Episode 126
Rode Wireless Pro vs DJI Mic 2: Comprehensive Review
Choosing the right microphone can make or break your content.
That might sound a bit dramatic, and to be honest it probably is.
I know for most creators it might not be a huge deal if you go with a dynamic microphone when a condenser microphone would have been better suited.
Sure, a slightly different range in frequency response isn’t going to be noticed by the majority of people consuming your content.
But there is something so satisfying and almost unquantifiable about listening to audio that has been captured the right way with the right equipment.
With that in mind, I went looking for the best wireless microphone system for content creators.
As I started looking at what creators were already using, the Rode Wireless Pro and DJI Mic 2 emerged as direct competitors.
And so began the tests.
I’ve been using these two systems for a solid four months on locations that I know a content creator would go: hotel rooms with concrete floors, windy outdoor environments, city streets, the beach, studios and multi-speaker podcast panel discussions.
In each location, I’ve made sure to compare not only the ease of use, portability and functionality of each system but more importantly the sound quality.
If you’ve been trying to decide between the Rode Wireless Pro and DJI Mic 2, let this podcast episode be your guide.
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Choosing the right microphone can make or break your content.
Speaker:Ha ha ha.
Speaker:Now, look, that might sound a bit dramatic and it's not.
Speaker:It definitely is.
Speaker:But today I'm going to take a look at the Rode Wireless Pro versus the DJI Mic 2.
Speaker:Now these are two wireless systems.
Speaker:They are direct competitors.
Speaker:I wanted to compare these two because it is something that
Speaker:I see a lot on social media.
Speaker:I see the DJI, I see the Rode Wireless, I wanted to explore whether there was a
Speaker:system that was better than the other, because, you know, they, they both serve
Speaker:the same purpose, but is one superior in the sound quality and other features.
Speaker:This is something I really wanted to take a look at.
Speaker:And I thought that it would be interesting to give my feedback here on the podcast.
Speaker:Now I'm not going to share with you the full comparison, like I normally
Speaker:do where I like get you to listen to things because the way I recorded
Speaker:this one in video form actually had me switching back and forth a lot.
Speaker:And I did it kind of live on the YouTube channel.
Speaker:So it doesn't really make a lot of sense.
Speaker:And also it's not a nice experience for you as a listener to then hear
Speaker:me switching and changing and making all these kinds of quick comments
Speaker:that is much better for YouTube.
Speaker:And it is a very good example of when you should make sure that if you are doing
Speaker:something for YouTube, not to always just do the same thing on your audio platform,
Speaker:not to just scrape the audio from the video and release it on the audio, because
Speaker:you know, it's different, like it's a different experience for both of those.
Speaker:So today on the podcast, I'm just going to kind of go through what my findings were.
Speaker:And if you have got one of these systems in your mind, uh, then hopefully
Speaker:this will help you make a decision.
Speaker:let's just begin with a few kind of clarifying details here.
Speaker:I began the test.
Speaker:I've been using both of these systems for a solid four months
Speaker:or more really at this point.
Speaker:And I use them in a whole bunch of different locations that I thought And I
Speaker:assumed that a content creator would do.
Speaker:So this is in like hotel rooms.
Speaker:This is with concrete floors, windy outdoor environments, city streets,
Speaker:the beach studios, and also in multi speaker podcast panel discussions.
Speaker:So like where I would take all our equipment to a client's location, set it
Speaker:all up and record them in a multi sort of format way, and, um, I feel like I've
Speaker:got a really good handle on both of these systems using them in all these locations.
Speaker:Now, on the YouTube channel, I didn't do and show you all of those different
Speaker:tests, because again, that would make for a very long and probably
Speaker:boring video for a lot of people.
Speaker:But do know that I did actually do all of those tests.
Speaker:In each location, I've made sure to compare not only the ease of use,
Speaker:Portability and functionality of each system, but more importantly, actually
Speaker:the sound quality, because you can have all the bells and whistles.
Speaker:It can be aesthetically pleasing.
Speaker:You can think that it just looks super fancy, but does it sound good?
Speaker:That's the most important thing for a microphone.
Speaker:All right, so let's go through some things.
Speaker:So vocal tone.
