Good-bye GoXLR! It's time to bury you. You served me well,
but off to the audio hardware graveyard with you!
It finally happened: I have removed my original GoXLR and it's giant stand
from my main desk setup. I still have one running my retro corner
audio that I use for some streams and videos, but that might change, too.
I'm EposVox the Stream Professor and I've said for a long time that the
GoXLR was a hard-to-beat value proposition, but not impossible-to-beat. For certain
streamer-focused use cases, the GoXLR may as well have been the PERFECT product,
but it did have issues and wasn't perfect for all workflows. We've seen competition slowly start to
rise as the AVerMedia Live Streamer NEXUS and Elgato Wave XLR released, and more are coming.
One release I wasn't sure I'd love so much is this little guy right here, the PreSonus Revelator
io24. This new audio interface is meant to be a badass multi-purpose USB interface for vocals,
music, and creators of all kinds, but it actually seems to be perfect for my desk setup, too!
This thing is the same price (or cheaper) as the GoXLR Mini, but
much more powerful and competes with the full-size GoXLR in many respects.
A pair of XLR and quarter-inch jacks sit right on the front - already an upgrade over the other
streamer-focused products for those doing content with either more than one speaker,
or needing an extra hookup for an instrument. You also have a teeny tiny LCD screen,
input configuration buttons, mute buttons, and a clickable dial for quick volume adjustment.
Around back you have a Kensington lock, USB type C, MIDI in and out, quarter-inch
main outputs for running to speakers, studio monitors, or another mixer - THANK YOU PreSonus,
finally someone doesn't forget us speaker users - and a quarter-inch headphone jack.
I would have preferred the headphone jack up front and XLR on the back, but this is fine.
I have this hooked up to my PreSonus Eris 5" studio monitor speakers, funny enough.
The box is sleek and clean in its presentation. There's a subtle blue LED ring around the main
dial and backlighting to the buttons, but it's not in-your-face RGB or anything.
The XLR pre-amps provide 60dB of gain - which appear to be enough
for the ElectroVoice RE20 and Shure SM7b without a cloudlifter
as long as you don't plan on whispering - and 48V of phantom power is also available.
The headphone amp works with an impedance range of 32 to 300 ohm,
so it should work with most headphones but perhaps not all crazy high-impedance ones.
The cool wizardry is the internal DSP. Yes, much like the GoXLR - and unlike the Wave
XLR or Blue's mic effects they've been adding to their microphones - the PreSonus Revelator io24
seems to have a pretty beefy DSP - or digital signal processor - onboard. This not only gives
you a variety of goofy voice effects, reverb, vocoder, etc. but also a proper "Fat channel"
audio chain including a high-pass filter, noise gate, EQ, compressor, and limiter built-in.
And unlike the GoXLR's super basic and limited graphical equalizer, I can actually achieve
the sound I like because the main EQ mode is a proper parametric EQ with adjustable Q-width and
everything! I was able to basically copy-paste my exact post-processing settings from Adobe Audition
right in here and it matches up almost exactly. Previously this has only been possible with
Reaplug VSTs and that only got close, not quite the same. And it's all being processed
in the box itself, not using CPU cycles, and not being limited to OBS or anything like that.
This, right here, was the deciding factor for me to swap from the GoXLR to the io24 for my
main setup. As cool as the GoXLR is and for most people who aren't obsessing over audio details,
just making some tweaks in the GoXLR EQ is probably fine - I have ALWAYS had issues
getting sound that I like out of its EQ, and felt its compressor left a lot to be desired.
The io24 gives a full proper Parametric Equalizer - OR a passive or vintage
style one if desired - along with full normal compressor AND limiter controls. Plus you can
change the order to have the EQ happen before the compressor or vice versa, which I LOVE.
The compressor also has 3 different modes: Standard,
Tube, and FET which is more of a vintage hardware compressor style. I stuck with standard since it's
what I'm familiar with, but you can get more unique sound out of the different modes here.
The only thing really missing from this fat channel is a de-esser. I was disappointed to
not see it here, but realistically I don't struggle with it that much and can easily
slap that on my OBS profile for a final "safety pass" in my recordings and streams, while it won't
be necessary for voice calls or anything like that. Not a huge deal, even if disappointing.
