Rode Podmic minimum requierment

KING DRANZER

New member
What is the minimum requirement to drive Rode Podmic. I tried connecting it directly to PC using XLR to 3.5mm cable Sennheiser CL2 and it was very low sounding and lot of static. Next I tried using Creative Sound Blaster Play 3 and there was no sound at all even after maxing out the mic level to max. Why is it like that. It doesn't need Phantom Power.

Will something like Sennheiser GSX1000 and ASUS Xonar Essence STX II be sufficient to drive it. I don't want additional audio interface.
 
I'm curious what the Rode manual or QuickStart says. Maybe you can look there.... Does it mention an audio interface?
 
The Podmic is very similar in output to the SM57. Its a dynamic mic with a sensitivity of -57dB or 1.6mv at 94dB. You might look at the gain specs of your soundcard. Generally they don't have a hgih amount of gain.

Barring the use of a real interface, you probably need an electret type mic to provide sufficient out put to drive those types of interfaces.
 
The Sennheiser CL2 cable will not work. It is intended for connection of a 'balanced' microphone connection to a 'balanced' input of a series of Sennheiser's body pack transmitters. The PC, the Sound Blaster, and others you mention will have 'unbalanced' inputs and will not work properly unless a cable is used to convert balanced to unbalanced. Even with this type of cable you may not get good levels into the the computer or without some sort of noise.

I have used the cable linked below into a computer with a Shure SM57 which has a similar sensitivity to the PodMic, but the mic needed to be close to my mouth to have decent levels. It may work, but not at the best the PodMic could likely be capable of. Cheap enough to try if you really don't want to get an interface.
Hosa-XVM-305F-Camcorder-Microphone-Right-angle (other cables may work, but the connection needs to be made from pin 1 to pin 3 in the XLR connector. The HOSA I know has this)

I would recommend an inexpensive Behringer USB interface....... behringer-u-phoria-umc22-usb-audio-interface
 

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Tried using unbalanced cable

The Sennheiser CL2 cable will not work. It is intended for connection of a 'balanced' microphone connection to a 'balanced' input of a series of Sennheiser's body pack transmitters. The PC, the Sound Blaster, and others you mention will have 'unbalanced' inputs and will not work properly unless a cable is used to convert balanced to unbalanced. Even with this type of cable you may not get good levels into the the computer or without some sort of noise.

I have used the cable linked below into a computer with a Shure SM57 which has a similar sensitivity to the PodMic, but the mic needed to be close to my mouth to have decent levels. It may work, but not at the best the PodMic could likely be capable of. Cheap enough to try if you really don't want to get an interface.

I tried using one unbalanced cable and it did not help either. There was no difference between unbalanced and balanced cable besides when connected to PC Unbalanced cable had bit more static. When connected to sound card static was almost gone but so was the sound. The sound card was picking up very little voice even at max level on its software.
 
I'm curious what the Rode manual or QuickStart says. Maybe you can look there.... Does it mention an audio interface?

The site do say it works best with Rode Caster Pro. But it should at-least be audible even without dedicated audio interface as the site clearly states it does not require Phantom Power.
 
The Podmic is very similar in output to the SM57. Its a dynamic mic with a sensitivity of -57dB or 1.6mv at 94dB. You might look at the gain specs of your soundcard. Generally they don't have a hgih amount of gain.

Barring the use of a real interface, you probably need an electret type mic to provide sufficient out put to drive those types of interfaces.

I think SM57 and SM58 are rated 150ohm while Podmic is rated 320ohm. Will going with higher Soundcard like GSX1000 or ASUS Xonar Essence STX II help solve the issue.
 
Its hard to say what those devices will do with a microphone. The ONLY spec I see on the Essence is: Analog Input -1 x 6.3 mm jack (1/4") (Line-in/ Mic-in combo)

Nowhere does it say what the sensitivity or gain figures are. That tells me that the mic input is not a priority. Likewise the GSX1000 doesn't have a spec for mic input. These are gaming based cards, not recording interfaces. The are designed for 7.1 enhanced playback for movies, games, and streaming.

