If you are a content creator or just starting on to video creation or love the film industry, and is looking for one of the best shotgun mics in the market right now to step up your audio quality, you’ve come to the right place.
As you might already know, RODE is the only company that manufacturers the best quality microphones in this entire world, this product what we are looking at right now, which is the RODE Videomic with Rycote Lyre Mount, is also produced by the award-winning parent company RODE meaning it has to be perfect. Am I right? Well, let’s find out!
So, make sure to read till the end of this post to get a better idea about what the Rode Videomic with Rycote Lyre mount is and how it can help you improve your audio quality.
Build
The Rode Videomic comes with a foam windscreen on the top just right down from the battery compartment up at the back where it houses the battery inside.
If you want to remove or replace the foam windscreen for somewhat reason, it is also removable by sliding it down with your hands, which is pretty easy for anyone to do.
The battery compartment is also easily accessible by a little force from your fingers. You can insert or replace a battery, which gives it the main power to work and amplify your audio that you want to record.
Now, the battery compartment is taking in a 9V battery, so make sure you buy a 9V battery when you buy the Rode Videomic to make sure you are good to go right after unboxing it and doesn’t have to wait until you buy a 9V battery from a local store or order online.
Compatibility
It comes with a 3.5mm audio jack connected to the body. Unfortunately, it is non-removable since it’s related directly to the microphone’s mainboard I which the case if you happened to damage or break the cable, which will make you buy a new mic entirely.
So, be a bit careful when messing around with mic’s audio wire even though it is a premium grade wire made by RODE.
And, beneath the mic is where the Rycote Lyre mount is attached to the mic itself, which is a shaky hard plastic/rubber sort of material its made of which acts a suspension design that helps you to reduce, if not prevent, the shocks that it can take so it doesn’t ruin your audio while recording with some random low pitched sound with the movement of the mic.
And suppose being specific about the material that the Rycote Lyre Mount is made of. In that case, it is made out of a thermoplastic called Hytrel, which helps it provide the flexibility of rubber and gives it the strength of plastic, which is a great, fantastic innovative design to suspend your mic from random, uncontrollable shocks.
So, just because it comes with the tremendous innovative Rycote Lyre Mount, you will get to see some suspension in action, especially if you are out in the wind with your mic or just running around to record the video footage that you need.
Props to Rode for integrating the Rycote Lyre mount into their Rode Videomic! Cause it helps many content creators on the go and any person who loves to create a beautiful piece of content without any unexpected audio ruins.
Some of the models, especially during the clearance and festive seasons, offer an extra wind protector, making it a more reliable shotgun mic, especially if you are shooting out in the wind.
So, make sure to keep an eye out for those special offers from RODE as well, as it can provide you with better value for your money and save you some few extra bucks.
On the back of the main battery compartment is the power button, which you can use to power it ON, which is more of a switch than a button. You have to use your fingernails or any other safety equipment to turn it on. Still, I would highly recommend you using your fingernails cause you actually can physically feel the force. You are putting on the button so that hopefully, you don’t accidentally break it.
And once you turn it one, it has a LED with the color system of green for ON. The battery is charged and at the same time, meaning it is ready for action and if the battery is low on power, it will display the color red on that LED, meaning you will have to replace your battery soon as possible and it can only work for a few more hours.
But suppose you are doing a super-official or simply recording something that cannot or is hard to re-record. In that case, I would highly suggest you have some extra batteries with you all the time cause you never know when it’s going to run out of battery; which I wish it had some sort of battery level indicator except just the LED, which just randomly changes color suddenly.
And especially even though the mic is still working when the color of the LED is switched to red, which means the battery is low, I would highly advise you to replace the battery cause it will reduce the volume of the audio that it records when its low on power other than what it would record if it had plenty of juice inside the battery.
And as advertised, it can, of course, work for more than 100 hours with just a single brand-new battery, but at about 80 to 90 percent, it changes to red, meaning the battery is low, which is when I would replace the batteries to a new one.
Setting-Up
You can easily attach it to your camera but sliding to the thread connected at the bottom end of your microphone to the hot shoe mount on your camera. Then you can quickly tighten it by rotating the little spin wheel on the bottom of the microphone right above the thread, and the Rode Videomic will stay rock solid and will never loosen again from your camera unless you do.
The microphone’s total length is right around just under 10 inches, which is like the standard for most shotgun mics out there in the market right now.
And if you want to be more audio-specific technical with this mic, Congratulations! Well, of course, you can!
All you need to do is remove the battery from the battery compartment, and you will be able to see the tiny little switches that you can use to control the gain settings within the microphone itself.
However, I would not advise everyone out there cause you have to be precisely technical and be so careful with the switches so that you don’t accidentally break them, ruining your entire purchase.
But overall, most of the time for most use cases, you don’t have to change the gain ever because most of the time, audio adjustments are made in the post process by many editors, so just let be with the defaults that it comes with except you know what you want to achieve cause you know exactly what you are dealing with, right?.
So, should you buy the Rode VideoMic with Rycote Lyre Mount?
Well, first up, are you in a hurry and is in a budget right now?
Well, if that sounds like you, let me get a few things out of the way.
As you already know, if you read this post till the end, it’s a fantastic shotgun microphone! Not going to lie. This is truly perfect. I am using it for more than two years right now.
But, if you need more functionality and controls over your microphone, I would highly recommend you go for the RODE VideoMic Pro, which is one of their flagships, costing you just a few more bucks.
So, if you can spend an extra $80 bucks on the Rode VideoMic Pro where you have a little bit more control, that’d be great and worth the investment a lot. Still, again, if you are highly limited to a budget for no more than $150, then this is the perfect magical microphone you can afford right now.
And guess what?
This is the best microphone, yeah you read it right, this is the best microphone on the market right now that you can afford, especially if you are on a budget with no more than $150 on a mic and at the same time wants to sound perfect and wanna step up your audio quality in your videos, which will make you feel excellent and satisfied thinking back about, which will worth the investment.
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