The year is 2026, and a UK man has been sentenced after pleading guilty to the unauthorized mixing and selling of music CDs, and thus breaking copyright laws. Marc Kearns, 47, of East Cowick, near Snaith in East Yorkshire, has been handed a 26-month prison sentence, which will be suspended for 18 months, reports the BBC. He will also have to carry out 250 hours of community service work (unpaid) for his sins.

Perhaps Kearns’ greatest sin was living in the past. The Yorkshireman could have been untouchable, plying his remixes in the cobwebbed corners of the internet. But perhaps his customers were also firmly embedded in the shiny CD-era, with a fondness for hand-made compilations burned on beige desktop PCs. So, direct physical trade was probably the easiest route to profit from his remix CDs featuring music from well-known artists.

Trading standards officers became aware of his trade in illicit CDs way back in 2018. They then began their lengthy investigatory work in 2019, and a warrant was executed in September 2022. The case has only just concluded with Kearns pleading guilty to a number of charges at Hull Crown Court last week.

Commenting on the sentencing, a council spokesperson said of Kearns “This activity enabled him to commercially exploit protected material, generating income at the expense of legitimate artists and businesses within the music industry.” A local councilor also highlighted the potential for generating “significant illicit profit” from the trade in counterfeit and unauthorized goods. They hoped that the sentencing of Kearns, even though it is suspended, would deter other pirate traders.

As we hinted at above, Kearns was probably caught due to his trade involving this old but not totally abandoned physical medium. The way trading standards investigations work, Kearns’s CD remixes business likely left a traceable commercial footprint. However, the sources don’t mention whether he has a market stall, was a car-boot trader, or found customers through mail order, social media groups, or similar.

A maker with a love for synthesizers and retro gaming has showcased their latest project, the NES-SY2.0. This bewitching new device is not just an homage to Nintendo’s legendary mid-1980s vintage console but also chip tune synthesizer music and the archaic luggable computer form factor.

Above you can see the creator of the NES-SY2.0, Love Hultén, a self described provider of “tech, noise and craftporn from Sweden,” playing a selection of compositions on the device. A couple of short melodies later, Hultén flips NES-SY2.0 modes, plugs in a gamepad, and enjoys a session of Mega Man 2 on the built-in visualizer screen.

Fans of the video are full of questions about the design, such as how the NES electronics are integrated with the synthesizer side of the device. Also, we see maker Love Hultén change cartridges during the brief three-and-a-half-minute demo of the device. Some wonder if that changes the synthesizer tones or features. But there are some clues to the making of the NES-SY2.0 in the brief video description.

“This is NES-SY2.0 - incl NES Poly, Keystep, FS22 delay/rev, and a custom made MIDI visualizer created by @p1xelfool, and yes, the system supports cartridges!!” notes Hultén.

The first of those key components is the NES Poly. It is as foundational as it sounds, delivering a MIDI-controlled, 4-voice polyphonic synth that emulates the sound of the NES console. It also features two-oscillators per voice, real-time waveform switching capability for NES pulse “pluck” effects, vibrato pre-delay, attack, and 4 vibrato low frequency oscillator waveforms, and 16 sound parameters that can be edited with MIDI CC messages.

Then the ‘keystep’ refers to the compact MIDI controller from Arturia, which will have been the donor for the keys you see being played, and several more bits and pieces.

We reckon the “FS22 delay/rev” is a reference to the tri-mode effects stomp box produced by Flamma. This will add a luscious feeling of space to the sounds coming from the NES-SY2.0 and can even be tuned for delays affected simultaneously by shimmering reverbs.

Finally, the visualization screen is said to be based on a project from another artist / maker called p1xelfool.

What we can say is that the blend of all those technologies put together so stylishly by Hultén is indeed “craftporn.” But it isn’t just a fantastic-looking project, it is a great musical instrument and a luggable, perfectly playable original cartridge-loading NES.

You probably won’t be surprised to hear that this isn’t Hultén’s first mix of retro gaming and music tech – as this example is so polished. The maker’s YouTube channel also features such wonders as a VIC-4 custom synth, a MIDI NES axe (guitar), and some Pac-Man-themed synths.

On this day in 1996, a freshly inked U.S. patent quietly laid the cornerstone of the digital music revolution. In addition to facilitating this now vast internet-based entertainment business, the humble MP3 file format would propel broadband proliferation, usher in the iPod era, and arguably precipitate the iPhone and all the other touchscreen-slabs that remain indispensable gadgets to this day.

MPEG Audio Layer III (MP3) files were devised by scientists to greatly reduce the amount of data required to represent an audio file. Key personnel behind the invention of MP3 included: Bernhard Grill, Karlheinz Brandenburg, Thomas Sporer, Bernd Kurten, Ernst Eberlein, and Dieter Seitzer. Brandenburg is often credited as being the father of MP3, for leading this and similar research since 1977, but Seitzer (for example) brought expertise in transferring music over standard phone lines.

Central to this digital audio format’s success was its ability to shrink audio files by 75%-95%. It did this by using now familiar lossy media compression techniques. In other words, the MP3 audio codec discarded audio data to achieve significant file size reductions, with little perceptible difference in listening quality due to the perceptual limitations of human hearing. Depending on the target listening device, users could change compression bit rates, though audiophiles often insisted they could hear the difference between raw CD audio source data, or indeed, vinyl.

Work on the MP3 file format began in 1987, and a patent was awarded for the compression method in Germany in 1989. But it wouldn’t be until 1996 when U.S. Patent 5,579,430 was granted to Fraunhofer, securing the format in the home of leading global entertainment businesses, that MP3 started to gain traction. The inventors were primed to make lots of money from the internet boom that had started in earnest.

From Napster shockwaves to an industry accepted ‘1,000 songs in your pocket’

Unfortunately for Fraunhofer, its software was quickly ripped off and shared widely online. Once it was re-packaged into CD ripper and encoder apps, it was a cinch for music collectors to rip CDs into MP3s and share them with friends. Such activity began online via FTP servers, but in 1999, Napster was launched, changing the music industry forever.

Several tech moments converged to make this a perfect storm for the traditional music industry. WinAmp was released and ready to be your default MP3 player in 1998, the year before Napster arrived. At the same time, broadband was proliferating, which meant it could take seconds, instead of several minutes, to grab the latest number one hit single. Broadband became an accelerant for the physical music media inferno.

We also saw the first MP3 hardware player arrive in 1998. Diamond Multimedia’s Rio 100 launched in the U.S., and Saehan Information Systems' MPMAN became available in Korea. Both used solid-state Flash to store music.

Apple would be instrumental in the legitimization of digital music. Its iTunes software launched in January 2001, with the first iPod hardware released within the same year. However, it would take until 2003 to put together the first groundbreaking partnerships with the music business in crisis. That is when the iTunes Music Store opened its doors with 200,000 digital music tracks at $0.99 each.

The MP3 file format patent expired in 2017, and is an old legacy codec, now largely a symbol of an iconic era in media and internet history. For the same purpose – digitizing physical music media – it has been usurped by modern alternatives like AAC and FLAC.

In 2025, music ripping, downloading, and sharing have taken a back seat to streaming services powered by superfast broadband and 4G/5G mobile connectivity. Ardent music enthusiasts and collectors still prefer their physical media, though, as was the case during the MP3 era.

CD ripping tool CD2WAV32 has just been updated to version 4.00jp after 16 years in stasis (machine translated). Developer Moroboshi Ramu seems to have been prompted to issue the update to make the software fully compatible with Windows 11 24H2, but there are several important changes under the hood compared to the ancient 3.X releases, too. Please excuse the rest of the linked developer’s page being mostly about dolls.

Ramu says that the last update to CD2WAV32 was 16 years ago, when a patch that was authored on a Windows 7 machine was released. Going forward, the dev (and doll enthusiast) says that only Windows 11 will be supported, as that is the only system they use now, though the tool has been casually tested on a Windows 10 PC.

With the compiler change to the latest Delphi 12.1 Community Edition, Ramu says the following changes were made to create CD2WAV32 for Windows 11 Revision 4.00jp:

• The internal character code processing is now mostly Unicode.
• ID3Tag related items have also been changed from Shift-JIS to Unicode.
• The tool’s GUI, including common controls, has been updated to the latest Windows 11 style.
• File size and other information related to the files is now processed in 64-bit format.
• The 16-bit code call function of MSCDEX, which can no longer be used, has been pruned, as have TwinVQ compression, and code to alert users of ASPI errors.
• Default compression is now provided by the Media Foundation API.
• The Help file has been removed and is replaced by a PDF.
• It is now possible to start this tool, even if you don’t have a CD-ROM attached.
• And various changes have been implemented to get the CDDB service to run again so ripping can be done with meaningful file names, track titles, artist names, genres etc.

Overall, it looks like a capable tool with lots of options for the end-user. As a Japanese program, with no localized English version as far as we can tell, a quick poke around the UI revealed extensive options for CD-ROM support, file format, compression algorithm, and tagging. It did indeed run on my desktop system without an optical disc drive attached.

Nice tool, but Windows 11’s Media Player App can rip audio CDs

AI-embracing musicians and audiovisual artists Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst have a new exhibition where you can see and hear their “GPU organ” in action. Herndon explains that the new-fangled pipe organ “plays music acoustically by controlling the RPM of each fan.”

In the embedded Tweet, above, you can listen to a sample of the GPU organ playing. Images show an ornately designed pipe organ with a wall of fans that control the airflow and thus audio output of the instrument. The hardware isn’t explained in any proper detail, but we don’t see any GPUs. Rather, we think that the GPU organ is just a catchy name for a PWM fan-powered pipe organ.

Some GPUs may well have been used in this art project though, as the music you hear is based on AI modeling techniques. The Serpentine site explains that “To train the AI, Herndon and Dryhurst have composed a songbook of hymnals, singing exercises, and a recording protocol, traveling with the Serpentine Arts Technologies team to record fifteen community choirs across the UK.” The spatial audio installation (i.e. the GPU organ) uses these trained models to create the audioscape you hear.

In some further informative Tweets, Herndon discusses the training, and says that the music is generated from a diffusion model, creating new songs based on the training data and “can generate infinite scores.” For some exhibition user interactivity, Herndon says there is “a new polyphonic call and response model, developed with @Ircam, that allows you to sing to the model and receive a response back.” There is also a video demo of this in the Tweet thread if you wish to witness some haunting-sounding AI choir call-and-response audio action.

If your interest in the GPU organ has been piqued, and you are visiting London, you can go and experience The Call at the Serpentine Galleries in Kensington. The exhibit is open to the public until February 2025. Let us know if you see any GPUs.

The extravagant live final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 took place in Sweden last night, with results counted into the small hours. As the votes flowed in, hopes of triumph for retro computing flag bearer Windows95man crashed (pun intended), with Finland’s pick ending the night placed 19 out of 25 hopeful finalists.

While it was great to see a cultural revival of the Windows 95 style logo, we feel that the artist would have had better luck choosing a name based on an even-number Windows release. Windows98man or WindowsXPman would surely have had better luck and won more hearts.

Windows95man - No Rules! (Windows logos blurred, due to rules)

Windows95man’s entry was undeniably Europop, but kept Finland’s crazy reputation intact with the lead singer emerging from a steaming giant ‘egg’ wearing his signature style Windows 95 cap and T-shirt, and too-short shorts.

Te note that the song, No Rules! was completely barren of retro computing references. Some retro nostalgia references in the song could surely have gained Finland more votes. References to floppies and hard disks would score high for double entendres, and Windows95man’s mentions of bulging CRTs couldn't have hurt his chance for success.

Finland last found Eurovision glory with Lordi’s Hard Rock Hallelujah, way back in 2006. Lordi was a heavy metal band that delivered a monstrous sound, and band members rocked a prosthetics-heavy monster appearance.

Eurovision 2024 winner - Nemo: The Code

Congratulations go to Eurovision 2024 winner Nemo, who performed The Code (video link), on behalf of Switzerland. Despite the song title, there is no mention of assembly language, BASIC, or even Python in the lyrics.

Below the Swiss, Croatia came a close second, followed by Ukraine, France, and Israel, making up the top five.

According to tradition, the Swiss will be hosts of Eurovision 2025.

Gaming earbuds burst onto the scene in the wake of Apple’s successful AirPods. It was hardly a surprise: the AirPods made earbuds cool and, in turn, made the thought of gaming on earbuds appealing. But earbuds face several challenges, such as Bluetooth latency, lackluster microphone quality, and a limited sound stage.

Razer’s Hammerhead Pro HyperSpeed earbuds attempt to counter these problems with a fast, proprietary wireless connection, strong audio, and a few gaming-centric software features, but it’s only a partial success.

Specs

Design and Comfort of the Hammerhead Pro HyperSpeed 

Razer’s Hammerhead Pro HyperSpeed earbuds opt for a stemmed design that will look familiar to anyone who’s seen a pair of AirPods. These days it looks a bit old-fashioned, as many brands have swapped to a more compact, stemless design. 

Plastic is the material of choice. This is no surprise: nearly all earbuds are made of plastic. Still, Razer’s earbuds appear more plastic-y than do many competitors’, and feel a bit cheap as a result. The earbuds' piano black gloss finish contributes to this problem. Black gloss isn’t in fashion at the moment, and for good reason: it attracts lint, fingerprints, and earwax like a magnet.

What the earbuds lack in looks, they make up for in comfort. This, of course, is subjective based on the shape of each user’s ear, but I found the earbuds comfortable to use for several hours at a stretch. The stemmed design eventually caused fatigue due to how the stems press slightly into my ears, but the problem was no worse than any other stemmed design I’ve tried, and a short break improved comfort considerably. 

The Hammerhead Pro HyperSpeed earbuds come with three earbud tip sizes: small, large, and medium. I used the medium size, which is typical of most earbuds I use. They’re made of a soft silicone material — standard for most earbud tips. 

The earbuds support Razer’s Chroma RGB lighting with LEDs placed behind the Razer logo on each earbud. I don’t personally care about this feature, and there are obvious limits to the flair tiny earbuds can add to your setup. Still, the RGB lighting customization worked well in response to input on the Razer Audio App, and the LEDs are bright enough to easily see in a lit room.

One additional accessory lurks in the box: a 2.4GHz wireless “HyperSpeed” adapter, which you’ll need to  connect the earbuds over 2.4GHz wireless instead of Bluetooth 5.3. The adapter has a USB-C connection, but a handy USB-A adapter is provided, too.

Audio Performance of the Hammerhead Pro HyperSpeed

Razer packs 10mm drivers into the Hammerhead Pro HyperSpeed earbuds and slaps on the THX certified label, but the company’s claims about audio quality are otherwise vague. This set modest expectations for audio quality which, fortunately, were exceeded — though I found the earbuds performed better for listening to music rather than for playing games.

The earbuds have a strong, voluminous character that often did justice to tunes. Taylor Swift’s Anti-Hero was thick, even viscous, with great separation between Swift’s crystal clear vocals and the hum of the bassline underneath. I noticed a similar effect in Boards of Canada’s New Seeds, a complex but purely instrumental track which interrupts its grainy midrange and hypnotic bassline with a shrieking electronic siren’s call halfway through. The Hammerhead Pro HyperSpeed earbuds achieved a good sense of depth and separation that encouraged my feet to tap along with the beat.

It wasn’t all good. Yves Tumor’s Echolalia and DJ Shadow’s Nobody Speak had issues with a muddled midrange and indistinct vocals. While these tracks are very different, they share lower, more monotone vocals that stick behind the bass. But while this issue was noticeable, it didn’t ruin the experience.

Loading up a title like Cyberpunk 2077 or Diablo IV made it obvious the indistinct midrange was caused by bass that was turned up a bit more than the earbuds’ drivers can handle. Highs and lows had good distinction and were spatially separated, but details in the midrange — vocals and dialogue, in particular — were snowed under. 

The earbuds' strong highs and lows carried through to the gaming experience, and sounded especially good in those with great music — the tunes of Final Fantasy XIV’s zones and dungeons were a treat.

As for surround: 5.1 or 7.1 surround is not an option, so you’re limited to stereo. A Dolby sound test video showed the earbuds provided good stereo reproduction with distinct left, right, and center channels, but rear and height channels weren’t true to life. This was not unexpected given the specifications. And, to be fair, the Hammerhead Pro HyperSpeed performed better than many earbuds I’ve encountered. Just don’t expect the 360-degree aural experience found on some price-competitive gaming headsets.

Microphone of the Hammerhead Pro HyperSpeed

The Razer Hammerhead Pro HyperSpeed has a fixed microphone, which is true of all earbuds. There’s no option to mute the microphone on the earbuds, though; it can only be silenced using software on a connected device. The earbuds include tap controls for receiving calls and increasing/decreasing the volume of calls, but no controls for increasing or decreasing the volume of the microphone. 

