A CONFUSED REVIEW of the Wave XLR Dock

My Instagram - @darkcornerstudios
My Twitter - @DarkCornerYT

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My Gear -

[Thinwhiteduke]

I'm sorry, but any time someone says, "Well it actually sounds good if you use it with this other product made by the same company, " I'm immediately out. An SM58 sounds great no matter what I plug it in to, so why in the hell would I buy a $100 mic that's so limited? All this corporate eco-system nonsense can F-off.

[steveschnetzler]

I admire your restraint, after the 2nd re-boot that thing would have flown out the window (and it is 6 floors down). There also is no excuse for high latency these days, chips are just so damn fast. Thanks.

[dmora]

I just got my combo a couple days ago and a couple things to address:
1. There are 2 forms of monitoring, both involve jacking in directly to the 3.5mm jack.

First is DIRECT monitoring which is controlled by the slider found inside the INPUT's configuration menu. Default it'll be slid all the way to the right creating full bias to computer audio. Slide it all the way to the left and it'll fully bias MIC audio. Direct monitoring is unprocessed audio from the mic and has NO LATENCY.

Second is MONITORING MIX. This is post processed output, meaning all your EQ, Noise cancellation, and compressor plugins are acting on the audio. The more things you add to the processing the worse the latency will get since its done in software as opposed to the unit itself. You'll also get some latency just by nature of the signal making it to the computer, but its is very tiny nearly imperceptible, emphasis on nearly because if you listen hard, you can hear it.

2. I have noticed the wavelink software doesn't take too kindly to the computer waking up after having done to sleep. I've had several times now plugged in the mic and get no signal to the monitoring mix. The mic gain is still set at its previous setting and not muted so audio should be "flowing" but it isn't. I noticed that if you go and toggle either the monitor mix on the input itself and/or toggle the monitor mix mute that suddenly gives it the kick it needs to "wake up". After that its fine.

3. Continuing with computer "wake up" issues from sleep. The Stream deck seems to also take some time to "wake up" as seen by button becoming laggy or unresponsive. This appears to fix itself pretty quickly but its worth noting.

Elgato's instructions explicitly state to avoid connecting it and the dock to a usb hub that doesn't have the power requirements or can struggle with power delivery requirements resulting in connection issues(connect/disconnect). That said I've tested on my powered hub off my monitor and direct connect to computer and they're just fine. I do suspect a lot of issues people are seeing are either user error and connecting to USB ports that don't have adequate power delivery(min usb version is 2.0) or misunderstanding the two forms of monitoring.

This is of course initial review of 2-3 days. I could come back wanting to punch my monitor a month from now. So we'll see. Also this is on Win11 PC.

[AndrewProudlove]

Thanks so much for sharing this video. i'm currently looking to getting an audio interface to use with my Mac and I was about to pull the trigger on an Elgato Wave XLR but after watching your video, I think I'll go with a Focusrite Scarlet or something instead!

[implantatreparatur]

@elgato missed the opportunity to integrate a much better interface than the elgato XLR into the Stream Deck +. It should AT LEAST have had balanced 6, 35 mm monitor outs to the back and one or two full size 6, 35 mm headphone outs to the side(s). DSP functionality similar to Lewitt's Connect 2 and 6 would have been necessary to be on par with other modern interfaces.

[unlockthepicture]

Oof that's painfull to hear. I wanted to buy this product to switch from usb mics to XLR. What good alternatives are there then where you also have hardware-based ways to change volume or mixes?

[lewdlimes]

not gonna lie, I wish I had watched your review of this a number of months ago. I had purchased the StreamDeck+ & XLR dock combo to have a unified interface for everything I was doing streaming wise, but the latency bothered me, and more importantly, I was having consistency issues, too. One day I'd sound normal over Discord and OBS, but then a Windows update would somehow ruin everything, or I'd have to reinstall / reconfigure channels.

[CoffeeTalkandTechJohnRyan]

So the main thing I love about wave link is the routing. Its so easy and Just got easier with 2.0 update. It works really well for me and because my PC is built with specs I chose all works really well and fast. I would love added DSP's of course or even just having monitor outs in that case with the dock or wave xlr. I like all that the rodecaster pro 2 and what it can do overall but The dsp's are ok and the gate just doesn't cut it for me. The routing on the RCP2 is just messy and the new driver for more virtual inputs still needs work too 2 years after release. Final note from day one when I started youtube and streaming I have always used a PC. I saw first hand the PC just had way less issues with the newest streaming software and always had more features and the drivers always worked better with hardware period. That's coming from a mac user for the previous ten years. In the end I use wave link with a SSL2+ with the streamdeck plus and it works amazing.