Speaker:If we start with the actual vocal tone, the Rode Wireless Pro, I was
Speaker:instantly impressed with the depth and the richness of the system.
Speaker:It delivered a full body sound and it was close to my natural tone.
Speaker:So I have come to expect this from Rode, everything that they have
Speaker:provided that is a microphone in this kind of more, Accessible price range.
Speaker:I've been impressed with the tone that they've been able to achieve with these
Speaker:systems and with these microphones.
Speaker:So it was a gold starter road on this occasion with that.
Speaker:I was very pleased with it.
Speaker:The DJI was a system that I felt was a lot thinner in its tone and I
Speaker:definitely noticed it immediately.
Speaker:Like there was no full body depth.
Speaker:It sounded very different to the road.
Speaker:It was much thinner.
Speaker:The audio was still clear and easy to understand, but You know,
Speaker:it was just a little lackluster.
Speaker:Like it just didn't really sound like me as much.
Speaker:And I think if you didn't have the comparison, if you were just using
Speaker:the DJI, you wouldn't notice as much, but when you put them against
Speaker:each other, it's very clear that the vocal tone from the road wins.
Speaker:I also tested it whether you, like, attached it to your shirt or you held it.
Speaker:You know how you see people on social media, like, physically
Speaker:holding these little microphones?
Speaker:So I tested it in front of your mouth versus on the lapel just to see
Speaker:how they handled those situations.
Speaker:Both of them handled that really quite well.
Speaker:I didn't have any big issues with that.
Speaker:qualms there like if you held it close to your mouth.
Speaker:Obviously the sound was good.
Speaker:It was still a bit thin on the DJI but it was definitely better in
Speaker:that location than on the lapel.
Speaker:So for vocal tone after doing those tests overall depth Rode
Speaker:Wireless Pro definitely wins for me.
Speaker:It came out on top in that test.
Speaker:When I went into noisy environments, so this is like city streets, beaches
Speaker:with crashing waves, right near noisy air conditioning vents, you
Speaker:know, these situations definitely come up for content creators.
Speaker:And for the Rode Wireless Pro, I felt like when I was listening back to it, you
Speaker:could hear the hum and the drone of these locations and the noisy environments.
Speaker:Quite a lot.
Speaker:And that's because when it focuses on lower frequencies as it's, you
Speaker:know, that's where the depth and the body actually comes from, then
Speaker:that harm and that drone is often in those frequency areas as well.
Speaker:So it means that it makes sense that the hum or drone would be more prevalent
Speaker:there because those frequencies are being favored in the road wireless system.
Speaker:I could still hear myself very well.
Speaker:I could still clearly, like, that I was above the noise
Speaker:and it wasn't excruciating.
Speaker:Like it wasn't the worst thing in the world.
Speaker:And I also knew that in post production you could easily.
Speaker:Minimize some of that using a high pass filter or some other, you know,
Speaker:tricky EQ stuff, which I do as well.
Speaker:So, although not ideal, the noisy environment was okay
Speaker:for the Rode Wireless Pro.
Speaker:It doesn't have any noise cancellation features on board.
Speaker:So you can't do anything in the system to negate the noise right then and there.
Speaker:You have to do it in post production.
Speaker:The DJI, because it favors the higher frequencies, that's why there's,
Speaker:you know, I sound a bit thinner.
Speaker:There's not much sort of body in the DJI.
Speaker:It did mean that the background noises weren't as prevalent with the DJI.
Speaker:It definitely favored my voice more.
Speaker:I could hear myself more clearly it was definitely more crisp.
Speaker:But what I did do is then when I turned, because the DJI has a noise
Speaker:cancellation feature, you can just like switch it on and then it says it's
Speaker:going to remove the background noise.
Speaker:It definitely removed the background noise, but then I
Speaker:sounded like absolute trash.
Speaker:Like, whatever they did there is, It's just the worst thing.
Speaker:It's an abomination.
Speaker:I would not recommend using the noise cancellation feature on the DJI because
Speaker:it just made you sound like a robot.
Speaker:Like it's got this weird gate thing on it, if you understand
Speaker:what gates are in audio speak.
