How to make the RODE VIDEO MIC PRO working with Scarlet/Epic

[Michael Gyori]

After cutting the wire as instructed, I do get audio coming from the mic to the Scarlet. Unfortunately, most of the time, that audio is terribly distorted. Not peaking... just... bad. What am I doing wrong? Do I have a faulty mic? Scarlet firmware badness? I have Scarlet firmware 3.2.16 installed. Link to bad audio: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/651378/Problems_with_audio.wav Limiter on Scarlet is turned off. Rode mic is set to non-filter mode.

[Michael Gyori]

Peter, any advice?

[Peter Majtan]

It can not hurt to try the latest 3.3 firmware - at the very least You will know if it was the firmware...
I am out on a location - I will try to get back to you in couple of days...

[Michael Gyori]

Upgrading to 3.3 didn't make any difference. I have the level input gain set to 17db... is this a problem?

BTW What does cutting the white wire do?

[Kory Kapfer]

Hey all, I'm new to RED and I just bought the Scarlett for a job coming up soon that required the purchase. In any event, I also need audio so I bought the RODE stereo Mic Pro because I need to record sounds from all around the room. I haven't got the mic yet but it should be coming today and I was going to start the testing as soon as I got it. Are you all telling me that this mic wont work because of some odd wiring? Please tell me I am misinterpreting something because I am now in panic mode. Can someone please verify this or at lest help me understand why this may not work!

[Michael Winokur]

Thanks, this worked in <5 minutes.

[Peter Majtan]

Upgrading to 3.3 didn't make any difference. I have the level input gain set to 17db... is this a problem?

BTW What does cutting the white wire do?

Cutting the white wire essentially turns the RODE from "double mono" mic into "mono" mic. The RODE is wired in a "normal" way - which means even thou it is a mono mic - it sends the same mono signal on both paths of the stereo connector (note that this does not make it a stereo mic). The RED input is wired as +/- for balanced XLR path, which is however uncommon on the mini-jack plug. So if You send the standard RODE signal to RED - it basically deducts from the "left" (mono) the "balanced" signal on the "right" (which is the same mono signal) - and this results in complete cancelation of the actual audio being recorded. As You cut the white wire - you are removing the duplicated mono signal - so now it is not deducted from the identical main mono signal - which is in return free to record now...

Coincidentally - this does not in any way reduce the performance of the mic when used in a non-RED mini-jack plugs. The only difference is that you would record a stereo signal with the mono being in one channel and the other channel is empty (as suppose to having the same mono channel in both paths of the stereo signal). Any audio software will turn mono into "fake" stereo by duplicating the mono signal into both paths of the stereo channel - which is what the RODE is wired to do by HW...

Hey all, I'm new to RED and I just bought the Scarlett for a job coming up soon that required the purchase. In any event, I also need audio so I bought the RODE stereo Mic Pro because I need to record sounds from all around the room. I haven't got the mic yet but it should be coming today and I was going to start the testing as soon as I got it. Are you all telling me that this mic wont work because of some odd wiring? Please tell me I am misinterpreting something because I am now in panic mode. Can someone please verify this or at lest help me understand why this may not work!

This also answers Your questions Kory - so no need to panic. If You are uneasy about such minor "non-invasive surgery" - just use one of those stereo-to-mono plug converters such as this:


http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...ductId=2062469

It does essentially the same thing - but You need to be careful not to have a phantom power enabled - as this would short your camera!!!
It also adds bulk to your setup and extends the audio connection to potentially intrude into Your lens setup. Which is why I recommend cutting the wire instead...
Hope this helps...

Peter

[J Taylor]

This is pretty late, but THANK YOU. Just used this tutorial and it was a huge help.

[Michael Gyori]

Peter, have you listened to the sound sample I provided? I'm still getting bad audio with this setup.

[Matt Fleming]

I just got a RODE VIDEOMIC PRO today for scratch audio. Out of the box, it didn't work with 3.3. Used a stereo-to-mono plug converter shown above and it works. I'm now recording audio in a mono track just fine...just FYI for those trying the same.