Should Streamers Buy the Rodecaster Duo?

Ever since the introduction of the Rodecaster, I've hoped for a more compact version tailored to live streamers. Most of us don't need 4 XLR inputs! It took some time but the new Rodecaster Duo is here and I’m very excited about this mixer so I want to talk specifically about the pros and cons of using it for live streaming.

Lately, I’ve been having a lot of trouble managing all my audio sources while live and I was hoping the Beacn Mix Create would solve this for me but it crashes a lot and lacks vocal processing unless you also buy their mic. So I picked up the Rodecaster Duo hoping that this one device can replace all of this. I’ve been streaming with it for a couple weeks now and have been really enjoying it but I also have a few gripes with it you should know about before buying it. Here’s everything I think you need you need to know!

Let’s start with why you’d want this in the first place.

1. Make your mic sound better using its built-in vocal processing
2. Give you more control over your audio sources with physical faders

Managing all your audio sources while streaming can be hard, especially if you’re streaming games since you also have your party chat, music, and game audio to worry about in addition to your microphone. Setting the levels you want for each of these is typically done in software like Elgato Wave Link, Beacn, VoiceMeter, or even directly in OBS but that’s all extra work your computer has to be doing in addition to running whatever you’re streaming. It’s also frustrating to change audio levels in software when you’re live and instead of this, the Rodecaster gives you physical faders to do the same.

For example, when a game ends I might want to lower party chat, the music, and the game so I can respond to chat, then get them hyped up for the next match and crank the music back up. This is all possible with other options I mentioned but it’s WAY easier with a physical device like the Rodecaster.

What I love about the Rodecaster Duo

It's a dedicated device for audio processing. The greatest thing about this is that all the processing needed for mixing is done right on the device itself. I run a single PC setup and have gotten very tired of messing with the Beacn software or solutions like virtual cables.

It’s incredibly easy to set up. You just plug in your mic, connect it to your computer with USB-C, and plug in the power cord. It’ll show up as a new device that you select in OBS and that’s it.

It’s incredibly easy to sound good. It’s typically a good idea to have your mic audio run through a noise gate, some basic EQ, compression, and limiter. All this is possible to setup in OBS but it takes some time to setup and can get confusing. The Rodecaster lets you be lazy and turn all this on by just picking a mic preset. Plus, since this all happens on the device itself, that’s one less thing my computer needs to be worried about doing.

The pads can send MIDI commands. This means you can use them to control OBS with the midi plugin. The stream deck is incredible but I try to keep as few things on my desk and running on my PC as possible so I’m really excited about this. Note: I had to use the obs-midi-mg plugin to get MIDI commands working with OBS v29. There's another plugin called obs-midi but it fails to load in the latest version of OBS.

So yes, so far it’s been great for live streaming and has really simplified my setup. I do have some gripes though...

Gripes

Multitrack audio is difficult to get set up in OBS. It’s great at recording to multiple tracks but not at dealing with multitrack inputs. I like to record each input (e.g. mic, game, party chat) to individual tracks, in addition to the main mix, so that I have more control when editing the recording. For example, if I have a sweet clip but my squadmate is talking nonsense and ruining it, I can just drop the party chat track. I've seen that it should be possible using the ASIO plugin but haven't been able to get it working.

The button lights aren’t obvious enough. The mute button for each fader is always lit up and just gets brighter when muted which makes it hard to quickly tell what state it's in. I wish the lights were just off until they were turned on.

The faders don't line up with the display. The levels on the display don't line up with the physical faders which has caused me to occasionally push the wrong one. I wish there was a way to disable the Smart Pad assignments section of the UI so they lined up. If I'm not able to commit it to muscle memory, I may just put stickers below each fader.

The Smart Pads are mushy. Without a physical click, it can be hard to know if you actually pressed the pad or not. I wish they felt more like a button press and am unsure why they made them like drumpads.

The Fade In/Out pad action should be more configurable. The Fade In/Out action that can be assigned to any of the Smart Pads allows you to fade out all channels except for the mic. This is awesome but I wish it was configureable on a per-track basis. For example, I may want to fade out gaming and chat but keep host audio and music but I'm not currently able to using this action.

Conclusion

Overall, the Rodecaster Duo is an excellent choice for streamers aiming to improve audio quality and streamline their setup. With it, you can focus on content rather than complex configurations. I was able to replace my Beacn Mix create, Cloudlifter, macro pad, and Focusrite audio interface with this one device!

I hope you found this article helpful! If you're interested in the Rodecaster Duo, consider checking out my affiliated link (https://amzn.to/3KtdZeC). If you use it to make a purchase, I could earn a commission. Thanks for the support! ❤️