The Microphone: No Lights or Buttons, Just XLR
The Alias Pro bundle consists of two components: the microphone itself and the mixer. The microphone is capsule-shaped with dimensions of 7.4 × 2.1 × 1.7 inches and a matte black plastic body, featuring a flat front panel covered with black mesh fabric. There is more fabric on the top and sides in thin strips, with a large section on the back. This is an XLR microphone, so it only has an XLR connection for the attached cable on the back side, near the bottom. Unlike the Alias USB microphone, there are no control buttons or RGB lighting in this model. The XLR microphone focuses on sound quality, not on flair, and it does not support lighting or signals other than the sounds captured by the capsule.
The Mixer: Buttons, Knobs, and Ports
The other half of the Alias Pro is the XLR mixer, which is a vital component to connect the microphone to your computer. It measures 4.4 × 2.0 × 3.2 inches and features triangular contours that direct the mixer interface towards you. The mixer is very simple, with a large multi-purpose knob in the upper right corner, a smaller control knob surrounded by a status light ring in the upper left corner, and two flat rectangular buttons below them for muting the microphone and headphones or speakers. The mute buttons light up and have customizable RGB lighting, and there is a separate light bar hidden beneath the front lip for a more customizable software ambience.
The Software: Sonar Does It All
The GG software from SteelSeries for Mac and Windows offers some of the most powerful audio configurations we’ve seen in any gaming brand application. The Sonar section in GG provides comprehensive customization options, including EQ settings for auxiliary sound, chat, gameplay, media, and the microphone. You can spend time fine-tuning each curve to enhance what you hear and how your voice sounds with the EQ, or choose from a set of presets for each. The Mic tab lets you toggle several additional features, including Clearcast AI noise cancellation and background noise reduction sliders, as well as effects if you don’t want to use Clearcast (for distant and extreme sounds like fans and close sounds like keyboards), a compressor, and a noise gate. The Game tab also enables spatial audio through any headphones connected to the mixer via cable.
Clear and Adjustable Sound
The microphone, when connected to the mixer with Sonar features enabled, sounds excellent. Test recordings of my voice are full, detailed, and clear enough for streaming or podcasting. The Clearcast AI noise cancellation, aided by the simple cardioid capsule design, prevents nearby noise like fans, dishwashers, and keyboards without altering the voice.
The default settings with the Alias Pro Desk Stand EQ were quite good, but my voice lacked some of the sharper edges offered by better USB microphones I had tested. Switching to the Balanced EQ setting, which boosts frequencies between 1kHz and 10kHz above the other setting, quickly cleared things up. Suddenly, my voice sounded clean and natural, as if I were listening to myself in the same room instead of listening to a recording.
XLR Sound Ease for Everyone
The SteelSeries Alias Pro is an excellent microphone for serious content creators who want the pure, full signal that XLR can provide with relative ease like a USB microphone. The XLR mixer and SteelSeries software allow for clear recordings with just a few clicks while giving you the signal chain and tools to enhance your voice. It’s a powerful tool with a single microphone that reduces the learning curve and space requirements for setting up your mixer, making the Alias Pro deserving of our Editor’s Choice Award. However, the XLR solution is not essential for recording or streaming with a single microphone, and you can achieve clear sound and transparent signal with a boom arm for $130 less with the Sennheiser Profile Streaming Set, which earned our Editor’s Choice Award for USB microphones. Meanwhile, the Rode NT1 fifth generation ($259) is an interesting alternative if you plan to upgrade to XLR in the future as it features both USB and XLR connections, along with recording capabilities at up to 192kHz and 32-bit.
Source:
https://me.pcmag.com/en/audio-recording/20878/steelseries-alias-pro
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