Unboxing My New Rode SmartLav Lapel Microphone (Ep48)

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The other day I unfortunately dropped my ATR2100 microphone. It was a great microphone but it broke because it had the USB cord in and it snapped off. I couldn’t fix it myself so I’ve gone out and purchased a new microphone – the Rode SmartLav Lapel Microphone.

It’s not the best microphone in the world. It’s not as good quality as maybe the ATR2100, which was a larger microphone that plugged in to my computer. But it’s great because it’s a lapel mic so I can stand further away from the camera and the microphone. My ATR2100 only plugged into the computer. It produced dodgy video quality even though the sound quality was pretty good.

Eventually I want to get a boom mic – the ones that sit over your head that you don’t see. You can get more expensive ones and the sound quality is epic. So that’s what we’re working towards. We’ll get there eventually.

But I’m really excited to open up my Rode Lapel mic today and find out how it works.

Rode is a great microphone company. They make some really stellar microphones. I’ve seen James Schramko from SuperFast Business use this microphone and I decided to get the same.

I wanted a lapel microphone to use it with my iPhone. The Rode SmartLav Lapel mic offers “Broadcast quality audio direct from your iPhone or iPad or iPod Touch”, which is exactly what I want.

It comes in a protective leather-like pouch with everything you’d need – the instruction book and Quickstart guide and so forth.

It’s a simple little microphone with a decent-sized cord to go from the iPhone to myself. You might need to get a cord extender if you wanted to do a full-body shot.

Just make sure when you’re buying an extension for the microphone that you buy a cord that has four slots on the end or it’s not going to work as an extension cord.

So I can attach this to my shirt with the clip very easily. It provides better sound and helps to prevent interference from background noise. If I were to run my audio through a program like Orphonic I would probably get even better results.

And there you have the Rode SmartLav Lapel Microphone. You guys can comment on it and let me know if it’s good or if it needs improvement.