Audio quality from the microphone was strong — especially for earbuds. Your friends on Discord shouldn’t have trouble hearing you. While the sound could be a bit muffled, it preserved a bit of depth and bass and avoided the tinny, metallic quality often found on inexpensive microphones.

Ambient noise might be an issue, however. The microphone has noise canceling, but its physical location means it’s more likely to pick up nearby sounds. Even the tip-tap of a keyboard or click of a mouse came through in my testing. In short, plan on using push-to-talk — your friends are not going to be pleased if you roll with an open mic.

Features and Software of the Hammerhead Pro HyperSpeed

Razer’s Hammerhead Pro HyperSpeed offers the features typical of most wireless earbuds — and then some.

The earbuds can pair with up to two devices: one over Bluetooth 5.3 and one over Razer’s HyperSpeed 2.4GHz wireless. The low-latency HyperSpeed connection pairs with a dongle that’s included in the box, so it’s best for use with a PC or game console. To be honest, I could not detect any difference in latency between Bluetooth and HyperSpeed, but I did notice the HyperSpeed connection was stronger, allowing me to receive audio anywhere in my home. The Bluetooth connection cut out once I was a few rooms away, which is typical for Bluetooth audio devices in my home.

Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) is included and offers three modes: ANC on, ANC Off, and Ambient. Razer’s ANC is unremarkable but functional. Low, repetitive noises, like a fan or air conditioner, were easily filtered away, but noises of a higher pitch, or irregular frequency, crept in. It’s not as good as what you’ll find on Apple’s AirPods Pro but still delivered a big decrease in ambient noise.

Ambient Mode failed to impress. It allowed clear, balanced sound to pass through, which was handy if someone pops in for a chat while you’re gaming. Unfortunately, it was accompanied by a distracting ambient hum, and some unpleasant or distant noises were significantly amplified. The roofers working on a house a block away suddenly teleported to my doorstep with Ambient mode turned on.

The ANC and Ambient Mode are joined with a layer of gamer-specific features, which include Gaming Mode (which blocks incoming calls when gaming over the HyperSpeed connection), customizable controls, and, of course, customizable lighting.

Most features are controlled through the sleek, attractive Razer Audio App, but some (such as ANC and Gaming Mode) also respond to a quick tap (or two, or three) of the earbuds. The app handles remapping of these controls, which is useful if you like a particular feature and crave easier access. 

I found the app quick and easier to use than the tap controls, however. Swiping open my phone to turn a feature on or off was much easier than remembering the exact finger-waggles and taps needed to achieve the same thing on the earbuds.

Battery Life of the Hammerhead Pro HyperSpeed

The earbuds stash in a rounded charging case that’s extremely similar to Apple’s AirPods Pro — but in black instead of white. Razer wisely went for a matte finish on the charging case, so the fingerprints and grime that plague the earbuds are less apparent on the case itself. You can top off the charging case over USB-C or use a wireless charging pad.

Razer claims battery life is between 3 and 6 hours, depending on whether the lighting and ANC features are on or off. The charge case provides an additional 11 to 24 hours. That puts Razer behind the most popular wireless earbuds, like the Sony 100XM4 and Jabra Elite 3, and might be an issue for gamers who like to grind all day long. 

I typically play for no more than two hours at a stretch, though, so I only heard the low battery warning when I specifically didn’t charge it after use. In my tests, the earbuds managed almost four hours with lighting and ANC turned on.

Razer doesn’t get into specifics about charging speed, but the (optional) charging pad designed for use with the Hammerhead Pro HyperSpeed supports 10 watts of power, which suggests the earbuds receive at least that much when charged over USB-C. In my testing, the charging case received a full charge in roughly and hour and 30 minutes.

The Hammerhead Pro HyperSpeed’s overall battery performance is average but acceptable. Gamers who play all day will need to take a break to charge the earbuds — but that’s true if you’re using Razer’s competitors, too.

Bottom Line

Should gaming earbuds even be a thing?

That’s the question raised by Razer’s Hammerhead Pro HyperSpeed. They’re a decent set of earbuds. Audio quality is good, ANC is functional, and the combination of Bluetooth and low-latency 2.4GHz wireless makes for easy connections with a wide variety of devices. 

Yet fundamental problems remain. The Hammerhead Pro HyperSpeed can’t provide the sonic oomph of a gaming headset, the microphone can’t filter out all ambient noise well enough to be left to its own devices, and the lack of virtual surround sound is notable. 

I can imagine scenarios where these earbuds make sense. Perhaps you’re a mobile gamer and just want to play on a smartphone, or you have multiple devices and appreciate the earbuds’ flexible wireless connection options. 

But the key issue is this: a lifestyle gaming headset such as Razer’s Barracuda Pro Wireless handily outperforms the Hammerhead Pro HyperSpeed in games (and music, and movies, and on Discord), and still gives you the device freedom you’re craving. Razer’s earbuds are decent value for a niche but difficult to recommend.

The wireless budget earbud market is almost comically overcrowded. A search of earbuds on Amazon reveals a dizzying barrage of no-name buds with lengthy feature lists that prove short on substance. 

HyperX’s attempt to muscle into this crowd with the Cirro Buds Pro, a set of budget earbuds priced at $79.99. Although sorta-kinda marketed towards gamers, the Cirro Buds Pro are better understood as budget day-to-day earbuds for use with a phone or tablet. They do this job reasonably well but don’t move audio quality, design, or features forward.

Design and Comfort

The HyperX Cirro Buds Pro are in-ear earbuds with a round plug shape that nestled nicely inside my ear. I found them comfortable — so much so that I sometimes forgot I was wearing them if I muted my tunes and forgot to resume them. They came with three earbud tip sizes, which is typical for most earbuds. I stuck with the “medium” tips installed from the factory.

The build quality and design of the Cirro Buds Pro left little else to remark on, however. They’re simple, plastic earbuds with a thoroughly conventional shape, adorned only by a subtle gloss-gray HyperX logo that barely contrasts against the surrounding matte black. 

Fashionable? Forget about it. The Cirro Buds Pro are the very definition of basic — in matte black, at least. HyperX also offers the earbuds in tan and blue. These add a bit of style, but the shape and design of the earbuds remains rather generic.

The earbuds are controlled with quick taps used to activate pairing, receive or end calls, and adjust audio modes. I found these controls a bit easier to use than on most earbuds, which I credit to their round, flat exterior surface. It was easy to feel out where your finger needed to land to activate the earbuds’ controls.

HyperX includes a charging case, which shares the earbuds’ functional approach. The case is flat — not rounded — across the top and bottom, and is less likely to slide off a table or desk. A bright LED on front shows the charging status. The case is charged via USB-C and does not support wireless charging.

There’s one more thing about the charging case I need to call out: its transparency — or, rather, lack thereof. HyperX’s product photography showed the case as transparent, and while it technically was, it appeared opaque in most indoor lighting. HyperX also sticks with a matte black charging case exterior even if you purchase the tan or blue earbuds (though a portion of the interior plastic does coordinate with the earbuds’ color).

Specs

Audio Performance

The HyperX Cirro Buds Pro feature 8mm dynamic drivers, but otherwise make few promises about sonic performance. In fact, HyperX’s marketing for the Cirro Buds Pro largely avoided talking about audio quality and instead focused on the earbuds’ features and battery life.

A quick tour through my audio sample tracks made the Cirro’s limitations clear. Boards of Canada’s New Seeds provided clear highs but largely obscured the subtle-yet-hypnotic bass. It was a similar story with Taylor Swift’s Anti-Hero, where Swift’s vocals pierced through a thin lower-end. DJ Shadow’s Nobody Speak was especially disappointing: the bass was present but obscured, and the sudden appearance of the saxophones around the minute mark — normally one of my favorite moments — was yawn-worthy.

The lack of bass was the unifying theme, as Cirro’s 8mm driver was not up to task. For what it’s worth, the earbuds did manage to avoid the mistake of trying to compensate with overdriven bass that obscured and muddied the mid-range. There was at least some oomph present, which places the Cirro Buds Pro in front of the least-impressive budget earbuds. But the Cirro Buds Pro largely failed to do music justice. 

Gaming performance on the Cirro Buds Pro is best described as “usable.” The reasonably clear mid-range and crisp highs provided distinct, crisp dialogue, and the chirps and beeps of a typical in-game interface came through with ease. However, the lack of bass means=t dramatic and explosive scenes sound remote and wimpy. Cyberpunk 2077 lacked the cinematic heft and immersion it normally provides.

The Cirro Buds Pro are stereo-only — so surround was barely present. This was no surprise given the earbuds price, but it’s an issue for games — especially more recent, cinematic AAA games. I found the sound stage to be located clearly — and only — between my temples (a surround sound video confirmed this). Right, left, and center were distinct, but surround, rear, and height weren’t obvious. 

There is a silver lining: the earbuds have a versatile, balanced sound that didn’t annoy me. That’s not to be taken for granted in the sub-$100 earbud world. They also handled vocal audio well, so fans of podcasts, YouTube, and Tiktok will be pleased. But gamers shouldn’t mistake the HyperX branding on the Cirro Buds Pro as evidence of gaming chops — these are more suited to daily commutes than late-night esports.

Microphone

The HyperX Cirro Buds Pro have an omnidirectional microphone array with two microphones per earbud and built-in noise cancellation. Microphone quality was usable but unimpressive. Recorded audio was not too difficult to understand but had a flat, hollow quality and sounded a bit metallic at the edges. Nobody is going to mistake you for using a quality headset or a halfway-decent microphone if you take calls with the Cirro Buds Pro.

The mics feature “noise cancellation,” but I found this struggled to fit the bill. It canceled low, thumbing, predictable sounds, but would fail to obscure distant, brief sounds — such as a crow in a tree a few yards away, or the clickety-clack of a keyboard. The microphone will work for audio calls in a setting without too much ambient noise, but it’s a poor fit for an open mic on Discord — push-to-talk will prove mandatory. There’s also no way to mute the mic using the earbuds’ tap controls, so you’ll have to do any muting in an app used to record or transmit audio.

Features and Software

The HyperX Cirro Buds Pro have Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), which, for some, may prove among its most alluring features. ANC isn’t guaranteed at the Cirro Buds Pro’s retail price of $79.99, though there are competitors, such as the Jabra Elite 4 and the EarFun Air Pro 3, which feature ANC and a similar price point.

ANC mode on the Cirro Buds Pro provided a moderate reduction in ambient noise and some reduction of quick, unpredictable noises. There’s a significant difference between the Cirro Buds Pro’s ANC and the ANC you’ll find on premium earbuds such as Apple’s AirPods Pro or Sony’s WF-1000XM, however. Noises that packed real punch — like a passing bus — muscled their way through with ease.

The ANC includes an Ambient Mode, which delivers ambient noises when you need to be audibly aware of your surroundings. I found the Ambient Mode tended to amplify distant and high-pitched sounds, which made the mode grating to use for any length of time. There’s also a Gaming Mode, which drops the Bluetooth connection into a low-latency mode and enables ANC. I didn’t notice any latency issues with these earbuds.

HyperX doesn’t offer a smartphone app for controlling the earbuds’ functions, so you’ll have to stick with tapping the earbuds to control them. This also means the controls can’t be customized, and there are relatively few functions available — if you want to mute a call or change the volume and your phone is inaccessible, you’re out of luck, as the earbuds can’t control these functions.

Battery Life

HyperX says the Cirro Buds Pro will hit up to four hours of battery life with ANC turned on, and up to seven hours with ANC turned off. The charging case stores an additional 35 hours of charge time. These are common figures for mid-range earbuds.

I found battery life to be similar to HyperX’s claims in my tests — the earbuds managed just under four hours with ANC turned on. I used the earbuds for a few hours daily, and the charging case powered more than a week of use for me.

The charging case charges via USB-C and does not support wireless charging. Topping off the charging case took around two and a half hours — again, these times are what I’d expect for modern, sub-$100 wireless earbuds.

Bottom Line

The HyperX Cirro Buds Pro are the earbud equivalent of popping by a grocery store to pick up ground beef: you pay for $80 worth of earbuds, and you get $80 worth of earbuds. No more. No less. If you’re looking for $80 earbuds, these are a fine choice — especially since they have ANC — but they don’t really stand out much from the oversaturated wireless earbud market.

Ultimately, it hinges entirely on price. The Cirro Buds Pro are a reasonable upgrade for shoppers eyeing extreme budget wireless earbuds (under $50). But if your budget is just a hair more, there isn’t really a reason to consider the Cirro Buds Pro. These earbuds remain in the minor leagues, despite their “Pro” monniker.

If you’re preparing to dazzle an audience with a beautiful concerto, you best prepare your ensemble with a Raspberry Pi Pico-powered paper piano. This tutorial was put together by Abdulrahman Alhamed from Cytron and details how you can create a paper piano from scratch using our favorite microcontroller, the Raspberry Pi Pico.

Okay, so we don’t really expect this to be the next big instrument for professional orchestration but it is a wonderfully simple side project that gets the noggin joggin’ and is also a great introductory project for new makers. We created something similar before except instead of using a piece of paper to register user input, our associate editor Les Pounder used a banana to control a Pico. 

It doesn’t take too much hardware to recreate this project. You’ll need a pencil, a piece of paper and a Pico. Cytron has designed this project to use their Cytron Maker Pi Pico board which enhances the project with built-in LEDs and more that can respond to your paper piano input. We reviewed this board back in 2021 and found it to be quite a handy dev board that’s low on cost and high on functionality.

To create the input panel, you’ll need to draw a keyboard. Technically you can draw any shape you like. The idea is to fill in blocks of graphite using the pencil that aren’t touching each other. Wires are then attached to the blocks and connected to GPIO on the Pico. When you touch one of the pencil blocks (or keys), this completes a circuit and activates the GPIO as registered input.

When one of the GPIO pins is activated, a corresponding note will sound using the buzzer. The code for this project was written is Circuit Python and is totally open source for anyone who wants to recreate it at home. You can find instructions for downloading it on the official tutorial video and blog post on the Cytron website.

If you want to recreate this Raspberry Pi project, head over to the Cytron blog post that details everything you need to get started. Be sure to follow them for more cool creations using our favorite SBC and some of their awesome maker boards.

Newly-minted Corsair subsidiary Drop is best known for its keyboards — after all, it started out as a community-driven platform for negotiating group buys on keyboard enthusiast paraphernalia: boutique boards, switches, keycaps, etc. The company also sells its own merchandise, which includes keyboard kits, pre-built keyboards, and headsets (as well as... other things, occasionally). So it’s not too surprising that Drop has decided to take its audio line to the next level with a surprisingly slim pair of desktop PC speakers: the BMR1 Nearfield Monitors.  

The BMR1 Nearfield Monitors are a pair of sleek, unique-looking desktop speakers featuring Balanced Mode Radiator drivers from Tectonic Audio Labs. They can be mounted either vertically or horizontally, depending on your setup — if you mount them horizontally, they’ll fit pretty neatly under most desktop monitors. They feature both analog and Bluetooth connectivity and have an aux-out port that lets you plug in an optional subwoofer. They also feature interchangeable magnetic speaker grilles, which are sold separately in several colors (with more colors/designs in the future tentatively promised). 

If you think these sound pretty awesome, you’re not alone — Drop announced the BMR1s in January with three initial runs, all of which sold out immediately. Two additional runs of 1,000 units also sold out, and the speakers are currently on their sixth run of 1,000 units (still available as of this writing). The BMR1s alone cost $129 and do not come with speaker grilles; grilles can be purchased separately for $25 - $39 (depending on color).

Design of the BMR1 Nearfield Monitors

Design is a big part of the BMR1s’ appeal: these slim, sleek rectangles have a tiny footprint compared to most PC speakers. Each speaker measures approximately 10.63 inches (270mm) long by 2.55 inches (64.8mm) wide, and is just 1.62 inches (41.2mm) deep. The speakers come with plastic “isolation stands” that allow for either vertical or horizontal placement.

Each stand’s footprint measures 2.6 inches (66mm) wide by 3.94 inches (100mm) deep. If you mount the speakers vertically, each speaker will measure approximately 11.3 inches (288mm) tall by 2.6 inches (66mm) wide by 3.94 inches (100mm) deep. If you mount the speakers horizontally, each speaker will measure approximately 3.46 inches (88mm) tall by 10.63 inches (270mm) wide by 3.94 inches (100mm) deep. Size-wise, these speakers are perfect for anyone with an already too-cluttered desk — they take up barely any desk space when mounted vertically, and fit neatly under most monitors when mounted horizontally.

