RØDE Brings Its Recording App to Android With Direct Mic Links
RØDE has released its Capture recording app for Android, putting the microphone controls and video tools it built for iPhone onto Google's platform as a free download.
The feature the company is leading with is Direct Connect, which lets compatible wireless transmitters pair straight with the phone and drops the receiver from the bag. It covers the Wireless Micro, the Wireless GO Gen 3 and the Wireless PRO.
And the audio tools run inside the app rather than in a separate settings screen. Depending on the microphone attached, users get gain adjustment, Gain Assist, noise reduction, a choice of split or merged recording and a high pass filter.
Video controls cover aspect ratio, resolution and frame rate, plus automatic flash settings and a countdown timer for hands free shooting, which matters when the phone is mounted and the person filming is also the person on camera.
The app also reaches into RØDE's production hardware. Over network device interface, an Android phone running Capture can appear as an extra video source to the RØDECaster Video, the RØDECaster Video S and the RØDECaster Video Core.
But the interesting part is what the release says about where the makers of microphones think recording happens now. The phone has become the camera for a large share of the work these microphones are sold to do, so an app that configures the microphone and rolls the video in one place removes the step where a creator juggles a camera app and a separate audio app on location.
The company builds its products in Sydney and sits inside the Freedman Group alongside Mackie, Lectrosonics and APHEX, and it sells into 118 countries, which is the context for a software release aimed at a platform rather than a product.
Android users have had fewer of these integrated options than iPhone users, and the gap has mattered most for the spontaneous work the company names, street interviews, travel footage, news gathering and social video, where setting up quickly is the difference between getting the shot and missing it.
So the release is not a new microphone and does not pretend to be one, it is the company making its existing hardware easier to use with the device most of its customers already carry, which is the quieter kind of product news and often the one that changes how a kit gets used.
RØDE Capture for Android is a free download on Google Play and was already on iPhone
Direct Connect pairs Wireless Micro, Wireless GO Gen 3 and Wireless PRO without a receiver
Audio controls include gain, Gain Assist, noise reduction and high pass filtering
Android phones can join a RØDECaster Video setup as an extra video source over NDI
RØDE designs and makes its products in Sydney and sells into 118 countries
Source: RØDE
