The power and audio routing of the GoXLR, the control and flexibility of the Stream
Deck, combined into one ALL-POWERFUL device.
That sounds like the dream, right?
Well, AVerMedia sought to achieve that dream and deliver the best of both devices to streamers.
The truth is, they have established some really compelling features and possibilities here,
but they're going to need to keep working on it to achieve the full potential.
Like myself and this YouTube channel, days and days of work are going to have to be poured
into this software just to make users ever so slightly happier.
As slight as it may be, it could also be a dealbreaker.
I'm EposVox, the Stream Professor, and this is the AVerMedia Live Streamer NEXUS - a high-quality,
6-track audio mixer and control surface combined together.
During my original GoXLR review, I had many viewers hoping the TC Helicon team would eventually
let us use the Sample Pad buttons as macro keys to control streams or other programs
with, but that never ended up happening.
This might be the next best thing.
In terms of audio, the NEXUS is effectively a slot-in replacement for the GoXLR.
Literally, for my testing I just moved the exact same cable routing from the back of
the GoXLR unit to the back of the NEXUS unit.
Instead of motorized sliders, however, you get knobs to control volume levels and mute
devices, with LEDs in a ring around the knob to indicate level.
Let's talk about the physical build for a second.
In some ways the build of this thing has really impressed me, but in others I'm pretty frustrated.
The case is a hard plastic, which feels nice and solid, and is NOT matte plastic, so it
won't be a fingerprint magnet like the GoXLR.
The knobs feel nice and tactile and clicky.
By default, the NEXUS is lifted at a bit of an angle, but it also comes with a removable
magnetic booster seat to give it a bit of a higher angle.
This is better than having to ship a separate $40 stand - BUT I would still prefer a lot
more height, as I can achieve with the GoXLR stand.
The buttons and knobs are lit with RGB LEDs, and there's a RGB LED ring running around
the interface's perimeter, too - which is nice, but not too distracting.
And you can disable it.
Around back is where I am scratching my head, though.
There's parity with the GoXLR's I/O with a XLR 1/4" combo jack, 3.5mm line in and out
jacks, 3.5mm headphone jack, SPDIF Optical audio in, DC power, USB type B, and a built-in
power switch!
The combo jack is a nice touch over the GoXLR, and they include a 1/4" to 3.5mm adapter in
the box in case you wish to use a 3.5mm microphone, such as from a gaming headset.
The problem here, is that the ports are all inset about an inch from the back of the device.
I GUESS this is done in an attempt to give a more clean look to the back of the device,
hiding the jacks of the cables themselves, but it completely removes the possibility
of using right-angle cables, too.
That and the XLR port being upside down.
I use XLR cables with right-angle ends with my interfaces to help them more cleanly route
away from my desk, and that is impossible here, so I had to use a little extender.
Just a really disappointing decision, in my opinion.
Imagine if all of your wall outlets were actually inset into the wall box, and those obnoxious
power cables that shoot down at an angle just never worked in there.
There's not a sample pad section nor a voice effects section on the NEXUS.
Instead you're presented with a 5" IPS LCD screen and 4 large soft buttons.
This is the Stream Deck Side, and it has some INCREDIBLE potential, if they play their cards
right.
The screen is IPS, which means it has decent viewing angles, WAY better than the GOXLR's
little LCDs above the sliders.
However, there is a giant bezel around the screen, and the obvious effect of the screen
sitting below the glass - which feels dated.
It would be much more pleasant if the screen went to the edges.
This screen is, effectively, a Stream Deck.
Using the NEXUS app, you can add various controls for the NEXUS audio routing, profile switching,
device muting, and soundboard playback - even a full dashboard quickly previewing all of
your audio levels and etc. in.... case the knobs break?
I'm not quite sure about this one.
The available features closely resemble the original launch builds of Elgato's Stream
Deck software.
Controls for the NEXUS itself, as I said, then basic OS-level controls such as website
opening, app or file launching, hotkeys - without the manual assigning input and extended function
key support they later added to Stream Deck - multimedia controls, and text sending.
You have SUPER basic control over AVerMedia's RECentral streaming and recording software,
as well as super basic control over OBS and StreamLabs OBS via websockets.
You can drag any of these options onto virtual "buttons" assigned on a 5 by 4 grid to be
displayed on the screen, with 5 possible pages of macros.
There's screen space for more page tabs, so I see no reason to artificially limit page
counts or not adding folders for nesting as the Stream Deck did, but this is an early
product.
So this is neat on its own, BUT what's really cool is that these control buttons do not
have to be the same size.
There are different sized buttons based on the tool.
2x2 for YouTube or Twitch viewer count displays, a 2x4 for showing your Twitch chat directly
on the screen - which is incredible - and the mixer dashboard is 5x3 - but again, I'm
not sure what the use of that is.
