Loupedeck Live versus Elgato’s Stream Deck. | Engadget

Life’s too brief to tug a mouse greater than three inches or keep in mind elaborate keyboard mixtures to get issues accomplished. This is 2021 and you may have a fairly, devoted button for nearly any job if you’d like. And for those who partake in something inventive, or prefer to stream, there’s an excellent probability that you simply do. Loupedeck makes management surfaces with many such buttons with a selected give attention to creatives. Its newest mannequin is the “Live” ($245) and it’s pitched virtually squarely towards Elgato’s widespread ($150). Both have their very own strengths, and I’ve been utilizing them facet by facet for a while now. But which one have I been reaching for probably the most? And does the Loupedeck Live do sufficient to command virtually 100 extra {dollars}?

First, we should always go into what the Loupedeck Live really is and why it is likely to be helpful. In brief, it’s a PC or Mac management floor coated in configurable buttons and dials. The buttons have mini LCD shows on them so you may simply see what every does with both textual content, an icon or perhaps a picture. Behind the scenes is a companion app, which is the place you’ll customise what every button or dial does. Many widespread functions are natively supported (Windows, MacOS, Photoshop, OBS and lots of extra). But if the software program you utilize helps keyboard shortcuts, you may management it with the Live.

So far, so Stream Deck? Well, kinda. The two are undeniably very related, however there are some necessary variations. For one, the Stream Deck’s solely enter kind is a button; Live has rotary dials too. This makes Loupedeck’s providing rather more interesting for duties like controlling quantity, scrolling via an inventory or scrubbing a video and so forth. But there are additionally some UI variations that give them each a really totally different workflow, too.

Hardware

Like Elgato, Loupedeck at present affords three totally different fashions. With the Stream Deck, the distinction between variations is all about what number of buttons there are (6, 15 and 32). The totally different Loupedecks are bodily distinct and lend themselves to sure duties. The , for instance, has a girthy dial within the center for people who work with video. The affords faders and transport controls and the Live is the smallest of the household with a give attention to streaming and common creativity.

At a extra superficial stage, each the Stream Deck and the Live look fairly cool in your desk, which clearly is vitally necessary. Elgato determined to make its {hardware} with a set cable, whereas Loupedecks have a detachable USB-C connection. I wouldn’t usually hassle to say this, but it surely’s price noting as which means you need to use your individual (longer/shorter) result in keep away from cable spaghetti. You can even unplug it and use it to cost one thing else if wanted. Minor, however useful performance in case your workspace is suffering from issues that want topping off on the reg like mine is.

Clearly, one of many principal benefits with the Live shall be these rotary dials. If you’re employed with audio or picture enhancing in any respect, they’ll be rather more helpful than a plain ol’ button for a lot of duties. For instance, I needed to arrange some controls for stereo panning in Ableton Live. On the Stream Deck I must make use of two buttons to get the setup I needed: pan left one step / pan proper one step and it takes a variety of presses to maneuver from one excessive to the opposite. With the Live, I can merely assign it to one of many rotaries (clicking it’ll reset to middle). From there, I can dial within the actual quantity of panning I would like in a single deft motion.

That’s a quite simple instance, however for those who think about utilizing the Live with one thing like Photoshop for adjusting Levels, you may see how having a number of rotaries may out of the blue turn into extremely helpful.

Another sensible distinction between these two gadgets is the motion on the buttons. On the Stream Deck, every one is sort of a clear Jolly Rancher with a shiny show behind it. The buttons have a satisfying “click” to them and are simple to seek out with out actually wanting. The Live, then again, feels extra like somebody positioned a divider over a touchscreen. That’s to say, the buttons don’t have any motion/motion in any respect, as a substitute delivering considerably much less satisfying vibrations to let you understand you’ve pressed them.

Software

The actual distinction between these two, although, is the workflow. I had been utilizing the Stream Deck for a few months earlier than the Loupedeck Live. The Stream Deck is, at its core, a “launcher.” Assign a button to a job and it’ll do this job on demand. You can nest a number of duties beneath folders to broaden your choices practically endlessly, however the common interface stays mounted. So, for those who needed to manage Ableton and Photoshop, for instance, you may need a top-level button for every. That button would then hyperlink via to a subfolder of actions and/or extra subfolders (one for enhancing, one for exporting actions and so forth). These buttons stay mounted it doesn’t matter what utility you’re utilizing at a given second.

