Rode Complete Studio Kit with the NT1 and Ai-1, Black

Ok, let me begin by saying I've been an Amazon customer for 20+ years, and I can't remembering ever writing a review before. That said, the reason I'm writing this one, is to highlight a product kit, that is fantastic. I am new to recording, and I needed equipment that would give professional results for narration/voice over, hopefully without breaking the bank. As most know, the assortment of good-great mics out there is dizzying. This NT1 condenser mic is professional grade all the way. It is built like a work of art, and the sound quality is better than it looks. There is literally so much crap floating around out there, that this was a true delight to find. The shock mount it comes with, is a high quality resin formed product that is also of the highest quality. As a matter of fact, you can find just the shock mount on eBay for around $70 with the beautifully fabricated dual layer metal mesh pop filter (also in this kit), that integrates right into the shock mount. In my case, I have mounted this on Rode's PSA1 mic swivel arm RODE PSA1 Swivel Mount Studio Microphone Boom Arm, in the inverted position, and the pop filter's pressure fitting to the shock mount is bulletproof. By the way, I'm not sure I'll write a review of the PSA1, but suffice it say, that even at $100, this is also a quality tool that I would purchase again in a heartbeat (someone did post a video of it squeaking horribly when moved, but that is not my experience, and if it is defective, he should send it back).YouTube is the place I started, and it seemed my go to destination for mics and equipment, was a guy by the name of Mike Del Gaudio, who's channel is "Booth Junkie." Mike is a professional voice actor, and is incredibly knowledgeable, articulate, organized, and does incredible head to head comparisons of various condenser and dynamic mics, and tutorials on "Reaper," a gem of a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) and a great value ($60 for individuals) with a large community supporting it. He also covers other related hardware, and should be a go to for all newbies, and those looking prior to new purchases. I can't thank him enough for educating me (through his YouTube channel), and making a difficult decision, far easier. First full disclosure, I don't Mike, never met or communicated with him ... but I will thank him soon.However important it was to choose this NT1 microphone, and the lyre based world class shock mount it comes with in this package, I was still left needing a USB audio interface. Now this is where things started getting tricky. I had watched a lot of YouTube channels covering different audio interfaces (Audient, Audiobox, Scarlett), and most reviews were quite lacking, or superficial in nature. One of the strongest exceptions, and another excellent YouTube channel is "PodCastAge." He reinforces the pros of this interface, super clean preamps, build quality is great, zero latency headphone monitoring, virtually noiseless even at 100% gain, and even strong enough to drive power hungry dynamic mics such as the Shure SM7B. Unlike many others around this price point, it only has once combo jack (XLR/6.3mm) versus two, BUT, it can also record at 24bit and 96kHz, which is amazing. I'm confident you could spend three times as much on a USB interface, and not get equal quality, even if you pick up another combo input, but let's face it, even most home studio musicians rarely record more than one track at a time.All said and done, this package price of $350 is a great buy, and enough so I splurged on the PSA1 swivel arm. As the mic alone is $250, but for $270 you get the rycote shock mount and pop filter (selling for $70), you save $50 right there. When you buy this whole kit for $350, you save another $60 by getting the AI-1 interface for $80 versus the standalone price of $140. I haven't even mentioned the high quality USB-C cable, the 5/8-3/8" included adapter, and the XLR cable, making this even a better value. And when you register these products at Rode.com, I believe they extend your warranty, and can download a light version of Ableton(?) DAW.Now I will share that had an issue with an RF capacitor failure in the mic which cause feedback and made the mic unusable after a few days. I called Rode in California, I got right through to their product support team, and was given a short term fix bringing the mic back to working order without sending it in for repair. As well, because of the issue happening so quickly after I bought it, they sent me out a new kit to replace the one I had, and paid for the return shipping of my original purchase (through an Amazon partner). That's how CUSTOMER SERVICE is suppose to work! Kudos to Rode!As so many reviews have a full disclosure statement, I'll state that I have in no way been compensated by any party listed in this review.

The Rode microphone has been a great addition to my setup. It syncs seamlessly with my computer—no fuss, no complicated setup—and the audio quality is genuinely excellent. Whether I’m recording, on calls, or streaming, the sound is clear, crisp, and reliable.One thing to note: it doesn’t come with a stand, so you’ll need to grab one separately. Not a huge issue, but something to keep in mind if you're expecting an all-in-one package.Overall, if you care more about sound quality and performance than included extras, the Rodents mic is a solid choice.

I am not an expert in microphones, but I am happy with this and it has served me well thus far (I am a professional voice actor). Good quality construction and sound quality for a fair price. If you're wondering if you should opt for a really high-end microphone vs. this one, I can't speak to that personally; I will say an audio engineer I know told me there is really no reason to get a more expensive microphone than this for voice over.Although it's a professional quality microphone, don't expect to just plug it in and everything to sound perfect. I am still learning how to best use the gain on the interface and I also have to tweak recordings in my software to fix sound levels and such. However, that is to be expected with any microphone. It will pick up ambient sounds (such as computer humming) which some really expensive microphones may "cancel out" better. However, I would personally opt for buying this microphone and investing some of the substantial money saved in soundproofing and/or ways to cut down noise in the recording environment.

I needed a high quality microphone for work calls, and wanted a high quality audio interface to pair it with. After watching and reading many reviews (especially from the YouTube channel Podcastage), I decided on the Rode NT1 for my microphone, and the AI-1 for my audio interface. I decided to buy this particular combo package because it was cheaper to purchase the combo kit than each item separately. I was tempted to buy the microphone by itself and then pair it was a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 for my audio interface, but I had no need for two inputs offered on the 2i2 and preferred the AI-1's all-black aesthetic.The sound quality has been amazing and was immediately noticed by my coworkers when compared to my previous Sennheiser headset microphone. Just be aware that certain VOIP applications will heavily compress your audio over conference calls, so the benefit you will see from this microphone is much more noticeable over a program such as GoToMeeting than it is over Microsoft Teams or Skype. This is not an issue if you are looking for the microphone for recording your audio locally, but is a consideration for VOIP uses.My biggest issue with the combo kit was that the AI-1 would stop audio playback every time my computer (running Windows 10) turned off, and would not resume until it was fully unplugged from my computer and then plugged back in. I was able to resolve this issue by updating the AI-1's firmware on Rode's website. I am unsure if new production kits would come with this update already installed, but I would recommend immediately updating the firmware if you purchase this kit to avoid that potential issue.I additionally purchased the Rode PSA-1 boom arm to accompany the microphone, which has worked well and is extraordinarily sturdy. While pricey, I would recommend it to anyone purchasing this combo kit that does not yet have a boom arm, as it's absolutely worth the premium over the cheap options that are on Amazon when it'll be holding a microphone of this quality.