RØDE Wireless Go: First Impressions

In the modern era of Youtubing, vlogging and video marketing in general, filming yourself as the host of your online show isn’t considered a taboo; quite opposite, it’s the norm. And although content is king and everyone strives for the best image quality, audio is usually neglected, leading to bad sound recordings. Yes, gear DOES matter.

To properly film myself with adequate audio quality, I had opted for a lavalier microphone made by RØDE (and saved some dough on video editing software as well!). It’s known that you get the best audio by placing the microphone as close as possible to the talent, who in this case is myself. So, a lav mic is the perfect solution. A shotgun mic is another alternative, yet it requires a stand and long cables if I want to place it directly above me, not to mention the whole setup can eat up a big part of your budget.

Talking of budget options, the RØDE Smartlav goes for around $50. Of course, there’s a catch. By recording to my smartphone and not directly to the camera that usually stands 6 feet away of me, I have to sync the audio later in post. Which, as you can imagine, it’s time consuming despite the latest and greatest automation technology that exists in modern video editing software.

It’s not just the syncing that is troublesome. You are using yet another device WHILE filming yourself; the smartphone. When the creative juices begin flowing, the last thing you need is setting up multiple devices. I usually find myself out of inspiration by the time I have set up everything: the composition, the tripod, the camera settings, the lenses, the filters, the microphones,… and the smartphone! Firing up the audio software, checking audio levels, enabling airplane mode and so much more are quickly making the whole experience quite unpleasant.

Enter the recently launched wireless lavalier microphone system by RØDE. The Wireless GO system is a compact, dare I say a minimalistic solution to this problem. There have been similar wireless systems but they cost $500 or more and they are a bit chunky for my tastes. This new one seemed perfect and the price just sweetened the pot for me.

The RØDE Wireless GO costs $199 in US and pricing in Europe is similar; it retails at €199. So, paying €136 on Spanish Amazon website was a no-brainer (screenshot above), given the fact that I had my mind set on this new microphone system ever since the first reviews came out on YouTube. The pricing didn’t come as a surprise as I have recently witnessed huge price fluctuations on Amazon websites. Amazon.de, for example, offers the same exact product for €199. I’m quite certain after years of shopping from Amazon that I’d get the very same microphones if I’d placed the order on the German site.

It’s quite early to give a verdict for this system. First impressions are great, though! The microphone system is really small (and cute!) and the setup is very quick, while I can connect my Smartlav mic to the transmitter for properly hiding the microphone out of the shot. The whole thing will save me headaches when filming myself for my YouTube episodes and will buy me lot of time in the editing room, by avoiding the cumbersome task of syncing audio. Kudos, RØDE!

Here’s the Amazon page for the RØDE Wireless Go. It’s an affiliate link. I’ve talked about these links here.