RODECASTER PRO II - FULL REVIEW

I have been blown away by this machine.

There, I got it out of the way. Question answered.

But that isn’t saying that the Rodecaster Pro 2 doesn’t have a few flaws.

That is unless you are using this with a Mac. Sigh.

But - if you are like me, and rocking a PC, well then it does get a bit complicated, doesn’t it?

BUILD QUALITY

Now I did go over this in my “First Impressions” video, but let’s go over what I learned this week.

I stopped noticing the plastic shell the moment it went on my desk.

I don’t move around a lot with this thing, so I didn’t get to test out how durable it is on the go. That said, I am sure more on that will come out as the unit ages.

Mostly everything worked as expected, and the whole thing is a delight to use.

The touchscreen was very responsive, and though I heard a bit of feedback from some that there were mis-clicks...I didn’t find that.

I did however note that the angled screen caused some mis-clicks if I was directly over top and trying to get my fat fingers to do something.

That perspective isn’t perfect, but from desk level I had no issues with it.

All the ports are tight, no issues across the board, pun totally intended.2

This is just one nice looking unit.

SPECS

The I/O is 4 in and 4 out, though the supported tracks are listed at 14, with 12 in, and the stereo mix.

It is 24 bit and 48khz.

The mic inputs are 20hz to 20 khz

Line outs are plus 4dbu

and an EIN measured as neg 131.5dbv A-Weighted.

It comes with a nice 3 band EQ, as well as the usual rode effects, and includes built in delay, reverb, and pitch shift.

MENU SYSTEM

I found the menus to be a bit confusing at first, but to be honest, there is so much packed in here it might just be down to complete overload of stuff.

Now this critique is probably all for not, because as someone uses this unit more and more, the menus should become easier to navigate.

Also, I guess it would help if you were to go page by page through the manual - But who has time for that...right?

Aside from that confusion, I think it is a very robust UI, and there are a tonne of gems to discover.

There is one mild complaint here though, I hate using the knob as the controller to change settings.

I always assume I have the ability to change the settings with my finger...on the touchscreen, though I guess that is something I would get used to pretty quick.

ASSIGNING CHANNELS

One of the biggest and coolest features on this thing now is the ability to assign channels to the board.

You aren’t stuck with whatever you have, you can literally mix around your available channels, and customize this thing to whatever works for you.

Turn channel 4 into a virtual channel. Why not.

I like to keep my sound pads on a virtual channel, but give my computer passthrough its own fader.

All this customization will come in handy when we are finally given the opportunity to start routing the outs in a future update.

This is probably one of my favorite features. Not gonna lie.

THE PROCESSING

Now I am not going to bother with the reverb and delay reviews, as that isn’t really something I see fitting in with a lot of buyers at this time.

That said I will be taking this thing for a FULL SONG recording review, so stay tuned for that.

The ease of use for beginners is here, as you can adjust the processing in very simple terms here, as Depth, Sparkle and Punch.

But if you want a more of an in-depth approach to the processing, you can just go into the advanced tab.

And there are some great quality of life upgrades here from the last time I played with the original Rodecaster Pro.

And the big one is the visualizer.

Love seeing that. It will help with a lot of people that aren’t well versed in setting up things like compressors, and should assist in geting the hang of it, and perhaps allow for some better sounding audio.

One of the questions I got was...IS THE COMPRESSOR SUPER HARSH STILL?

And, no. The compression wasn’t harsh before...and it isn’t now.

However, people DID have harsh compression and EQ settings before...because they were trying to push dynamic mics that had no business being used with that board.

If you are dumping in a bunch of processing to try and get that SM7B sound a bit less distant, it is gonna sound harsh.

With the ample amount of clean gain on this thing though, I think that is a thing of the past.

The original Rodecaster Pro had fantastic processing, and I think it is so much better here - with the supporting cast of specs, like gain and EIN really making this a standout.

Which leads us perfectly to the SM7B testing.

SM7B Testing

This is one that I saw a bunch of people complaining about - that their SM7B wouldn’t work, which I have no idea how to respond to that, considering it is the simplest mic for an interface to drive.

It is a dynamic.

I have no idea how that is possible. Not that I don’t believe you, I just don’t get it.

And frankly, my results are one of the best outcomes that I could have expected from the Rodecaster Pro II.

