Rode NT4 X Y Stereo Condenser Microphone, Silver

This mic has a very focused sound. Though it is stereo, the 90 degree pickup pattern isn’t very wide in my opinion. The sound quality is quite exceptional, and the noise floor is very low.This review is from a blindness prospective.Build:The mic is built good, with two capcels at the top. If you have felt a PCM-D50 from Sony, or Zoom H4-N, the mics feel similar, though the Nt4 has slightly larger capcels. As you walk down the body of the mic, you will feel a small bump or lip, this unscrews, but, please understand this is not where the battery is installed. Please don’t unscrew this as it is where the wiring is and the mic may be dammaged. The long cylindrical bottom of the mic under this lip unscrews, and this is where the battery goes. Their is not a wire with a 9V connecter, so you need to know which way the battery should be installed, if you instal it with the wrong palarity, you may burn out the microphone. Maybe I got lucky, but the way the battery comes out of the package, if the plastic window of the battery package is face down, and you are taking the battery out of the torn paper was the way it went in for me correctly.Low volume with fantom power?When I first plugged the mic in, their was audio coming through, but the volume was very low. I was running the mic into a Zoom H4-N Pro recorder, I had to max out the input side to hear the audio at any good level, but this obviously wasn’t right. The recorder didn’t supply enough power to the mic. Installing the battery brought up the volume as expected. The mic is shipped with two cables, On one end, is a 5 pin XLR connector, on the other, dpeneding on the cable, are two 3 pin XLR connectors, or, 1 eighth inch.I have used in my opion a decent amount of models of mics, before this, the most expensive I had was the Shure Bluebird, an older hand tuned model. I feel the NT4 has a much more natural freq response. I used this on a vocal, using only one channel, and I am very pleased by the results. I only had to slightly EQ the track for a modern sound, VS the Bluebird I have to pull down the mids, 500HZ-4K. The NT4 gave me the best take as far as EQ that I’ve ever had on a vocal.Again the mic is very focused, recording a Taylor acoustic miced at close range is breath taking!!I am very impressed with this mic. If you are looking for a wide stereo stage with some room reflections, this mic won’t be what you want. If you want very focused audio, this is the ticket!

If you want super high-quality sound in your video recordings of live musical performances, look no further than this. It is pricey, but worth the investment. Its ability to run on phantom power or a 9V battery make it incredibly versatile for almost any situation. It works well for classical music, jazz, rock, or any other live music performance you're recording. I regret going through several cheaper options over the years before biting the bullet, paying top dollar for the best, and being completely happy with the results. Don't waste your time like I did and buy this now!

Stereo in one mic, incredible SNR, amazing sensitivity. Comes with 5-pin XLR of course, so if you use it with the blimp for stereo field recordings, you will have to remove the 3-pin wire from the mount and use the cable that the mic ships with. Has availability for a standard alkaline 9v battery inside the body of the mic (so it IS a fat mic). This really helps extend recording time of field recorders because the mic will run on the 9v and you can turn the phantom supply off in the recorder to save its battery life. The 9v lasts forever (manual says 400,000 hours I believe) and has no ill effects on SNR, I have found. If you are doing field recording such as nature sound recordings, this is the mic to have.To give you an idea on size, the capsules are standard small-diaphragm capsules, the same ones used in the NT5 and NT6, so it is slightly larger than a handheld vocal mic.

I bought this microphone about 6 months ago. I've been recording mainly acoustic pianos and orchestras with it. It's not a Schoeps microphone, but it's far from being a cheap microphone. Great dynamic range, very good frequency response (although sometimes I feel like it's lacking a little bit of bass response, but maybe it's just me, or the placement), and most of all: incredible place-and-record ability. Highly recommended for engineers or musicians who don't have much time to play around with two microphones. As I wrote before, it's not a Schoeps, but to be honest, if somebody asked me for a very good stereo mic under $500 for live-sound or for a quick recording, this would definitely be my choice.

In my limited experience, I found it to be a good mic for various recording applications but not suitable for grand piano. Maybe a tad better in sound than Audio Technica 2022 but rather expensive for what it does, in my judgment, and on top of it when used with a 9v battery it produces a constant buzzing mid-range sound on recording making it unusable. I could not test it with the phantom power capable recorders (apparently then the buzz is not present). Definitely expected more than what it produces.

This is a great mic. The design makes it really easy to set up for recording, and its quality gives fantastic sound. I have primarily used it for recording acoustic instruments (grand piano, 12 string guitar etc) and because I am not a sound engineer with years of experience, I find that I get great sound just by having the parameters of distance and angle to fool with. Frankly the extra parameter of distance between two mono-mics is just annoying for me. I want to play music and record it, not fool with mics all day. I can't wait to try it on live recordings of choirs etc.Drop by the Røde website and have a listen to what engineers say about this mic.