In what I assume was the need to help keep the whole front panel looking uniform and sensical, the width of buttons continues to be reduced from five around the standard Stream Deck to four on the Stream Deck + which means with only two rows there’s a total of eight customisable keys here versus 15. That’s a pretty significant reduction and probably really the only issue I have with this particular new undertake when. That said, they’re a bit bigger than the others which is nice, and depending on what you’re doing together the dials and touchscreen can certainly replace multiple keys, particularly through Elgato’s Dial Stacks.
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Dial Stacks allow you to assign multiple functions one dial, switching between them by pressing it in which also changes towards the display around the touchscreen above it to mirror what setting you’re manipulating. It can make it quite simple to, say, cycle through volume settings on multiple audio sources, change multiple values within an Adobe project or even set up your house smart lighting – I set each one of the four dials to a different room in my apartment and switch between individual lights having a press that is honestly pretty neat and almost makes me want a second Stream Deck + just for home control stuff.
The dials themselves are great for well, with small but tactile ‘steps’ to each turn and a nice click to each press giving the brushed-metal knobs a really sleek and professional feel. Elgato includes a handy page included in its Stream Deck Store that covers off many of the plugins that already offer the dial/touchscreen combo, just like a Discord Volume Mixer that can dynamically show you call participants and allow you to easily mix their levels in your end, or the Philips Hue plugin to easily switch and control lights, while using dials to adjust things like brightness and colour temperature.
The touchscreen bar around the Stream Deck + is rather bright and sharp, very similar as what you'll get using the displays on the buttons above, although with the wider real estate there’s an enjoyable experience available coming up with attractive images and ways to display everything on it. You’re saving more keys again here when you are in a position to swipe the screen to alter pages around the entire Deck, which may usually have taken up a precious slot on a single of the buttons and feels natural to do being an action. Having used the Razer Stream Controller previously I actually do miss the haptic feedback of the touch panels a little, but I’d absolutely cop that loss for the rest of what the Deck + has to offer.
On the software side of things, nothing much has changed. If you’ve used a Stream Deck before it’s all tell you the very same software suite, allowing users to drag and drop functions onto each key (and today the Dials too), customise the keys with images and labels, download free plug-ins to include new functions and set up extra profiles/pages for different situations. The list of plug-ins available for the initial functions of the Deck + already seems to be growing nicely, however the longevity from it will heavily depend on that support.
I’ve been using the Stream Deck + along with Elgato’s Wave DX dynamic microphone and Wave XLR interface and there’s absolutely something to be said concerning the synergy of devices inside the family. The company’s Wave Link audio option would be already great, and combined with easy controls and integration of the Deck it’s made seated to record the Press Start Podcast each week or quickly and easily control OBS software with multiple sources an absolute breeze.
At no more your day, whether or not the Stream Deck + is right for you will largely hinge on your need for the Dials and also the incremental adjustment opportunities they offer. If your uses are more “binary” like activating transitions, switching things on/off or just hitting shortcuts then a standard Stream Deck should mostly suffice. If you’d like to instantly scale up your production potential and obtain something approaching your personal mixing board if you don't take up a premium of space in your desk though, this is a very compelling option.
