Description
Packed with premium technology, RØDE’s all-new AI-1 single channel audio interface offers studio quality at an accessible price. Available as a complete kit with the legendary RØDE NT1 large diaphragm condenser microphone, accessories and cables, creativity is simply a click away. The AI-1 is the best quality-for-price single-channel interface available, bar none. It’s also incredibly easy to use, thanks to thoughtful design, Australian Made quality – it is the perfect companion to any of RØDE Microphones. The AI-1 allows zero-latency playback by enabling the direct monitoring feature and playback via headphones/speakers with the high quality discrete headphone amplifier. To ensure the AI-1 is truly versatile it features 48V Phantom Power and is class compliant – so no need to install any drivers.
From the manufacturer
The NT1 and AI-1 complete studio kit allows you to record to the highest professional standard anywhere. Silky-smooth vocals, incredibly detailed acoustic instruments, punchy percussion – get the professional sheen of a top studio with minimal fuss.
The NT1 is RØDE’s award-winning large-diaphragm condenser microphone. Trusted by millions of studios, musicians, streamers and content creators all around the world, it is a modern classic. The NT1 has won accolades all over the world, and is used daily by everyone from top-level artists to voice-over professionals.
The AI-1 interface is built around a very high-quality microphone preamp that faithfully captures the warmth and pristine audio quality of the NT1. A high-quality discrete headphone amplifier allows you to monitor accurately. Offering rock-solid construction and easy USB connectivity with your PC or Mac, it’s the perfect interface for the NTI, delivering results on par with the world’s finest professional studios.
To get the most from any studio microphone, you need the right accessories: a studio-grade shockmount, a professional pop filter and quality cables. The NT1 and AI-1 Kit comes with all these in the box. So you can get set up and start recording straight away.
KHS –
Great Sound, Great Build Quality, Great Customer Service, and Phenomenal Package Price!Ok, let me begin by saying I’ve been an Amazon customer for 20+ years, and I can’t remembering ever writing a review before. That said, the reason I’m writing this one, is to highlight a product kit, that is fantastic. I am new to recording, and I needed equipment that would give professional results for narration/voice over, hopefully without breaking the bank. As most know, the assortment of good-great mics out there is dizzying. This NT1 condenser mic is professional grade all the way. It is built like a work of art, and the sound quality is better than it looks. There is literally so much crap floating around out there, that this was a true delight to find. The shock mount it comes with, is a high quality resin formed product that is also of the highest quality. As a matter of fact, you can find just the shock mount on eBay for around $70 with the beautifully fabricated dual layer metal mesh pop filter (also in this kit), that integrates right into the shock mount. In my case, I have mounted this on Rode’s PSA1 mic swivel arm
RODE PSA1 Swivel Mount Studio Microphone Boom Arm
, in the inverted position, and the pop filter’s pressure fitting to the shock mount is bulletproof. By the way, I’m not sure I’ll write a review of the PSA1, but suffice it say, that even at $100, this is also a quality tool that I would purchase again in a heartbeat (someone did post a video of it squeaking horribly when moved, but that is not my experience, and if it is defective, he should send it back).YouTube is the place I started, and it seemed my go to destination for mics and equipment, was a guy by the name of Mike Del Gaudio, who’s channel is “Booth Junkie.” Mike is a professional voice actor, and is incredibly knowledgeable, articulate, organized, and does incredible head to head comparisons of various condenser and dynamic mics, and tutorials on “Reaper,” a gem of a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) and a great value ($60 for individuals) with a large community supporting it. He also covers other related hardware, and should be a go to for all newbies, and those looking prior to new purchases. I can’t thank him enough for educating me (through his YouTube channel), and making a difficult decision, far easier. First full disclosure, I don’t Mike, never met or communicated with him … but I will thank him soon.However important it was to choose this NT1 microphone, and the lyre based world class shock mount it comes with in this package, I was still left needing a USB audio interface. Now this is where things started getting tricky. I had watched a lot of YouTube channels covering different audio interfaces (Audient, Audiobox, Scarlett), and most reviews were quite lacking, or superficial in nature. One of the strongest exceptions, and another excellent YouTube channel is “PodCastAge.” He reinforces the pros of this interface, super clean preamps, build quality is great, zero latency headphone monitoring, virtually noiseless even at 100% gain, and even strong enough to drive power hungry dynamic mics such as the Shure SM7B. Unlike many others around this price point, it only has once combo jack (XLR/6.3mm) versus two, BUT, it can also record at 24bit and 96kHz, which is amazing. I’m confident you could spend three times as much on a USB interface, and not get equal quality, even if you pick up another combo input, but let’s face it, even most home studio musicians rarely record more than one track at a time.All said and done, this package price of $350 is a great buy, and enough so I splurged on the PSA1 swivel arm. As the mic alone is $250, but for $270 you get the rycote shock mount and pop filter (selling for $70), you save $50 right there. When you buy this whole kit for $350, you save another $60 by getting the AI-1 interface for $80 versus the standalone price of $140. I haven’t even mentioned the high quality USB-C cable, the 5/8-3/8″ included adapter, and the XLR cable, making this even a better value. And when you register these products at Rode.com, I believe they extend your warranty, and can download a light version of Ableton(?) DAW.Now I will share that had an issue with an RF capacitor failure in the mic which cause feedback and made the mic unusable after a few days. I called Rode in California, I got right through to their product support team, and was given a short term fix bringing the mic back to working order without sending it in for repair. As well, because of the issue happening so quickly after I bought it, they sent me out a new kit to replace the one I had, and paid for the return shipping of my original purchase (through an Amazon partner). That’s how CUSTOMER SERVICE is suppose to work! Kudos to Rode!As so many reviews have a full disclosure statement, I’ll state that I have in no way been compensated by any party listed in this review.
