Rode M5 MP Reviews

Rode small condenser M5P

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Excellent mics

This is probably the cheapest stereo pair not made in China. There are enough written publications and comparison videos at least with it's bigger brother NT5, so I will not go into that. I will only mention that if we start comparing and choosing microphones we make life way difficult. Far more important are factors such as room, musician and instrument. And if there are compromises with them, even if the most expensive microphones are used, miracles will not be achieved. Exactly the opposite. In that case, it makes sense that the M5's would be used by people on a tighter budget who don't have a great room anyway, can't hire very good and famous musicians, etc. And if the room is not good, the smaller part of it we capture, the cleaner our recording would be, and the atmosphere will be created in post-production. In such case, I would not use the overheads to capture the entire set, but would look for specific cymbal sounds - hi hat, ride or close above a group of cymbals. Then the only requirement for these microphones would be to reproduce the cymbals as naturally and pleasantly as possible. And these microphones can do it - nicely tucked under the ride or hi hat cymbals, so that they capture the details.

Great for overheads/underheads

I bought the matched pair last November to capture underheads such as hihats and ride cymbal and it's been with me since. It sounds good for it's price and apparently very sturdy for such a delicate microphone.

I do have a matched pair of NT5's to use with it and capture other cymbals and together it sounds great and nothing gets phased.

We'll see if it stands the test of time.

For this price, no question

The MP5 are robust and do not need to be treated with kid gloves.

I have used these a lot for various applications. For speech, stringed instruments, as overhead mics and more.

They have rather good side rejection for mics of this size.

The only con I can think of is that they are kind of mid rangy (if that is a word), lack the sparkle that a small diaphragm Neumann (or similar) of this type has.

But the bottomline is that if you are on a budget or need mics for situations where stuff happens and you do not want to risk you fancy crazy expensive mics, this is a solid offering.

Great Matched Pair Microphones.

These are great microphones. I will be using them to mic sounds for sampling experiments, nature and acoustic instruments. All in all, for the price I am very satisfied with the build quality and sound of these relatively inexpensive microphones and would recommend them to others for similar purposes. I wish they came with a decent case, but for the money spent you really can't complain.

Not as good as the NT5, but still great

Sound, build quality, noise floor, all great. The mesh protector protrudes out of the microphone, though, so I think the design of the NT5 is better.

That being said, they sound great for drum overheads.

Impec

Impeccable. Pour enregistrer la guitare acoustique. Ouf, enfin un son convenable.

Good workhorse mics

Bought these to replace a random bundle of old sE and other cheap Chinese mics that I use when I'm a bit stretched. 4 of these has given me a lot of scope for any mono or stereo sources. I first used them live for a choir (spaced pair) and close micing a piano in XY and they sounded great to me! Annoying to not have a carry case of any sort, but for the price it's hard to argue. Clips are nice and sturdy which I think is really important.

Great microphones for high frequencies

These 2 microphones serve perfectly as overheads on drum kits, as they do a perfect job at catching the higher frequencies while blocking some of the lower frequencies. They have a great "air" quality to them and there was no need of over post-processing these when playing drums. I would purchase these again if necessary.

Rode M5 MP

nice sturdy mics, not the best sound but really decent!

Great microphones

It is one of my first Rode mics and... really love the building quality. Also, they sound just how I expected, so I'm happy with them. Also, I bought them knowing that they don't have a pad option, which could be perfect, so I'm giving it 5 five stars anyway.

Good microphone

We use this mic mostly for choir or wind instruments band. Works OK, just our this sundays choir performance showed really good sound pickup. We do live streams and when listening it afterwards I was very pleased with the results.

Talk about bang for you buck!

Adorable little pencil mics that pack a well balanced sound. very useful.

i take them on gigs when i don't want to risk my Lautens 120. but i've also used it in recordings and i was pleasantly surprised. they handle cymbal harshness and violin harshness so much better than what i expected. I've also used them for Dialogue and Foley. very nice.

and they are soooo cheap!

