How to Broadcast Live Radio with the Rodecaster Pro

Struggling to get your shows off the ground? Broadcast live radio with the Rodecaster Pro for a streamlined streaming solution.

by Nick Todd in Production

Last updated 04.06.2024

How to Broadcast Live Radio with the Rodecaster Pro Header

All broadcasters crave a flexible live streaming solution. You don’t want to be fiddling around with labyrinthine interfaces and poorly labelled knobs and dials when you could be focused on your audience.

Back in 2018, Rode released the Rodecaster Pro, which gives you premium features along with an accessible interface. If you’re just getting your hands on one, you’re probably unfamiliar with how to broadcast live radio with the Rodecaster Pro.

Rodecaster Pro: For the Everyday Broadcaster

Rode designed this desk to be picked up by any broadcaster, no matter their experience. It packs a touch screen interface which makes navigating settings and features easy and onboard SD card recording so you have backups of your shows.

Image shows a RODEcaster Pro I, with a macbook and a microphone in the background blurred out.

The built-in button bank lets you pre-load your mixer with samples, jingles and effects. Download and open the Rodecaster Pro desktop app. While your mixer is plugged in it will show a display of the button bank. Selecting any button lets you load a file onto that button, which will fire off whenever pressed, so you have an unlimited choice with what jingles and effects you play and when.

Recently, Rode has updated the firmware to improve the functionality of the Rodecaster. Make sure your desk has the latest firmware before setting up.

Rodecaster Pro:

Gear You Need and Setting it Up

Alongside the Rodecaster you’ll need some equipment to get this set up working. Including:

Laptop/Computer.
USB dock (only necessary if your computer doesn’t have USB inputs).
Software (In this setup we’ll be using Virtual DJ and BUTT).
Headphones or a monitoring speaker.
XLR and ¼” jack cables.

Before you can start broadcasting live, you’ll need to connect everything. Start by hooking up your Rodecaster to the computer via the USB port. This lets you adjust your computers audio using the USB fader.

Image shows the back of the Rodecaster Pro, and the USB input is highlighted with a red square.

Connect your microphone to XLR input 1. Now your mic levels will be adjustable through fader 1.

Image shows the back of the Rodecaster Pro, and the XLR input is highlighted with a red square.

If you’re using a speaker to monitor your audio, use a ¼’ jack cable to plug into the L/R inputs on your Rodecaster. If you have two speakers you can use both inputs for stereo sound.

Image shows the back of a RODECaster Pro, with the speaker output port highlighted with a red square.

For headphones, plug into the headphone jack input 1. There are 4 headphone inputs you can use for multiple presenters.

Image shows the back of the Rodecaster Pro, and the headphone inputs are highlighted with a red square.

Go into the settings of your mixer into Advanced>Studio>Operations. Enable Automatically Mute Outputs. This will disable your speaker whenever you move your microphone faders up so they don’t feedback.

Image shows the Rodecaster Pro touch screen with the Operations Settings open.

Enable Pre-fade Listen, which lets you monitor audio through your headphones before the faders are turned up when you press the green button on the channel.

Image shows the monitoring buttons (Pre-Fade Listen and Mute) on the RODECaster Pro.

Enable Broadcast Meters, which adjusts all audio so it meets broadcast levels.

Image shows the broadcast meters displayed on the Rodecaster Pro's touch screen.

Once you’ve got everything hooked up, test out your faders and microphone to make sure the speaker muting function is working.

Going Live

Once your Rodecaster is ready to broadcast, your software needs to be set up so you can go live.

Go into the Settings of Virtual DJ and set the Inputs and Outputs as Rodecaster Pro. The audio from Virtual DJ will now play through your Rodecaster speakers when the fader is turned up.

Image shows Virtual DJ Settings for setting up the RODECaster Pro.

In BUTT, go into Settings>Main. Under Server, hit Add and choose a name for your server.

Image shows the Server Name Field within the software BUTT.

Copy in the Host, Port and Password from your Radio.co Dashboard into your BUTT server. Clicking Add will save these settings for the future.

Image shows the software BUTT's server settings window.

Go into Stream Infos and add a Description and URL, although this is optional.

Image shows the server info window in the broadcasting software, BUTT.

Finally, enter the Audio settings and under Audio Device, select Rodecaster Pro. This will now take any audio from your Rodecaster and broadcast it to your radio station.

Image shows the Audio Settings window within the broadcasting software, BUTT.

With everything set up, hit the Live Record button in BUTT to start broadcasting radio with the Rodecaster Pro straight to your station.

Broadcast Live Radio with the Rodecaster Pro

Knowing how to broadcast live radio with the Rodecaster Pro puts professional-level features at your fingertips for a reasonable price. And you don’t have to be a tech guru to figure out how to use it!