Amazon Customer –
Great After Firmware UpdateI needed a high quality microphone for work calls, and wanted a high quality audio interface to pair it with. After watching and reading many reviews (especially from the YouTube channel Podcastage), I decided on the Rode NT1 for my microphone, and the AI-1 for my audio interface. I decided to buy this particular combo package because it was cheaper to purchase the combo kit than each item separately. I was tempted to buy the microphone by itself and then pair it was a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 for my audio interface, but I had no need for two inputs offered on the 2i2 and preferred the AI-1’s all-black aesthetic.The sound quality has been amazing and was immediately noticed by my coworkers when compared to my previous Sennheiser headset microphone. Just be aware that certain VOIP applications will heavily compress your audio over conference calls, so the benefit you will see from this microphone is much more noticeable over a program such as GoToMeeting than it is over Microsoft Teams or Skype. This is not an issue if you are looking for the microphone for recording your audio locally, but is a consideration for VOIP uses.My biggest issue with the combo kit was that the AI-1 would stop audio playback every time my computer (running Windows 10) turned off, and would not resume until it was fully unplugged from my computer and then plugged back in. I was able to resolve this issue by updating the AI-1’s firmware on Rode’s website. I am unsure if new production kits would come with this update already installed, but I would recommend immediately updating the firmware if you purchase this kit to avoid that potential issue.I additionally purchased the Rode PSA-1 boom arm to accompany the microphone, which has worked well and is extraordinarily sturdy. While pricey, I would recommend it to anyone purchasing this combo kit that does not yet have a boom arm, as it’s absolutely worth the premium over the cheap options that are on Amazon when it’ll be holding a microphone of this quality.
vasantha P –
Noise is comingNoise is coming, and we lost the Singing competition due to this noise, or abnormal noise came during our live selection
David –
Kit de altísima calidadRealmente me sorprendió este kit… a tiempo, completo, componentes de alta calidad, fácil ensamblaje y uso.
Warpedland –
Totally Worth itSound quality, design, versatility… I’m totally happy with this Mic. I’ve been able to travel with this Mic and the use I’ve gotten out of it so far has been great! Though I’m a beginner at this, I’m already seeing the value in a good, quality mic like this one, and I’m glad I took the time to research what mics are most recommended. This mic pucks up so much sound, and so clearly that I am feeling for the first time that I have something that truly captures the voice I hear in my own head rather than the strange one I usually hear form other mics.I will be honest, I have not used the Audio Interface pack as I haven’t had a need for it with the vocal work I’ve been doing so far.I highly recommend the Rode NT1 Mic to anyone starting out, and wanting a good, clean sound for recording.
Michael W. Mason –
Audio interface was flawed upon purchase.When I received the product, I was very excited and set up the mic and the AI-1. I followed the directions and plugged the interface into my Mac. It all set up perfectly with Adobe audition.But, There was a loud interference noise coming from the setup. At first, I thought that it could be a bad XLR. But after contacting Rode and sending them a .wav of the noise, they determined that it existed in the AI-1. So, I had to ship it back to them.So glad that their customer service was great although not speedy. I was without use of the set up for two weeks.I am now happy with the purchase but would have been much happier had all been good upon first set up.
Brooke –
Great plug and play starter packBought this package to upgrade my WFH setup and I couldn’t be happier. It is a great plug and play solution I didn’t have to install any custom software the rode interface and mic were detected immediately on Windows, MacOS, and Linux. Sound quality is great as long as you disable all the processing affects that apps like discord, zoom, teams do for lower quality mics.
Ben Jay –
Perfect. No more excuses!Everything just WORKS.I had tried purchasing a Rode NT1 about a year back but kept getting no signal. I tried 3 different interfaces and 3 different xlr cables and I could never figure out which of the products was malfunctioning. I saw that Rode provided this kit with literally everything you need to get started and so I took it up. Everything was plug and play for me. I didn’t need to install any drivers. Windows selected everything on its own and I had NO issues immediately launching a DAW for testing if everything was working. Although, I did check out the Rode website and have since updated the drivers for the AI-1 interface since then.If you’re starting up and looking for quality products, look no further. This gives you everything you need to get started. No more excuses or headaches about what equipment to get!EDIT: I’ve been using this for around 2 months now and the audio has some weird glitch going on where the output to my headphones/earbuds will goes robotic for a few seconds whenever audio starts. Not sure what to do about it.Edit 2:It’s been a while since my last edit and to be honest, I don’t even remember what I complained about. Regardless, everything has been fine and I’ve still been using this setup for years now. Sounds great and I’ve had 0 issues.
J. Fuhrman –
Great quality without going full ShureI was going between this and the Shure SM7B, but the price difference is crazy for my “perceived” quality. I was using a blue Yeti previously but was plauged with the dreaded USB buzz. Since I started doing more recording, I decided I needed an upgrade. This thing is whisper quiet, not feedback, no buzz. This is a condenser microphone though so will pick up a lot of background noise. My room isn’t really treated, but it still works well, especially if you’re speaking closer to it. The less chance for your voice to bounce around the room. Very happy with this purchase, and may upgrade down the road if the mic picking up background noise becomes problematic. Highly recommended.
Scott –
Great product, just didn’t get the exact kit that’s being advertised.Great mic, perfect build quality, just not exactly what’s being advertised. The pop filter and shock mount are completely different from what you see in the pictures. Not entirely a big deal, was just not expecting such a big shock mount and the round pop filter.