Does this new compact Rodecaster achieve the same balance of flexibility, power and ease of use as the larger Pro II?
I found the Rodecaster Pro II alluring. Not only does it offer everything you need to create podcasts in a portable package, but it improves considerably on its predecessor in terms of the quality and scope of its facilities. If you’ve not read my August 2022 review of that device, it may be worth casting an eye over it before reading this one (it’s free to read on the SOS website: https://sosm.ag/rodecaster-pro-ii). Still, as the Pro II will be overkill for some — not every podcast will have lots of participants, making its channel count, desktop footprint and/or price difficult to justify — it was almost inevitable that Rode would offer a more compact, affordable version...
Cut Down To Size
Launched last Summer, the Rodecaster Duo is very similar to the Rodecaster Pro II: a combination of mixer, multitrack standalone recorder and USB audio interface, and USB streaming device. But it has fewer channels and there are some other subtle differences too. There are four main fader‑equipped channels to the Pro II’s six, and those faders are shorter than on the Pro II. They’re not unduly short, though — ample for the intended application, in fact. What’s more, their use has enabled Rode to make the Duo shorter from front to back than its sibling, and it’s narrower too, thanks to there being fewer channels: its overall footprint is about 225 x 235mm, while the top of the slanted screen stands about 85mm above the surface on which you sit the device. The smaller confines do mean you’re limited to six Smart Pads compared with the Pro II’s eight, though. For many users, that will be plenty, but it’s something to bear in mind if you’re weighing up the pros and cons of both devices. For heavy users of samples, effects and switching things like ducking, it could mean more frequent bank switching. The physical Record button has been replaced by an on‑screen button, top‑left of the main mixer page, and I can’t say I missed it. Importantly, the lovely, crisp colour touchscreen, which is used to access most settings, remains the same generous size as on the ‘full fat’ version.
As with the Pro II, three rear‑panel USB‑C ports cater for power (9V 3A; a mains adaptor is included) and simultaneous connection to two devices. These could be, say, a computer for recording and a phone for streaming, but as we were going to press, a firmware update was announced that, amongst other things, allows these ports on both the Duo and Pro II to host USB mics.
Like the Rodecaster Pro II — but unlike most devices — the Rodecaster Duo has three USB ports: one for power, and two for simultaneous connection to different USB devices such as a computer and a smartphone.
Two conventional mics can be connected, too: you get two of the same excellent mic preamps, accessed through Neutrik Combo XLR sockets on the rear. Next to those are four quarter‑inch jacks, providing left and right monitor speaker outputs, and headphone outs for channels 1 and 2. These are the same, capable headphone amps as found on the Pro II, and each has a separate level control top‑right of the top panel. A helpful addition is the TRRS mini‑jack socket for headphones or a mic/headphones headset on the front (handy, as the cable won’t trail across the top). Finally, as with the Rodecaster Pro II, there’s an SD card slot for standalone recording, and both WiFi and an RJ45 Ethernet port built in, to allow configuration and firmware updates without having to connect to the Rode Central app running a computer over USB (though I imagine most will opt to do exactly that; see the box for more on the app).
The first two faders are, by default, assigned to the two main mic/line input channels. Using the touchscreen display, you can set these for use with line or mic sources, and adjust the input gain. The second channel can also cater for instrument sources, such as an electric guitar or bass, and again this can be configured at the push of a button and a tap of the screen. As on the Pro II, you can select presets for line, dynamic and capacitor mics, as well as for a number of specific models such as the Shure SM7b, the Electrovoice RE‑20 (both popular podcasting/broadcasting mics) and a number of Rode’s own mics, including the wireless ones, with which the Rodecaster Duo can pair — a neat touch.
The screen rises up from the more gently sloping top panel.
As well as setting a broadly appropriate gain, these presets can include processors and effects, and you can then add/remove effects as you see fit, either using simplified controls intended for non‑engineers (such as Depth, Sparkle and Punch) or in an Advanced mode, which gives you access to the more conventional studio processor parameters that lie beneath: a high‑pass filter, a noise gate, a de‑esser, an EQ, a compressor, an Aural Exciter, and panning. There are also Echo and Reverb effects available here, and yet more effects are available through the Smart Pads.
After the two main input channels, there are faders for two stereo channels: one for the input from a connected Bluetooth device, and the other for the output signal from the Smart Pads. Three further stereo channels that lack physical controls, and whose settings are adjustable only using the touchscreen, cater for inputs from attached USB devices. You can tap on the Bluetooth channel on‑screen to set it up, both in terms of pairing the Rodecaster with another device and applying processes and effects to the incoming signal.
Tapping on the Smart Pads channel presents different options: it allows you to configure the pads, each of which can be used to trigger a sample, apply an effect or perform a function. Some functions can mute/attenuate other sounds too (eg. during a censor bleep, ‘trash talk’, a fade in/out, for back‑channel communication such as for a producer to prompt a host, or ducking).