In true Drop form, the BMR1s are sold as a barebones kit, without speaker grilles. Drop sells optional, interchangeable magnetic speaker grilles separately in several colors — black, white, raw steel, “laser purple” (deep purple/navy), “shinai sage” (sage green), and “skiiboard orange” (orange). The grilles cost $25/pair (except for “raw steel,” which costs $39), and are made of coated steel mesh in a plastic frame. The company plans to offer additional colors/designs in the future.

I don’t dislike the “spare, industrial style” of the speakers sans grilles, and exposed drivers are certainly not uncommon in the speaker world. But I do think the BMR1s look sort of unfinished without grilles (especially as you can see the glue around the drivers). It does seem like Drop could have included something in the $129 base price. The speakers are fine in terms of build quality, but the standard-issue black plastic chassis looks and feels a bit cheap for how much these cost.

In the box, the BMR1s come with two stands, attachment hardware (screws, washers, and a hex key), a power block/cord, a 4-foot (1.2m) speaker interconnect cable, and a 3.5-foot (1m) AUX cable. The speaker interconnect cable appears to be proprietary — while most people will not be putting their speakers more than 4 feet apart, such a short cable doesn’t allow for a lot of flexibility when it comes to cable management (the AUX cable is also laughably short, but at least that can be easily swapped out).

The right speaker houses all of the ports, including the power input. For audio input, the right speaker has a 3.5mm stereo aux-in, as well as wireless input (Bluetooth 5.0). The speaker also has a headphone jack (with mic passthrough) and an aux out or subwoofer out for plugging in an optional subwoofer. There’s also a mode switch for switching between 2.0 (without subwoofer) and 2.1 (with subwoofer). And, of course, the proprietary speaker cable input on both the right and left speakers.

There’s a small multi-function button on the front of the right speaker, which is ringed in a bright LED when the speakers are plugged in. (Maybe a little too bright — it would be nice if this could be dimmed or turned off.) Pressing the button once switches to Bluetooth mode (press and hold in Bluetooth mode to enter pairing mode), pressing it again enters headphone mode (if headphones are connected). Default mode (analog-in) is denoted by a white LED, Bluetooth by a blue LED, and headphone mode by an orange LED. I will note that this is not a power button — there’s no power button on these speakers, nor is there volume control.

Aside from their dual-mounting capabilities, the stands that come with the BMR1s are pretty basic: they’re made of matte black plastic and have anti-slip rubber corners on the bottom and Drop’s logo engraved at the base, and they’re not adjustable. The stands have a groove to help guide and stabilize the speakers once they’re attached, but it’s not the most stable setup I’ve seen — the speakers were a little wobbly when mounted (both ways). This isn’t much of an issue, as the speakers are pretty lightweight — the right speaker weighs 13 ounces (368.5g) and the left speaker weighs 12.36 ounces (350.4g). The stands have cutouts so you can access all ports.

Specs

Performance of the BMR1 Nearfield Monitors

The BMR1 Nearfield Monitors are so slim because they use Balanced Mode Radiator (BMR) drivers (manufactured by Tectonic Audio Labs), instead of traditional cone-shaped pistonic drivers. The main benefit of BMR drivers is their size — each of the BMR1s features a flat, square, two-inch BMR driver and dual force-canceling passive radiators. Drop says the drivers are tuned to deliver a “holographic, natural frequency response” that’s perfect for “movies, music, and more.”

BMR drivers also offer wider dispersion than their conical counterparts — they feature more off-axis output and less directional sound, which makes them better for multiple listeners. (This also means you can be more flexible with placement/positioning — the BMR1s will sound largely the same whether they’re mounted vertically or horizontally.

The BMR1s have a frequency response of 80 Hz - 24,000 Hz. That’s not great on the low end, though the dual force-canceling passive radiators do a decent job of producing deep, meaningful bass — and the BMR1s do give you the option of plugging in an external subwoofer if you’re really looking for powerful lows. 

While a lot of articles covering Drop’s announcement of the BMR1 Nearfield Monitors suggested Drop claimed they would have “audiophile-level sound,” I think it’s important to note that Drop pretty carefully tip-toed around making that statement in its press release. (It mentioned “audiophile products,” “audiophiles,” “high-quality desktop speakers,” and sounding “great” — but stopped short of calling these audiophile-level speakers.) And while the BMR1s do sound very good, especially for their size, I don’t think I’d call their sound “audiophile-level.” 

Music sounds quite good on the BMR1s, so long as you’re looking for a very neutral sound profile. If you’re used to listening to music with bass-heavy headphones/headsets, the BMR1s are definitely not... that. If anything, they’re a little too neutral for me, as I prefer my neutral profiles to lean a little warm. The BMR1s have a fairly wide and detailed high range, producing clear but not overly bright treble in songs such as Britney Spears’ Toxic and Pitbull’s International Love. The midrange, by comparison, sounded a little compressed, which caused midrange-heavy songs like K-391’s Lonely World and Pepas’ Farruko to sound less dynamic. 

Movies, TV shows, podcasts, talk radio, etc. also sound very good on the BMR1s, though I did notice some slight graininess in the lower midrange when the speakers were turned up fairly loud. Speaking of volume — while the BMR1s are fairly loud for how little space they take up, they’re not particularly loud for PC speakers. In our volume test, the BMR1s delivered 73.1 dBA at 50% volume and 85.3 dBA at max volume, which is similar to the Audioengine A2+’s maximum volume level. (Of course, the A2+’s are quite a bit larger, measuring 6.25 x 4.2 x 5.6 inches (158.75 x 106.68 x 142.24mm) each and weighing 6.8lbs (3.08kg) together.) But where the BMR1s do shine is in their lack of distortion — these speakers sound almost as good when they’re at or near maximum volume as they do at 50%. And while they’re not as objectively loud as some of the other speakers on our list of best PC speakers, the BMR drivers’ wide dispersion means they can fill a medium-sized room better than you might expect. 

I was also impressed with the BMR1s’ gaming performance — they’re not particularly tuned for gaming like some PC speakers are, but the detailed high range and “holographic soundstage” Drop keeps mentioning make these speakers surprisingly good for both competitive FPS/Battle Royale type games and immersive, aurally-rich RPGs. The soundstage is a bit larger than it is with most 2.0 systems, though it’s still just a stereo setup and not surround (and the BMR1s don’t come with software or even offer a digital connection, so there’s no built-in virtual surround). But gamers will want to plug into the speakers directly, because there’s a very noticeable lag over the BMR1s’ Bluetooth connection.

Bottom Line

The Drop BMR1 Nearfield Monitors are interesting. They’re not only very slim and very lightweight compared to most of the competition,they’re also designed in such a way that I can see them fitting into even the most cluttered desk setup. They sound good, especially for their size, with an almost too-neutral sound profile and a larger-than-average soundstage. 

They’re not the best speakers you’ll ever hear, nor are they my personal favorite listening speakers. But this is all relative: they’re absolutely better than your laptop’s built-in speakers or — (god forbid) — the speakers on your desktop monitor.

But these speakers also have some (several) quirks I think Drop could fix for the next iteration. The electronics in the BMR1s are... let’s say, feisty. The right speaker (the active speaker) gets a little worryingly warm near the bottom when it’s plugged in. This is maybe partly because it’s powered on all the time, because there’s no power button (just a multi-function button with several functions that are not power). The BMR1s’ SNR is good (> 95 dB), but there’s a lot of noise — buzzing, popping, distortion — when you fiddle with either side of the analog connection. And when your PC goes to sleep, wakes from sleep, or powers on/off.  And from the left monitor when nothing is happening but the speakers are in analog or headphone mode. 

I also have a few design petpeeves — such as the proprietary and short speaker cable, as well as the bright LED ring around the non-power button, the fact that the headphone jack is on the back of the right monitor and not easily accessible. I really wanted to like these and I do like them, especially for how easy they are to fit into a desktop setup (I may or may not have a hate-hate relationship with trying to fit speakers into my desktop setup), but at the moment the BMR1s just feel like they’re not quite there. Personally, I’d grab something cheaper, like the Creative Pebble Pros, and wait until the BMR2s drop.

SteelSeries’ Arena 3 is the brand’s entry-level 2.0 system in its ambitious Arena speaker lineup. With a retail price of just $129.99, the Arena 3 might seem competitively-priced — especially considering Razer’s Nommo V2 X starts at $149.99 — but of course there are desktop speakers outside of the gaming peripheral sphere.

⋇ Check out our Best PC Speakers for more options.

The Arena 3 speakers feature 4-inch full-range drivers with organic fiber cones and front-firing bass ports. They’re well-built and situated on tilt-adjustable desktop stands, with a volume knob and multi-function button for switching inputs easily accessible. 

They’re wired and offer analog connectivity (PC and AUX), as well as Bluetooth 5.0 — no USB or optical connection. The Arena 3 is a 2.0 system — no subwoofer, so its bass response is understandably underwhelming. But if you’re not looking for an impressive bass response, there are plenty of 2.0 systems with lackluster lows that cost a lot less than $130.

Design of the Arena 3

The Arena 3 is a wired, two-speaker stereo system with a left channel and a right channel. The speakers look similar to the oval-shaped front left/right speakers in SteelSeries’ higher-end Arena 7 and Arena 9 systems, but they’re larger and more... avocado-shaped. Each of the Arena 3’s speakers features a 4-inch premium organic fiber full-range driver, a front port for improved bass response, and is perched on a tilt-adjustable desktop stand.

The Arena 3’s speakers are housed in matte black plastic chassis with black and dark gray drivers. I won’t say the chassis is fingerprint-proof (it’s not), but it doesn’t attract fingerprints the way Razer’s Nommo V2 Pro speakers did. SteelSeries’ logo is printed in black on the frame under each driver. The speakers are somewhat bulky and oddly-shaped, but they’re very well-built and hefty — together, they weigh a little under five pounds (4.72lbs / 2139g). The right speaker is slightly heavier at 2.44 pounds (1105g), while the left weighs 2.28 pounds (1034g).

Both speakers have built-in tilt-adjustable stands. The stands feature round bases measuring 4.35 inches (110.6mm) in diameter by 0.39 inches (10.1mm) thick, and are lined with a circle of rubbery anti-slip material. The neck of each stand is around 0.75 inches (19.1mm) tall and allows the speaker to tilt backward approximately 20 degrees.

SteelSeries lists the Arena 3’s measurements as 7.72 x 4.97 x 4.13 inches (196.1 x 126.2 x 104.9mm), but these are definitely... off. I measured each of the speakers at about 8 inches (203.2mm) tall by 6 inches (152.4mm) wide by 5 inches (127mm) deep standing “straight.” Fully tilting the speakers adds about 1 inch (25.4mm) of depth and half an inch (12.7mm) of height. So each speaker will take up 8.5 x 6 x 6 inches (215.9 x 152.4 x 152.4mm) of space at most when fully-tilted.

It’s worth pointing out that the speakers do not sit perfectly perpendicular to your desk when they’re standing “straight” — they start out with an upward tilt of approximately 5 degrees, and can be manually tilted back an additional 15 degrees or so. The resulting 20-degree speaker tilt is about the same as the (non-adjustable) tilt of the Razer Nommo V2 Pro.

The system’s inputs, ports, and controls are all located on the right speaker. The base of the right speaker stand has a multi-function button and a volume knob. Pressing the multi-function button once switches between audio input — specifically, between the speaker’s audio and a headset plugged into the speaker’s rear headset port. Long-pressing the multi-function button puts the system in Bluetooth pairing mode.

There’s a bright indicator LED under the SteelSeries logo on the right speaker. The LED blinks blue when the system is in pairing mode, and turns solid blue when successfully paired to a device. The LED is solid green when you’re connected to a wired audio source (AUX or PC), and is solid orange when you plug a headset in. You can turn the indicator LED off completely by double-pressing the multi-function button.

On the back of the right speaker there’s a DC-in for power and three 3.5mm analog input ports: headset, auxiliary, and PC. You’ll want to use the PC port to connect the speakers to your PC, auxiliary to connect to other devices, and the headset port for plugging in a headset. Also on the back of the right channel is a hardwired 6.5-foot (2m) speaker cable that plugs into the left channel. This is way more cable than anyone needs between the right and left channels, but it’s nice to see that SteelSeries erred on the longer, rather than shorter, side.

In the box, the Arena 3 is packaged with a 6.5-foot (2m) speaker cable for connecting to your PC (or other device), as well as a 7-foot (2.13m) power cable with a 30W power adapter. The power adapter features an interchangeable plug — you can order the Arena 3 with the regional plug type of your choice: U.S., U.K., EU, Korean, Australian, or Chinese.

Audio Performance of the Arena 3

The Arena 3 is a 2.0 (stereo) system with a left channel and a right channel, each of which sports a 4-inch full-range driver and a front ported bass reflex system. The speakers have a frequency response of 50 Hz - 20,000 Hz with 91dB sensitivity and an impressive max SPL of 100dB.

The Arena 3 will easily fill a medium-sized room if you crank up the volume — and it sounds pretty good so long as you’re not expecting a desk-shaking bass response. When connected via the 3.5mm PC input, the Arena 3 managed to hit a maximum of 83.3dBA (A-weighted decibels) at 50% volume, measured via handheld sound level meter at 3.3 feet (1m), and a maximum of 94.1dBA at 100% volume. Volume was slightly lower over Bluetooth, with the Arena 3 hitting a maximum of 82.6dbA at 50%, and a maximum of 92.1dbA at 100%. 

We use K-391’s Lonely World, which is a very midrange-heavy track, for our volume test. This was a good thing for the Arena 3, because the system has very strong mids — which are boosted all around, but are especially robust on the lower end to compensate for the lack of bass. This doesn’t really work: while the lower mids are pretty full-bodied, actual lows are noticeably absent. The bass drum at the beginning of Lorde’s Royals, for example, truncates prematurely where it would normally roll off, and the first minute of Hans Zimmer’s Time is barely present. 

The Arena 3 has no subwoofer, nor does it have a port for plugging in a third-party subwoofer. Instead, the system relies on two small front ports — one above each driver — for enhanced bass response. While the front port location is handy because it means you can place the speakers next to a wall (face it — most desks are probably next to a wall), I think the ports are just too small and too close to the drivers to do much in the way of bass enhancement. It seems like SteelSeries probably should have gone with a larger rear port — especially as the Arena 3 has no RGB lighting (both the Arena 7 and the Arena 9 have rear-projection RGB lighting on the front left/right channels).

The Arena 3 doesn’t just lack a low end — its highs are also a little restrained. The lack of detail is most apparent in tracks that slide in and out of the high range, such as Gesaffelstein’s Hellifornia and David Guetta’s Titanium, but I didn’t mind it too much — there wasn’t too much detail lost, and I definitely prefer restrained highs to painfully bright. 

While the Arena 3’s aggressive midrange isn’t ideal for music listening, it’s actually pretty good for gaming (as well as other types of media, such as movies and TV shows). Voices sound especially good with the speakers’ boosted mids — warm, crisp, and clear, even at lower volumes. Auditory cues in games, such as footsteps and gunshots, were also very clear. Ambient environmental noises, such as chirping birds and dripping water, were also present — there was still plenty of audible detail in God of War: Ragnarok and Subnautica: Below Zero.

Features and Software of the Arena 3

The Arena 3 only connects via analog (or Bluetooth), and therefore doesn’t really have any direct software, but it does work with SteelSeries’ Sonar app, which is part of the SteelSeries GG software. Of course, all speakers and headsets (not just SteelSeries’) technically work with the Sonar app, so this isn’t an Arena 3- (or even an Arena-) specific feature. The Sonar app features a 10-band parametric EQ as well as SteelSeries’ virtual surround sound, but of course there’s only so much “surround” you can really get from a 2.0 system.  

Bottom Line

The SteelSeries Arena 3 speakers aren’t bad — they produce nicely balanced, albeit midrange-heavy, audio out of the box, and there’s no question they can fill a room with music. These speakers get impressively loud, and they sound just as good at full volume as they do at more reasonable levels.

But pure volume aside, the Arena 3 lacks detail and power in both the low and high ends, and only offers analog connectivity in addition to Bluetooth. For $130 you can pick up the Creative T100s, which sound great and feature analog, optical, and Bluetooth connectivity, and still have $40 to spend on the extra portable Creative Pebble V3s.

It’s no secret that cosplayers have been known to use our favorite SBC, the Raspberry Pi, to take their handcrafted creations to the next level. We’ve seen everything from Pi-powered Game Boy cosplays to Raspberry Pi Galactus masks, but this is the first Pi-powered Stray cosplay. Maker and developer Dawn DuPriest uses a Raspberry Pi to animate faces for her Stray Companion cosplay and even play music on demand.

