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Welcome back to podcast answers the show that I help you by answering any
podcasting questions along the way helping starting growing podcasts. That's
right. I help people start and grow podcasts. What you may not know is this is
the second time that I've recorded this episode. I started it and I actually
I forgot to hit record on my recorder.
So I decided to start over again.
Those watching live actually got that live.
They get to see that live.
But what are we talking about today?
The Roadcaster Pro and why it is important
and why you would want one.
I recently got one for this show.
And the reason I wanted to get one for this show
is it's gonna make my production a lot easier
when I actually remember to hit record.
But that's besides the point.
So what I'm going to do today is I'm going to talk to you a little bit about what my
process before was.
And then now my process is with the Rokester pearl.
Like why would I want one?
What good is it?
All that stuff.
So my previous process was this.
I had a basic USB XLR interface that took a mic into my computer via USB.
And then I stream live video and audio as I do this show.
So I use a software called Ecamm.
And the nice thing about Ecamm is it records my video and audio, but then it also gives
me an isolated audio track.
And so with that, then I take that into my editor, chop the ends, ship it out, ready
to go.
But, and then, because I'm of the school of I just hit record.
And that's actually what reminded me.
I looked over and hit, so I didn't hit record last time I said hit record.
So I hit record and I play my audio track, play my, all my sounds, everything is live
as I'm doing it.
So my intro song that you heard there is live as I'm recording the show because I like to
just be done with it as soon as I'm done hitting record.
I go ahead and ship the episode out.
But what, so, so what I was doing in the past as I had a software that I was using called
Farago to play my sounds to play my music, which I still use that sometimes from time
to time, but I was using that and then trying to control the audio with that.
I had my stream deck.
I was pushing a button that would fade between the next thing, the next, the audio levels,
and it just wasn't super easy to do.
And so I was able to, thanks to a few supporters of this show, I was able to get a roadcaster
pro.
And so without further ado, I would like to talk to you a little bit about what that is
and what makes it so cool.
So here is the Rocaster Pro.
It's a audio device that is like a mixing board.
Well, it's several different things.
Firstly it is a mixing board.
And so it has four USB, I'm sorry not four USB.
It has four XLR mics on the back of it.
And they're not just XLR.
So you can use a line in, you can put an instrument in there.
And then it has four headphones out on it and then two USB plugs on the back, two that
you can plug into your computer, which actually provide three different audio channels for
it to, to provide audio into your computer.
So with what I do is I now am able to have a physical slider that I'm able to push up
and down as I'm kind of to adjust my volume for all of my tracks.
And so what I do is I, excuse me, I have a mixer for my mic, a channel for my mic.
I have a channel for USB one, USB one chat, USB two chat or USB two,
the sound effects as well as the blues youth.
And the great thing about this is, is the rocaster pro has, uh, eight pads on the
side.
So think of them like kind of like a, a plastic button that you can push that
you can assign to do different things.
You can assign it to do voice effects.
You can assign it to do sound.
So what I can do is I can easily just hit that and you have sounds in the background.
So that's that's a good thing way to do that.
And then so what I was starting to say is there's several different USB channels.
And so what I can do is for me USB one, I have set to be my main application.
So that's going to be Ecamm live.
And so that sends all my whole mix goes out to Ecamm live.
But then if I have guests in Ecamm live that acts as a way to bring them back into my mixer board and into my mixer
So that's the way I can get audio from Ecamm live back in and then I have USB to chat
So if I'm gonna have a zoom call or something else
I can also bring that in as a separate audio channel and then I have a Bluetooth slider so I can bring some
I'll call in from my phone
then I have a
another USB channel that I use for
Bringing in things from Farago or extra sounds that I want to bring it off my computer
So I really have three different applications that I can bring in audio from and go out to on my computer
With this new rogaster pro 2 and then the nice thing about it - again
It has four different mic inputs. So if you have four different people that you are
interviewing or talking to you or whatever, you can bring them in to your mix really easily.
And then there's four different independent headphone volumes too.
So if you have four people, they can all have their own headphones that they're listening
to, the mix and what's happening in the mix.
And then they can control the levels on that.
And the great thing about this is it's so easy to do what they call routing too.
So if I don't want something to go to a specific headphones or a specific channel, I can turn
those off.
I can just do really audio routing however I want.
And then the nice thing about it too
is it has a multitrack.
So it has a, let's go back to the picture.
If you're watching us live on here,
it has a SD card slot on the back.
So you can just record right on the device.
You don't need to have any other software or hardware
on your machine that you're capturing the audio with.
it just records it right on the roadcaster pro two.
It has a big clock on the front so I can see exactly how long I've been
recording. I can set markers in it. So if I want to, if I say something that I
want to remember later, I can just tap that clock and it sets a marker.
So back when I'm editing, I know either this is something I said really good,
or this is where I made a mistake. So I should really edit that out.
And then for, for it, it also has multi-track.
And so on my recording, I get a separate file, separate audio file for each and every channel.
I get one audio file that's stereo that has everything in it.
And if I just want to take that, ship it off and we're good to go.
But then I also get a channel, every recording for my mic.
I get a recording for Ecam.
I get a recording for each channel.
And so later in editing, if I want to go back and edit something out like that, say somebody
I was interviewing had a dog barking.
I could go back and then I could take that their channel off when I'm talking.
So I don't hear things in the background or if they cough or sneeze or whatever.
It doesn't ruin my recording because I have that recording and I can,
I can use those audio later in, in whatever I want to do.
Now it retails for $6.99 and that's a great price for what you're getting with
this device because really you're getting an all in one audio solution.
Back in the day, when I first started doing podcasts, I had a mixing board.
