Introduction
The Rode IXY-L is a remarkable microphone designed for recording high-quality audio on iOS devices. This review will delve into its features, performance, advantages, and drawbacks.
Design and Build
- Sleek and compact design
- Solid build quality with durable materials
- Lightning connector for easy compatibility with iOS devices
Performance
- Outstanding audio quality for its size
- Impressive clarity and crispness in recordings
- Effective noise reduction capabilities
Functionality
- User-friendly setup and operation
- Rode Rec app enhances recording experience
- Versatile usage for interviews, music, and more
Pros
- Compact and portable design
- Exceptional audio quality
- Easy compatibility with iOS devices
- User-friendly functionality
- Versatile applications
Cons
- Limited compatibility with non-iOS devices
- Might pick up background noise in certain environments
Conclusion
The Rode IXY-L stands out for its remarkable audio quality and user-friendly design. While its compatibility might be restricted to iOS devices, its compactness and versatility make it an excellent choice for various recording needs.
Joost Santos –
PROS: I am quite pleased with this mic. At first, I was disappointed because the sound is too quiet and I had to talk really close to the mic in order to record my voice. Then, I found out that the RODE LE pro app ($5.99) has more advanced features like the gain function and digital boost (among others). Also a very useful feature in the pro app is the playthrough (or playback) function that you can use when you record your own voice. Through playthrough, you can immediately do a sound check and verify if the device is indeed recording. When compared to the sound of my iPhone’s built-in mic (and also the mic on the headphone), RODE delivers a far better sound quality. I do a lot of karaoke singing using the smule app, and the RODE mic now makes me sound a lot better. I also recommend using the rubber windshield that came with the product because it dramatically eliminates the hisses and the rumbles.
CONS: It fits snugly to my iPhone 6 plus and I will find a new case with hollow bottom. With my current case, I had to take it out first in order to attach the mic. Also, if you use iPhone, you have to attach the headphone first ahead of the RODE mic because iOS remembers the last inserted device to be the audio input. Also, it’s quite pricey already and RODE should have given a coupon that can be redeemed to pay for the cost of the $5.99 app. Regardless, I still give the product 5 stars.
Pete –
Phenomenal audio quality! This product is everything that Rode says it is and more. I bought this for a video project to sync high quality audio for some video that I was shooting. It performed well and the mic is sensitive with a wide range. It’s sort of an overkill if you only need it for interviews but for music and other high definition acoustics it captures everything. You can mount your iPhone 5 easily onto your dslr hot shoe mount with a separate attachment and pickup ambient audio.
This mic comes with a wind guard and case with carabiner. The case is sturdy and protects the mic (which sits in the foam wind guard) from impact, moisture and debris. The Rode iPhone app works great with simple editing available right into the phone. You can quickly export your recording straight into Dropbox or many other methods of sharing. The iXY Mic works with the Rode app.
I keep this mic with me at all times in my camera bag. It’s light and small and always there when I need to capture awesome sound quality. Thanks Rode for delivering!
Ron Thompson –
The product website says it works for all iPhones with a lightning connector. It doesn’t work with an iPhone 7. The home button extension tab on the iXY doesn’t activate the home button on the iPhone 7 or 8, etc. Apparently,it works for an iPhone 6 and earlier since they have a different home button.
I contacted the company and I received a quick response from Rode. They emailed me within a few hours and explained to me that they do work for all iPhones and that some people cut the small little rubber home button extension off the adapter bracket. I can see how this would work. Although, I really don’t like the fact I have to cut into a $300 piece of audio equipment. Although, it is just the plastic/rubber bracket! I guess I can live with performing a surgery on it to make it work. Although, I also suspect I can shut the lock screen off on my iPhone and that should allow me to operate the mic and still operate the phone because once it’s locked you need to be able to touch the home button to unlock it…unless, there’s another way to allow this within the setup and setting of the phone.