A proper recording interface, like a Scarlett, Tascam or Behringer, or going to a XLR to USB converter like the Blue Microphones Icicle XLR to USB Microphone Converter/Preamp or the Shure X2U would be a better way to go, and would be much cheaper than the Sennheiser or the Essence. The Blue is around $60 and the Shure is about $100. Those gaming cards run $250 to 350!
 
Its hard to say what those devices will do with a microphone. The ONLY spec I see on the Essence is: Analog Input -1 x 6.3 mm jack (1/4") (Line-in/ Mic-in combo)

Nowhere does it say what the sensitivity or gain figures are. That tells me that the mic input is not a priority. Likewise the GSX1000 doesn't have a spec for mic input. These are gaming based cards, not recording interfaces. The are designed for 7.1 enhanced playback for movies, games, and streaming.

A proper recording interface, like a Scarlett, Tascam or Behringer, or going to a XLR to USB converter like the Blue Microphones Icicle XLR to USB Microphone Converter/Preamp or the Shure X2U would be a better way to go, and would be much cheaper than the Sennheiser or the Essence. The Blue is around $60 and the Shure is about $100. Those gaming cards run $250 to 350!

Both are rated up-to Power Supply 5V and Power Consumption 250mW. Don't know what that means but can it be of any help to give you idea.
 
Those ratings have absolutely nothing to do with the microphone sensitivity. It just means that the electronics consume a quarter of a watt of power at 5 volts. There are ratings for output, input, power consumption, SN ratio etc.

Microphone gain is measure in millivolts. An example would be:
GAIN: MAX –68dBu (0.0003Vrms)
GAIN: MIN –12dBu (0.195Vrms)
Maximum input level +8dBu (1.947Vrms)
Gain 56dB

That means the interface can take your microphone signal (-57dB) and boost it to -1.0dB which would be more than enough to give a strong signal for recording.

You should be getting some sound from the Rode, assuming you have it wired correctly. It just will not be a high level. Most computer and gaming microphone inputs require about 10mV of signal. Stop looking at gaming soundcards and look at a real microphone preamp.
 
The attached mp3 clip below was recorded with an Shure SM57 dynamic mic (similar sensitivity to the PodMic) using a Hosa XVM-115f XLR to 1/8" TRS mono cable (the mono signal is on both the tip and ring of the TRS plug. I use this cable for the stereo ins of a camcorder occasionally), into an ASUS desktop with a ASUS/RealTek motherboard 'soundcard' (low end quality). Mic was about 1" to 1.5" from my mouth. There are settings in the ASUS sound software that I boosted the gain to a +20dB range. The clip was recorded in Audacity and I did 'normalize' the levels to bring them up a bit. The room was fairly noisy with a fan going and traffic in the road going by. A more expensive gaming card will likely not provide much improvement over what I did. A gaming card is not optimized for use with a dynamic microphone such as the PodMic or similar.

Couple questions....
- What is the intended use for the mic? Singing, voiceover, etc?
- What are you using for a DAW (recording software)?
- The 'PC' you mentioned, is it a desktop or a laptop? If a laptop, the MIC input is sometimes a combo jack that takes a mic & headphone (TRRS) and will not play well with standard 1/8" TRS connection plugged into it.
- When you tried the Creative Sound Blaster Play 3 USB thingy, did you have this device selected in the DAW as your recording device. I'm guessing it doesn't need drivers to function correctly(?) If Win10 is the OS you may need to check and change some privacy settings to enable a USB mic connection...
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4468232/windows-10-camera-microphone-and-privacy
 

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The attached mp3 clip below was recorded with an Shure SM57 dynamic mic (similar sensitivity to the PodMic) using a Hosa XVM-115f XLR to 1/8" TRS mono cable (the mono signal is on both the tip and ring of the TRS plug. I use this cable for the stereo ins of a camcorder occasionally), into an ASUS desktop with a ASUS/RealTek motherboard 'soundcard' (low end quality). Mic was about 1" to 1.5" from my mouth. There are settings in the ASUS sound software that I boosted the gain to a +20dB range. The clip was recorded in Audacity and I did 'normalize' the levels to bring them up a bit. The room was fairly noisy with a fan going and traffic in the road going by. A more expensive gaming card will likely not provide much improvement over what I did. A gaming card is not optimized for use with a dynamic microphone such as the PodMic or similar.