So I could bring all my audio in.
I had to have a separate recorder that I had audio out of the mixing board going
into and recording my things.
If I wanted to bring in any guests, I had to have a separate computer for that.
And then have to have it do, be able to do a mix minus.
And then if I wanted to play sound cards,
I had to have my iPad plugged up to a channel
and be able to push the sounds off.
And it was just a lot to do.
Back in the day, it was just so much,
it was so hard to be able to get what I wanted to get out
of a podcast and to be able to really produce a podcast.
And so this thing, when it came out,
when Rode set this out, set this up
and made it available for purchase.
It really changed the game as far as how I am able to do my podcast recording.
And so I just purchased this.
I just got this and it has changed the game because it also not only does I have
all of those, those devices in and out, but then it also has for each channel
with processing. And so it has a high pass filter where you so you can get out any low
rumbles that come through. You can kind of cut that frequency out of your channel. You
can do a de-esser. So when you say your asses, it's not so harsh coming across for, for your
listeners. And then it has a noise gate. And this is one of the things that I really, really,
appreciate about it because it allows you to take your, your, your mic and essentially
a noise gate is if you're quiet and you're not talking, then there is a gate.
It basically just shuts your mic channel off.
And so any low rumbling, any burry thing, any small noises aren't going to be heard unless
unless you're actually talking above a certain level.
And then it will actually let the gate open and let it be able to, to, you'll really hear
that.
And so that is something that I really enjoyed about having this.
Cause I know for me, if you hear like, like, see, if I'm quiet right now and I like start
to slowly like make noise in front of the mic, you don't hear that.
I can hear it, but it doesn't come across on the mic.
It is 100% silence because the noise gate is there and the noise gate shuts my mic off
and keeps that from coming through to the listeners.
And then it also has a compressor.
So I think that is as far as like anything louder than a certain point, it compresses
that down and kind of makes it gives you that boomy radio voice, but it also allows it to
not be so loud and soft in a certain area.
kind of keeps more of a consistent audio going across when you're speaking.
It has an equalizer.
You can change some of the frequencies of that and then how your sound sounds.
And then it has what's called the, the aural exciter and a big bottom.
So think of that as kind of your radio, boomy.
It kind of adjusts the top frequencies and the low frequencies to kind of make,
give you that, that radio sound.
And then you, so it has that on, on everything.
So you can you can sound professional and have all of that recording right all of that into your recording and
Do it so easily and so
Amazingly now the one thing that road just came out with is the
Rocaster duo and it's a smaller version of the same thing
So the Rocaster Pro is 699 the Rocaster duo is 499 and
It takes for those who are just doing solo shows and not doing anything
Where you need multiple mics the duo is for you. So essentially it has
two of the combo jacks in it so
Either USB, I mean XLR or an instrument in it and two headphones out
but all the rest is really the same and
Then it also is down to four channels whereas the the Rokaster Pro has
six faders on it. I forgot to say that on the brother,
Rook has to pro the pro has six faders on it.
And then two virtual channels.
So if you're using, let's say what channels one,
two, three and four for your mics,
you can still use the rest and have two virtual channels
by clicking the knob in there and then adjusting the audio.
You just don't have a fader on it,
but the duo takes that down to four.
And so, and it also brings the size down on quite a bit.
And so there's less to less on your desk.
That was one of the complaints that I've heard about people with a
roadcaster pros. It's, I mean, it's not a big device, but it does have,
it does take up some room on your desk.
And the roadcaster duo is a lot smaller because they don't have a physical
record button on it as well as they don't have the,
they only have as many sliders. So it does take up less room.
So it's less, it's more of a device for those people who are just doing solo shows and not
planning to have any more than one or maybe two people on their podcast with them.
And then this also takes your, whereas the roadcaster pro has eight buttons on it.
This only has six.
Now they both have pages and what they call pages.
So you can change from one bank to another.
So you have eight buttons and you can click to the next one and you have another eight
buttons and they're eight buttons.
I think that goes up to page eight pages.
The, the duo only has six buttons.
And so that is one thing, uh, that, that's different there.
And now the duo actually adds something back to their original
roadcaster pro had that the roadcaster pro two lost.
And that's the headphone jack in the front.
So there's four headphone jacks on the back, but those are the,
the larger headphone jacks.
And then the, the one on the duo is in the front.
And that's more of like the one that you used to have for your iPhone or,
you know, something that was a smaller jack and the,
instead of like a professional jack, it's the eighth inch jack instead of the
quarter inch jack.
And it also is available if you have a headset, like,
um, like the AirPods that had the mic in it,
you can use that mic on it.
Or if you have a lot of mic,
you can plug that right in the front and use that as an incoming mic also.
So that is, that's kind of the quick overview of the
ROCASTER Pro 2.
And it just, it makes it a lot easier for me
because I'm able now to do the show all at once.
I can hit record, I can go, and then as I'm done,
I export the audio and I have the file all mixed together
and I can easily slide my volumes up and down
as I'm monitoring them in my headphones.
And then another thing too is just the ability
to be able to, to have separate audio things coming in from your computer easily and mixing
those around. Guys, if you've not checked out the roadcaster pro, I would suggest doing
it because again, it's an amazing piece of hardware for a small, small fee. Guys, if
you enjoyed this podcast episode, if you've gotten anything out of this podcast, I ask
that you consider giving back value to me and you can do that by going to podcast answers.com/buymeacoffee.
You can become a monthly subscriber. You can become a one-off. You can just donate back.
That's how we were able to accomplish and get this roadcaster pro because some amazing
people have donated that. Guys, with that, have a great week.
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