RØDE Microphones has announced that its NT-SF1 360 Surround Ambisonic Microphone is now shipping.
SoundField pioneered 360° surround-with-height audio capture in 1978. The company was acquired by The Freedman Group, home of RØDE Microphones, in 2016. The SoundField by RØDE NT-SF1 marks the first collaboration between the two brands.
The NT-SF1 comes with a blimp-style windshield and fur cover for intensive wind protection, and a shock mount for steady recording.
The Microphones record in A-Format but it is the conversion to B-Format that allows a single Ambisonic Microphone to provide 4 tracks that can be manipulated in any direction in post, possess any polarity possible and enable creators to place their sounds wherever they like within the 360° soundfield.
The SoundField by RØDE Plugin is also available for free download on both Windows and Mac. It lets users to reshape their audio.
The Plugin offers standard surround-sound set-ups, including Dolby Atmos up to 7.1.4 and is supported by Protools, Q-base, Nuendo, Reaper and Logic in VST, AU or AAX formats.
Pricing and Availability
The RØDE NT-SF1 is available now for $999.
Hey, he is standing right next to the microphone in that silent cave… and breathing! Totally fake shot.
But seriously, I’ve been waiting for this: Soundfield tech + RODE pricing = must-buy for me.
This will probably also work with the awesome free Sennheiser plugin for their Ambeo Series (their Mic is around 1600 Euro), which you can find here: https://en-de.sennheiser.com/microphone-3d-audio-ambeo-vr-mic – see AMBEO A-B format converter plugin.
In the end, to get “headphone surround”, you’ll still need to convert the surround output of your (4 channel or 5.1 / 7.1 channel) mix through an expensive plugin like Spatial Audio Designer. For me, this workflow still feels a little bit cumbersome and I wish an output plugin like this was just included in the DAW.
Or maybe Rode will offer a plugin that does just that?