RODECaster Pro Overview. RODECaster™ Pro Podcast Production Studio console is a mixer/recorder integrated into a single control surface designed specifically for podcast production, and recommended by Trew Audio, the world leader in professional broadcast production audio equipment.With Aphex peerless signal processing that adds life, body, and warmth with Big Bottom™ and Aural Exciter. The RODECaster Pro also connects to your computer as a USB audio interface, so you can record your podcast to your favourite recording software, or stream live. Multitrack recording is also available via USB to your computer’s recording software (including Garage Band, Reaper, Logic, ProTools, Audition and more), allowing you to separately.

Not everyone has, or can afford a Rodecaster…

Luckily, if you’re interested in incorporating Clubhouse audio in your podcast, it’s not a requirement that you have one.

First, I want to comment on why this isn’t “easy” to do

It comes down to inputs and outputs, (hearing and being heard): you need Clubhouse to be able to hear you, and you need to be able to hear clubhouse, but this requires the ability to mixminus.

A USB audio interface device, like the Scarlett 2i2, is a piece of hardware that allows you connect a number of sound sources (like XLR microphones) to your computer so that you can record those sources in a recording application like Audacity, Audition, Pro Tools, or Studio One (just as a few examples).

If we’re recording clubhouse, we need to connect the phone to the audio interface device (from here, AID) so that it can be captured as an audio source. But your iPhone isn’t an XLR microphone, and it won’t naturally connect to an AID. To overcome this challenge we need an adapter of some kind – and I’ll get to that in a minute.

But the iPhone running Clubhouse doesn’t just need to be “heard” by your AID, it also needs to hear you, right? The iPhone is sending audio to you, and you can hear it, but the people on Clubhouse need you to send audio to them so they can hear you.

Troubleshooting Rodecaster Pro

This is easy to do, right? You just need to send the output of your AID to your iPhone.

But wait. There’s only one port on the iPhone, and we’ve just used it to get sound into your AID so you can hear all your Clubhouse friends. How are we going to get audio from the AID to our friends so they can hear us?

Easy, we make sure the cable we used to connect to the iPhone in the first place is a TRRS (Tip Ring Ring Sleeve) connection on one end and lightning on the other. TRRS connections can send audio both ways. Simple! No sweat!

Oh, no, hold on. The cable might be TRRS, but that doesn’t change the fact we’re bringing audio into the AID as if the iPhone were a microphone… and 3.5mm TRRS jacks don’t plug-in to XLR or 1/4″ line inputs, they’re too small. But maybe we could get a little TRRS adapter and step that 3.5mm up to a 1/4″ and now we can connect it. Awesome.

Actually, not awesome, because Line Inputs aren’t Outputs. So, how the hell are we getting audio out of the AID and into the iPhone so our friends can hear it?

Use an iRig! You may scream, excitedly. Well, no, that won’t work if you don’t have an AID that is also a mixer. Why? Because an AID that isn’t also a mixer, can’t perform a mixminus.

Rodecaster Pro Sound Effects

What the hell is a mixminus!?

Since all the audio from your microphone and from the iPhone, is all jumbled together inside the AID, even if we could get the audio out of it and into the iPhone we’d have a big problem: the iPhone would hear you, but it would also hear the audio it just sent to your AID. Meaning people on Clubhouse would hear themselves speaking back to themselves – and the worse the internet/cellular network connection, the more delayed this “loop back” will be and the more annoying it will become.

A mixminus is the process of removing one or more audio sources from the output you would send back to (in this example) the iPhone.

But AIDs that are not also mixing boards, are not capable of doing this… so you need a mixing board that is also an AID if you want to include clubhouse audio in your podcast recording in a way that enables you to hear clubhouse and clubhouse to hear you without hearing itself.

Rodecaster Pro Multitrack Recording Adobe Audition

This is a mind-meltingly complex thing to sort if you’re not used to doing it, but I’m here to help make that way easier for you.

What you’ll need:

• A 3.5mm TRRS to Lightning cable
• A Zoom P4 PodTrak

Here’s a diagram to follow

But I don’t want to spend any money to do this!

Let me tell you the alternative, and you’ll quickly realize why this shouldn’t be a difficult choice to make.

You can finagle this with an iRig, but the results will be varied and the setup will require a number of cables, be unnecessarily complicated, and will not be easy to figure out again after you disconnect everything and try to take your recording setup with you on vacation. It can be done, but the cost savings aren’t that great.

Rodecaster Pro Adobe Audition

An iRig costs $99, the adapters you’ll need will cost around $20, and the dongle will cost ~$20.

That’s $140.

The ZOOM P4 PodTrak and the cable show above cill cost your $225.

Rodecaster Pro Alternative

That’s only an $85 difference. And, guess what? This will only work if if you have already have an Audio Interface Device (like Focusrite’s Scarlett 2i2). If you don’t, you can add about $200 to that $140 and you’ll be spending more than the solution I’ve outlined in the graphic above.

If you have a Rodecaster, you just need the $25 cable shown in the infographic. Connect it to the back of your Rodecaster and the rest is done for you.

Rodecaster Pro Software

If you have neither a Rodecaster or an audio interface device, there’s no cheaper way to go about this than the one I’ve outlined.

Rodecaster Pro With Adobe Audition

If you already have an audio interface device (which is not also a mixer), then you can spend $99 on an iRig and spend a lot of time being upset at the number of cords draped across your podcast space, and maybe succeed in arriving at a solution, but that’s a lot to go through to save $85.

If it was me, I’d spend the $225 and not have to stress about troubleshooting the setup later when your cat pulls a cable loose and you can’t remember where it was supposed to go.

This content is related to mixminusing, a topic covered in the first episode of Tanner’s podcast “Help the Podcast”

Art for Audio designs stunning cover art and episode artwork for podcasters. Their rates are fair, their talent is outstanding, and their knack for finding a way to visualize your message is unmatched in the market. Mention RTP and get 10% off of your project.