Speaker:whatever they're doing there with the gate feature is is not it's not ideal
Speaker:So I really hated that I would not use it but in saying that I did think that
Speaker:if I was comparing apples to apples, like both with noise cancellation off,
Speaker:which is what I would suggest, the DJI won because it wasn't as noticeable, the
Speaker:background noise, so it won for that.
Speaker:When I tested for windy locations, both systems were fantastic.
Speaker:The wind socks were great on both systems.
Speaker:There were no issues with that.
Speaker:So whatever you do there with wind outside, you're going to be fine.
Speaker:Now usability is where things kind of changed up a little bit too.
Speaker:The Rode Wireless Pro was very easy to connect to the
Speaker:smartphone and also to cameras.
Speaker:It's got a cable that connects to the cameras or your smartphone.
Speaker:There's two included cables, one for lightning, one USB C. Very easy to
Speaker:connect, easy to It was a bit chunky though, like you've got a cable and then
Speaker:the cable you've got to put somewhere, like if it's with a smartphone, where
Speaker:do you put the actual transmitter?
Speaker:Like I found that a little bit strange as to what to do with that.
Speaker:It was just a bit clunky.
Speaker:But it does have a road central app, which was another part of the usability
Speaker:that I really appreciated because you could just plug, I don't know.
Speaker:The charging case in with the microphones in there, just the one case.
Speaker:And you come up with this app and then all of the audio that you want is there.
Speaker:It's very easy to get off.
Speaker:It's very easy to export.
Speaker:It gives you some different features and options, and you can export
Speaker:things out really quickly and easily.
Speaker:I. Love that.
Speaker:That is like a big tick for me as far as usability goes, just being
Speaker:able to plug it in and get everything off of the one system straight away.
Speaker:Yeah, really, really good.
Speaker:I did find the online manual confusing when it was like, when I was
Speaker:trying to figure out what recording settings I should have for the
Speaker:optimal setup for the road wireless.
Speaker:The manual was pretty smear and kind of confusing.
Speaker:You know, I understood it because I know what I'm doing.
Speaker:But then when I was thinking about other people, if they don't know what half of
Speaker:this stuff means, then it was going to be very confusing for them to figure out
Speaker:what actually they needed to switch on.
Speaker:And so I ended up recording one of my own videos for YouTube to
Speaker:explain to people how to set this up.
Speaker:It up properly.
Speaker:And so I will link that in the show notes as well.
Speaker:And I think that that really will help a lot of people.
Speaker:Hopefully the microphones connected easily to my clothing by the standard
Speaker:clip and also the magnetic clip.
Speaker:That was very easy to do.
Speaker:I did find the microphone.
Speaker:So with the road, wireless pro quite big, like if you've seen them on
Speaker:socials, you know, they're like this box, it's like a black box and they
Speaker:take up a fair bit of real estate.
Speaker:Like if you're looking at a video and then you see this big road box,
Speaker:it's, you know, it doesn't look great.
Speaker:It's definitely better if you're doing it with the magnet versus the
Speaker:clip because the magnet, you can kind of move it around your clothing,
Speaker:whereas the clip you've kind of got to have an edge to clip it onto.
Speaker:Other added feature, which was really good for the Rode Wireless was the fact that it
Speaker:does ship with a wired lapel microphone.
Speaker:So as I just said about this big bulky black box, because it ships with the
Speaker:wired thing too, you can connect the wired one into the microphone, the black box.
Speaker:You can put the microphone as in the black box in your.
Speaker:Pocket or somewhere else out of you and then just have this little wire with
Speaker:a little tiny microphone like a lapel mic as the thing that you actually see.
Speaker:That is perfect.
Speaker:Like that's very important for me to be able to have that feature.
Speaker:And the fact that I didn't have to buy it separately was just fantastic.
Speaker:So Røde did a great job with that there as well.
Speaker:They both, um, Recorded in 32 bit float if you select it in setup.
Speaker:So that's really good for taking that into like DaVinci resolve or Adobe
Speaker:premiere or any of those systems.
Speaker:Uh, and they both have high export quality there as well.
Speaker:So no real differences from that standpoint, but if we go into the DJI
Speaker:mic too now for the usability, they don't have cables, they have like these
Speaker:little tiny connectors that you can.
Speaker:You can swap in and out on the transmitter.