Here's a sample comparing my ElectroVoice RE20
raw versus my processing chain in Audition versus the processing in the DSP on the io24:
(RAW) Three rings for the elven kings under the sky,
seven for the dwarf-lords in their halls of stone, nine for the mortal men doomed to die...
(AUDITION) Three rings for the elven kings under the sky,
seven for the dwarf-lords in their halls of stone, nine for the mortal men doomed to die...
(IO24 DSP) Three rings for the elven kings under the sky,
seven for the dwarf-lords in their halls of stone, nine for the mortal men doomed to die...
The Revelator io24 also gives you sub-mixing, which the GoXLR does not. You have a main
monitor mix for your headphones, and a separate stream or recording mix. You can also link your
stream mix to your monitor mix if you don't want it, or swap your headphones to any of the mixes.
There's also 2 loopback submixes that I haven't entirely figured out
yet. This will only be part 1 of my adventure with this interface,
get subscribed for a part 2 where I provide a proper "tutorial" once I've figured it out.
I dislike that I can only move my headphones to the different submixes and not the speakers,
but I understand why it works that way. What's really cool here is the main outputs could
actually be paired with a bigger mixer for a proper mixing experience. I could just use the
io24 as my interface and mic processor and then route it through my big SoundCraft mixer to get
full mix controls and outputs to my headphones and speakers with more granular control.
Headphone volume, main volume, and monitor-playback blend can
be adjusted with the dial on the front of the interface.
The mixing outputs can be a little confusing, as you have output devices in Windows for the
Main output, then the two loopback devices. These loopback devices can
also be sent to other applications to pair program audio with your mic
audio. This is useful for programs that only let you record one audio device at a time,
or looping relevant audio back to podcast guests over Zoom, etc.
I find the overall UI for this software a little confusing, actually. It has been frustrating at
various points trying to get the right settings. Be it the confusing mix UI, the difference between
the individual effects in the fat channel being enabled vs the whole fat channel being disabled,
or the big preset knob that doesn't save your settings if you turn it and generally sucks
to use as most screen dials do. The GoXLR got a huge thing right with their routing table,
and I hope to see other programs learn from it in time. Also on-screen dials never provide
a good user experience, especially when I'm just selecting presets which would work fine as a list.
This little box is a small chunk of the footprint of the GoXLR,
has a much better processing chain for making your mic sound better and cleaner,
has higher-quality audio recording overall, and allows for two mics.
The only thing it's missing is the sampler - which is whatever and there are alternatives for - and
I guess the physical faders. The physical faders will be slightly missed, but I know
plenty of people don't actually use them at all. And a later upgrade to the PCPanel Pro
could be a more universally-compatible pairing to use to control specific application audio anyway.
The io24 isn't quite as compelling if you're a streamer that uses multiple PCs or a game console,
due to the lack of auxiliary and optical inputs. For single PC streaming or non-game streaming,
this could be a lot better, though. And again, it almost seems most perfect to
pair with a basic mixer that perhaps isn't great for your raw mic audio.
Let's test a few of the more common mics here so you can compare to the GoXLR and
other interfaces I've reviewed lately. Playlist link below.
[RE20] Three rings for the Elven kings under the sky, seven for the dwarf-lords in their halls of
stone, nine for the mortal men doomed to die... [SM7b] Three rings for the Elven kings under the
sky, seven for the dwarf-lords in their halls of stone, nine for the mortal men doomed to die and
one for the dark lord on his dark throne. In the land of Mordor where the shadows lie.
For $200, you're getting a box that strongly competes with the GoXLR and other devices,
but has a slightly different target use case. The parametric EQ immediately saves me a ton
of time and frustration was an easy switching choice, and I may eventually set up my mixer
again to make up for any mixing deficits here, but I'm not sure it's even needed.
I haven't given this out in a while, but this interface is the latest product to receive the
official "Stream Professor Approved" badge. The value per cost, and efficacy of features
makes it one of my top recommendations for streamers and content creators today.
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Product links are in the description below, as always. Hit the like button
and subscribe for more streamguides. Consider watching this other video
on choosing a $100 mic for streaming, and remember: Be kind, rewind.