I was frustrated the first night while trying to set this thing up. After a few hours of playing around and getting some advice from Rode on the home button issue, I’ve calmed down a bit and think this thing is ok now. I think the sound quality is quite a bit better than the iPhone mics themselves. I’m not going to say it’s superior quality just yet. Although, I am quite impressed with the sound quality. I’m not a musician but I do like going to concerts and look to improve the sound quality of my videos over the standard internal mics. It’s going to be fun just playing around and shooting videos or sound clips knowing that I’ve getting a lot better sound. I’m not sure how or if the Rode iXY is working when shooting videos yet. My first attempt looks like it didn’t. There is a learning curve to operating this mic and identifying all the little quirks it has like having to turn off the Rode mic from accessing my mic on my phone, then rebooting my phone, etc….otherwise, when I went back to just using my iPhone with the internal mics, my videos and sound clips were silent. As if the iPhone didn’t recognize it’s own mic, even though I had the Rode mic disconnected. So, I had to shut the access to Rode off and reboot the phone. So, there are a few things to learn and/or troubleshoot before you will be able to use this external mic to its full potential. I hope it’s easy to use and I don’t run into this kind of thing moving forward. I doubt it. I think it’s just going to take awhile to test out and play around with it and I’ms sure I’m going to be completely happy. So, for now just giving this a 3.8 stars….this is a huge increase from the one star I gave it 3 hours after opening the box!
RMS –
I’ve been wanting a really good stereo mic for a while now, and I finally decided on the iXY. I bought it for a concert that I wanted to record and I suspected that, as usual, when I use something for the first time on something important I would be disappointed. I was.
All I could do was set up the mic, hit record, and leave it alone so no monitoring. Turns out fifteen minutes into a great recording the app switched from the iXY to my iPhone’s internal mic which was not oriented for recording. As a result, the recording was abysmal…except for the first fifteen minutes, of course.
Come to find out the bug with the new version of iOS didn’t just affect whether or not the phone would recognize the iXY in the first place, but it also meant the phone might stop recognizing the mic in the middle of recording. It took a few tries to get the app to recognize the mic, but once it did I thought I was home free. Not so.
The mic is solidly constructed, comes with a very good case, and the foam windshield is nice. The app is pretty easy to figure out, although more detailed descriptions of processing options, setting gain, and other basics that experts probably already know would be nice. I’m not an audiophile, not an audio hardware expert, and I’m sure I got in over my head with little time to prepare. However, manuals for all electronics are notoriously bad: poorly laid out, incomplete descriptions, or downright incorrect. This manual (within the Rode Rec app) is incomplete. What information it contains is useful and seems accurate.
Rode should have an alert on their product page to update firmware immediately to assure proper functioning. When you register the product, their confirmation email should announce in huge bold letters that there is a glitch caused by going from iOS 6.0 to 6.1.X so update firmware before even trying to use. I can forgive the manual not being as thorough and clear as I’d like, but when a glitch affects the ability of this device to function at all, they should make a bigger deal about it. Also, it would be nice if Apple had a menu option allowing someone to choose their preferred recording device rather than assuming an order. If you plug in your headphones after you attach the iXY the phone will assume the last thing you plugged in is the recording device. How dumb is that. There should be an iOS option to set your preference for either the headphone jack or the dock connector device. Oh well.
And one more thing. Rode, where is the iPhone hotshoe mount? All of your materials show pictures of it. Reviewers received it and claim you informed them it would be out around the same time as the support clamp. There are surprisingly few options for mounting an iPhone to your camera, and it looks like yours would be great. Sell it to me already!
Update 6/3/13:
I had the opportunity to use the iXY to record a friends newly restored ’66 Barracuda and everything worked perfectly. The app never had any problem recognizing the mic on the first attempt and the recordings were very high quality. I learned that you can’t be shy about using the gain, and had to go in after the fact using the app editor to increase the gain by about 10dB. The gain slider in the app unfortunately has no indication of what the scale is. Is a notch on the slider 1dB? 10? Fortunately the high quality raw recording can be easily gained up without loss of fidelity.
aj howard –
Picked up the microphones with the idea of replacing my aging Zoom H4 with my old iPhone 4 as a dedicated recording device. Not thrilled with the built in mics on the zoom and I was tired of lugging extra mics and a stand into clubs, looking for an outlet to plug into…yada, yada, yada.
The good: 1. The sound of the microphone is much better then built in Zooms(as far as I can tell, I can’t get the darn files off the iPhone.) However you have to buy a $5 app to really use the microphone as a live recorder. (If someone is using an app that works with the mics on an iPhone and it works for me I will gladly delete this review
The bad: The software is clunky, and that is being kind. Why pan the mics if the software is the problem? Easy, you can’t use the mics without recording software.