I couldn't recommend them more!

Nice microphones for the price.

These microphones are useful for any budget studio and for professional use alike. I have used them on live sound jobs and I like them. They do their job, they are inexpensive and sound nice. They are not the best mics I have but they do the job I need them for. Either overheads or supplement mics for percussion and such. I will recomend them for anyone with a tight budget in need of a decent pair of condenser mics. Good purchase for me anyway. I like them and I use them.

Rode M5 MP

Have been using these microphones for a few years and I am a huge fan of them. For the price you get a matched pair set of well build and good sounding microphones. I've used it on pretty much every sound source you can imagine. Piano, brass, string, guitars, vox, room, even on guitar amps with great results.

Do better sounding microphones exist? Yes! Can you make the rode m5 sound as good with your free eq in your DAW? Also yes! Will you be able to pinpoint this mic compered to one 5 times its price in a dense mix? No!

Highly recommend!

Fantastic pair of matched microphones

I bought these for my home studio and have had them for a few months now. I have been using them primarily as drum overheads, but also for the stereo recording of an acoustic piano (a 100 year old Bluthner, but that's another story) and the results are fantastic. I have had recording experience in a professional studio in the past (with Neumann microphones no less) and I can't honestly say that the huge price difference was manifest in the sonic results...

Some details:

I generally recorded the drums at my home studio with an 8 mic setup - kick, snare, 3 toms, 2 overheads and room mic. After changing my previous overheads (admittedly a cheap brand I won't name of pencil condensers) with the Rode M5's - the difference is staggering. I now find that I don't even need most the of the microphones and I only use 4 for the final mix - the Rode M5's for the overheads using a ORTF configuration on a stereo bar (the K&M 23550, which is way more affordable than Rode's separately sold model), a single SM57 for the snare and an AKG D112 for the kick. And I must add that the drums sound great even with only the two overheads... The clarity is staggering, the nuances are all captured, the stereo image is superb, there are no phase issues using the ORTF configuration and the room sound is captured perfectly.

Pros:

- Superb clarity

- Lend themselves perfectly for matched stereo image recording (drum overheads, acoustic piano etc.).

- 10 year warranty from Rode

- Capture room sound and acoustics amazingly well.

- Affordable without sacrificing quality

Cons:

- Don't include a stereo bar which could have been a nice touch but is understandable at this price point. Suggest getting the cheaper K&M model mentioned above and not the overpriced Rode model sold separately.

- Don't include a case - but again, understandable at this price point. I just keep them on the stand anyway and cover them in plastic bags when not being used...

Very good microphones for the price

I?m using these as overhead microphones for a drumkit and i can highly reccomend them.

Slightly Fragile but Overall Excellent

I've owned these for 3 years now and they've never let me down. they're slight more fragile than equivalent sized mics and I'd feel more nervous dropping them, but for the price the sound quality just cant be beaten.

These mics sound like they should cost twice as much as they do.

Great value

I ordered the matched set for home recordings using acoustic guitars and other instruments. They are great value and appear to be well built -- although I have not used them for too long. They do not have a low-cut filter or a Passive Attenuation Device (PAD) switch, although this is probably understandable at this price range. An on/off switch could have helped. The included mic clasps are quite tight, which is another small issue. But, I am really trying to find something negative to say here... ;-)

Fantastic little mics for amazing value!

I bought these two little microphones some years ago because I was looking for some multi-purpose and cheap mics to do some home recordings of a variety of acoustic instruments, like guitar, cajon, voice... And I must say I've been really happy with the quality of the sound that gets picked up by them. They are well balanced, really light and discreet, and they work well by themselves or as a pair. The only thing I would say is that due to some poor care on my part the metal receiving end of one of them got a bit damaged and bruised, but as I said it was due to my own negligence so nothing bad to say about them really! Highly recommended for beginner home recorders who don't want to spend too much money but still get a decent sound!