Rode Wireless Go - A Warning

[TurboRat]

31 minutes ago, newfoundmass said:

I think there's a middle ground: I think that people should expect at least minimum level of quality from a $200 wireless system, especially from a company like RODE. That is to say, people should rightfully expect the thing to work as advertised. I'd also say though that a $200 wireless set may not be the best choice when shooting something like a wedding, where you've got one chance to nail everything. There's just too great a chance that something will happen. That's why I use a Zoom H1 and a lav. Definitely not fancy but I've never had it fail on me, which is more than I can say for most (all?) wireless systems I've worked with. 

You put both Zooms and lavs on bride and groom?

[newfoundmass]

45 minutes ago, TurboRat said:

You put both Zooms and lavs on bride and groom?

I put one on the groom and one on the officiant. Sometimes I'll also just put the H1 on the podium if there is one and only lav up the groom. 

I've thought about trying to lav up the bride but I think it's too invasive. 

[Kisaha]

8 hours ago, Adam Kuźniar said:

So I guess you're only shooting with Arri and Red cameras (because they're professional) using Zeiss Primes (because they're professional) and put it all on O'Connor sticks (because they're professional)? Anything else and you should expect 480p TOPS (because it's not professional) ? 

 

I hate these kinds of stupid comments. He should absolutely expect a perfectly usable product for 200 euro. Not everyone needs 3km range and perfect crystal clear full spectrum audio that will make sure bride's "yes I do" will be transmitted on hollywood level never seen before on a damn youtube wedding video.

 

I am a pro sound man of 20 years and I didn't call anyone stupid. 200€ in sound is the lowest of the low and the expectations are low too.

I own 5 Samyang lenses for my lesser projects, but when we shoot better ones we rent. I do not expect my Samyangs to be Cooke quality and I do not complain that they aren't.

I just bought a Sachtler Flowtech with an FSB for my small cameras, I also own Manfrotto and Benro tripods, guess which one is better and why I had to spend 4 and 5 and 6 times more money.

[tweak]

You don't get something for nothing... I bought a 2nd hand Sony UWP dual wireless kit and have never had an issue.

[sanveer]

I wonder how it compares to Saramonic's new wireless mic system, especially for distance and transmission and quality of sound. 

[MrSMW]

Well I thought I’d give it another go and repurchased another set.

But with a caveat and that is I am double-backing up audio and only using the Go as an actual lapel mic (rather than in pocket with lav mic) or attached to a lectern in direct line of sight.

Excellent speeches last weekend, but less so Ceremony when granny doing her reading stood in front of the lectern and not behind it as 99.999999999% of all human beings would. And then spoke in the quietest voice in human history.

Weddings... ?

(Backing up as in I have 2 other Sony audio recorders, sometimes with shotgun mics, nearby either table top, fastened to something or velcroed to a wall!)

[IronFilm]

18 hours ago, newfoundmass said:

I think there's a middle ground: I think that people should expect at least minimum level of quality from a $200 wireless system, especially from a company like RODE.

I think for $199 to get any kind of quality audio out of a wireless kit is going to be your base level of expectations. 

And Rode is not a stamp of approval for quality, as they've made some solid low budget projects but they can certainly be a bit hit or miss with sometimes cost savings really showing. 

17 hours ago, newfoundmass said:

I've thought about trying to lav up the bride but I think it's too invasive. 

 Just do it! Be polite and professional about it, and explain how it is for her benefit to fully capture all the emotion of her special day. 

[Matias Mayolo]

On 9/7/2019 at 4:12 AM, MrSMW said:

Well I thought I’d give it another go and repurchased another set.

But with a caveat and that is I am double-backing up audio and only using the Go as an actual lapel mic (rather than in pocket with lav mic) or attached to a lectern in direct line of sight.

Excellent speeches last weekend, but less so Ceremony when granny doing her reading stood in front of the lectern and not behind it as 99.999999999% of all human beings would. And then spoke in the quietest voice in human history.

Weddings... ?

(Backing up as in I have 2 other Sony audio recorders, sometimes with shotgun mics, nearby either table top, fastened to something or velcroed to a wall!)

You could record to a Tascam DR-10L which is one of the smallest recorders (you get dual backup recording as well, at -6db or -12db) and get the audio from the headphones output to the Go. That would make a very small and affordable recording solution, I can't think about a smaller recorder with dual recording. They already come with a lavalier, but if you already have a good ones you can sell them and it'll be cheaper. The tascam DR-10C comes without the mic and has a signal pass through but you can't get it in the US. For the budget you can't go wrong, I wouldn't trust on any affordable wireless transmitter receiver without a backup.

Actually you could just record the whole thing ONLY with the Tascam DR-10L but you wouldn't be able to monitor the audio. It's really small and you can clip it to a belt or whatever:

[Emanuel]

Or the Zoom F1-LP then:

[Matias Mayolo]

35 minutes ago, Emanuel said:

Or the Zoom F1-LP then:

The cool thing about the zoom is that you can add microphone capsules, and you can transform your recorder into whatever you want, there's a an omni mic, a shotgun mic and more. Pretty cool. The not so cool is that it doesn't have dual recording (a second track at -6db or -12db). I personally prefer the dual recording feature.