The character she’s cosplaying is known as Morusque. This character is known for playing music when you bring him sheet music. To bring her cosplay to life, convention attendees can hand her sheet music that the Pi can recognize with an RFID reader. It then plays music on a speaker built into the guitar prop that houses the rest of the electronics.

The companions in Stray are humanoid robots with screens for faces that play animations for facial expressions. For her cosplay, she wears a wireless screen that interacts with the Pi to change the faces as needed. There are buttons connected to the Pi that DuPriest can select that trigger various face animations.

The screen used for the face is an iPad Mini which can communicate wirelessly with the Pi—perfect for a cosplay that requires so much movement. Driving the operation is a Raspberry Pi 3B+ connected to an RFID reader and a series of buttons. These extra components are connected to the GPIO on the Pi using a Sparkfun Pi Wedge.

The iPad Mini is running a couple of apps enabling it to remotely access the Pi, including Pi Helper and VNC Viewer. This makes it possible to show the Pi’s desktop on the go without any cables. She also explained that the sprite sheets used to generate the face animations were created using an online app called Piskel.

Overall, this is an extremely clever cosplay. If you want to get a closer look at this Raspberry Pi project, check out the full project breakdown at Hackster and follow DuPriest for more cool creations.

The Raspberry Pi is a great go-to tool for all sorts of enthusiasts. Whether you’re into retro gaming or just take network security very seriously, you don’t have to look hard to find a tool to take your hobby to the next level. Today we’ve got an awesome music player to share that was put together by a maker known as Damaniel2. Instead of pulling music from a streaming service like Spotify, this setup is designed to play music over Wi-Fi sourced from an NAS device.

At the moment, it’s streaming the content using a wireless connection which makes it possible to move from room to room. However, Damaniel2 has plans to adjust the setup to a wired connection for better performance.  Despite the wireless connection, Damaniel2 assures that the setup has been working just as intended.

The hardware is housed inside of a 3D-printed shell that Damaniel2 created from scratch just for the project using OpenSCAD. According to Damaniel2, this was their first time creating something in 3D to print and the design needs some more adjustments and a future iteration with a little extra height is necessary.

Inside you’ll find a Raspberry Pi 3B+ but you could get away with using another Pi like a Pi 4 or maybe even a Pi Zero. A HiFiBerry DAC 2 Pro was included to process the audio output while a 5-inch DSI touchscreen interface is used for user input. The HiFiBerry HAT provides audio ports on the back for connecting audio peripherals.

As far as software goes, it’s running Volumio OS. This is an application designed for those who want to stream their own media locally. There are two versions available—free and paid. The free version offers plenty of features to do what this project is capable of but the paid version has extra functions that might be worth paying for if you’re really into streaming music.

If you want to learn more about this Raspberry Pi project, check out the original thread shared to Reddit by Damaniel2 and consider following him for future updates or more cool creations.

You can learn a lot about tinkering with microelectronics, but now, thanks to Adrian Cruceru’s latest Raspberry Pi project, you can use microelectronics to learn how to play the piano. A Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller drives his RP2040 Piano helper project and can be programmed to help students learn any song they like. Just follow the LEDs and press the corresponding key to play new songs on the fly.

The Pico controls a series of LEDs that line up with the keys on a keyboard (or piano). The LEDs illuminate on specific keys so the player knows which key to press next in the song. When not in use, it can also demonstrate a nice gradient effect. The Pico charts out songs by interpreting MIDI files to determine the note and length of time the note is played for.

To learn a new song, all you have to do is find a MIDI file for the song you want and run it through his converter. Songs can be selected from a browser window. You can have the song programmed to light up the keys at predetermined intervals or use the appropriate timestamps from the original song. This versatility makes it possible to gradually learn songs at your own pace.

To create the project, Cruceru uses a Raspberry Pi Pico module that's connected to a WS2812B LED strip. This strip is then adjusted into place above the respective keys on his keyboard. Each LED corresponds with a certain note (or key) so that the MIDI file will always cause the right note to be illuminated.

The code for this project was created from scratch by Cruceru using Micropython. Cruceru was also kind enough to make the project open source. If you want to get a closer look at the code and see how it works from the inside, check out the official RP2040 piano helper project page over at GitHub.

This is one clever Raspberry Pi project you should really see in action. To check out a video demonstration of the RP2040 piano helper, visit the original thread shared on Reddit or watch the video on YouTube. Also, be sure to follow him for more cool projects and any future updates on this one.

A security researcher has found an unexpected dollop of data in a firmware update released for Kingston's KC2000 M.2 NVMe SSD product line. But this isn't a bug or vulnerability — what he found were the lyrics from a Coldplay song. Nicholas Starke was understandably somewhat astonished by his discovery, so reached out to Bleeping Computer to discuss the seemingly random act of stuffing soft-rock lyrics in SSD firmware.

"I have absolutely no clue why it is in the firmware," Starke told Bleeping Computer, adding that, in his years as a researcher and reverse engineer, he has "seen nothing like it." Sadly, the source publication wasn't able to help Starke with his query, but confirmed that the lyrics were indeed squirreled away in the KC2000 firmware. Kingston has yet to comment on the finding, and the only possible reason Bleeping Computer can suggest for lyrics' inclusion is "as sample data for testing."

We also checked out the firmware, which is still available direct from Kingston Support at the time of writing. You can download the firmware and fire up a hex editor (or use an online one) and load up the 'S2681103.bin' file. A quick search for one of the lyric strings such as 'ComeUpToMeet' will bring you to the start of the firmware section where words from Coldplay's The Scientist can be found.

The firmware version under scrutiny was released in early 2020, according to the release notes. It delivers "improved performance in some QD1 workloads," but there's no mention of the musical/lyrical enhancement contained within.

This isn't the first time we've seen strange, seemingly unrelated data hidden away in computer resource files. Last month we noted that Apple had been including a PDF of the Bitcoin whitepaper within every MacOS release since 2018. Apple's Bitcoin PDF has subsequently been removed.

We almost don’t have words for this Raspberry Pi project as we’ve never quite seen anything like it. Nonetheless, here we are, and we’re beyond excited to share this creation from a maker known as JupyterJeff on Reddit (or HighQualityFun over at YouTube). Using our favorite SBC, the Raspberry Pi, he’s created a musical robot that can be pushed around using a stroller.

It’s hard to avoid attention with a creation like this in tow. JupyterJeff explains that it was intended mainly to take to festivals, parades, and maker fairs where people anticipate this sort of creation. That said, it would certainly turn heads if let loose down a popular alley or street corner. The Pi controls a series of percussion instruments and runs a synth to back up the beat with some sweet melodies.

Songs must be preprogrammed to perform so he can build up a selection of tunes to rotate through. So, in addition to the song you hear in the demo video, you can also find it replicating Michael Jackon’s Thriller recently at Maker Faire.

Most of the mechanical pieces were fabricated using laser-cut plywood. The drumsticks are designed to pivot on bolts. The laser-cut components are operated via servo motors, and some springs give the sticks enough force to make a strong sound when hitting the drums. A Raspberry Pi 4 is used alongside a Pi DAC+ to improve the audio quality.

The Pi operates the music using MIDI/Karaoke files with the assistance of Rosegarden DAW. A custom Python script reads the MIDI file as it plays and sends instructions to a Polulu server to trigger the drum motors to hit the right beat.

Overall, this is one groovy Raspberry Pi project, and we’re just jealous that we haven’t had the opportunity to check it out in person. If you want to get a closer look at this impressive Raspberry Pi musical robot, visit the original project thread shared on Reddit and watch the demo videos to hear it in action.

Usually, when I see a laptop with discrete graphics, it has a bit of extra heft. That's not the case for the Lenovo Slim Pro 7 (tested at $1,199.99), which is thin and fairly light with its AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050.

The catch, perhaps, is that these parts aren't the fanciest, like what you typically find in some of the best ultrabooks. This Ryzen 7000-series CPU uses Zen 3+ cores, which aren't AMD's latest, and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 is an entry-level GPU from a generation ago. For simple tasks, performance holds up. For more intense, multi-core work, this may not be for you.

Lenovo has a wealth of ports, with both USB Type-C and Type-A on the sides of the device. The keyboard is bouncy and comfortable. But other parts, like the touchpad, feel a bit cheap.

If you need a discrete GPU in a slim form factor, just for a slight boost in graphics power, the Slim Pro 7 is worth considering. Otherwise, it's serviceable, though not necessarily exciting.

Design of the Lenovo Slim Pro 7

The Lenovo Slim Pro 7 isn't making any statements. It's a dark gray aluminum rectangle with rounded corners, and Lenovo's name in teeny print on the lid. It's so plain, in fact, that it would be the perfect movie prop for a production company that couldn't get a licensing deal.

With the lid open, the 14.5-inch screen is surrounded by narrow bezels and a small bump on top to fit the cameras. The chiclet keys look a bit like those on a ThinkPad, but there's no pointing stick here (which is fine with me). 

Lenovo has fit the basic ports you need along the Slim Pro 7's sides. The left side has an HDMI port and two USB Type-C ports. One is USB 3.2 Gen 2, while the other is USB 4 with faster 40 Gbps speeds. They're not labeled, but the bottom one, furthest from the HDMI port, is the faster version of USB-C.

The right side has a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port for legacy peripherals, as well as a headphone jack. That's also where you'll find the power button and an e-shutter to disable the camera.

The Slim Pro 7 measures 12.81 x 8.92 x 0.61 inches thick, making it ever-so-slightly thicker than Lenovo's Yoga 9i Gen 8 (12.52 xs 9.06 x 0.6 inches. The Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra is 14 x 9.86 x 0.64 inches, while the HP Dragonfly Pro is 12.39 x 8.78 x 0.72 inches.

In a similar fashion, the Slim Pro 7 is the second lightest of the group at 3.6 pounds, while the Yoga 9i is 3.09 pounds. The Galaxy Book 3 is 3.96 pounds, and the HP Dragonfly Pro is 3.53 pounds. 

Lenovo Slim Pro 7 Specifications

Productivity Performance

The Lenovo Slim Pro 7 has the distinction of being the first laptop with a Ryzen 7000 HS series processor to hit our labs. This processor, the AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS, uses eight Zen 3+ cores on a 6-nanometer process with a boost clock of up to 4.75 GHz. Lenovo has paired it here with 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM, a 512GB SSD and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050, which is an entry-level GPU that's a generation old.

On Geekbench 5, the Slim Pro 7 achieved a single-core score of 1,527 and a multi-core score of 9,031. That's the second lowest single-core score of the group, which also included the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra (Core i7-13700H) and Lenovo Yoga 9i (Core i7-1360P); the HP Dragonfly Pro, with a Ryzen 7 7736U, was slightly behind. This chip was the weakest of the group on multi-core.

The Slim Pro 7 copied 25GB of files at a rate of 1,594.91 MBps, handily beating the Dragonfly Pro. Lenovo's own Yoga 9i was a bit faster, while the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra was the fastest here.

The Ryzen chip took 6 minutes and 36 seconds to transcode a 4K file to 1080p, beating both the MacBook Air and Yoga 9i. But the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra, with an Intel H -series chip, took even less time, at 5:26.

On our Cinebench R23 stress test, in which we loop the benchmark 20 times, AMD's new chip started at a score of 12,291.669 and went up from there, spending most of its time in the high 12,900's, and occasionally breaking the 13,000 point barrier (the average score was 12,943.58).The Ryzen 7 7735HS averaged 3.88 GHz and a temperature of 88.1 degrees Celsius (190.58 degrees Fahrenheit).

Lenovo opted for a last-gen RTX 3050 on the Slim Pro 7. On 3DMark Time Spy, it achieved a score of 4,523. That's still better than the integrated graphics from Intel (1,916) and AMD (2,888) in the Yoga 9i and Dragonfly Pro, respectively. But the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra, with an RTX 4050, had the highest score at 6,208. Granted, the 3050 Lenovo is using here is pretty tame, with a 63 W max graphics power and 990 MHz boost clock. That's far less power than the 4050 on the Galaxy Book is using, but it lets Lenovo fit it in a thin PC.

Display on the Lenovo Slim Pro 7

The 14.5-inch, 2560 x 1600 touchscreen display on the Slim Pro 7 is fine, but it's not amazing. It covers 118% of the sRGB color gamut and 83.7% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, but at 325 nits on our light meter, it's not as bright as the competition.

With the screen brightness all the way up, I didn't have any issues. I watched the 1440p trailer for Blue Beetle, the heroes' blue suit and similarly-hued special effects popped on screen, as did green palm trees in scenery throughout the trailer. A red-hued scene in which the character fights some bad guys didn't look as intense as on some other screens I've seen.

The screen comes close to the measurements from the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra and HP Dragonfly Pro when it comes to colors, but it wasn't as bright as those devices. The screen on the Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 8 is an OLED screen, and it proved more colorful than the rest, though Apple's panel was the brightest.

Keyboard and Touchpad on the Lenovo Slim Pro 7

Lenovo's island-style keyboard looks and feels familiar. A sticker next to the touchpad promises 1.5 mm of travel, and I believe it. The keys have a bit of a bounce, and I never once felt myself bottoming out. I hit 120 words per minute on the monkeytype test with 97% accuracy. I could quibble that Lenovo's function keys, like a dedicated calculator or clipboard button, aren't as useful as media keys, but to each their own, I guess.

The touchpad is nice and wide, but it feels cheap. I had no issues with navigation or multi-touch gestures, but clicking is loud and sounds unpleasant. It makes the whole laptop feel less premium.

Audio on the Lenovo Slim Pro 7

The sound from the Lenovo Slim Pro 7's four top-firing speakers is adequate. If you, like me, occasionally like to listen to music without headphones to give your ears a rest, it'll do, though you may want to turn the volume up.

On the one hand, while listening to Linkin Park's "Fighting Myself," I had to boost the volume to 100% to fill the room. (On the bright side, there was barely any distortion). The rap and rock verses were equally vocal forward, with crisp, clear words. Those who prefer instrumentals may want to check out the Dolby Access app. Switching to the Dynamic preset, which changes based on what's playing, brought out more thundering drums and guitar.

Upgradeability of the Lenovo Slim Pro 7

To open the Slim Pro 7, you'll need a Torx screwdriver (the official maintenance manual suggests a T5 head) to remove the six screws from the bottom of the laptop. There are two in the back that are longer than the four in the front, so be sure to keep yourself organized.

From there, you'll need to pry up the latches, first from the front, then the sides, and lift off the case. With a good pry tool, it's pretty simple. You'll see that the battery, Wi-Fi card and M.2 SSD are replaceable, but the RAM is unfortunately soldered down.

Depending on your market and model (Lenovo sells a similar laptop, the Slim Pro 7i, using Intel chips), you may have a full-length M.2 2280 SSD (like our review unit) or a shorter M.2 2242 with a bracket to hold it in place. Either way, you can remote it and replace it. The SSDs are covered in some mylar for heat protection.

Battery Life on the Lenovo Slim Pro 7

As far as systems with discrete GPUs go, the Lenovo Slim Pro 7 lasts a decent amount of time. The Lenovo Slim Pro 7 lasted 9 hours and 16 minutes on our battery test, which browses the web, streams videos and runs OpenGL graphics benchmarks while connected to Wi-Fi with the screen set to 150 nits.

That's longer than the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra, which also has a discrete GPU, at 9:03. The Lenovo Yoga 9i (10:38) and HP Dragonfly Pro (13:23), with integrated graphics, lasted longer.

Heat on the Lenovo Slim Pro 7

While I ran our Cinebench R23 stress test, I took skin temperatures to get an idea how the Slim 8 Pro feels to the touch under heavy load. The fans spin, but the system can still get slightly toasty.

At the center of the keyboard, between the G and H keys, the Slim Pro 7 measured 43.1 degrees Celsius (109.58 degrees Fahrenheit).

On the bottom of the laptop, the hottest point reached 51.1 C (123.98 F).

Webcam on the Lenovo Slim Pro 7

The Slim Pro 7 has a 1080p webcam paired with an IR sensor. I'm happy to see 1080p cameras proliferating through the market. They're not always better, but extra resolution rarely hurts. The IR sensor allows you to log in to the laptop using Windows Hello facial recognition.

While video from the camera looked decent enough, stills taken from the camera were a bit blurry, focusing more on the background than my face. A nearby window was totally blown out (that's a challenging condition), and some of the colors were a bit warmer than in real life.

