The Rodecaster Pro II wants you to up your podcast game

Want a professional-sounding podcast? You’ll need more than a microphone and something to say. Mixing channels, triggering sound effects and making on-the-fly EQ adjustments can turn an hour of rambling into audio gold, and Rode’s latest portable audio mixer should put that all a button press or fader slide away. The Rodecaster Pro II has been overhauled with a slicker design, new preamps and much slicker software.

It might have dropped a few physical faders compared to the previous-gen model, but the Rodecaster Pro II is otherwise an upgrade on almost every level. The touchscreen is bigger now, with more fine-grain control than before, the unit is physically more compact, and the sound pads are now fully customisable. As well as triggering effects like the outgoing Rodecaster Pro, they can pull off MIDI commands, fade channels smoothly and even switch video feeds. That last one should come in handy for live streamers.

The screen has its own virtual faders, in case you’re running multiple channel recording, and has haptic feedback so you know when you’ve tapped a digital button without having to move away from the microphone.

Those uprated preamps have higher gain and a lower noise floor than before, so there’s no need for third-party microphone boosters and more. It has four Neutrik combo inputs for connecting 1/4in or XLR devices, four headphone outputs and balanced 1/4in line outputs, so there’s no excuse not to invite guest voices onto your next recording.

The whole thing hooks up to a computer via USB-C, and lets you connect two machines at once for dual operation. It can also record to USB storage or a microSD card. There’s also built-in Bluetooth, and it supports software updates over Wi-Fi or Ethernet. Rode is promising to add more features with downloadable updates in the months following launch.

The Rodecaster Pro II will launch in mid-June for £699. You can pre-order now from major AV specialists including WEX Photo Video and Gear4Music.