Since this is just a big touch screen rather than a physical set of buttons like the Stream
Deck, you can end up with any kind of interface here, bigger buttons, system stats displays,
sliders, video playback, the possibilities are endless.
But unfortunately they end rather quick with the currently-available options.
This is just the launch software, and they can certainly add more later - but you should
never buy a product based on the idea of added features later, you should be purchasing based
on what's available now.
In my opinion, they HAVE to build an open API for anyone to be able to develop and distribute
plugins for this in order for it to be sustainable and worthwhile.
Again - these are features that Elgato had to add after launch, but the competition to
the NEXUS has it now, so that's what it's going up against.
You can change the icons for buttons and GIF support is included, too!
Though apparently you have to make them to the correct aspect ratio.
Which seems to be 4:3 rather than 1:1?
The bigger buttons have the potential to have Live Tile-like functionality, if developed.
Currently you can't resize them, either.
Which is silly: my Twitch follower count does NOT need to take up 4 whole buttons, that's
just... wasteful.
Why not let me change it?
The other controls on here are weird.
I know cost may have been a factor, but I would have MUCH rather have had a wider screen
than these 4 soft button.s.
They are the same as the screen buttons, only you can't see what they are.
So these are useful for static controls you don't change often like mic mute or profile
switching.
Also, the knobs come with labels printed on the case and cannot be re-assigned.
This limitation extends to other issues I have with setting this up: Pressing the knobs
in mutes the device to the currently-selected mix, but you can't change this behavior.
Also, you can't have separate LED colors for the separate audio mixes, and switching between
them is way too slow.
You should be able to set it up so that at a glance you can know whether you're looking
at the Creator Mix or Audience Mix based on the lights, and you cannot.
Speaking of audio mixes - yes, unlike the GoXLR or the Rode NT-Mini USB's new software,
the Live Streamer NEXUS has two sub-mixes available: Creator Mix and Audience Mix.
This is pretty self-explanatory: One is for your ears, the other is for your stream.
Both mixes can be added as audio devices to OBS individually, as well as the "Chat Mic"
device, akin to the GoXLR.
You actually get the choice in-software to have your chat mic - the device you use for
voice chat in-game or Discord and so on - has the mic effects applied or not.
Unfortunately, you cannot add the other hardware inputs - such as optical and Line In - as
individual devices to OBS, which is an issue for those who want more control over their
recordings or stream balance.
There's a virtual audio device for your game sound specifically, and that is accessible
individually in OBS, however.
The NEXUS can run at 24-bit 48000hz or 24-bit 96000hz.
96000hz is great for recording, but you generally want to leave it at 48000hz for streaming
compatibility.
You also get the option to send either the Creator Mix or the Audience Mix to the Line
Out.
Unfortunately, the software for all of this is honestly a mess.
By default it doesn't seem to scale well in Windows for high-DPI displays, so I had to
override the scaling settings to get it to a usable size for me.
The options and menus are genuinely just... all over the place.
It's not intuitive at all.
You have very limited control over the LED lighting and can't set it based on profile
as I mentioned before, and there's no routing table.
Yeah, you have basically no control over the actual routing happening here, at all.
That's not very mixer-like.
The GoXLR set up the near-perfect template with a full routing table for every device
and output, and it's like the AVerMedia team never even looked at it.
You only have the choice of the two sub-mixes for your Line Out, the headphone output is
restricted to the Creator Mix, and you can't manually exclude devices from either mix without
just muting them.
While this seems innocuous at first, the main example of this being a problem is the issue
I immediately run into here.
I have studio monitor speakers on my desk.
These devices never provide an extra output for speakers for some bizarre reason, so I
use the Line Out to run a mix to my speakers.
Of course, having an active mic with speakers on that listen to that mic creates very undesirable
results.
Deafening, even.
On the GoXLR, I can just exclude my mic output from that Line Out's routing.
On the NEXUS, however, I can only choose the Creator Mix for Line Out, which means I CAN
mute my microphone to the Creator Mix to keep it in the stream but not my speakers, but
now I can't monitor it.
Muting the mic to the creator mix also mutes it to the Chat Mic device for some... reason?
Come on now...
Actually, ironically, you do have a macro pad button to mute the mic to your headphones.
So the routing capabilities are POSSIBLE, they just didn't put it together well.
Every action in changing settings in the software is sluggish and unresponsive.
I just really don't like the software.
Also the Twitch follower widget kept telling me I had 3.4 million followers for a while,
no clue how it got that.
And the YouTube authentication was broken for me.
Where does it keep getting these numbers from?!
I pulled up my phone because it was blank, and now that I hit record it's not blank,
but it's not... what?
what is this?