On the right side of the laptop, there's an "e-shutter" switch. This switch is effectively a high-tech way of covering up the webcam. It's not actually cutting power to the camera, but when you open software that uses it, it will act as if the lens is blocked. I personally prefer the built in sliders that cover the camera, as it's easier to see with a glance if the camera is covered or not (and psychologically, it just feels more protected).

Software and Warranty on the Lenovo Slim Pro 7

It used to be that Lenovo laptops came largely with its Vantage hub application and little else. Those days are gone.

Sure, Vantage still exists and it shows information about your hardware, serial number and lets you drill into a bunch of power and camera settings. It also now has articles built in. At one point while writing this review, there was a story about artificial intelligence and medicine which had no byline. Weird. Another provided "tips to keep kids safe in the digital age."

There are three other Lenovo branded apps on board. Lenovo Hotkeys, which exists solely to remind you of keyboard shortcuts to adjust system performance and the refresh rate (these are also included in the box), but doesn't let you set your own. One combination, the Smart Key, lets you pick software to launch. Lenovo Voice is used for voice commands and translation. It's a clunky app, and some of it requires payment to work, though that is hidden deep in the settings. Lenovo Welcome is meant for setup, but most of what you actually need from it can be found in Vantage.

Additionally, there's a trial of McAfee LiveSafe. McAfee has also made its way into the Edge bookmark bar, as has Lenovo and Lenovo support.

Like most Windows 11 machines, there are also links in the Start menu to the Microsoft store, including apps like Spotify, TikTok, WhatsApp, Amazon Prime Video, ESPN and Facebook Messenger.

Lenovo sells the Slim Pro 7 with a 1-year warranty.

Bottom Line

The Lenovo Slim Pro 7 is a thin laptop with a discrete GPU and a CPU fast enough for any single-core workload you want to throw at it. None of it is the latest and greatest tech, but it works, especially if you prioritize a slender design but still want a bit of oomph in the graphics department.

Look, if you want faster, more powerful graphics and performance, it exists in devices like the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra. But we tested that laptop at $2,399.99 — more than $1,000 over the Slim Pro 7 we checked out. So the Slim Pro 7 is also for customers seeking a discrete graphics card on a budget.

In some cases, it's premium, with a 2560 x 1600 display. But in other places, like the touchpad, it feels cheap.

Long story short, if you prefer a discrete GPU and are on a budget, this may do the job for you. But if you don't, consider competing ultraportables, like the Lenovo Yoga 9i,  for a bit of extra luxury.

MORE: How to Buy a Gaming Laptop

MORE: Best Gaming PCs

MORE: Best Ultrabooks and Premium Laptops

iFi-Audio has released the LAN iSilencer, an audiophile accessory which aims to “quiet your network.” According to the Ethernet dongle designers in Japan, this product removes digital signal interference, and thus protects your audio signals from noise. It recommends the thumbdrive-sized device be connected to your router, switch, or wall RJ45 socket to achieve audio bliss.

There is some background information about the problem of ‘noisy’ network audio and an explanation of how the iFi-Audio LAN iSilencer works shared on the product page. The key design features that are claimed to be of benefit to your digital audio’s 0s and 1s are “a zero jitter memory buffer and galvanically isolated inputs.”

The presence of buffers would suggest some built-in delay to your network signals, which doesn’t sound ideal for a number of PC use-cases. Meanwhile, the concept of galvanic isolation is used in mainstream electronic circuit design, but we can’t find any purported audio benefits for the technology. On the topic of galvanic isolation, iFi-Audio says that audio signals passing through won’t suffer due to the interference of ground potential differences and AC power transients. No before / after audio charts or similar details are shared to back up audio quality  / reduced noise claims.

iFi-Audio shares some tech specs for the LAN iSilencer, which is listed for sale in Japan for the equivalent of $109 including consumption tax (10%). The device supports 1000BASE-T /100BASE-T /10BASE-T transmission speeds, has a shielded case, weighs 17 grams, and measures 73.5 x 19 x 16mm. In the examples showing this dongle plugged into various devices, it looks like it would be prone to accidental damage, as it's a rigid device that sticks out nearly three inches from your Ethernet jack.

What we can say for sure, is that iFi-Audio’s claims seem to be significantly less wild than other recent audiophile computing gear we have reported upon. For example, the $1,250 AudioQuest Diamond RJ/E Ethernet cable mixed “Solid Perfect-Surface Silver Conductors” and carbon-loaded synthetics to shield and protect your wiring from RFI. Even more outlandish are the claims about  the $500 SATA SSD cable with Superstar Crystals, which would apparently work its magic even if you didn’t plug it into an SSD. In recent months we have also reported on an audiophile SSD, and the similarly targeted Ethernet Switch UEF.

Given the above products, the iFi-Audio LAN iSilencer is at least relatively cheap for the audiophile useless accessory market. Priced at around $100 before tax in Japan, it seems to be a bargain if you believe the spiel. If you don’t, you can save your $100 and spend it on better quality headphones, speakers, or other audio gear.

Dodepan is a hexagon shaped lo-fi musical instrument from TuriSc which is powered by our favorite microcontroller, the  Raspberry Pi Pico. Using twelve inputs and one sensor, this unassuming instrument creates lo-fi beats to chill to and becomes a MIDI instrument.

The project, Dodepan uses 12 capacitive touch pads, connected to an MPR121 capacitive touch module, as inputs, and TuriSc states that "the lowest note it can produce is C2 (Midi number 36), the highest D8 (Midi number 110), so its chromatic range is 75 notes." The key can be changed using a knob, along with one of 16 scales on another knob. There can be up to six concurrent voices (polyphonic) at once and each of the inputs are assigned a note based on the current scale and key.  What does that mean? Well in short, it can make music from a range of beeps and tones. 

Music is all about expression, which is why sometimes performers will use movement to alter the note in play — think guitarists shaking the neck of the guitar to give it a warbling sound. With Dodepan, TuriSc has included an MPU-6050 Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) to convert the convert the intensity of tapping the unit into velocity data. This data is then used to change the volume of the notes. The IMU also provides accelerometer data which is used to perform pitch bending. An onboard Li-ion battery is fed power via a TP4056 (a linear charger for single cell lithium ion), a part commonly found for pennies on Aliexpress.

The Raspberry Pi Pico is Dodepan's core. It takes all of the data (inputs, knobs, IMU) and displays the data via LEDs and uses Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) to generate the sound. This is then fed to an analog circuit for further processing before reaching a PAM8403 amplifier and speaker. If you want to jam will on the commute, plug in some headphones and make your music to go.

Dodepan is not just a one-trick pony. It can also be used as a MIDI input, sending data to compatible applications using the standard MIDI format. The code which holds this project together is written in C.

You can build your own version of this awesome project as TuriSc has documented the build, Bill of Materials (BoM) and the code on their GitHub repository.

Someone once said that "bigger is better." That person would probably be very pleased by the renaissance of the 18-inch gaming laptop. The Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 ($3,899.99 as tested) is one of several titanic laptops slated to arrive this year, and the to land in our testing lab.

With room for an Intel Core i9-13980HX and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090, the Strix Scar 18 promises top-of-the-line performance. And with a design that's absolutely smothered in RGB lights, there's no question that this is a laptop designed for gaming. (Perhaps, for some people, it will be one of the best gaming laptops.)

The Strix Scar 18 is absolutely aiming to replace your desktop. It's powerful, has a nice big display and solid speakers, and it won't last long without the power adapter. Is it enough power to please gaming enthusiasts? We'll have to see how it performs in our testing, but at least you could carry this rig from room to room.

Design of the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18

The Asus Strix Scar 18 earns the very specific honor of being the first laptop in my career that I couldn't fit in my backpack. It epitomizes the term desktop replacement for 2023, though it will be far from alone on that front.

To be fair, the Strix Scar 18 is 6.83 pounds and measures 15.71 x 11.57 x 1.21 inches. You can tell by looking at this behemoth that it's not meant to be regularly carried much further than to the next room.

There's no massive design overhaul from previous Scars here. The lid is a dark gray with the ROG logo, sporting an angry RGB eye that is, frankly, ugly. That eye pattern is repeated in a stripe diagonally across the lid. But you really get the sense of scale when you lift the lid, showing the 18-inch screen in its full glory. The bottom bezel is a bit chunky, and the casing for the webcam juts out, but that all adds to how imposing it is.

To be clear, while the 18-inch display is shocking at first, the truth is that it's not that different from the 17-inch panels on the market. These 18-inch displays change the aspect ratio from 16:9 to 16:10, meaning that they're slightly taller, but they aren't any wider than 17-inchers.

On the keyboard deck, Asus used soft-touch plastic that slowly changes from solid black to a very smoky translucent as it gets closer to the hinge, showing some of the internals. Honestly, the company should go full '90s and make the laptop shell fully translucent or clear.

There's no massive design overhaul from previous Scars here. The lid is a dark gray with the ROG logo, sporting an angry RGB eye that is, frankly, ugly. That eye pattern is repeated in a stripe diagonally across the lid. But you really get the sense of scale when you lift the lid, showing the 18-inch screen in its full glory. The bottom bezel is a bit chunky, and the casing for the webcam juts out, but that all adds to how imposing it is.

To be clear, while the 18-inch display is shocking at first, the truth is that it's not that different from the 17-inch panels on the market. These 18-inch displays change the aspect ratio from 16:9 to 16:10, meaning that they're slightly taller, but they aren't any wider than 17-inchers.

On the keyboard deck, Asus used soft-touch plastic that slowly changes from solid black to a very smoky translucent as it gets closer to the hinge, showing some of the internals. Honestly, the company should go full '90s and make the laptop shell fully translucent or clear.

Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 Specifications

Gaming and Graphics on the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18

The Strix Scar 18 is among the first laptops we're seeing with both the Intel Core i9-13980HX and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090. (It's also among the first laptops we're sewing with any sort of -90 series Nvidia GPU at all, which is new for this generation of mobile GPUs.)

I wanted to see how well these components could push Control, which to this day is still my favorite example of ray tracing done right. I turned the settings as high as they went at the laptop's 2560 x 1600 native resolution. The game ran reliably over 60 frames per second, typically running between 60 and 68 fps, with a few small boosts up to the low 70's as I snuck through the Oldest House's communication departments and dodged flying objects being lobbed across the room by an object of power. In the Astral Plane, where the background is an empty white, it reliably ran over 100 fps. Dropping down to 1920 x 1200, the game ran around 100 fps, give or take a few frames, even in firefights with the hiss.

We wish we still had last year’s Strix on hand to test its 3080 Ti and Core i9-12950X with current drivers to see if it is indeed faster than the 4090 systems we’re testing here on Far Cry 6. But it seems likely that the CPU is at least somewhat bottlenecking GPU performance here at lower resolutions. We saw similar issues when testing the more powerful desktop RTX 4090 with Far Cry.

It’s easy to point the blame at Intel for potentially limiting the performance of Nvidia’s top-end mobile GPU. But keep in mind we are seeing this issue on one game. And we wouldn’t expect AMD’s best CPU to do significantly better, given what we know from testing its desktop chips. If anything, this result makes it clear that the mobile  RTX 4090 is best suited to a higher-resolution 4K screen (which the MSI Titan has but this Strix Scar lacks).
 
Red Dead Redemption is still a punishing game. On medium settings, the Strix Scar 18 ran the game at 123 fps at 1080p and 86 fps at 1600p. MSI's newest Titan hit 128 fps at 1080p, and was playable at its native 4K at 48 fps.

On the Borderlands 3 "badass" setting, the Strix 18 averaged 165 fps at 1080p and 112 fps at 2560 x 1600. The new MSI Titan hit 177 fps at 1080p and played at 71 fps on its 4K screen.

To stress-test the Scar, we ran Metro Exodus on its RTX preset at 1080p for 15 runs, which takes about half an hour. The system ran the game at an average of 102.97 fps, which was largely consistent after a faster first run. The Core i9-13900HX's performance cores ran at an average of 3.84 GHz, while the efficiency cores measured 3.37 GHz . The CPU package measured an average 81.2 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, the RTX 4090 ran at 2,121.62 MHz and measured 70.34 C.

Our benchmarks test results were impressive. On Shadow of the Tomb Raider (highest settings), the Strix Scar 18 ran the game at 181 fps at 1080p and 124 fps at its native 2560 x 1600. The new MSI GT77 HX Titan, with the same GPU and a Core i9-13950HX, was a single frame behind at 1080p and ran the benchmark at 70 fps on that laptop's 4K screen.

On Grand Theft Auto V (very high settings), the Strix Scar ran the benchmark at 152 fps at 1080p and 132 fps at 2560 x 1600. The Titan ran the game at 176 fps at 1080p and 50 fps at 4K.

The performance on Far Cry 6 (ultra settings) was a bit confusing, with the Strix playing at 107 fps at FHD and 94 fps at 1600p. That FHD number is less than a top-end Strix we tested last year. It’s not entirely clear if there are driver issues, a CPU bottleneck, or component compatibility problems with the game. But the MSI Titan GT77 HX with an RTX 4090 and 13th Gen Intel Core i9 HX hit 102 fps at 1080p, which isn't too far off, and 71 fps at 4K.

Productivity Performance on the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18

Between an Intel Core i9-13980HX and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU, alongside 32GB of DDR5 RAM and 2TB of SSD storage, we expected strong productivity performance out of the Scar.

We saw gains in both single- and multi-core performance over 12th Gen Core systems on Geekbench 5 (with far more significant improvement in the latter). The Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 achieved a single-core score of 2,066 and a multi-core score of 19,233, while the MSI Titan GT77HX, with an Intel Core i9-1350HX and 64GB of RAM, saw slightly higher scores at 2,071 for single-core and 2,0602 for multi-core.

On our file transfer test, the Strix copied 25GB of files at a rate of 1,885.81 MBps, beating last year's 17-inch Strix, but was slower than the 2022 Titan. The MSI Titan GT77 HX we tested came in at a blazing 2,299.26 MBps.

We saw some improvements in Handbrake, as well. The Strix Scar 18 transcoded a 4K video to 1080p in 2 minutes and 49 seconds, beating the systems with 12th Gen chips. The new Titan came in a bit faster, at 2:38.

Display on the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18

Yeah, it's 18 inches. Asus's new panel is massive, which you may want if you're replacing an entire desktop. It has a resolution of 2560 x 1600, with a tall, 16:10 aspect ratio. Asus brands this a "Nebula" display, with support for HDR and a 240 Hz refresh rate.

The display is bright and colorful. In the short film Tears of Steel, even the darkest scenes, including one featuring a sniper on his perch, and another with a house covered in vines, were clear to see. Both lush green vegetation and neon blue and pink computer interfaces popped on the screen.

When I played Control, I was impressed by the game's reds, which are a visual motif throughout. I could still make out details in the game's darker areas, though in the Astral Plane, which is all on white, some details could get a bit blown out.

Asus' screen covers 109.4% of the sRGB color gamut and 77.5% of the DCI-P3 spectrum, falling short of the MSI Titan GT77 HX's 4K panel at 161.6% sRGB and 114.5% DCI-P3.

Keyboard and Touchpad on the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18

The keyboard on the Scar 18 offers a decent typing experience, though it has a few oddities considering the sheer width Asus had to work with.

On the monkeytype.com typing test, I hit 115 words per minute with 98% accuracy rate, which is about my usual on a good keyboard. The keys have a decent amount of click, and I didn't feel myself bottoming out as I typed. But considering the size and cost of this machine, I do wish Asus would have opted for low-profile mechanical keys, like we've seen on some Alienware and MSI machines (including the most recent Titan).

There are a few strange layout choices. The right shift key is short, seemingly to accommodate the arrow keys jammed between the QWERTY keyboard and the number pad. The up arrow is right next to that shift key, while the right arrow is jammed into the number pad area.

The touchpad, at 5.1 x 3.4 inches, is spacious. There sure is room for it. It's also nice and smooth, and I had no problem with Windows 11's most complex gestures. When you're gaming, you can turn the touchpad off with the shortcut Fn + F10.

Audio on the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18

One good thing about a massive chassis: there’s room for solid speakers. The four speakers here produce loud, detailed sound that easily filled my apartment.

While setting up the Strix, I was surprised by the detail in AJR's "The DJ Is Crying For Help," which mixes emotional violin strings with thumping bass and both pop and choral vocals. The song sounded about as clear as I've ever heard it.

Control also sounded good on the Strix, with thumping gunfire, clear vocals (the protagonist thinks aloud quite a bit in the game) and haunting atmospheric music.

The speakers support Dolby Atmos, and you can choose between some presets in the Dolby Access software. I think the "balanced" setting in music mode that comes out of the box works pretty well in a wide variety of cases, but there are also specialized settings for games, movies and voice calls.

