Note: Røde’s servicepartner for Scandinavian Photo where this set was bought concluded that this is normal behavior for these microphones and that I had to pay a service fee for having them back. They said they upgraded the software – which by the way I already had done my self – and the result from their «service» was that nothing had changed. They still behave bad.
They also told me that my problem was due to user error because these microphones have to high sensitivity to be used for remote recording. 8-() This is of course gibberish and also very worrying since I have to try to convince someone who does noe even understand the basics about microphones why my pair is not working correctly. Nature recording is not why I bought these, but this problem is not only going to show up in nature recordings. They are going to show up anytime in any type of recording. To be sure and be able to document that these microphones should indeed be able to be used in nature recording I sent an inquiry for information to Røde:
Hi,
I got the answer I expected in line with the information I already had collected about the Wireless Go II before I bought them:
I am wondering if the Rode Wireless Go II is suitable for landscape recording (aka «remote recording»). Will they function as ordinary microphones or will there be any issues? I am not thinking about Rx/Tx connection problems, but any issues with the low sound pressure in nature sound recording, like a video of a landscape with distant birds singing and sound recording with the Wireless Go II mics as two spaced omnis.
Thank you in advance!
Best regards,
Adon (RØDE)
Hi Langset,
Thanks for reaching out.
You should definitely be able to use the Wireless Go II without any issues for nature recording!
Hope this gives you some peace of mind,
If you have any further inquiries, please feel free to let me know.
I did let him know, but to no avail. I was again told to update the software which I replied that I already had done.
By the way: I bought a new set of Wireless Go II because I thought that this was a set that was bad and that I had to push further on Scandinavian photo or Røde later in order to get my money back for this set. I will come back to the new set later, but I can say now that I had to send them in for service after only a few minutes of test because they were even worse than this set. This time I bought from another store and they have another service partner, so I will wait before I present tests and conclude on that set. They have now had them in for 5 months and I haven’t heard a squeak. I have now sent an inquiry about how it went.
Scandinavian Photo and their service partner for Røde products have been nothing but a big disappointment to me. I wouldn’t recommend them for anyone. I for my part will definitely not ever buy anything from them anymore. And if they are not deaf already, I would recommend them to buy hearing aids so they can hear the difference between a working pair of microphones and a pair that doesn’t work.
So to the samples
All samples: soundscape from a garden. Should be listened to with headphones/earbuds in order to easily observe the fluctuating sound.
Samples are MP3 files. Original recording is 96 kHz 24 bit wav, recorded on Sony PCM D100. Microphones used as a pair of spaced omnis for stereo recording. I did not note the exact distance between the receiver and the transmitters, but this distance was definitely less than three meters, probably about 1.5 meters. And they were in line of sight of each other. So this is not a dropout because of distance or shading (not being in line of sight). The setup was on a table and not mounted on anything that moved around. Everything was stationary. The environment is a small suburban area populated with small houses (town houses/terraced houses).
Sample 1: Røde wireless Go II connected as external microphone to Sony PCM D100:
Sample 2: Røde wireless Go II connected as external microphone to Sony PCM D100 (same setting as above, just another sample):
Sample 3: Sony PCM D100 internal microphones. Same spot, some time later, just to give an impression of how the soundscape is. I have tried to match volumes with the Røde samples, but it is not accurate (the «tapping» might be the wind blowing something hitting the tripod the recorder is mounted on):
Additional recordings as of June 6th 2023
Samples are MP3 files. Original recording is 96 kHz 24 bit wav, recorded on Sony PCM D100
Sample 4:
Sample 5:
Sample 6:
Sample 7:
Additional recordings as of June 11th
Sample 8:
Internal recording in microphones turned on and compared to external recording.