creators

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Joby, the company famous for its GorillaPod line of bendy tripods, has always had a pretty strong focus on vloggers, social media shooters and self-contained content creators. They’ve also released a microphone or two in the past, but now they’re planning to take that sector of the creator market head-on with a new range of Wavo microphones. But have they released just one new microphone? Oh no. There are five of them!

Joby is owned by Vitec now, so you know they’re going to go big or go home. And go big they have, announcing five new microphones all at the same time to launch their newest range of “Wavo” microphones. Well, I say they’ve gone big, they’re all fairly small, with a dual wireless microphone kit, a lavalier mic, a couple of on-camera mics and a large-diaphragm condenser for sitting on your desk.

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Comica’s BoomX-D Pro wireless mics feature internal recording and digital USB Audio connectivity

Comica has announced its new Comica BoomX-D Pro wireless microphone system. There are two packages available including one receiver and either one or two transmitters that have a built-in microphone as well as the ability to plug in an external lav – one of which is included in the kit for each of your transmitters.

The BoomX-D Pro microphone system includes a couple of features that so far have only been found in the Rode Wireless GO II. The transmitters have internal storage recording so you don’t need to mess around with easily lost microSD cards and the receiver also has USB connectivity so you can plug it into your computer or smartphone as a digital audio device.

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Rode’s new AI-Micro turns almost any microphone into a digital USB audio device

One of the big benefits of both the Rode VideoMic NTG and the Rode Wireless GO II is that you can use them as digital audio devices, plugged straight into a USB port on your computer or the Type-C or Lightning sockets on your smartphones. And this isn’t just the standard analogue pin reassignment like the headphone adapter that comes with your iPhone. It’s true digital audio.

Well, Rode has now put this tech into a new little box called the Rode AI-Micro. Essentially a scaled-down Rode AI-1, it features two auto-sensing inputs, allowing you to plug in up to two TRS or TRRS microphones and then converts it into a digital signal you can send straight into your computer or smartphone to pretty much eliminate preamp hiss.

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