Upgradeability of the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18

The base of the Strix Scar 18 is held in by 11 Phillips head screws. The three closest to the palm wrest are shorter than the rest, so you'll have to remember where those go. The fourth one in that spot (furthest to the right) is captive and doesn't come out.

Removing the bottom took careful prying with a guitar-pick shaped tool. I assumed, incorrectly, that the base would be held on with a ribbon cable, but the RGB lights on the bottom don't come off with the bottom. I prefer it this way, as I've seen ribbon cables attached to the bottom before, which are easy to break.

Inside, there's a ton of cooling, with loads of heatpipes to cool the CPU and GPU. There are three fans in the system, which makes sensegiven how loud it can get.

There are two PCIe SSD slots (both were filled in our unit), and the RAM and Wi-Fi card can be removed and replaced as well. All of those components are under heat-protective coverings. The battery can also be removed and replaced. I'm surprised that Asus didn't go with a bigger 99 WHr battery, looking at the internals: There's some empty space around the 90 WHr one that the Strix ships with.

Battery Life on the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18

The battery on the ROG Strix Scar 18 feels like a formality. I mean, how much are you really going to move this, aside from room to room?

I hope not much. The Scar lasted only 4 hours and 26 minutes on our battery test, which browses the web, streams videos and runs OpenGL tests, all while connected to Wi-Fi with the display set to 150 nits.

The MSI Titan GT77 HX lasted 3:48 on a charge, which is to say, this is just the type of battery life you should probably expect from these massive laptops with power-hungry components.

So yeah, when you move the Scar around, bring the power connector. You'll need it for gaming anyway.

Heat on the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18

When you play games on the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18, the fans spin up loud. That's what it takes to cool the most powerful laptop components on the market now. The question is, do you feel the heat? You very well may.

I measured skin temperatures while running our Metro Exodus stress test, and found that the center of the keyboard measured 33.5 degrees Celsius (92.3 degrees Fahrenheit), while the touchpad, which most gamers will be resting their wrists on, was a cooler 26 C (78.8 F). These are all perfectly reasonable considering the parts inside.

The bottom of the laptop gets pretty hot, reaching 50.2 C (122.36 F). But considering this laptop is too big to realistically use on your lap, it should be OK. Just be sure to keep it firmly on a table or desk.

Webcam on the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18

Resolution and image quality don't always strictly go hand-in-hand, but higher resolution usually helps. It's a shame that in 2023, Asus has a $3,700, 18-inch laptop with a 720p webcam. It's time to move to 1080p.

And in this case, the image quality wasn't great! Using the webcam at my desk at home, the image appeared cool, with a burgundy t-shirt looking almost purple. My skin was smudgy and my beard and hair looked muddy. I wouldn't want to look like this on a stream. If you're replacing the rest of your desktop, you might as well invest in one of the best webcams, too. 

Software and Warranty on the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18

Asus has a bunch of software preinstalled. Some of it, like Armour Crate and Aura Creator, are useful. Armoury Crate is a one-stop shop for component statistics, settings profiles and lighting. Aura Creator has more advanced RGB lighting effects. Our Scar 18 review sample wasn't working with the lighting software when we tried it but presumably, that will be updated.

There's also some bloat. Virtual Pet, which I've seen on Asus' G14 line before, is effectively a more advanced Tamagotchi that lives on your desktop. (The G14 can also show it on the lid with LEDs. The Scar cannot). It doesn't have the games or other functions the G14's pet does. I opened it once and closed it forever.

Then there's MyAsus, which is functional as a place to check your serial number and warranty information, but I don't see anyone checking it regularly.

There is also the usual Windows 11 software in the Start Menu, including WhatsApp, Spotify and TikTok. Antivirus came in the form of a trial of McAfee Live Safe.

Asus sells the Strix Scar 18 with a 1-year warranty.

Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 Configurations

We tested the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 with an Intel Core i9-13900HX, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090, 32GB of RAM and 2TB of PCIe Gen 4 SSD storage, which costs $3,899.99.

On Best Buy, there's a cheaper model with a Core i9-13980HX, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage for $2,499.99.

Bottom Line

The Asus ROG Strix Scar is big. It's really, really big. With that comes room for some seriously powerful components, and the Intel Core i9-13980HX and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 deliver some serious might.

Asus has also delivered a bright, colorful display and loud speakers that sound great while watching movies or playing games. That being said, the MSI Titan GT77 HX's screen is even brighter, and higher resolution. And as we noted in the gaming performance section, Nvidia’s RTX 4090 graphics really is better suited to 4K than 1660p.

If you want an 18-inch, 16:10 screen, the Strix is the way to go. But if you prefer the classic 16:9 aspect ratio in a 17-inch panel and want to go up to 4K, you may want to consider the Titan.

These parts are designed for someone who wants to get the maximum they can out of a mobile gaming rig. If you don't play the most intense games at their highest settings, there are better, cheaper options. In most cases, we got some pretty strong performance out of the Strix Scar, though I imagine some driver refinements will also help in a few questionable spots.

The Strix Scar can, in many ways, replace your desktop. If you have a small apartment with no room for a monitor, or you just want to be able to carry your PC from room to room, the Scar 18 is an expensive, competent option.

MORE: How to Buy a Gaming Laptop

MORE: Best Gaming PCs

MORE: Best Ultrabooks and Premium Laptops

Nvidia has released a festive video featuring a cute bobble head avatar of CEO Jensen Huang singing Jingle Bells. The traditional Christmas song has been jazzed-up 50s crooner style with some cool finger snapping action from the leather jacket draped ‘Toy Jensen. This fun video showcases cool technologies and spreads a little holiday cheer.

The video release isn’t just a way to say happy holidays to Nvidia fans, it also demonstrates the abilities of the Nvidia Omniverse Avatar Cloud Engine, or ACE, platform. The performance took “just hours,” to render and demonstrates realistic facial expressions and body movements alongside voice conversion technology which mapped Jensen’s tone to the performance of a pro singer – this isn’t an actual recording of Jensen’s singing voice.

Breaking down the video elements, the Nvidia development team used a recently developed model to map Jensen Huang’s voice tone onto a professional vocalist’s Jingle Bells singing sample. The musical notes from the professional singing were applied to the digital voice of Toy Jensen to make the avatar sing the correct notes and rhythm. It is notable that the musical arrangement for this performance wasn’t AI-generated, but was put together by Jochem van der Saag, a composer and producer who has worked with Michael Bublé and David Foster.

Next, Omniverse Audio2Face and Audio2Gesture technologies were leveraged to generate realistic facial expressions and gestures to match the Toy Jensen avatar’s animated musical performance. For a fuller X-Factor talent show style performance, we think Nvidia will have to develop some new Audio2Walk-down-steps technology.

Putting the above video into some perspective, Jensen Huang hit the headlines in November when he was visiting Taipei and video-bombed a singing duo. During a Taiwan Esports carnival event he managed to squeeze between Lah Yileh Lee and Xinting Lee during a performance of Lady Gaga’s “Always Remember Us This Way.” The performance went viral, but Huang insists he is too shy to record a real-person rendition of Jingle Bells, so tasked his engineers with readying the Toy Jensen performance, embedded top.

Nvidia says that the Omniverse ACE platform will be available soon for early access partners. It doesn’t say whether the release will include a Toy Jensen to play with.

Cleaning up recordings is an excellent use case for Audacity. But it’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the popular audio editor’s ability to manipulate clips. On top of all manner of editing tools there are a heap of audio effects built into Audacity that can be applied to audio recordings creatively to get the sound you require.

Audacity is an amazing piece of free and open source software that is useful for all kinds of audio processing and editing. We’ve already looked at how to install Audacity and how to use it to clean up audio. In fact, in that article, we used effects as tools to clean up the audio recordings and to remove or minimize unwanted noise and other artefacts. In this how-to we will look at applying effects for creative results.

We’d urge you to experiment with all the effects built into Audacity but make sure you don’t export your creatively affected audio over a prized audio recording. You can test and experiment with pretty much any audio file. Making a quick rough recording of your voice to practice on is a good idea.

Selecting an Audio File in Audacity

We can apply effects to either the entire audio file, or selectively to tracks and portions of audio. Both are easily achieved with Audacity.

1. Click on File – Open and open your test audio file. Audacity can handle many different file formats and, for the purposes of testing out audio effects, it’s not too important what type of audio file we use. Alternatively you can click the record button and record a short audio track using your computer's built in microphone.

2. Select the entire clip by pressing Control + A. 

Alternatively, you can select part of the audio clip by left clicking and dragging to highlight an area in the audio clip. 

Adding Reverb to Audio in Audacity

Reverb, which is short for “reverberation” is perhaps the most commonly used audio effect. In Audacity, it makes the audio sound like it has been recorded in a reverberant space and you can change the settings to emulate different sizes and styles of reverb “rooms”. 

1. Select some or all of your audio clip.

2. Click on Effect >> Reverb. You should now see a window appear which has all the controls and settings for the reverb audio effect.

3. Click Manage and Select “Factory Presets”.

4. Try each of the presets using Preview. You can now hear the reverb effect applied to your audio track in preview for a few seconds. You can stop the preview to change settings using the “stop” button.

5. Use the sliders to tweak the reverb settings. Rather than explain every setting in the Reverb effect it’s easier for you to play with the sliders and listen to the changes in effect.

A common pair of settings are the “Dry Gain” and the “Wet Gain'' in simple terms the Dry Gain adjusts the amount of the original audio signal without any effects applied. Wet gain  similarly adjusts the amount of the signal in the final output. These terms are often included in many of the effects units in audio programs and sometimes are found as a single slider mixing between Dry and Wet.

Adding Silence to End of Clip for Reverb Tail in Audacity

Often when you apply reverb to a clip, the reverb will end abruptly at the end of the audio clip and you may well want the reverb to trail naturally after the final audio clip contents. To do this in Audacity, we need to generate and add a silent section onto the end of our existing audio clip and then, when we apply a reverb effect, there is room in this silence for the reverb tail.

1. Open a new test audio file and click the “Skip to End” button on the transport toolbar or press “K” on the keyboard to move the play head to the end of the clip.

2. Click on Generate >> Silence.

3. Set the length of silence you wish to add and click OK to add a section of silent audio to the end of the clip in the selected track. 

4. Apply a reverb to the entire audio clip. The reverb will continue into the newly created clip and will fade naturally.

Adding a Distortion Effect in Audacity

It’s easy to presume that distortion effects are all about making audio sound like heavy metal. While distortion settings can indeed create such sounds, they can also be used in many more ways. 

Subtly applied distortion can add warmth to recordings or to make audio sound like it has been recorded on tape and other vintage setups. The process of applying distortion is the same as it is for applying all audio effects in Audacity.

1. Select all or part of an audio clip.

2. From the Effect menu select Distortion.

3. Click Manage and Select “Factory Presets”.

4. Try each of the presets using Start Playback. Note that, with the Distortion effect, you have three buttons: “Start Playback”, “Skip Backward” and “Skip Forward.” With these three buttons, you can preview the distortion applied to the audio, make changes if needed and skip around the selected audio to hear the changes. 

5. Click apply to add the distortion effect to your audio. One thing of note is that adding Distortion can cause your audio to “clip” which is where the audio passes through the 0dB ceiling. This can cause glitches and pops in speakers and headphones which can be uncomfortable for the listener. Within the Distortion dialogue, you can use the “clipping level” slider to manage this effect, lowering the value to decrease the amount of clipping in the affected track.

Fading In and Out in Audacity

As a final pair of Audacity effects that are extremely useful, we have the effects “Fade In” and “Fade Out”. These are useful when creating a clip to go into a podcast or other work. 

1. Select a section in the audio. Select a section that would make an interesting segment for a podcast.

2. Click on Effects >> Fade In.

The fade effects differ in that you don’t get a dialog box or any user controls. The effect simply creates a volume gradient increasing from zero to the clips inherent volume level across the length of your selection.

Adding a fade out is handled in the same manner. 

1. Highlight the end of the segment to fade out.

2. Go to Effects and select Fade Out. Over the selected length, the audio will now gradually fade out to silence over.

As you can see from the “Effects” drop down menu, there is a great collection of built-in effects in Audacity. Each of these effects are worth investigating so that you get a practical sense of what each effect does to your audio. 

There are numerous “modulation” type effects, for example “Phaser” and “Wahwah,” which can create sweeping filtered effects in your audio. There are straightforward sounding effects that do exactly what they say in the name such as “Reverse” and “Repeat” and there are other effects, some of which we looked at previously, that allow you to effect the equalisation, remove noise and polish your audio. 

Armed with this bundle of effects, whether its a subtle ambience, or a distorted sci fi robot voice you now have enough skills to get the sound you need using this excellent free and open source application.

The 16-inch laptop is in vogue. Several companies have moved from 15 to 16-inch laptops, especially in the productivity space. With the Dell G16 (7620) ($1,139.99 to start, $1,499.99 as tested and you may get it for less with a Dell coupon), we're seeing this slightly-larger screen size make its way into gaming.

The Dell G16 also brings an aluminum lid, which you often don't find on the best gaming laptops under $1,500 that makes it feel premium. The 16-inch, 2560 x 1600 screen has a 165 Hz refresh rate, and you may even be able to take advantage of that in some games with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 we tested with.

There are still a few trappings of budget gaming notebooks here, like a really stiff touchpad and a truly mediocre webcam, but if you're looking for a gaming notebook that's less than $2,000 and has a bit more screen space, it's certainly one to consider.

Design of the Dell G16

As far as budget and mid-level gaming PCs go, the G16 is an odd, though totally unobtrusive design. When it's closed, it's like a mullet: business in the front, party in the back. I should probably explain that.

The front reminds me of one of Dell's Latitude business laptops. It's "obsidian" black with a Dell logo, but not much else going on. Surprisingly, the lid is metal, giving it a surprisingly luxurious feel at this price point. (The bottom and the keyboard deck are plastic, which is common for gaming notebooks.)

But the back of the laptop has a bump with ports on it, as well as some angular venting. This is more like Dell's premium "Alienware" lineup, which has been putting ports there for years.

When you lift the lid, things get a bit more interesting. The 16-inch display is surrounded by a moderate bezel, but what really caught my eye was the cross-hatch ventilation design. While some of my colleagues shrugged it off, I think it's a cool look.

The keyboard has single-zone lighting (at least, in our review unit. See the configurations section below), so you can only pick one color to backlight your keyboard.

There are ports on three sides of the Dell G16. The left side has the Ethernet jack and 3.5 mm audio port, while the right edge has a pair of USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports. On the back, there's a Thunderbolt 4 port, a third USB Type-A port, the HDMI output and the power jack. There's some weird spacing between them, but you won't be looking too often anyway.

Dell's 16-inch gaming notebook measures 14.06 x 10.71 x 1.06 inches (357.26 x 272.11 x 26.90 mm). Our unit weighed 5.72 pounds, though Dell's site says the laptop starts at 5.38 pounds and goes up to 5.95 pounds. It's very close in size to the Alienware m15 R7 (14.02 x 10.73 x 0.94 inches, 5.34 pounds) and MSI Sword 15 (14.13 x 10.20 x 0 . 98 inches, 4.96 pounds), but the G16 is a bit heavier and thicker. Asus' TUF Gaming F15 at 13.94 x 9.88 x 0.78 inches and 4.41 pounds is the smallest of the bunch.  

Dell G16 Specifications

Gaming and Graphics on the Dell G16

With its Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 and an Intel Core i7-12700H, we expected our Dell G16 to run our benchmarks successfully, even at its native 2560 x 1600. We weren't disappointed, though other laptops were extremely competitive.

I played some Guardians of the Galaxy on the Dell G16 to put it through its paces. In a section in which you land Star-Lord's ship, the Milano, the game ran between 92-117 frames per second  on medium settings at 1920 x 1200 (I used this instead of 1080p to take advantage of the screen real estate). Platforming sections of the game typically ran between 90 and 102 fps, though sections with lots of effects could drop it down as low as the 70's. You might be able to play this game at higher settings, but doing so here allowed me to take at least some advantage of the 165 Hz screen and play above 60 fps while actually seeing the benefits.

On the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark (very high settings), the Dell G16 played at 76 fps at 1080p and 44 fps at its native 1600p. The other laptops, all with 1080p screens, were at least a few frames behind, with the m15 R7 falling the furthest at 69 fps.

Grand Theft Auto V (very high settings) drew strong performances from all four laptops at 1080p. The G16 hit 94 fps, while the Alienware beat it by a frame. The Sword and TUF Gaming both hit 90 fps. At 1600p, the G16 reached 54 fps.