Speaker:The transmitter is then connected straight into the smartphone without a cable.
Speaker:This is a double edged sword.
Speaker:It's cool and then also not cool because when you've got this transmitter thing
Speaker:that then is connected to your phone, it does make it a little bit harder to.
Speaker:To use, like if you're trying to be a selfie mode and then you've
Speaker:got this connection transmitter thing at the bottom of the phone,
Speaker:it's kind of harder to navigate.
Speaker:I didn't love that.
Speaker:And also sliding the connectors in the first time I, the first
Speaker:couple of times I used it, I didn't slide it all the way in properly.
Speaker:And then the recording was useless.
Speaker:It just didn't record.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:That's a little bit of user error because I should have just pushed harder, but in
Speaker:saying that, like, you know, it shouldn't be that fidgety to get this thing in
Speaker:to make sure that it actually works.
Speaker:So, didn't love that.
Speaker:Although I think it's cool that you can swap in and out without cables,
Speaker:I do think the design needs a little bit of finessing with that as well.
Speaker:Again, the microphone's connected easily to my clothing via the standard clip, but
Speaker:I did find the magnetic clip to be harder to manage because it's much smaller.
Speaker:So there's this little magnet that comes with the DJI and it gets lost so easily.
Speaker:Like if you're trying to get it out of your clothes and then you drop it
Speaker:because it's tiny, you're sort of like, where the hell does that thing go now?
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:And there was a few times where I was with a client and You know, I was
Speaker:trying to reposition the mic and then the magnet thing would drop and then
Speaker:it's like in their shirt or down their bra or, you know, you know, so like, I
Speaker:think that the magnet could be bigger.
Speaker:And again, this is such a small thing, but from a design perspective, if I'm
Speaker:comparing the two, uh, you know, that's, that's actually significant for me.
Speaker:Also at time of viewing, there was no comparison app for the DJI mic two, which
Speaker:meant that, uh, You know, I, I couldn't go somewhere to like a desktop or, or my iPad
Speaker:or my iPhone or something and select some changes that I wanted to make, like change
Speaker:it from stereo to like split mode or like, yeah, merged mode, or maybe I wanted the
Speaker:safety on, or, you know, I wanted to turn the noise cancellation, things like that.
Speaker:That I know that you can do that on the touch screen on the DJI, but I also
Speaker:found the touch screen kind of annoying.
Speaker:Like it wasn't the best, uh, like function and the touch
Speaker:screen wasn't super reliable.
Speaker:I just wanted to be able to plug it in and go, cool.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:For this session, what am I going to need?
Speaker:Click a few buttons, make a few changes done.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I did find that.
Speaker:A bit schmear, but then in saying that for people, like for the DJI market,
Speaker:for people that are really interested in this system and they're adventurers and
Speaker:they're out and about, they're not going to potentially have a laptop or something
Speaker:with them and want to fiddle around and do the cables and connect and stuff.
Speaker:They just want to be able to change the settings on the device.
Speaker:So I get why they did it, but for me personally, I didn't love it.
Speaker:Also, in order to get the audio off the system, off the microphones,
Speaker:you need to plug in each individual.
Speaker:I'm going to your computer to get the audio off of it.
Speaker:And again, there's no app at that point to do help you do
Speaker:that or do anything with that.
Speaker:So I didn't like that.
Speaker:I felt like that was a little bit of a let down.
Speaker:And from a customer experience, they could have.
Speaker:improve that by having some sort of features there.
Speaker:So from a usability standpoint, you've probably noticed that road
Speaker:wins there because of all the things that I just mentioned.
Speaker:there are many other factors at play when comparing these two systems.
Speaker:So if you would like to hear as, as I said, how they sound up against each
Speaker:other and really just get a feel for what I'm, when I'm talking about, like when
Speaker:I say road wireless and I say depth and richness in tone, and then I say thin
Speaker:and a bit, you know, lackluster for DJI.
Speaker:What does it actually mean?
Speaker:Like go and have a look at the video and you'll be able to
Speaker:hear those differences there.
Speaker:Just make sure you wear your headphones.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So now for a little quick fire, look at some of the pros and cons of each system.
Speaker:If we look at the Rode Wireless Pro, the pros are superior sound, depth, richness.
