Rode Video Mic Hybrid NTG Review

Can you use a Rode Videomic NTG Hybrid on a recording session?

I'll show you how mother is the necessity of invention on this recording session.


In this video, I review the Rode VideoMic NTG Hybrid, compare it against the Deity D3 Pro, the Rode VideoMic Go, and test if it can be used on an actual recording session. I'll test off-axis rejection, RF noise rejection, use it indoors, outdoors, in the wind, and show you where this mic shines and where it fails.

I was traveling in iceland and someone called me to do a recording session. The only problem is that I didnt have any of my recording gear. None of my guitars, none of my outboard gear, my interface, my microphones or anything. What DID I have? My rodevideo mic NTG hybrid, which is supposed to be a DSLR microphone.

I really took this Rode Video Mic NTG through it's paces. This is supposed to be a DSLR camera microphone, but in this review I use it for basically everything. I do a recording session using an amplified electric guitar, an acoustic guitar, and I do all the vocal overdubs you hear using the microphone (without EQ or compression). Then we go outside in light wind, heavy wind, dynamic environments where the mic position is changing, and then at the end we are inside in a reverby room full of RF cellphone and wifi noise.

I traveled to Iceland, I didn't have any of my recording gear with me, and I needed to do a recording session. That's how this review came about. Normally I would use an sm57 on electric guitar, and some sort of u87 condenser clone on the acoustic. But on this particular day I had to see if the NTG hybrid could handle everything. I'm all about using what you have, so this was a fun test to see what you tools you really need, and how much money you need to spend on recording gear. How important is the gear, the instrument, and the player?

I think the most amazing thing about this mic is the RF noise rejection. I've used a ton of different camera mics like the deity, the videomic, the shure lenshopper, and a few other random brands. This is the only on-camera mic I have ever used that rejects 100% of cellphone noise, wifi noise, weird digital noises that just exist in our environment.

If you're watching this video you might also be interested on the deity d3 Pro. In my opinion don't buy the deity. We live in a world full of RF noises, and that right there renders most other mics unuseable. I will say that my video mic go is more consistent, and has slightly less white noise, but when the it's working just right, the Rode NTG VideoMic Hybrid is probably the best microphone I've used so far. Maybe they'll be able to fix it completely with a firmware update one day? How do you think it sounds?

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