A. If you go into the menus at all while setting things up you have to reload the song,
B. The meters are too small!!! Who cares about seeing the waveform while recording??? I want a good set of accurate meters that I don’t have to squint to see it. (Yes I’m old) This was my main complaint on my old Zoom.
C. I like to record in the best format possible. I’ve got 12 gigs of space in my phone so I want to record at 96/24. Went to see a band last night, found a spot to set the little spider mount and tabletop stand. Recorded 2 sets as an experiment, second set I tried the compressor (not so great on the first try) went home and tried to get the files into Logic (Daw) no dice.. They are to big to mail and there is a bug that won’t allow you to Dropbox big files. Tried to use iTunes to get the files, no luck.. the tutorial says there should be a “share via iTunes” button. Instead there is just a “file sharing” button… iTunes won’t show the files, my computer dies not see the device when I type the IP address (really elegant RODE)
Sorry RODE, nice hardware, not so nice software… Without the software the hardware is useless… Back to Amazon you go.
Thomas Morus –
Dieses Produkt hätte ich so nicht für möglich gehalten. Aber Rode flößte schon mal Vertrauen ein, da von mir auch beim Homerecording verwendet. Die Qualität sowohl der Aufnahmen, als auch der Fertigung sind außerordentlich. Da Vollmetall, bringt es ein wenig Gewicht mit und ich empfehle den auch hervorragend arbeitenden Clamp zur Stabilisierung (
Rode iClamp Zusatzhalterung zur Stabilisierung iXY
). Ich vermute, für’s iPhone 5 bzw. den neuen Konnektoren kann so ein Mikro gar nicht in gleicher Stabilität hergestellt werden. Das einzige Manko dieses Mikes ist das schwach hörbare Rauschen, was aber mit einem sehr steilen Highpass in den Groff zu kriegen ist.
Ein paar Tips: Störgeräusche bei der Aufnahme (bspw. beim Funkzellencheck) vermeidet man durch Einschalten des Flugmodus. Um das Mikro auch bei Videoaufnahmen zu verwenden, sollte man zunächst mit der Rode App den Pegel hochdrehen, dann zur Video App wechseln, dann gelingen ganz hervorragende Aufnahmen. Und wenn man das draußen tut, dann braucht man natürlich auch die tote Katze, denn der migelieferte Popschutz ist bei Wind ohne Wirkung:
Rode Deadkitten Windschutz f.NT3 NT4 Stereo Videomic M3
Und für die Trennung von Kamera und Mikro eine Kabelverlängerung.
Die meisten DAW Apps fürs Ultraportable Mehrspurrecording machen übrigens auch keine Probleme.
Die Rode App ist übrigens wirklich brauchbar, aber leider etwas absturzfreudig.
batsmalone –
this thing really has to be all the way in to work and most of us have a case on our phone, for good reason. Well, you must take off your case to make this work and be damn sure it’s all the way in, like I thought it was in and it wasn’t, or it won’t record. Just too much of a hassle for what is probably a decent mic.
Rob Forsyth –
To be fair the blurb didn’t specifically claim iPhone 7 compatibility but for info – as others have pointed out the otherwise very robust build and design clamps right around the base of the phone and covers the home button. It has a pad that can push a mechanical home button but of course this won’t work with the non-moving home button of the iPhone 7. You can work around this by (i) turning TouchID off so that your thumbprint isn’t required to unlock and (ii) enabling Assistive Touch which puts a “white circle” on-screen you can tap to replicate a home button touch. But even then, I struggled with the recording app. In my brief time I found that the mike won’t work with the built-in Voice Memo app, only Røde’s own app. But this still has a pre-iOS7 design and has the feel of not being updated for a long time, and even though it launches on iOS 11 it doesn’t seem to record (the record button remains greyed out)
Caza –
awsome sound quality, only flaw is that it quite heavy (i didnt buy the clamp and wish i had…iphone wont charge properly since use of non clamped mic) but i would say th was my falt for not getting the clamp…….a good microphone like this will have weight to it..my advice buy the clamp.