On Far Cry 6, the G16 reached 90 frames per second on the benchmark at ultra settings (51 fps at 2560 x 1600). The TUF won here, at 99 fps.

Red Dead Redemption 2 on medium is still a challenge. Both the G16 and the Alienawre hit 60 fps at 1080p (the G16 reached 38 fps at its native resolution), while the TUF Gaming reached 59 fps and the Sword played at 57 fps.

The G16 did the best of the group on Borderlands 3 ("badass" settings), playing at 74 fps at 1080p and 49 fps at 1600p. The R7 came the next closest at 72 fps, while the TUF lagged slightly at 65 fps.

We stressed test the G16 by looping Metro Exodus 15 times on the RTX preset. The laptop ran the game at an average of 59.76 fps and was surprisingly stable throughout the test. During that gauntlet, the CPU's six performance cores ran at 2.71 GHz, while the eight efficiency cores ran at 2.16 GHz. The CPU package measured an average of 76.42 degrees Celsius and showed some signs of throttling. The GPU ran at 1.6 GHz and measured 77.16 degrees Celsius.

Productivity Performance on the Dell G16

A gaming laptop wielding a Intel Core i7-12700H, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD should be able to pull double-duty as a workhorse.

On Geekbench 5, a performance test leaning heavily on CPUs , the Dell achieved a single-core score of 1,719 and a multi-core score of 12,043. Both the TUF Gaming F15 (the same Core i7-12700H)  and MSI Sword  (i7-12650H) edged it out slightly on single-core, but the MSI fell short on multi-core, leaving the G16 in a slight second palace. The Alienware m15 R7, with an AMD Ryzen 7 6800H, came in last place.

The G16 copied 25GB of files at a rate of 745.36 MBps, which  is faster than both the Alienware m15 and the Asus TUF, but the MSI Sword 15 blazed past the group at 1,080.53 MBps.

It took the Dell G16 6 minutes and 23 seconds to transcode a 4K video to 1080p using Handbrake. That's more than a minute faster than the MSI Sword, but both the Alienware and the TUF did it more quickly.

Display on the Dell G16

The display on the Dell G16 is a 16-inch, 2560 x 1600 (with a 16:10 aspect ratio) screen with a 165 Hz refresh rate. It's fairly average among its competitors when it comes to colors, but it does get brighter.

The trailer for Creed 3 looked good on the G16. A sunrise behind actor Jonathan Majors while he works out on Venice Beach was a distinct blend of orange and purple, and the end of the trailer, during what's surely the big fight, Creed's white boxing gloves and shorts (against his foe's black getup —  what a duality!) were clean and sharp in contrast.

Dell's screen covers 75.3% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and 106% of the SRGB color space, putting it ever so slightly ahead of Alienware's 15-inch, 1080p panel and a teeny bit behind the one on the Asus TUF Gaming F15. MSI's display was far less vivid on both counts.

The G16 is the brightest of the bunch at 335 nits, surpassing the TUF Gaming (324 nits), Alienware m15 (289 nits) and MSI Sword (247 nits).

Keyboard and Touchpad on the Dell G16

I have very mixed feelings about the Dell G16's  keyboard and mouse. As a purely gaming device, they may be serviceable. But if this is your only PC, you're going to have a bad time.

The keyboard is as close to "linear" as a gaming laptop keyboard gets without mechanical keys, but without significant travel, I found myself bottoming out while typing. It's less of a pain while hitting buttons in gaming, but it took significant time to get used to typing on it, and even then it tired my fingers out a bit.

The layout is fairly standard, though five customizable macro keys on the keyboard (F2 through F6, which can be set up in Alienware Command Center) stand out for games, especially the real-time strategy and MMO genres. Volume is located on the right side, which is a bit odd but easy enough to get used to.

The 4.1 x 2.4-inch touchpad isn't sizable, but it's just big enough to navigate in Windows. It feels cheap, but my biggest issue was the incredibly stiff click, which tired my fingers out when I used the laptop for non-gaming purposes. If you're using one of the best gaming mice, you can hit F12 on the keyboard to shut the touchpad off to avoid any accidental clicks while using it as a wrist rest.

Audio on the Dell G16

The Dell G16 has a pair of 2.5-watt speakers, one on each side of the bottom of the machine.

For music, it's heavy on the instrumentals — sometimes too much so. Jade Bird's "Uh Huh" was a blur of guitars and drums, and while I could make out the bass, it was slight. Bird's mixes between folk and rock vocals weren't in the forefront as they are on better speakers. 

Vocals sounded great when I played Guardians of the Galaxy, which happens to have a ton of dialogue. The banter between Star-Lord and his crew was clear over orchestral music and rock songs like Billy Idol's "White Wedding." Sometimes that was at the expense of other effects, like the Milano ship crashing into a snowbank, though that's partially the audio design of the game. Sparks sizzling from the engine were nice and crisp.

The speakers get loud, and easily filled up my apartment during testing. I was even a bit worried about disturbing my neighbors in the apartment next door. You can comfortably use them at much lower than the maximum volume.

Alienware Command Center re-routes audio control to Dolby Access, which has dedicated game, movie and voice profiles. In general, I found the default music profile was best, as  movie mode largely added volume. The game mode could be good for games where enemies surround you.

Upgradeability of the Dell G16

To get into the Dell G16, you need to loosen eight Phillips head screws (four of which are captive, so you don't have to remove them). The base simply pulls and lifts off.

The M.2 SSD is under a heat shield, which covers a PCIe 4.0 WD SN810 SSD in our review unit. Curiously, there's a cutout space on the other side of the motherboard that seems to be clearly designed for a second M.2 SSD, but there's no connector for it. Perhaps Dell will be using the same motherboard elsewhere with that addition?

The RAM and Wi-Fi radio are both easily replaceable. You can take out the battery, though you'll want to be careful about cables running over and around it.

Battery Life of the Dell G16

Where the G16 goes, the 240 W charging brick follows. Most gaming laptops don't offer great battery life, but the G16 performed less admirably than some of the competition on our battery test, which involves web browsing, video streaming and light graphics work with the screen set to 150 nits.

The G16 ran for 3 hours and 59 minutes on the test, falling short of the Alienware m15  R7 (8:57) and Asus TUF Gaming F15 (8:34). The MSI Sword 15 was about on par at 3:55.

Heat on the Dell G16

We took heat measurements during our Metro Exodus gauntlet, which should give a pretty good idea of how hot the Dell G16 gets while playing games.

The center of the keyboard, between the G and H keys, reached 38 degrees Celsius (100.4 Fahrenheit), though the keyboard deck and touchpad were cooler.

The hottest point on the bottom machine was a toasty 55.1 degrees Celsius (131.18 degrees Fahrenheit), so this is one to definitely keep on your desk. That's toasty.

Webcam on the Dell G16

Dell's 720p webcam on the G16 is fine for casual calls with friends or family. But it's not good.

Images I captured while using the webcam were quite grainy, and sometimes had a bit of blur. While its output is color accurate, down to the blues in my eyes and the multi-colored book spines on a shelf behind me, the pixelation and lack of detail (I swear, it looked like I didn't have eyelashes) bring it down. If this is the machine for your streaming dreams, consider one of the best webcams.

I can't say I'm surprised. While laptops are increasingly moving to higher quality, 1080p sensors (and the two aren't always conflated), mid-level gaming laptops haven't gotten there as a category yet. Maybe it's about time they start.

Software and Warranty on the Dell G16

Dell has a handful of apps pre-loaded in its Windows 11 install, but only one stands out as important: Alienware Command Center. Despite carrying the name of Dell's more luxurious brand, you can use it on the G16 to change RGB lighting colors and launch games from your library.

Other Dell add-ons include My Dell, with access to warranty information, power profiles and support; Dell Customer Connect, which seemingly only exists to feed customers surveys; Dell Update and Dell Digital Delivery for software.

While no third-party antivirus software came preloaded on our machine, a bookmark to McAfee's website came pre-attached to the Edge browser, along with a folder of links to Dell's site. Dell should stop doing this.

There are also some apps that come preinstalled with Windows 11, like Spotify and Disney Plus, which are featured prominently in the Start menu.

Dell sells the G16 with a one-year warranty.

Dell G16 Configurations

We tested the Dell G16 (7620) at $1,499.99 with an Intel Core i7-12700H, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB M.2 SSD.

As of this writing, there's only one display option: the 16-inch, 2560 x 1600, 165 Hz panel on our review unit.

The base model is $1,139.99, which is identical to what we tested, except with a lesser, GeForce RTX 3050 Ti.

The top-end model is $1,799.99 with an Intel Core i9-12900H Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, 32GB of RAM, 1TB of PCIe SSD.

That's all assuming you use the standard, single-zone backlit keyboard. Some configurations with the RTX 3050 Ti or RTX 3070 Ti allow for a Cherry low-profile mechanical keyboard. That's a $50 upgrade on Dell's website.

Bottom Line

Whether bigger is better is a personal choice, but it's one Dell is offering with the G16 (7620). At around $1,500 (give or take a few hundred dollars based on the configuration), its 16:10 aspect ratio is uncommon.

The G16's design is sturdy with its aluminum top cover, and configured the way we reviewed it, with an RTX 3060 and an Intel Core i7-12700H, it did well on our games benchmarks. Some other gaming laptops, like the Asus TUF Gaming F15 were better on productivity, suggesting that they may have better cooling on their processors.

There are still some signs of the Dell G line's budget origins, like a crappy webcam and a stiff touchpad. (Though I imagine most gamers will bring a mouse to the party.) But if you want a 16-inch screen and a decent amount of power for a price that won't break the bank, the G16 is worth checking out.

MORE: How to Buy a Gaming Laptop

MORE: Best Gaming PCs

MORE: Best Ultrabooks and Premium Laptops

When he isn't announcing the best graphics cards, it seems that Nvidia's Jensen Huang likes to party. With his trademark leather jacket, extensive kitchenware collection and fierce silver fox looks, Nvidia supremo Jensen Huang definitely sits at the cooler end of the tech billionaire spectrum, but even we didn’t expect to see him doing karaoke to Lady Gaga. However, unless we’re all being fooled by a deepfake, that’s exactly what a video posted on Commercial Times, and tweeted by VideoCardz, shows.

According to the report, Huang casually strolled onto the floor during the opening night of WirForce 2022, a Taiwan Esports ‘carnival’, entered the BYOC area (which we suspect doesn’t stand for ‘bring your own cocktails’ and is a bit more a of a serious LAN party) and began to interact with the players.

While some have claimed the assembled gamers, and particularly the karaoke singers, who we’re getting to, didn’t know who he was, the Commercial Times report makes it clear the Taiwan-born graphics guru was recognized, with Esports athletes digging out the boxes of Nvidia products to sign, and asking him to pose for group photos. He was reportedly friendly to everyone, though the article doesn’t mention if anyone asked him about the RTX 4090 power connector issue.

In the hour he spent at the event, Huang had a go at a light gun game, and posed for more photos before taking to the main stage and shouting “GeForce!” into a microphone, to the chagrin of some players who complained he was too close, and setting off a big climax in others, according to the Google translated report.

His attention was later caught by two internet celebrity singers, broadcasting karaoke live from near the venue. He became part of the performance, choosing Lady Gaga’s song Hold My Hand from the Top Gun: Maverick soundtrack, and apparently impressing the audience with his singing voice, receiving many high-fives from the performers as well as positive messages from viewers. A video of the crooning CEO was also posted on Reddit by user jarvis-linx, ironically claiming it to be cosplay.

Perhaps one day, anime will be real life thanks largely in part to projects like this one from maker and developer Jess Peter. Peter is using a Raspberry Pi to power a custom holographic anime virtual assistant named Maria that’s completely interactive and 100% adorable.

This holographic virtual assistant features an original 3D design with animations that help bring her to life. Peter implements AI for voice recognition and programmed text-to-speech so Maria can talk back and forth with the user to help complete verbal requests and initiate tasks. Maria is still a work in development so functions are limited but plans are in the works to add more in the future.

Peter has provided plenty of juicy details about she works and how to set her up on your own at home. According to the project website, Maria can provide weather predictions based on WeatherAPI, set custom timers (yelling “Beep! Beep! Beep! when they go off) and even play music using the Spotify API.

This project is running on a Raspberry Pi 4B connected to a USB microphone for audio input and a USB speaker for audio output. The Pi is housed inside of a 3D-printed case fitted with a conical acetate sheet to give the holographic effect. A small, 3.2-inch screen is used to project the image with a resolution of 800 x 400px.

Diving into the software side, Maria makes use a Python server that constantly listens for audio input. Keywords are detected using Webrtvt and Deepspeech and used to determine incoming commands. The text-to-speech functions are handled using C along with Google’s text-to-speech library. A shader is necessary to warp the character on the screen so she appears correctly on the acetate cone. You can read more about the project details on the official GitHub page.

We find this Raspberry Pi project to be thoroughly impressive and implore anyone looking to recreate it to check out the official website where Peter was kind enough to share all the details you need to bring Maria to your home.

Elgato is one of the biggest names in the streaming world, and after its debut Wave:3 became one of the best gaming microphones you could buy, it was only a matter of time before it tapped into the higher-end XLR market. The time has finally come and the Wave DX is upon us.

Compatible with any XLR interface, but enhanced by Elgato’s own Wave XLR, the Wave DX brings with it an upgrade path that just wasn’t possible with the USB-based Wave line-up. It’s a microphone that can grow with your setup over time and connect to professional audio gear instead of just your USB port. It can be used with more than just your PC, and has good enough sound quality that streamers, podcasters, and YouTubers can all find it useful. 

At $99, it’s also surprisingly cheap, but don’t let that fool you. You’ll still need to spend extra on an audio interface to connect it to your PC, but if you already have one or are in the market for a wholesale upgrade from USB, this microphone is worth a look.

Elgato Wave DX Specs

Design of the Elgato Wave DX

The Elgato DX is the definition of minimalism, so don’t expect it to attract a lot of attention on stream. It’s an end-address microphone, so its rectangular body shotguns directly at your mouth. It’s solid black, finished with a matte coating so it won’t reflect light. Since it uses an XLR connection without phantom power, there’s no lighting. The only bit of trim to be found is a removable Elgato logo that can be swapped between sides when you switch the mounting bracket.

The same kind of minimalist design applied to the Wave:3 which we reviewed back in 2020. Even that mic had a bit of flair with its RGB lighting ring. The philosophy here seems to be strip back, fade into the background. It’s all about the content, man. (At least, that’s what I imagine this mic would say if it could talk.) 

That’s not to say it doesn’t have some tricks up its sleeve. Hidden inside its hardened steel shell is a dynamic microphone capsule selected in partnership with Lewitt Audio. Lewitt is a respected brand, and microphones are at the heart of all it does. Its products can be found in recording studios all around the world, are subject to numerous glowing reviews, and the team did a great job when they partnered with Elgato on the original Wave mics. It’s reasonable to expect good things when all history points to Lewitt knowing its stuff when it comes to microphones. 

For only $99, that expectation is handily met. I’ll dive deeper into specific sound characteristics in the next section, but Lewitt and Elgato have crafted a mic that manages to sound rich and full of presence while also sounding natural and detailed. Affordable microphones are often one-trick ponies — stage, broadcast, or instrument — but the Wave DX manages to cross those latter two boundaries with impressive ease.

Still, this is a dynamic microphone with most of the usual benefits and drawbacks. It has a compressed frequency response range of 50Hz to 15kHz. The condenser capsule in the Blue Yeti X extends that on both sides, coming in at 20Hz to 20kHz. The original Wave:3 is a bit less at 70Hz to 20kHz, but obviously the range the DX is able to capture is less. Elgato compensates for that with a tuning that emphasizes the treble more than competing dynamic mics, giving it a more natural, detailed sound.

And in truth, those frequency response ranges don’t mean a whole lot when you’re recording vocals. What you need to know is that the Wave DX makes your voice sound slightly crisp. There’s a pleasant edge, similar to what you hear on the Shure SM7B or the more affordable Rode PodMic. It’s not over-done. My voice didn’t sound crunchy in the same way it did with the PodMic. But there’s a slight  “radio voice” quality that’s very appealing.

Alongside the capsule, Elgato has implemented a built-in shock mount and pop filter. These are usually add-on purchases that drive up the bill, so it’s a pleasant surprise to find that the pop filter in particular is quite good. The shock mount lets through a bit too much noise, however, so you may still want to look for another solution there.

Returning to the outside of the mic, the chassis is peppered with a 360-degree grille except for a strip on the right side. You’ll still need to talk into the end of the microphone for the best quality, but you don’t have to be quite so spot-on to be heard well. Elgato knows streamers tend to move around a lot in their seats, so as long as it’s generally centered in front of you, your quality will be just fine.