I moved from the Tascam to a third option but it's not as practical for the use of weddings I guess, it's the Roland R-07, its a portable recorder a little bit bigger than these two, it has two built in mics, it has dual recording too, and you can control it trough Bluetooth from both a phone, and monitor the audio through Bluetooth headphones, at the same time. In theory it's an awesome recorder but in real life the app is buggy and half of the times disconnects from the recorder and has very short range, and the bluetooth headphones too (I have cheap ones). Still, for interviews in a close range or stuff like that, it works like a charm ?

[Thpriest]

4 hours ago, Matias Mayolo said:

You could record to a Tascam DR-10L which is one of the smallest recorders (you get dual backup recording as well, at -6db or -12db) and get the audio from the headphones output to the Go. That would make a very small and affordable recording solution, I can't think about a smaller recorder with dual recording. They already come with a lavalier, but if you already have a good ones you can sell them and it'll be cheaper. The tascam DR-10C comes without the mic and has a signal pass through but you can't get it in the US. For the budget you can't go wrong, I wouldn't trust on any affordable wireless transmitter receiver without a backup.

Actually you could just record the whole thing ONLY with the Tascam DR-10L but you wouldn't be able to monitor the audio. It's really small and you can clip it to a belt or whatever:

The Tascam has failed me. Doesn't record anything. Seems like a problem with the mic connector. Others have had the same problem. I suppose if you are monitoring with a Rode that would help detect the problem.

[The ghost of squig]

26 minutes ago, Thpriest said:

The Tascam has failed me. Doesn't record anything. Seems like a problem with the mic connector. Others have had the same problem. I suppose if you are monitoring with a Rode that would help detect the problem.

My advice to everyone is: never record with anything you can't constantly monitor with headphones. I broke this cardinal rule of location recording on a very important shoot recently. I was shooting a dinner for a doco I'm working on solo; it was quite dark and my eyesight isn't as good as it used to be, and I accidentally switched the input on my mixpre-d to AES/EBU (digital input). I lost some important dialogue before I noticed my error.

[IronFilm]

On 9/9/2019 at 2:27 PM, Emanuel said:

Or the Zoom F1-LP then:

It is significantly bigger than a Tascam DR10L though, which is the LAST thing you want with your bodypack recorder 

[gethin]

 

On 9/6/2019 at 5:39 PM, Adam Kuźniar said:

I hate these kinds of stupid comments. He should absolutely expect a perfectly usable product for 200 euro.

you beat me to it.

The pico mic looks pretty good. bit more expensive, but you get 2 mics in a kit. 

[tweak]

There's a big difference between "usable" and "reliable"... The Rode kit is 100% usable for 200euros, but to expect something 100% reliable that's on par with products 10-20x the price would be foolish IMO.

[Anaconda_]

It’s not 10-20x the price by any means, but my Sennheiser AVX-ME2 set failed on me the other day and the Wireless Go came to the rescue and literally saved a shoot that couldn’t be redone. 

To me, the low price means there’s no excuse for not having this in your bag. Every piece of equipment can fail, and having a quick and easy solution will likely get you repeat business. Having a bad excuse, blaming your equipment will only get you unhappy clients. 

[IronFilm]

11 hours ago, tweak said:

There's a big difference between "usable" and "reliable"... The Rode kit is 100% usable for 200euros, but to expect something 100% reliable that's on par with products 10-20x the price would be foolish IMO.

For the line of work I do (as someone who has specialised in the sound department), I wouldn't even call RodeLinks or Rode GO "100% usable"
 

Rode GO: nonlocking connector, is a dealbreaker 

RodeLink: BULKINESS, is a dealbreaker 

9 hours ago, Anaconda_ said:

To me, the low price means there’s no excuse for not having this in your bag. Every piece of equipment can fail, and having a quick and easy solution will likely get you repeat business. Having a bad excuse, blaming your equipment will only get you unhappy clients. 

Yes, in a pinch, a Rode wireless is better than nothing! But that is a rather low bar to set for it?
 

[thefactory]

I don't mind them. Like all our gear, there are different tools for different scenarios. I have used them to monitor an audio recorder wirelessly, used them to pass backup audio to the camera, even used them as a wireless headphone monitoring solution.  

I only use them as a "main source" over very short distances, but they are so tiny they are handy to have in your kit. 

[tweak]

1 hour ago, IronFilm said:

For the line of work I do (as someone who has specialised in the sound department), I wouldn't even call RodeLinks or Rode GO "100% usable"
 

Rode GO: nonlocking connector, is a dealbreaker.
 

But it's obviously not a product made for professional work  .

[Anaconda_]

4 hours ago, IronFilm said:

Yes, in a pinch, a Rode wireless is better than nothing! But that is a rather low bar to set for it?

Well, setting a bar too high creates unrealistic expectations as we've seen in this thread.

Many photographers have a second, identical body in their bag at all times as a backup... isn't that a low bar to set for high end cameras? Preparation can never be a bad thing, and this allows you to make those preparations without doubling the price of each piece of kit.