Couple questions....
- What is the intended use for the mic? Singing, voiceover, etc?
- What are you using for a DAW (recording software)?
- The 'PC' you mentioned, is it a desktop or a laptop? If a laptop, the MIC input is sometimes a combo jack that takes a mic & headphone (TRRS) and will not play well with standard 1/8" TRS connection plugged into it.
- When you tried the Creative Sound Blaster Play 3 USB thingy, did you have this device selected in the DAW as your recording device. I'm guessing it doesn't need drivers to function correctly(?) If Win10 is the OS you may need to check and change some privacy settings to enable a USB mic connection...
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4468232/windows-10-camera-microphone-and-privacy

Okay wow. That was through ASUS onboard Sound card. Wooooooooooooooow. That is the quality I want. Okay volume level can be bit low but that clarity is good. I am unable to get anywhere near it by long shot.
I am not even getting 1% of it.
On PC good amount of static and lot less volume like around 10% of your clip. On sound card I cannot get volume above 5% of your clip even after maxing out every thing though there is clarity and no static noise. That shouldn't be happening.
 
Now I really think Podmic is the issue. I have seen different Dynamic microphones being plugged directly into PC like Shure SM58 or Audio Technica ATM510 and they work fine not at their full potential but are very much clear far better than comparative lavaliere or headphone mics. I want a setup which can give me single mic setup for recording, streaming and gaming. I want a dynamic microphone which is as clear as Podmic or SM58 but work with sound card as I want to hear it through headphone with no latency. Now I could get audio interface instead of Gaming Sound-card but then I will be loosing Surround sound which is a must for gaming. Considering all these. I think I need to send back the Podmic and get SM58. Or get better Sound Card.

Do you guys think the problem is with Podmic. Should I be sending it back and getting SM58 instead. Please let me know. Is there any other dynamic microphones you may recommend which are sure to work with PC through Sound Card.
 
I've replicated Arcaxis' results. I wired pin 2 to the tip of a 3.5mm plug and pin 3 to the barrel of the plug (not pin 1 as I said in the clip). I didn't bother with the shield connection. Using an old Asus laptop I plugged a Sennheiser 835 into the mic input. It recorded fine, a bit noisy and there was a lot of latency but it worked. I don't think I would want to use this for gaming with about a half second delay. It was recorded straight, no boosting of the mic input. The Sennheiser has a higher output (2.7mV/Pa) than the SM58 but is similar in sound quality. You could also look at the Shure Beta57a. It has similar output to the 835.

I don't know if the gaming interfaces will get any better for latency. You'll probably get better information on a gaming forum.
 

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I've replicated Arcaxis' results. I wired pin 2 to the tip of a 3.5mm plug and pin 3 to the barrel of the plug (not pin 1 as I said in the clip). I didn't bother with the shield connection. Using an old Asus laptop I plugged a Sennheiser 835 into the mic input. It recorded fine, a bit noisy and there was a lot of latency but it worked. I don't think I would want to use this for gaming with about a half second delay. It was recorded straight, no boosting of the mic input. The Sennheiser has a higher output (2.7mV/Pa) than the SM58 but is similar in sound quality. You could also look at the Shure Beta57a. It has similar output to the 835.

I don't know if the gaming interfaces will get any better for latency. You'll probably get better information on a gaming forum.

Thank you very much for the audio clip. That was very decent sounding coming straight out of laptop. I can definitely say Sound Cards have batter A/D Converter and the Static will be gone. But seriously why is Podmic that bad. I had to purchase two cables and got no benefit out of it. Well it is either that specific Podmic is defective or Podmic has different and lot higher power requirements.

Thank you very much for the audio clip. And seriously you spent time soldering the cable. Wow. Don't know how many more times should I be thanking you for that. But seriously that was awesome help.
 
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