- One year ago TC Helicon released the GoXLR,
a one stop solution built for streamers
to replace everything to do with livestream audio.
It has quickly become one of the most popular devices
used by professional streamers
but a price point of $400,
it is often out of budget
for many streamers looking
to improve that audio setup.
This week TC Helicon have released the GoXLR Mini.
Now they sent me this a couple of months ago to test it,
it comes in at a price of $250,
so nearly half the price of the original GoXLR.
In this video we're going to be covering what's different,
the things I like about these devices
as well as the things that I don't like,
and most importantly I want to help you decide
if either of these devices are right for you
and your streaming setup.
(upbeat music)
To be able to go through
all of the features of the GoXLR Mini,
it's worth first just going through
a 30 second run down of everything
the original GoXLR is capable of
and then we can compare exactly
what's different and what is the same.
Since the GoXLR was specifically designed
for streamers and content creators,
it serves quite a few different purposes.
First and foremost is an XLR to USB interface,
allowing you plug in a high quality XLR microphone
and then use that for live streams and for recording.
It's also an audio mixer
featuring four separate channels
with motorized faders allowing you
to easily mute and control audio
of things like your microphone,
your music, your friends on discord
and your game audio,
all from your fingertips.
You can easily then route any audio
to your stream or to your headphones
or even to the line-out,
making previously complicated things
like a two PC streaming setup, incredibly simple.
Built into the GoXLR is a DSP
or a Digital Signal Processor,
which offers things like compression,
EQ, noise gates and De-essing for your microphone.
As well as some more fun voice effects
which you can change things like the reverb,
pitch, echo and gender of your voice
for comedic value if you wish to.
Finally the GoXLR has a sampler built in
so you can record and store audio samples
and then play them back easily.
As well as a one kilohertz sensor button and a push-to-mute.
So since the GoXLR Mini is half the size
and almost half the price,
they've clearly removed some functionality
to make it more affordable.
The main things that they've removed
are the voice effects panel and the sampler.
There are also some minor changes to the mixer,
which we'll get into later
but effectively they've just chopped
the GoXLR in half whilst not sacrificing
the things that I would consider most important.
One of the thins that they've kept
from the GoXLR is the low noise pre-amps,
they provide a whopping 72 decibels of gain.
The GoXLR Mini uses the exact same pre-amps
as the original GoXLR meaning
yes even if you're using the quietest
of dynamic XLR microphones,
something like the Shure SM7B,
you can still power it with the GoXLR Mini
without needing to buy something
like the $150 Cloud Lifter,
which are required by so many other XLR USB interfaces
when paired with a quiet dynamic microphone.
The GoXLR Mini also offers
all the same enhancements for your microphone,
things like the noise gate,
the equalization,
the compression and the De-essing,
which although they are set up
through the GoXLR app,
all these enhancements actually happen
on the physical devices themselves
meaning absolutely zero impact on your computer.
Effectively what this means
is the sound quality of your microphone
through the $400 GoXLR
or the $250 GoXLR Mini is exactly the same,
there is absolutely no difference at all.
In terms of build quality both the mini
and the original GoXLR are built mostly
from plastic with this kind of glossy finish
and some rubber feet on the bottom
to stop it from sliding.
In terms of inputs and outputs,
they both obviously have
an XLR input for the XLR microphone.
They have three point five millimeter stereo line-in
and stereo line-out,
which is super useful
especially if you're using a two PC streaming setup.
They both have a USB port
and an included cable to connect it to your PC.
An optical input for consoles,
a three point five millimeter microphone input
for non-XLR microphones
and finally a three point five millimeter headphone output,
which offers zero latency monitoring.
Since the Mini is smaller
and has less additional functionality,
it can be completely powered by USB,
meaning it doesn't have a power input
and a power cable at all.
Next lets look at the faders,
and the GoXLR Mini still allows you
to control four separate channels
through the audio mixer,
so you can easily mute
or change the volumes of your microphone,
your voice chat, your system sounds
or any other application that you wish to.
What has changed is that
these faders are no longer motorized.
So if you hit the mute switch
on your team mates in discord for example,
that fader will no longer jump down to the bottom.
Instead the LED lights on the fader
and the mute switch at the bottom indicate the change.
Also you may have noticed that up above the faders
there are no longer those little screens
that you could use to display exactly
what each fader controlled.
You can still customize
what each channel controls in the software,
so if you didn't want your fourth fader
to control your system audio
and instead you wanted it
to control something like your headphone level,
you can still change that in the software.
But obviously the word system
will still appear above the fader.
They've kept the push to sensor
and push to mute buttons
so you can sensor yourself when you're mid rage
and you can mute yourself when you're mid sneeze.
So those are all the differences
between the GoXLR and the GoXLR Mini.
I think they a hundred percent
made the right decisions on where
to save money to make a cheaper product.
I know some of you watching
are probably disappointed that
they didn't keep in the voice effects
but from personal experience
I think the voice effects are really cool
but they get kind of old kind of quickly
so unless you have a really unique way
of being able to add them
and integrate them into your stream,
I think they are, again,
something that was worth dropping
to get a lower price.
I personally would much rather
have the low noise pre-amp,
the Noise Gate, the EQ,
the compressing, the De-essing,
than to have those fancy features like the effects,
the sampler and the motorized faders.
Now whilst I love and use the GoXLR every single day
there is some feedback and things
that I wish TC Helicon would implement in the future.
Some of these have already been fixed
and implemented into the GoXLR Mini,
some of them are actively being worked on
and then just some I hope will be worked on in the future.
