My (Really) Short Experience With a RODE NT-USB Microphone

Objective: find a replacement for my lightning-based Finch Lavalier microphone1. Did my research for a USB-C microphone. RODE microphones came up quite often. They received good reviews. I ordered the NT-USB model. It was hard to see which type of USB port it came with—I got the microphone2. It comes with USB-A. Shit. It was tested on my Mac mini. Background noises are too easily picked up. Screenflow cannot use voice isolation3. It was tested on my iPhone 15 Pro Max with a USB-A to USB-C adaptor and Ferrite. Voice isolation isn’t possible, either. Not good. I tried to use the RODE companion app for Mac so I could adjust the microphone operating parameters. I downloaded and installed it but didn’t recognize the microphone when plugged in. Not good. It’s an expansive microphone, barely better than my Blue Yeti. Not good. After testing Screenflow, my iPhone connected via USB-C to my Mac, and with voice isolation activated once again4, I decided to return the product. It’s way better, close to what I had with my Finch microphone. Problem solved.


  1. No longer works with my iPhone 15 Pro Max USB-C port. ↩︎

  2. I couldn’t confirm it from the spec sheet on Amazon nor could I on the RODE website. ↩︎

  3. I opened a support case with Telestream. It’s a known issue, still being investigated. ↩︎

  4. This configuration works, but not with a USB-C microphone only. It seems the iPhone with voice isolation one is the only configuration that works with Screenflow. Really strange. ↩︎

Wish of the day: I would love to have a canonical URL pointing to my published newsletters hosted on Micro.blog so I could refer to them in other blog posts. cc @manton 🙏🏻

Why doesn’t the “Switch To Profile” menu item always appear in Safari 17.0? I can’t understand what triggers this option to show up. Is this a bug?

Peak Design Case Issue With iPhone 15 Pro Action Button

For those looking to buy a Peak Design case for the iPhone 15 Pro Max, just like I did. I love the case but… here’s the kicker; the action button is really hard to press with this case, the cutout should have a button instead which would press the action button, just like for the other buttons integrated into the case. They plan to fix this. Check out this video to learn more.

Update: The way the company is handling this issue is a prime example of how customer satisfaction should be handled. Bravo.