The Smart Pads can alternatively be used to send a MIDI note or CC message, and that opens up all sorts of possibilities, whether for triggering drum machines in your DAW or, with some free intermediary software, switching cameras in OBS. The faders, incidentally, also output MIDI and can be configured as DAW fader controllers. This is handy if you record a podcast’s multitracks (whcih can be pre‑ or post‑effects/faders) and want to have hands‑on control in post.
For triggering sounds, the pads are nicely configurable, offering latching, momentary and one‑shot modes. The effects cover obvious things such as echoes and reverb, as well as more out‑there voice changers (robot effects, pitch shifters and the like). These seem to be the same as on the Pro II, so while they sound decent, I won’t dwell on them here.
The screen also provides access to various configuration utilities, and these have been made really easy to use. For example, hit the settings ‘gearwheel’ from the home screen and you can apply master bus processing (an Aphex Compellor model), map virtual channels to physical controls, toggle channels’ solo modes between PFL and AFL, tweak the display settings, assign different colours to the headphone output controls’ lights, set up auto mutes for the monitor and Bluetooth output... and more. I covered this in my Pro II review so, again, won’t trawl through the detail here. (Likewise, the approach to stereo and multitrack recording, whether as a standalone device with miniature SD card inserted or as a USB audio interface, also remains the same.) Suffice it to say, it’s a flexible, accessible and well thought‑out system.
Verdict
All in all, I have to say that although the Duo is indeed smaller than the Rodecaster Pro II, it’s every bit as good. The mic preamps still sound great (very clean, very low noise) and the same can be said of the headphone amps, which are clean and beefy enough to drive pretty much any headphones. The Smart Pads offer the ability to inject some fun into proceedings through the application of effects and sample triggering, as well as catering for more ambitious setups with ducking, back‑channel communication and sending MIDI notes and controller data. There’s the usual mix‑minus facility where appropriate, too. And if the default configuration isn’t to your taste, assigning different sources to the physical faders is drag‑and‑drop simple.
For some, this more compact device will in fact be a better choice than the ‘full fat’ Rodecaster Pro II.
In fact, for some, this more compact device will be a better choice than the ‘full fat’ Rodecaster: if you need no more than two mic preamps and headphone amps, and no more than six pads at a time (there are four banks of these available), then it’s pretty much a no‑brainer. And the addition of USB mic support makes it even more versatile. There’s capable competition, of course, from companies like Zoom, Tascam and Yamaha, and it’s possible to cobble together a similar system using an audio interface, a DAW and some headphone amps. But I reckon the Rodecasters strike a superb balance between, on the one hand, the accessibility and ease of use required by lay users with little or no traditional audio engineering experience, and, on the other, the degree of control and tweakability that more seasoned producers will crave. With mics and headphones suitably hooked up, someone under 10 could operate this thing: you can just insert a card, hit a mic preset and hit Record, and you should get a decent enough result for an amateur podcast or stream. But you can also dive in deeper, configuring processors on the channels and master bus for streaming, while capturing an ‘unvarnished’ multitrack recording that allows you to create a more professionally polished show in post production — where the Rodecaster Duo can function as a handy controller.
What’s more, if you want to do more than podcast, the Rodecaster Duo is sufficiently versatile that it could serve well for camera switching while streaming, or as an audio/MIDI interface for music recording. While it might seem a pricey option if you planned to use it for music production alone, it’s not hard to imagine the Rodecaster Duo being used by the same person or studio both for podcasting duties and as the centre of a small home music studio. In short, if you want a hands‑on device for podcasting, streaming, and even music‑making, the Duo is well worth checking out!
Rode Central App
The Rode Central App for Mac/Windows recognises what devices are connected to your computer and allows you to perform various functions, some of which are also accessible from the hardware — such as the drag‑drop mapping of different sources to the physical fader‑equipped channels.
As with the Rodecaster Pro II and some other Rode devices, you can do pretty much everything you need using the hardware alone, but you can also use the Rode Central App for Mac and Windows machines to make life easier (Rode Central Mobile, which runs on smartphones, isn’t compatible with the Duo). This caters for firmware updates and configuration of the hardware settings, as well as making it easier to manage the Smart Pads and to transfer recordings to your computer, amongst other things. If a firmware update is available, you’ll be prompted to install it. I did experience a small quirk with the system: the update from 1.2.1 to 1.2.2 wouldn’t install for some reason, so I had instead to perform a factory reset — this took only a couple of minutes, didn’t seem to affect user settings I’d changed such as the headphone level knob’s LED ring colour, and resulted in the latest firmware being installed anyway.
The Smart Pads are not only for triggering samples: they can be configured on‑screen or, as shown here, in the app, to engage effects and routing setups, or send MIDI notes and CC data.
Pros
- Same great preamps as on the Rodecaster Pro II.
- Best ‘smart pad’ facility out there.
- Supports multiple USB devices.
- Some great DSP effects.
Cons
- None to write home about.
Summary
Every bit as good as the Rodecaster Pro II, this clever device caters for those with more modest channel‑count needs and has a much smaller footprint.
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