Product on Review: Elgato Wave 1
Manufacturer: Elgato
Street Price: GBP £129.99 / USD $129.99
Elgato, now owned by CORSAIR, are endlessly developing new and impressive tools to be used within the streaming industry. Green screens, key lights, Stream Decks, capture cards and much more, all part of an impressive portfolio that’s established Elgato as the go-to manufacturer for streaming and content creation hardware. Today they introduce the Wave range of microphones, just one more piece that’s designed to complete the complex puzzle that is a streaming workstation.
Developed in tandem with the seasoned professionals over at LEWITT, who let’s just say know a thing or two about audio recording, Elgato have worked from the ground up to produce a purpose-built microphone for content creators. For launch, there’s the Wave 1 and Wave 3, both offering a majority of the same features with the Wave 3 going slightly above and beyond. We’ve been provided the Wave 1 to play about with and present our verdict.
Sporting an internal pop filter which shields the microphone from plosive sounds, a condenser capsule with a tight cardioid pattern that’s perfectly tuned for speech and 24-bit 48kHz analog to digital sound conversion to pick up every tiny detail, the Wave 1, on paper at least, is off to a good start.
The hardware isn’t the be all and end all of the microphone, far from it in fact. Elgato are also introducing Wave Link, their custom-built software suite that ensures perfect audio quality and control for your stream, podcast or video with many features that are tailored directly towards content creation.
The Wave 1, and Wave 3, arrives with a heavy metal stand so the microphone is ready to go out of the box, with the option of mounting on almost all boom arms. There’s also an additional pop filter, extension rods and a shock mount if you wish to improve your setup further.
With this being Elgato’s first effort at a microphone, you would assume that we’re bound to find weaknesses but with their portfolio of equipment and the expertise of LEWITT on their side, we might be pleasantly surprised here. The wave 1 lands at £129.99/$129.99, competing with a few well-established brands out there at the moment, but it’s not ridiculous money for a competent mouse. Let’s plug it in and have a play.
Elgato on the Wave:
Great passion, thought and effort has gone into making Wave. It’s the first of its kind in two ways: a microphone built from the ground up for creators like you, and mixing software designed for your unique audio workflow, one which will evolve to incorporate community feedback and ultimately become the best broadcast audio application for all creators.