Speaker:It's easier to manage with the magnet clips.
Speaker:It's got comprehensive functionality with the Rode Central app.
Speaker:, it includes the wide lapel microphones and it's got a charging case that
Speaker:also allows easy audio export.
Speaker:Cons of this system are the lack of noise cancellation.
Speaker:It may require post production, definitely when you're working in noisy environments.
Speaker:It is a little bit of an awkward connection to the smartphone via the
Speaker:cables, and it is quite large, so the actual microphones themselves
Speaker:definitely draw attention in video.
Speaker:Yeah, as I said, you could use the wire to negate that, but I did
Speaker:have to put that down as a con.
Speaker:DJI Mic 2 Pros.
Speaker:It definitely excels in outdoors and in noisy environments.
Speaker:It's got a very sleek design.
Speaker:I like the way these microphones look.
Speaker:It's cool that you can see like the insides of them.
Speaker:It's very portable.
Speaker:It's got better connection options to the smartphones.
Speaker:Although, you know, I was a bit of a novice trying to
Speaker:connect them in the first place.
Speaker:And yeah, just more aesthetically pleasing overall.
Speaker:The cons were fiddly with the magnet clips.
Speaker:They were easy to lose.
Speaker:It has limited post capture functionality.
Speaker:So it's, you know, got no desktop app or things like that.
Speaker:It's sound was lacking in depth and richness.
Speaker:It was a bit too teeny for me, a bit too thin.
Speaker:And the exporting audio is more time consuming than it needs to be.
Speaker:So with all that in mind, what's my final thoughts here?
Speaker:Well, I mean, ultimately it's going to come down to your specific needs.
Speaker:If you're after a richer sound to your audio with better tonality,
Speaker:and you don't mind a bit of post production, then the Rode Wireless
Speaker:Pro, I think is the way to go.
Speaker:But if your content requires more adventurous locations, you want minimal
Speaker:post production, you're going to be out and about, you're like connecting
Speaker:it to your iPhone And then you're just doing lots of like voice to
Speaker:camera, face to camera type stuff.
Speaker:You're doing YouTube shorts and you're doing Instagram stories and stuff, you
Speaker:know, That's probably more of a DJI thing because I think that it's, although
Speaker:tinnier, most people won't really notice that on their smartphones if they're
Speaker:watching you on their smartphones.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I personally prefer the Rode Wireless Pro.
Speaker:I really can't go past the tonality that it provides.
Speaker:I just sound nicer.
Speaker:And when I was recording other clients as well, and it was like a,
Speaker:you know, a A podcast production.
Speaker:It was a panel discussion.
Speaker:The ones that had the road wireless pro systems on just sounded better.
Speaker:They really did.
Speaker:They sounded better than the DJI microphone to people.
Speaker:I had to do more in the post production for the DJI to try and make them match.
Speaker:The RODE wireless, like the actual EQing from there.
Speaker:So that is my wrap up.
Speaker:They're about the same price as well.
Speaker:So, you know, that's not really something to worry about.
Speaker:You're going to be fine either way.
Speaker:The next situation that I'm looking at here is now the two mini versions.
Speaker:RODE has released a mini.
Speaker:Wireless and so has DJI.
Speaker:I've just actually got the DJI in the last week.
Speaker:I haven't got the road yet.
Speaker:So there is many comparisons to come for those as well because
Speaker:they're like half the price of these ones that I've just reviewed.
Speaker:It would be interesting to see whether half Price means half as good, or,
Speaker:uh, you know, I dunno, I dunno yet.
Speaker:We will wait and see for that.
Speaker:I hope this has been really valuable for you.
Speaker:You've enjoyed it.
Speaker:If you're on Spotify and you want to leave me a comment, please go for it.
Speaker:If you want to go and watch, as I said, and really hear the
Speaker:differences, go to the YouTube channel.
Speaker:I'll link to that.
Speaker:And if you're interested in either of these systems as well, I'm going
Speaker:to put links to the Amazon affiliate links for Rode and DJI, as well as all
Speaker:my other normal links there as well.
Speaker:If you want to go and suss something out and purchase one, you're
Speaker:going to be good either way, to be honest, they're both great.
Speaker:But my personal preference is RØDE.