[MiguelAlarconMusic]

Wish I saw this before purchasing mine. Love the stream deck plus, but the xlr dock has been inconsistent for me. I’m a musician and I also have a gaming channel. I wanted something just for gaming instead of leaving my audio interface on for hours and switching my settings for zero latency tracking or daw tracking. So I purchased this xlr dock. Biggest pile of garbage ever. I usually use all my effects in obs so I’m not really worried about using them in the elgato app but the xlr dock either works and is fine or it doesn’t work and provides no power to the mic. I was getting ready for a stream and it took me 30 minutes from unplugging and restarting the computer to try and figure out why it wasn’t working. Stopped trying to figure it out switched on my focusrite and plugged the mic in and wow it worked no issues. If you are a musician or use audio interfaces skip this pos product. Not worth the money unless you are looking for an all in one unit for traveling snd even then there are tiny audio interfaces out there that probably would be more consistent/reliable.

[FabriceMStudio]

Hi Aiden!
I rewatched your video and had forgotten the part where you explain your issue to relaunch WaveLink after closing it.
Just wanted to let you know that you don't need to restart your computer. Just press Option/Command/Esc or choose Force Quit from the Apple menu and select WaveLink and "Voilà !"
This is a tip I discovered when I had to deal with the same issue with another app...

I don't know if this will have helped you but I hope it does. 😉

[justyuriforever]

5:52 I have to say, I don't understand much about compression, but why do you think it is bad? :O

[BrillianceAutoSpa]

I still prefer the simplicity of the GoXLR. Add a toggle swotch to the ppwer cord to turn it off or on, and you're good to go.

It's a set it and forget it device.

[Irshaad]

Rode should implement VSTs on the RCP 2/Duo - that would be epic!

[uguronlineShorts]

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[maxchen]

Nice video, and I wish I could see this video earlier when I buy it. Now I am in the same situation. Pretty bad software for the xlr dock 😢

[Cragusmaximuss]

I'm struggling alot with my mic sound where do I go for help 😭 it's wave 3 elgato and so far I'm hating it pc noise picks up if I hide it I sound quite and terrible so I'm lost ATM thinking of a Shure as it's dynamic but don't want it to close to my face if that's doable on a dynamic ? If anyone sees this maybe if possible could we chat I need help ?

[WhyitJellyDonut]

I have just the wave xlr and the main issue I have is since it runs all on the computer as software it makes the wave xlr dock basically just a ADC with okay software. While I love the ability for it to have lots of virtual channels for streaming and third party VST's, the software loves to break. It has me guessing if windows audio is broken or if its just wave link software messing up but half the time I turn my pc on, my audio doesn't work at all, restarting wave link over and over does nothing. Only restarting my pc fixes it. Add on top of that, every once in awhile it just completely breaks and I have set every thing back up again like its a brand new device. Then I have windows 11 having DPC latency issues on my pc it just causes random crackles and fuzzes in my headphones which is very annoying. So the software issues very much exist on windows as well and those are not just mac issues.

[johnheiser]

Thanks for the heads up Aidan as I have just swapped to Mac.

[MuahMan]

So I gotta go with the Rodecaster Duo?

[thephotoelite]

I'm right along with you on the latency issues in wave link and I've had many other weird issues with wave link because of how they process shit (get weird crackling audio like it's sitting next to a high voltage line), the limitation to 48KhZ is also causing problems with my set up for some reason. All of it tracing back to Elgato Wave Link. However the utility of Wave Link and how it interfaces with everything I do (streaming, recording tutorials, using social media like discord etc) and utilizes the Streamdeck is making it very difficult to find an alternative. I'm glad you did a review of this because now I know not to recommend the XLR dock for Mac users when trying to help people. I do understand that Mac is not a priority since 99% of their customer base is using windows on their machines (they do pander to the streamer market mostly and for that market Mac is such a tiny part that it's barely worth mentioning) but still the lack of transparency there is horrendous.