With Loupedeck, it’s all about dynamic profiles. That’s to say, if I’m working in Ableton, the Loupedeck will routinely swap to that profile and all of the buttons and rotaries will change to no matter I’ve assigned them to for Ableton. If I then soar into Photoshop, all of the controls will change to match that software program, too. Or put one other approach, the Stream Deck could be very “trigger” primarily based (launch this, do that key command). The Loupedeck is extra task-related, with pages, profiles and workspaces for no matter app is energetic. The web result’s, after getting issues custom-made to only the way you need them, the Loupedeck Live is rather more adaptive to your workflow because it “follows” you round and has extra breadth of actions accessible at anyone time. But at first, I used to be making an attempt to make it merely launch issues and located that more durable than it was on a Stream Deck till I discovered how you can work with it.

This “dynamic” mode can be turned off for those who desire to maintain the identical controls accessible to you at anyone time, however for that you would be able to additionally assign set customized “workspaces” to any of the seven round buttons alongside the underside — so if you’d like your Photoshop profile to open with the app, but additionally have some fundamental system/set off controls accessible, they’ll simply be one button push away.

This method undoubtedly makes the Loupedeck really feel extra tightly built-in to no matter you’re doing “right now” reasonably than a nifty launcher, but it surely additionally takes a bit to get your head round the way it desires to do issues. At least in my expertise. With the Stream Deck I used to be capable of get beneath its pores and skin in a day, I’m nonetheless studying up on what the Live can do after some weeks, and must maintain reminding myself how you can make sure modifications. As a reverse instance, launching an app is one thing Stream Deck was born to do. With a Loupedeck, you need to create a customized motion after which assign that to a profile you may entry at any time (i.e. a customized workspace) or add that motion to numerous totally different profiles the place you need it to be accessible.

Both do supply the choice for macros/multi-actions and work in very related methods in that regard. If, say, you wish to create a shortcut to resize after which save a picture, you are able to do so with both by creating an inventory of actions to be carried out so as. You can add a delay between every step and embody textual content entry, keyboard shortcuts and operating apps — all of which lets you prepare dinner up some fairly intelligent “recipes.” Sometimes it takes a little bit of trial and error to get issues proper, however when you do it will probably simplify in any other case pretty prolonged/mundane duties.

Where the Stream Deck takes issues somewhat additional is with third-party plug-ins. These are normally extra complicated than duties you create your self (and require to create). But because of Elgato’s energetic neighborhood, there are already fairly a number of on supply and the quantity is rising on daily basis. Some of them are easy: I can have a dynamic climate widget displayed on one of many keys, others are extra sensible — I take advantage of one which switches my audio output between my headphones and my PC’s built-in audio system. Some of my colleagues communicate extremely of a Spotify controller and the Hue lights integration — each of which got here from the Stream Deck neighborhood.

Loupedeck affords a approach to export (and thus share) profiles, however so far as I can inform proper now, there’s no approach to do something extra complicated than what you are able to do with customized controls — if that have been to alter sooner or later that might actually improve the performance significantly.

Beyond the {hardware} controls and the consumer interface, it’s price mentioning that each the Live and the Stream Deck have native assist for particular apps. “Native” implies that the companion software program already has an inventory of drop and drag controls for choose apps. Elgato’s controller, unsurprisingly, has a powerful give attention to issues like OBS/Streamlabs, Twitch and, in fact, the corporate’s personal recreation seize software program and lights together with some social instruments and audio/soundboard options (for intro music or results).

The Loupedeck Live additionally affords native controls for OBS/Streamlabs (however not Twitch) however tends to skew towards issues like After Effects, Audition, Premier Pro and so forth. The listing of native apps supported is definitely fairly in depth and lots of extra (like Davinci or iZotope RX) are . If streaming is your principal factor, Elgato’s answer is inexpensive and undoubtedly extra streamlined for that. The Loupedeck, nonetheless, goes to be extra helpful for lots of different issues — it’ll assist with streaming, but additionally provide help to design the emblem in your channel.

So which?

At this level, you may in all probability guess what the wrap-up is. Elgato’s Stream Deck affords much less performance general however that may be tremendously expanded because the variety of plugins continues to develop. But likewise, it’ll at all times be considerably restricted by its singular enter technique (buttons). The Loupedeck Live is rather more formidable, however with that, trades off among the simplicity. If you have been searching for one thing that may handle easy duties and skews towards gaming or podcasting, save your self the $100 and go along with a Stream Deck, however if you’d like one thing that may choose up the slack for a number of desktop apps and instruments, you in all probability wish to pat your pockets somewhat extra for the Loupedeck Live.