A $2,490 wi-fi podcasting equipment is absurd, however not less than Nomono’s sounds nice

“A $3,000 podcasting equipment, on this financial system?” That was my first thought once I discovered about Nomono’s transportable recording setup final 12 months. Since then, the worth has dropped barely to $2,490. However my primary concern stays: Who wants this factor when you will get a small audio recorder and lavalier mics for a lot much less? Nonetheless, I used to be intrigued.

Nomono’s equipment contains 4 wi-fi lav mics, in addition to an area recorder for room tone and spatial knowledge, all of which cost in a conveyable carrying case. Your recordings are mechanically uploaded to Nomono’s cloud service, the place you may optimize their audio high quality (and ultimately edit them in your browser). As somebody who’s been podcasting often since 2008, the notion of an all-in-one equipment that may simply deal with native recordings feels like an absolute dream. Nomono’s equipment has the potential to be one thing the podcasting trade has wanted for years, however can the corporate justify its extremely excessive value?

Clearly, this is not a product aimed toward everybody — it is definitely not for newcomers, and I would argue it is past the scope of what most podcasters really need. However after testing Nomono’s equipment for a couple of weeks, I can see the way it may very well be useful for recording studios and firms that want versatile podcasting options. It would not require a lot coaching to make use of, it delivers prime quality recordings, and it may be deployed nearly anyplace. For these of us, spending $2,490 on Nomono’s equipment might make extra sense than having an engineer dedicate time to each single recording. Add in a cloud subscription, which might price as a lot as $29 a month, and it undoubtedly would not seem to be one thing for mere podcasting mortals.

You possibly can inform Nomono is striving for Apple-level design just by its {hardware}. Regardless that every thing is product of plastic, nothing feels low cost. The egg-like charging case has a fabric deal with on the high in addition to a USB-C port. Its two halves snap along with safe clasps — flip these open, take off the highest and also you’re introduced with 4 lavalier microphones across the house recorder. It is like an lovable podcasting fowl nest.

The house recorder serves because the hub for the whole Nomono expertise: It is a rectangular gadget that includes omnidirectional microphones for capturing room tone with spatial data (it could inform the place everyone seems to be positioned throughout a dialog). There is a small display on the high displaying the battery ranges of all of the linked lavs, in addition to outstanding recording and directional buttons. On the facet, it includes a USB-C port and a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack. As you are capturing audio, the house recorder takes in knowledge from the lav mics and uploads it to Nomono’s cloud as soon as your session is completed.

The lavaliers aren’t almost as distinctive: They’re small, indiscrete sq. pucks that includes 4 LED colours (useful for distinguishing every monitor). They grip onto your garments with small magnets — making them simple to placed on, however doubtlessly simply as simple to slide off. The lavs by no means fell off throughout my testing, however I continually anxious about knocking one off and dropping the tiny magnet. (Nomono contains some further magnets in its bundled accent equipment, which additionally has windscreen sleeves for the lavs and house recorder.)

Organising Nomono’s {hardware} was comparatively simple: After charging the case, I downloaded the Nomono Companion app, created an account, and paired the equipment to my cellphone. The app reveals battery ranges for the lav mics and house recorder. To seize audio, you simply have to take away the house recorder and not less than one lav, then hit file. That course of was surprisingly quick and dependable — I used to be usually capable of get recordings began in beneath 30 seconds.

Wrapping up a session is generally dependent in your web connection. It took beneath 60 seconds for a 90-minute recording to get uploaded, after which I needed to wait a couple of extra minutes for Nomono’s cloud to course of the add. It was far sooner for brief recording exams, simply be ready to attend a bit should you’re planning to push a number of audio. Nomono’s {hardware} delivers 16-bit 48kHz WAV information for every lavalier, in addition to an ambisonic WAV file (with as much as 4 tracks) from the house recorder.

The standard of these recordings are crisp and detailed even in barely noisy out of doors areas. The lavs do not sound almost as wealthy or nuanced as a premium dynamic or condenser microphone, however I did not actually anticipate them to. I would think about them on-par with different wi-fi lavaliers I’ve used throughout video manufacturing (our podcast editor, Ben Ellman, described the sound as being preferrred for video shoots). A dialog with my spouse additionally sounded surprisingly clear, with not one of the crosstalk points or echoes I’ve encountered with cheaper multi-mic options.

To present your recordings a bit extra polish, Nomono additionally provides three ranges of enhancement by its cloud platform: on the sunshine finish, it includes a high-pass filter, cross-talk discount, notch EQ filter, de-noising and de-essing (for eradicating harsh “S” sounds and different sibilants). Medium enhancement provides loudness normalization, a tone-shaping EQ and adaptive stage, whereas full enhancement goes even heavier on the latter two options. When you can nonetheless obtain pure, unfiltered tracks, these enhancements are helpful for the much less audio savvy.

Ultimately, you may select to spatialize your recording by Nomono’s on-line platform, which makes every audio monitor sound like they’re coming from totally different instructions (relying on the place the house recorder was positioned throughout the session). That characteristic wasn’t accessible whereas I used to be testing the equipment, and to be sincere, it is also not one thing I would ever think about using in a podcast. 

Nomono’s full audio enhancement did an honest job of reducing down freeway sounds and different road noise whereas I used to be recording in entrance of my native Starbucks (see above), but it surely additionally made my voice sound a bit tinny and compressed. Mainly, do not anticipate any miracles. Whereas It is helpful to have easy methods to chop down background noise, you may nonetheless have to discover a comparatively quiet recording house to seize the very best audio. (In any other case, why even purchase such an costly podcasting equipment?!)

The corporate plans to launch its on-line editor by the top of 2023, which may additionally doubtlessly embody the flexibility to edit spatial recordings. Since this isn’t precisely a shopper answer, I’d guess that most individuals shopping for Nomono’s {hardware} have already got extra refined methods to edit audio.

Here is a comparability of Nomono’s lavalier versus the Rode Procaster XLR microphone: 

Whereas Nomono’s {hardware} largely impressed me, its on-line platform made it robust to take care of bigger information. It took over 5 minutes for it to arrange a 90 minute monitor for obtain (together with its bundled spatial audio file). And that didn’t embody the time it took to really seize the file, which might be dependent in your web connection. I perceive the enchantment of a seamless on-line audio answer, but it surely’s annoying once I know it will be sooner to only seize a file from a tool sitting proper on my desk. 

The house recorder didn’t present up on my Mac or PC once I linked to it, sadly. Nomono representatives say the corporate is planning to make offline options accessible subsequent 12 months, however for now, it is centered on a cloud-based workflow as a result of they imagine it is the “most handy and time-efficient” answer for customers. That additionally means livestreaming is out of the query with this equipment, although it might present up in a future Nomono product, the corporate tells me.

I’d have a a lot simpler time justifying Nomono’s excessive value if I knew I may use its {hardware} with out counting on a web site. This isn’t my first time on the gadget startup rodeo: What good is that this $2,490 recording equipment if the corporate goes out of enterprise in a 12 months or two?

It’s clear that Nomono has developed one thing particular, but it surely’s exhausting to think about this recording equipment being the one answer for an audio-savvy firm. You’ll nonetheless have to have a devoted podcasting house with hard-wired microphones. What Nomono provides is flexibility: What if that you must file in one other room, in another person’s workplace, or at a resort? In these conditions, a self-contained $2,490 podcasting equipment won’t appear so wild.