A $2,490 wi-fi podcasting equipment is absurd, however no less than Nomono’s sounds nice

“A $3,000 podcasting equipment, on this financial system?” That was my first thought once I realized about Nomono’s transportable recording setup last year. Since then, the value has dropped barely to $2,490. However my most important 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 consists of 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 possibly can optimize their audio high quality (and ultimately edit them in your browser). As somebody who’s been podcasting repeatedly since 2008, the notion of an all-in-one equipment that may simply deal with native recordings appears like an absolute dream. Nomono’s equipment has the potential to be one thing the podcasting business has wanted for years, however can the corporate justify its extremely excessive worth?

Clearly, this is not a product aimed toward everybody — it is definitely not for novices, and I might 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 could possibly be useful for recording studios and corporations 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 positively would not look like one thing for mere podcasting mortals.

You may inform Nomono is striving for Apple-level design just by taking a look at its {hardware}. Though every thing is product of plastic, nothing feels low-cost. The egg-like charging case has a fabric deal with on the prime 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 cute podcasting fowl nest.

The house recorder serves because the hub for the whole Nomono expertise: It is a rectangular machine that includes omnidirectional microphones for capturing room tone with spatial data (it will probably inform the place everyone seems to be positioned throughout a dialog). There is a small display on the prime displaying the battery ranges of all of the linked lavs, in addition to outstanding recording and directional buttons. On the aspect, it contains 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 practically as distinctive: They’re small, indiscrete sq. pucks that includes 4 LED colours (useful for distinguishing every observe). They grip onto your garments with small magnets — making them straightforward to placed on, however probably simply as straightforward to slide off. The lavs by no means fell off throughout my testing, however I always nervous about knocking one off and shedding the tiny magnet. (Nomono consists of some extra magnets in its bundled accent equipment, which additionally has windscreen sleeves for the lavs and house recorder.)

Establishing 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 must take away the house recorder and no less than one lav, then hit report. 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 usually 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 quicker for brief recording exams, simply be ready to attend a bit in the event you’re planning to push numerous audio. Nomono’s {hardware} delivers 16-bit 48kHz WAV recordsdata 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 outside areas. The lavs do not sound practically as wealthy or nuanced as a premium dynamic or condenser microphone, however I did not actually anticipate them to. I might 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 ultimate 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 contains 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. Whilst you can nonetheless obtain pure, unfiltered tracks, these enhancements are helpful for the much less audio savvy.

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

Nomono’s full audio enhancement did a good job of slicing down freeway sounds and different avenue 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. Principally, do not anticipate any miracles. Whereas It is helpful to have easy methods to chop down background noise, you will nonetheless must discover a comparatively quiet recording house to seize the perfect 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 might additionally probably embody the power to edit spatial recordings. Since this isn’t precisely a shopper answer, I’d wager that most individuals shopping for Nomono’s {hardware} have already got extra refined methods to edit audio.

This 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 powerful to take care of bigger recordsdata. It took over 5 minutes for it to arrange a 90 minute observe 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 might be quicker to simply 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 yr, however for now, it is targeted 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 worth if I knew I might use its {hardware} with out counting on an internet 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 yr or two?

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