Even without the processing, I was getting a very usable signal, and when the processing WAS turned on, well, let’s just say the SM7B sounded fantastic.

You will have to watch the video to get the full idea though.

MY FAV FEATURES

Lets move into some of the under the hood features here...

I love the storage options with this thing - with the ability to not only see everything connected to the Rodecaster Pro II, but also the ability to direct the recordings.

It is a really nice touch, and for the most part, you don’t even have to wipe the drive for it to work.

A very cool feature, and it can allow you to run with multiple redundant backups so you can be sure to never lose a thing.

The sound pads are now SMART pads and can do a variety of things - from full board control to voice changing, and of course...they play sounds.

Under the Display settings you can actually choose the broadcast style metering for your VU meters, or choose to not have all that stuff junking up your view.

And under Show, you can have all the saved settings from ALL THE SHOWS you have going on - a really nice touch if you don’t want to be switching around the board settings all the time.

Outputs and ROUTING

And here is a bit of the contention for a lot of people.

The output and routing for this machine is…different, and it might take a bit to get used to.

There are three total outputs here...Main, Chat and USB 2.

Main and chat are on the same input, with chat being the mix minus setup for interviews over apps and such.

And USB 2 is a simple secondary input output that is a stereo file - so take note - it can’t be multitrack.

At the same time, USB 2 can also be an input for a phone, and it would have its own channel on the board.

But on top of all that, there are secondary ASIO drivers that allow you to record in a DAW with multitrack.

Which to me is a bit odd.

I am so used to the ASIO drivers being the system drivers, and not this driver salad.

Once again, why am I not on Mac?

I dont know.

Anyhow, it is a bit confusing at first, but you do get used to it.

However, the routing that a lot of people were expecting is NOT here.

The ability to bus your audio to specific places, much like you can do with the Presonus Revelator was rather expected from many.

And it was just a few days ago that we heard that it is on the way in a future update.

Right now, it really doesn’t work, and there is no way to specify which sources you want going to a specific program.

My Issues

So for the better part of the week I struggled getting the chat channel up and running.

I wanted so bad for it to work on my daily drive computer, but it just wasn’t going to happen.

And as I found out, the problem isn’t with the board, but instead, it is an issue with Windows 10 being…well…Windows 10.

I found that out pretty quick when I plugged it into my Windows 11 computer, and it just worked.

I wish I tried that sometime around Tuesday. I would have cried less.

And the only other issue I have been having is with the ASIO drivers, as they were just randomly deciding to not work.

The issue would happen if I was already listening to audio through the main drivers, like YouTube, or Cleanfeed, and then I tried to open Adobe Audition.

In that situation I would actually have to reboot, and make sure to open audition with the ASIO drivers engaged, and THEN continue on with my day.

Again, I have not been able to recreate that issue with the Windows 11 laptop, but I will keep my eyes open in the future for it.

By the way, RODE is aware of these two issues and they are trying to recreate it to solve it.

WHAT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE

This unit is damn near perfect.

But, there are some improvements I could envision, two to be specific.

First of all, I would love a routing matrix in the end, to be able to specify EXACTLY what is going where for EVERYTHING.

And I know this is a big ask, but here is why I am starting with such a recommendation.

This unit NEEDS to be better than the Presonus Revelator.

RODE CANNOT be outclassed in any way by the Revelator, a unit that costs $500 dollars less.

And yes, I am serious! Something as simple as routing makes or breaks this for a LOT of people.

And with that ability, this thing will actually rule the world.

I did say there were two things right?

Oh yeah...I also want this controller button to mute the monitors when pressed.

That’s all.

FINAL VERDICT

This thing is headed for greatness. That is pretty easy to see.

And honestly with a roll out like this, the reason it isn’t going to flop, is because RODE is ON IT.

They are reacting in real time, trying to get the fixes out, answering the calls, and while there may be a few lemons out there in the world - especially with the first run, once they get over that initial hump of problem solving, and they get that outbound routing figured out, this thing is NOT going to be beat.

Everyone else is too late to the game.

A few bonuses out of this by the way.

The OG Rodecaster Pro is going to be super cheap on the used market soon, and they are still updating it.

And it is still a fantastic machine - for sure.

And all the others will still be there as well.

Which means that the ability for ANYONE to make content just got a bit more accessible.

And that means that everyone wins.

And that is a good thing.