This is the Rodecaster Pro.

And here is the Rodecaster Pro 2.

So is it worthwhile to upgrade from the Rodecaster Pro 1 to the Rodecaster Pro 2?

Let’s find out.

The original Rodecaster Pro paved a new pathway for content creators as well as podcasters to produce high quality audio, whether it was just audio alone or audio as part of their video.

And then recently Rodecaster released the Rodecaster Pro 2, which is the successor to the highly amazing Rodecaster Pro.

So the question, or should I say the dilemma is if you’ve got the Rodecaster Pro, should you upgrade to the Rodecaster Pro 2?

So let’s talk about the differences between both units and then you get to decide whether it’s worth the upgrade or not.

Now if you are an audiophile or an audio engineer, you already know that the Rodecaster Pro 2 is way better than the original Rodecaster Pro.

And that’s not what this video is about.

I’m not going to go through all the technical details because most people won’t understand what those mean.

So I’m going to really be talking about some of the features of what makes the difference between the Rodecaster Pro and the Rodecaster Pro 2 and let you decide whether that’s worth your investment or not.

First off, let’s talk about price.

The original Rodecaster Pro retails for approximately $500, whereas the Rodecaster Pro 2 retails for approximately $700.

So if you’re able to sell your original Rodecaster Pro for about $300 on the low end, then that means you’d be paying an additional $400 to upgrade to the Rodecaster Pro 2.

Now, do you have to invest in anything else in order to make that upgrade happen?

Not really, because your microphones, when they’re XLR, they’re going to fit into any XLR device.

Now let’s talk about the physical differences between these two units.

The original Rodecaster Pro has eight physical sliders and each of those physical sliders are connected directly to a specific channel.

Whereas with the Rodecaster Pro 2 you only have six physical sliders or faders.

However, each and every single one of those physical sliders can be dynamically routed to any individual audio source.

And on top of the six physical sliders, you have an additional three virtual sliders or faders.

On the Rodecaster Pro 2, which increases that number to a total of nine.

On the original Rodecaster Pro, you had eight buttons as well as eight banks, for a total of 64 different sounds.

And now on the Rodecaster Pro 2, they’re not just called sound pads, they’re called Smart Pads.

And the reason why they’re now called Smart Pads is because not only do you have eight pads and eight banks for a total of 64 different things you can do, each of those pads can play a sound or trigger an effect, or trigger a Midi function.

So it’s not just 64 sounds, it’s 64 functions.

And to add to the coolness of the eight Smart pads on the Rodecaster Pro 2, there are two additional page turning buttons so that you can press between the different banks on the Rodecaster Pro 2.

Did I mention the size difference between these two?

The Rodecaster Pro 2, while it packs up so much more power and features, is actually a smaller unit than the original Rodecaster Pro almost by 10% in width, it’s also 25% thinner and this allows you to make the Rodecaster Pro 2 even more portable.

One other thing that you will notice is that the Rodecaster Pro 2 has some different dials.

Most notably, there’s one new dial called the Rotary Encoder.

And this Rotary Encoder not only turns, but it also presses and this allows you to change additional features inside of the Rodecaster Pro 2.

One of the other differences you’ll notice between the two units is the touchscreen.

The original Rodecaster Pro has approximately a 4.5 inch touchscreen.

However, with the new Rodecaster Pro 2, Rode has upgraded the size to 5.5 inches and now it also has haptic feedback.

Now, earlier I mentioned that you can take your XLR microphones from your original Rodecaster Pro and connect them into the Rodecaster Pro 2.

And you can still do that.

The thing is, if you were using something like a Cloudlifter or some sort of amplification device for things like a Shure SM7B as an example, you won’t need that with the new Rodecaster Pro 2.

And here’s why.

The new Rodecaster Pro 2 has Revolution Preamps, which are ultra low noise and high gain preamps which you do not need things like a Cloudlifter in order to be able to boost or amplify your microphone volume.

In fact, if you do plug in something like a Cloudlifter into the Rodecaster Pro 2 you will be introducing additional noise to your broadcast.

One other really cool thing about the Rodecaster Pro Two is that those four XLR ports on the back are now combo inputs.

That means you can plug in XLR devices as well as line input devices like instruments.

So all of the people out there that play guitars and pianos and other digital types of instruments that have a line output, you can now plug that directly into the Rodecaster Pro 2.

For the folks that use multi track recording on the Rodecaster Pro that still exists in the Rodecaster Pro 2.

However, the Rodecaster Pro 2 ups the ante by adding an additional USB C port.

So that now means that you can connect two USB C connections to one computer system for additional connections to the computer, or you can connect your Rodecaster Pro 2 to two different computers so that you can broadcast simultaneously.

And the second USB connection on the back of the Rodecaster Pro 2 now allows you to connect an additional device such as a smartphone.

As for the digital processing, the original Rodecaster Pro and the Rodecaster Pro 2 both have Aphex.

So you still have the Oral Exciter as well as Big Bottom.

However, the Rodecaster Pro 2 now adds additional processing.

Features such as the compressor, the noise gate, the high pass filter and the DeEsser.

They still exist, but they’re a little bit upgraded because of the new processor on the Rodecaster Pro 2.

And this feature that the Rodecaster Pro 2 now introduces voice effects.

This is something that may be interesting to you.

To enable these effects, all you have to do is click on one of the Smart Pads and you can sound like

Voice Disguise.

Pitch up or chipmunk?

Hey, Megaphone.

Monster.

Large Robot.

Small Robot.

Or if you’ve got a potty mouth, you can go ahead and use the new Bleep button so that you can go and BLEEEEP until you’re blue in the face.

Now, one of the biggest differences that you’ll notice between the Rodecaster Pro and the Rodecaster Pro 2 is that you can now route each and every single individual slider to a different audio source.

So that means sliders One, Two, Three and Four do not have to necessarily be connected to XLR One, Two, Three and four.

In fact, you can move XLR 1 into slider number two and move Bluetooth over to slider number one and your computer

Audio to slider number three and your Smart Pad Audio to slider number four.

And therefore, the possibilities are endless.

You can change any of the sliders to any audio source that’s available on the Rodecaster Pro 2.

Now, last but not least, one of the coolest features about the Rolecaster Pro 2 is the fact that because it’s such a powerful computing device, it gives Rode the ability to add new features through firmware updates all the time.

Okay, so what do you think? Is it worth the upgrade or not?

I honestly think it could be.

Depending upon your budget and your needs.

We’re going to be creating a lot more content about the Rodecaster Pro 2.

So go ahead and click click on this playlist up here and watch all of the videos we have about this amazing unit and make sure to subscribe and hit the bell to be notified of when we release our next video.

Thanks so much. Bye.