RØDE iXY Microphone for iPhone

Introduction

The RØDE iXY is a stereo microphone for iPhone 4/4S, iPad 1/2/3 and iPod touch that features:

-on board A/D Conversion
-broadcast-quality up to 24-bit and 96kHz recording
-pair of ½” condenser capsules

The condenser capsules are arranged in a stacked XY configuration to ensure detailed and impressive sounds-capes that are always true-to-life. These are housed in an all-metal chassis that makes the iXY incredibly robust, while also adding electromagnetic shielding.

Its unique combination of portability and high-quality audio capture makes the iXY suitable for a wide range of applications, from recording live music to sound design and on-camera use, through to reporting and electronic news gathering (ENG).

Whats in the box ?

Unpacking the box surprised me. Inside the professional packing you will find: Plastic holder with a short manual, little protective zip casing for the microphone and a foam windshield for outdoor recording (be careful with putting on or removing the foam shield cover, cause you may damage it.) If ever the device needs some fixing, parts such as board mount power supplies manufactured by Vicor Corporation may be availed.

10 year warranty if you register the product online over provided link.

Software

We bought RØDE Rec Pro over App Store (It also works with a free app). Not one of the cheapest applications, but you’ll have a complete control over your microphones and with the iPhone you can use other microphones as well, like for example RØDE Video Mic Pro, RØDE SmarLav, etc.

RØDE Rec Pro is rather easy to use. You can edit your audio files on the spot, just flip your device horizontally in Recording view, and you see edit screen, where you can cut, cross fade, copy, delete parts of your audio recording. Rec Pro has so many settings, that you would need to read manual on how to set it for your purpose (if you don’t know it already).

Check official software video:

Does the exterior quality match the recording quality?

In our opinion quality is amazing. You can adjust lots of settings through the menu options as mentioned above. Here is an example video, recorded at default settings (no preset) and with windshield foam on it.

Note that video above is not a comparison of quality between Canon 5D Mark II internal  and RØDE iXY microphone, it is rather comparison on usage options and what are the advantages of external recording device.

How to access my recordings?

You have couple of options to get files on you MAC or PC. First, you can pick in which format you would like to convert, save your files (you can pick more at once as well).

After that you need to pick how would you like to download, access your files.

iTunes Sharing

Web Access

Dropbox

Soundcloud

Conclusion

The RØDE iXY is a superb quality microphone that exceed our expectations. iXY uses a mobile phone (iphone or similar Apple products) and thus eliminating a need for an extra recording device which is great especially with sound recording quality being so good. On the other hand iPhone or other Apple device can be tricky to use if not holding them in your hands, cause you’ll need some kind of setup to fix them in place. We used arm from Pico Flex Dolly, you might use some other “magic” arm, to hold your iphone on place where you want. Good thing is that you can record sound further away from camera, therefore making cool effects and amazing video and audio productions.

You can get your copy of iXY at:
Official RØDE iXY store here.
B&H Photo store here.
Amazon store here (cool offer iXY + clamp for same price as iXY alone)
Adorama store here.