HELLO?!
16 million?!
It's just like making up numbers at this point!
I'm pretty sure touching it doesn't do anything, it's not an interactive button.
Also there's no animation when you switch pages... that is terrible.
I didn't notice that.
Frankly that is jarring.
And I'd rather there be less bezel and hardware buttons for switching pages.
This is useless.
4.7 million - where does it get these numbers?!
There's weirdly no Twitch subscriber count, and not having an alerts or activity feed
widget is a HUGE missed opportunity here.
That'd add a lot of value to myself, personally.
Setting up your microphone in the NEXUS is fairly similar to the GoXLR, but the UI is
a little confusing.
You have an overall Mic level slider, and a Gain slider, only... the gain only seems
to go from 0 to 10db?
That's not... how this works...
You get to choose whether you have a XLR Dynamic mic, a XLR Condenser mic - which gives you
48 volts of phantom power, or a 1/4" jack mic, such as a headset mic.
Then you get a basic vocal processing setup with a noise gate, an 8-band EQ? and a compressor.
The controls here are super limited and if you're experienced with this stuff you may
have an easier time getting the sound you want through VSTs in OBS than these controls,
but it's great that they're there and applied to the Chat Mic too, if you want.
They also loop in added effects here: Echo and Reverb.
This is... a bizarre decision, because they're just always applied to the mic with no means
of turning them off easily.
Not even one of the macro buttons.
This could be a cute quick effect to use as a joke like with the GoXLR's voice effects,
but instead you have to just commit to it.
I don't get this choice at all.
How are the pre-amps, though?
This is... a little weird.
As mentioned, you don't have just a raw gain control like you do with... virtually any
other interface.
It seems to apply a pre-set amount of gain, to which you can boost up to 10dB on top of,
and otherwise you manage the levels.
AVerMedia's specifications don't say anything about who makes the pre-amps or what kind
of gain it provides, only that it has a "Dynamic Response" of 114dB.
I tested it with AVerMedia's new 330 mic, but also an assortment of other XLR mics for
the mic comparison and...
Yeah it's weird.
It SEEMS to have enough gain to mostly power beefy mics like my gain-hungry RE20 okay,
but there's hiss on every microphone I record with it, AVerMedia's included.
There's also a complete mismatch between the mic levels represented in the NEXUS app versus
OBS or your recording software in the end.
It appears that regardless of where the mic is at gain-wise before, a limiter or some
sort of additional level is applied to mostly normalize it for your stream sound.
This could be pretty helpful and is probably quite newbie-friendly, but with no way to
control it, it's nothing short of frustrating, and trying to balance the levels properly
is almost useless.
If you use background music or game sound in your stream the hiss will most likely be
masked, but it's always there.
Like the shadow of the audio gear you actually wanted to buy, looming over you, shaking its
head in disappointment.
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As far as the microphone I'm using for this video... this is the AVerMedia Live Streamer
Mic 330 - a dynamic mic - and you'll have to check the link in the description for my
review of that one.
So is the Live Streamer NEXUS worth $350?
This is honestly tough for me.
Overall, I'm in the camp of absolutely, yes, 100%.
You're getting the basics of a $450 GoXLR and $150 Stream Deck combined together, and
that value per dollar is pretty incredible.
It's $100 more than the GoXLR Mini - which the Stream Deck functionality makes worth
it anyway, but the NEXUS also provides proper +48V for condenser mics, while the GoXLR Mini
only gives +24V, which can cause problems and some mics will require a separate phantom
power supply.
THAT BEING SAID...
If you're not in a hurry, I might just wait a bit longer.
I'd consider the Live Streamer Nexus a good... beta or early access product.
The bones and the value proposition are all there, and if you're not yet a power user
you'll probably be fine... but they have a lot of work to do.
This is a product that will have to grow with you a bit to be truly worth the value - and
that's ASSUMING they support it long-term and make the required updates.
Which again, you should not purchase a product under that kind of assumption.
It's tough.
If this were 2017 competing with the Stream Deck at launch, I'd be over the moon.
But it's not, it's competing with the Stream Deck and GoXLR in their 2021 states, and that's
a bigger scale to compete on.
Also they just need to completely overhaul how the "Mic Setup" section works and the
gain situation.
That hiss has GOT to go.
Just like I've gotta get out of this YouTube video.
They say if you make a YouTube video long enough, you'll be trapped there until a false
content ID claim takes you down and then it's game over.
No respawns.
Product links will be in the description below, as always.
Do you think the value of a stream deck and audio mixer combined is a worthwhile investment?
Chat with us on Discord at [Discord.gg/eposvox](http://discord.gg/eposvox) and share your thoughts!
Hit the like button and get subscribed, I'll see you in the next one.