I was going to complain
about the lack of a power switch,
which leave the GoXLR brightly lit
even when I powered off my PC
but it seems that TC Helicon
have already recognized this
and are soon to be releasing a stand
and a power cable that has a switch
for the original GoXLR
and then since the GoXLR Mini
is just powered purely through USB,
it already shuts down when you shut down your PC.
I wish that the original GoXLR had a second XLR input,
I've realized that I'm probably in the minority here
but I think it would be amazing
to be able to use the GoXLR
for things like podcasts or streams
when you have a second person on stream.
Since the name is GoXLR
and they're encouraging you to go XLR,
I think this would be a massive feature
if they could implement a second XLR input.
I've seen a few people in the past complaining
about the GoXLR's reliance on having
to have the GoXLR app running on the PC
for it to function properly.
And I wasn't that bothered about this
until last week where an update rolled out
that was mandatory and unfortunately
the update wasn't ready for public release
and caused a lot of streamers
to have to cancel streams
or move back to a USB microphone
just to be able to stream.
TC Helicon to their credit,
did work quickly to fix the bug
and help everyone get back up and running
and since then they have released a statement
saying that they are rethinking their software testing
and roll-out to make sure
that something like this
doesn't happen again in the future.
Lastly, I'd love to see GoXLR
be compatible with Mac OS and Linux.
I know that they've aimed this towards streamers
and largely nowadays streamers are gamers
playing on Windows PC's.
But as streaming grows,
as this whole ecosystem grows
and more and more people come in
to streaming all kinds of content
things like podcasts or cooking streams
there are going to be more users
that want to use the GoXLR
with their Mac setup or with their Linux setup.
With all that said, I still think
that the GoXLR and the GoXLR Mini
are fantastic products
and if your used case is similar to mine
and you want something to make your audio
for streaming simpler and of a higher quality,
in a one PC, a two PC
or even a PC and a console setup
I think you'll be very happy with your purchase.
That being said,
I know that there's a lot of skepticism
on the internet and rightfully so,
particularly for products
that are labeled for gamers,
so I went to Twitter and Instagram yesterday
to ask you guys what you wanted
to know about the GoXLR and the GoXLR Mini.
I'm going to answer a handful of them now
and I'm actually going to be using the GoXLR
so you can hear what the sound quality
is like with my microphone.
So one thing that I had a lot of different questions
about was using the quiet mics like the Shure SM7B.
Obviously this is a very popular microphone for streamers
but it is a very notoriously quiet dynamic microphone
meaning that it needs a lot
of gain to be able to be heard.
Well this is exactly how it sounds,
this is the Shure SM7B plugged directly
into the GoXLR Mini without a cloud lifter
or any kind of signal boost.
You can see in the app I have my gain set
to 55 decibels and this is how it sounds.
The second question that I had
was from True Impact asking,
I want to know if it's possible
to use a USB microphone such a the Blue Yeti with it?
And the technical answer is yes,
if you had a microphone like the Blue Yeti
or the HyperX Quad Cast,
both of those options have
a three point five millimeter headphone out
which you can use to monitor your headphones.
What you can do is get a cable
that will go from the three point five millimeter out
of the microphone into
the three point five millimeter
microphone in on the GoXLR or the GoXLR Mini
and then you can use them together.
One thing to note though is
that you're not going to be using the amazing pre-amps
that are built into the GoXLR
and the GoXLR Mini instead you'll be using
the pre-amps that are built into your USB microphone,
so you won't be getting the same quality.
So the overall answer is yes it's possible
but honestly in my opinion it's not really worth it.
If there is a future where you would upgrade
from a USB mic to an XLR microphone
then it might be worth just getting yourself
a GoXLR Mini in the meantime
'cause you can use it with your USB microphone
but I would only say it's worth it
if in the future you are planning
to move to an XLR mic.
Finally, I got quite a lot of questions
about the comparison between the GoXLR and the GoXLR Mini,
Till Truth asked on Instagram,
do you think this is actually
a good alternative option?
I think some of the best parts are left out of the mini.
In my opinion, if you would prefer
to have $150 to spend on other things in your stream
or maybe just to keep in your wallet,
I would a hundred percent get the Mini.
It's smaller, it's USB powered
which means it's one less cable
and $150 can go a long way in buying
something else for your stream
if you do have that money,
something like lights
or a camera upgrade or something like that.
That being said,
if you really think that you're going to
be using the voice effects
and you have a good idea of how
you could integrate them into your stream
then obviously the GoXLR is also a great choice.
So hopefully this video has been helpful
in helping you understand a bit more
about the GoXLR and the GoXLR Mini
and maybe if one of those is right for you.
If you are considering purchasing one,
I have some links at the top of the description
to both the GoXLR and the GoXLR Mini
at your local Amazon store.
So it will take you directly
to your local store where you can see
what the price is in your local currency
as well as whether it is in stock.
If you're new to the Gaming Careers YouTube channel,
it is completely dedicated
to helping you learn to live stream.
So have a look around at some
of the other content that we've got
and I would highly recommend subscribing
with notifications on.
Especially as I will be doing
another Black Friday video for you coming out
on Friday with all the best deals for streamers.
Finally a massive thanks
to all the Gaming Careers patrons
who have supported the channel this month.
I really couldn't do what I do without you guys
so I really do appreciate it.
I'll see you all in the next video,
which is Friday for the Black Friday streamer deals.
Peace.
(upbeat music)