The only other features are the rear XLR port and the mounting arm to attach to a stand, which isn’t included. The port is completely standard, but the mono arm is a pretty neat addition. Instead of connecting directly to the microphone, the mono arm screws into the stand. It attaches to the mic with its own adjustment knob, allowing you to angle the mic to meet your mount. Since there’s no external shock mount or u-bracket to contend with, you can make adjustments without bunching up the XLR cable in the middle of your content.

Broadly speaking, the Wave DX is a well-made microphone that does its job well, but it’s not perfect. Even though it’s made of hardened steel, I was surprised by how light the mic felt. It comes in just under a pound, less than half the weight of the Rode PodMic. The grille also has a bit of give when pressed on, and I have no doubt that it will dent easily if hit or dropped. It doesn’t feel cheaply made, but it lacks the tank-like quality of the PodMic.

Sound Quality on the Elgato Wave DX

The Elgato Wave DX offers a full-bodied, broadcast-style sound signature. As a dynamic microphone, its capsule applies a bit of crunch to the voice, giving it radio-like character while still maintaining high resolution, natural-sounding vocal capture. The sound is warm, so your voice has presence, but doesn’t sound dull or over-compressed. This makes it a good fit for vocal work, such as podcasts, voiceover, and of course, streaming.

Even though it has the unmistakable character and enhanced bass of a dynamic broadcast microphone, Elgato has tuned it to bring out a bit more treble detail. This lends a bit more airiness and natural timbre to the sound. Its tuning allows it to be a more versatile recording tool and better for recording instruments on music streams.

It’s worth comparing to the Rode PodMic here, because both mics retail for $99 and both are competing for your upgrade dollars. For tuning and character, the PodMic sounds great when recording vocals but struggles to make guitars and pianos sound completely natural (though you can address this a bit in post-processing). The Wave DX was able to record my acoustic guitar very well without any tweaks whatsoever. I might add a little reverb in my DAW of choice, Reaper, but I would have no hesitation using it to stream live music.

While Elgato’s claim that it can “pick up detail like a condenser,” might be slightly overstating things, it does act as an effective middle ground between the two microphone types. Condensers are still, in my opinion, king of the hill when it comes to clarity and natural tone, but the simple fact is that dynamic microphones are still going to be the best fit for most people due to their excellent noise rejection and insensitivity (PC fans, keyboards, and noisey roommates won’t be nearly as audible as a competing condenser). The Wave DX gives you a blend of both worlds: excellent noise rejection and enhanced clarity at an affordable price.

The integrated pop filter also works very well. I’m usually disappointed by in-built filters, but the Wave DX does a great job of blocking plosives. Even speaking very close to the mic, I wasn’t able to get it to distort with any kind of plosive test using normal speech. Peter’s peck of pickled peppers is safe with this one.

The built-in shock mount isn’t nearly as good. Small taps of the desk and minor bumps of the boom arm all make their way directly into the microphone. The Wave DX is compatible with aftermarket shock mounts that will do a better job, but you’ll need to remove the swivel mount to do so, which impacts how easy it is to position.

There is a bit of self noise to be aware of, but it’s not bad. Underneath your speech is a tiny amount of white noise. It’s typical to microphones at this price, and is easy to remedy with even a very minor noise gate or noise suppressor, but is still something to know about going in. It’s small enough that you might not even mind, but if you want total silence for voice-over work, a suppressor or gate will be necessary.

Have a listen to how it sounds below.

Software for the Elgato Wave DX

As an XLR microphone, the Wave DX does not connect directly to a PC and has no software of its own. It finds itself in a unique position, however, because the Wave line-up is known for its rich software effects and custom audio routing, so the name itself carries some expectation of customizability. Elgato also makes no secret of the potential of its Wave Link software.

The problem is that the actual microphone does not support any of these things because it cannot without a data connection. To access them, you’ll need to purchase the Wave XLR audio interface (another $160) or download third-party software to access VSTs with a competing audio interface.

Should you purchase the Wave XLR, Wave Link allows you to create custom audio channels with both real and virtual inputs. For example, for game streaming, you may want game audio and your Spotify playlist to mix with your microphone feed. Likewise, you can remove sources from specific channels without completely muting them in your own ears.

You may, for example, want to drop your Discord call from the Audience mix so you’re not broadcasting your strategy to the competing team (or have the world hear your friends get too blue). It’s very similar to what we saw with the GoXLR and the Beacn Mic and is a powerful production tool for a one-host streaming set up. If you don’t have a Wave XLR interface, Wave Link is inaccessible.

Available to all interfaces (and you’ll need at least one to use the Wave DX), are plug-ins known as VSTs. These can be loaded into your streaming or recording software to provide additional audio effects. Elgato has created its own easy-to-use Elgato EQ plug-in, but there are numerous others to add compression effects, noise suppression, and de-essing to remove sibilance for your recording.

These can be effective solutions to enhancing the sound of the microphone and tailoring it to your own voice, but they’re not as seamless or as user-friendly as I would like. When accessed from inside Wave Link, VST plug-ins open in additional windows, which feels a bit messy when you’re streaming. They also usually require at least some background knowledge to use them effectively. They tend to use audio lingo that may not be familiar and don’t always explain their settings well, if at all. Prior research will be necessary if you’re not already familiar with vocal effects.

Bottom Line

The Wave DX is a great microphone in a lot of ways. It sounds rich and full, perfect for vocal capture. It also gathers a generous amount of treble detail, so you can record instruments and still have them sound natural while not losing the noise rejection that makes dynamic mics such a good fit for untreated rooms and noisey environments.

But without the Wave XLR, it feels incomplete. Purchasing both together more than doubles the price, and triples it if you also want Elgato’s mic arm and XLR cable. Picking everything up as a bundle is much cheaper than buying them separately ($299 versus $379) but it still feels expensive.

The Wave DX has the benefit of growing with your setup over time, but if you don't see yourself adding external mixers or accessories, some of the best gaming and streaming microphones still come with normal USB connections. If you like the potential of the Wave Link software, and don’t mind the sound difference of a condenser, the Elgato Wave:3 is an excellent alternative that will save you big at checkout. For a USB choice with even better sound crafting, the Beacn Mic is also worth considering.

Even without its software, the Wave DX still offers impressive sound quality and versatile performance for the price. If you don't mind picking up some extras, it's worth a closer look.

Nothing beats the imaginative world-building of a good Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) campaign but what if you could take things even further? That’s where maker and developer Balthazar Rouberol’s latest Raspberry Pi project comes in. Using a Raspberry Pi Pico and a little CircuitPython, he’s created a custom D&D sound mixer that bring sounds and music into the game for a more ambient experience.

According to Rouberol, he wanted to develop an easy way to trigger songs, music and ambient soundtracks at the push of a button. This way, when he and his friends play D&D, they could hear music and sound effects to create a more immersive experience depending on what’s happening in-game.

Rouberol was kind enough to share a demo video of the final project showing off how it works. It features a Pico at the top along with a 4 x 4 keypad illuminated with RGB LEDs. Each key corresponds with either an audio track or control mechanism to adjust things like volume or even overlap the audio so multiple tracks can be played at the same time. The keypad sends data over a serial connection to a computer running a Python application which reads the input and plays the relevant sound file. Media playback on the PC is handled using PyGame, a popular Python module to create games. 

The mixer is driven by a Raspberry Pi Pico. It’s attached to a Pimoroni RGB Keypad which provides the key matrix with RGB backlit keys. This is used to operate the effects that control the sound mixer. All of the hardware is tied together with the help of a 3D printed base. This frame mounts the keypad at an angle, making it easier to use with a clean, professional finish.

Rouberol explains that the sound mixer required a user interface, so he created his own using a little more Python code and HTML via the Flask module. Using Flask, Rouberol created the UI to control the layers of audio, adding subtle audio cues for various stages of the dungeon.

If you want to recreate this Raspberry Pi project, visit the official project page on Rouberol’s blog to see both how it goes together as well as what it looks like in action.

We're two decades into the 21st century, a time where many of us were expecting to have flying cars or apartments on the moon. Instead, tech companies are still selling floppy disks and brand new PCs with an untenable 8GB of RAM. By all means, grab a 3.5-inch, 1.44 MB floppy disk if you still need one. But, for Woz’s sake, don’t get a PC with less than 16GB of memory, unless you plan to buy more RAM and install it yourself.

We’ve reached the point in computing history where you can’t competently run Windows and browse the Internet with less than 16GB on board. On my desktop PC running Windows 10, it takes just 8 Chrome tabs, Slack and Spotify running to cross the 8GB threshold. My regular use case of four dozen tabs takes me up to around 15GB, without running any games or productivity apps. Even with nothing but background services running, I’m using 5.5GB.

Even playing one game will take you past the 8GB limit many $1,000 gaming PCs have. Senior Editor Sarah Jacobsson Purewal shared a screenshot (see how to take screenshots in Windows) of her task manager where Elden Ring is eating 4.4GB of RAM and Steam is gobbling another 354MB. Once you exceed your computer’s physical RAM, the OS will compensate by swapping data in and out of your paging file, significantly harming performance.

Despite the fact that modern Windows PCs really need 16GB of RAM and the cost of adding more RAM is minimal, major PC vendors continue offering systems with a mere 8GB. And we’re not talking about kids’ Chromebooks or $199 cheapo laptops with Pentium CPUs! High-powered $900 gaming laptops and $1,300 ultrabooks also come with just 8GB. By the way, another 8GB of laptop RAM would cost you $25 on Amazon, so it must cost OEMs, who get to pay wholesale, a fraction of that to get this right. 

Imagine that your mouth is watering and you’re dying for a Big Mac dinner. You pull up to the McDonald’s Drive-through and see a sign that says “Big Mac, starting at $5.99.” So you order the burger, but, when you pull it out of the bag, you’re surprised to see that it only has one beef patty, one slice of pickle, no cheese, no Big Mac Sauce and no sesame seeds on the bun. You then find out that a “real” Big Mac with the taste you’d expect costs $9.99. McDonald’s wouldn’t sully its name by offering a sub-par experience that would make Grimace blush. Only PC OEMs would do such a thing. 

Dell currently sells a config of its flagship XPS 13 laptop with 8GB for a whopping $1,249, while Lenovo’s entry-level ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 10) is $1,319 with 8GB. These two laptops are meant to compete with the best Ultrabooks on the market, and they do when you buy configurations that come with a decent amount of memory. What’s worse in the case of Ultrabooks like these is that the RAM is soldered to the motherboard so there’s no way to upgrade. 

Many gaming laptops (including some of the best gaming laptops under $1,500) and desktops also come with just 8GB of RAM, but the good news there is that you can almost always upgrade the memory on your own, a cost you should build into your budget and plan to do right away. For example, Walmart has an MSI GF63 gaming laptop for $599. For that price, you have to settle for lesser specs like a GTX 1650, 256GB SSD and, yes, 8GB of RAM. But you can open it up and swap the RAM for 2 x 8GB DIMMs, which will make your wallet about $50 lighter, but consider that part of the price. (While you’re in there you should also install a roomier SSD, but that’s the subject of another story.)

We’d rather that companies like MSI just make 16GB the minimum standard and raise price as necessary, but as a consumer, you can make 16GB your minimum. Don’t even consider buying a computer with 8GB of RAM that can’t be upgraded. And, if you do see a great deal on an 8GB system, make sure you can also get the RAM and bring it up to 16GB. 

If you already have a PC with 4, 8 or even 16GB of memory, adding more RAM is one of the best sub-$100 upgrades you can make. Just check the service manual for your PC or motherboard or visit Crucial’s Advisor to find out the exact type of RAM you need.

In the world of wireless earbuds, it can seem like there are Apple AirPods and...everything else. Plenty of companies try — and many do a great job, even at budget prices — but it’s hard to snag part of the limelight. However, Asus is trying with the ROG Cetra True Wireless earbuds, which put a gaming tilt to the earbuds space.

The ROG Cetra True Wireless earbuds cost just $99, which isn’t that cheap for true wireless earbuds, but starts to feel like a bargain when you account for the earbuds’ hybrid active noise canceling, long battery life, surprisingly solid audio chops, and wireless charging case. And Asus even tops it off with a little splash of lighting effects.

Altogether, it’s a neat little package worthy of its price. However, it’s also wearing Asus’ Republic of Gamers badge, and the low-latency gaming mode is one area where it came up short, showing noticeable delay between on-screen action and sound effects on both PC and Asus’ own ROG Phone 6 Pro. This may not be an issue for those looking for a great pair of non-gaming earbuds, but it’s not a great sign for...the gamers Asus is aiming for.

Specs for the Asus ROG Cetra True Wireless

Design and Comfort of the Asus ROG Cetra True Wireless

The Asus ROG Cetra True Wireless buds throw in for style points. The case is a sleek little pearl with smooth edges that slid nicely in and out of my pockets. The design is tough to open one-handed, but it’s also tough to accidentally pop open and send the buds spilling out. The back edge of the case has a USB-C charging port while the base allows for wireless charging. The front edge of the case has a light bar that glows either blue or red to indicate charge levels (albeit, not terribly precisely).

Inside the case, there are form-fitting slots for holding the buds in place to charge and a small dot-matrix ROG logo that lights up in several colors briefly. The earbud stems also have a small bar of light along their stem that lights up when they’re slotted or withdrawn from the case. It’s flashy and unnecessary, but it’s a style touch fans of Asus’ ROG line will be used to and expect.

The buds are the classic in-ear style with a long stem that puts the mics just a little bit closer to the mouth. The design is all black, save for “ROG” and an ROG logo emblazoned on the buds in silver.

The Cetra True Wireless buds come with a set of ear tips in three different sizes. Pressed in firmly, they do a good job blocking out some external noise, and they stay in place well even during a bit of headbanging. Each earbud has a touch control point that responds to individual taps, multi-taps, and long-presses.

While the buds aren’t horribly uncomfortable, having the hard plastic in my ear for the better part of the workday does leave them a bit tender. There’s no specific element of the buds causing this minor discomfort though, so your mileage may vary. If you have sensitive ears that dislike most earbuds, these won’t solve that, but if you’re generally comfortable with earbuds these should suit you fine.

Audio Performance of the Asus ROG Cetra True Wireless

When it comes to audio performance, the Asus ROG Cetra True Wireless earbuds surprise. Their sound isn’t bulletproof, but they’re contenders when considering all that they already deliver at $100 before getting to the sound quality. The soundstage is compact, making audio feel rather close, but the buds do an impressive job recreating the sonic range.

Whether it’s the spacey sounds of Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories,” the funky and chaotic vibes of Of Montreal’s “False Priest,” or the energetic action of Overwatch, the Cetra True Wireless earbuds put on a little show. Bass notes in False Priest’s opening track have their delicious slink and a tad of oomph to back them, and the thump of drums roaring through Daft Punk’s “Contact” has a touch of life.

The buds perform better in the mids, where they can really pump out a lot of sound even at just 50% volume. The buds struggle a bit to deliver a ton of sound all at the same time, getting a little crunchy and seeing the lowest thump of the bass fizzle out when trying to push through the busiest sections of music or the most hectic moments in a team fight, especially when a lot of bass is called for.

The earbuds also feature active noise cancellation to eliminate some background noise when you’re trying to focus on your tunes. At the volumes these earbuds are capable of dialing up to, it’s possible to simply drown out external noises, but ANC is still a handy option to have. The buds support two different levels of ANC as well as an ambient audio mode that lets you hear external sounds.

At its highest level, the ANC cuts down a little bit on droning noises, but is virtually unnoticeable when listening to music. It’s more apparent while listening to a podcast, where there’s more unoccupied frequency.

The ambient sound feature lets external sound in, but it’s a tad sharp and unnatural, also pulling in a bit of wind. It may do in a conversation in a quiet room, but I didn’t feel it was going to let me really keep my wits about me walking down the street with it enabled.

While the speaker drivers perform well, the Bluetooth hardware struggled a little. I noticed the occasional issue with the buds desynchronizing for just a moment. It’s a minor distraction that ultimately doesn’t ruin the listening experience, but worth noting if you plan to listen in an environment with a lot of radio interference.

Asus’s Armoury Crate app allows for some tailoring of EQ and bass boost, but little else — and the app asks for far too many irrelevant permissions to be worthwhile.

Gamers looking for an edge with these buds using the low-latency Gaming Mode are out of luck. The sound coming out of these buds lags plainly behind the actions in game whether in Gaming Mode or not.

Microphones on the Asus ROG Cetra True Wireless

While a lot of earbuds use some beamforming on their mics to better pick up a users’ voice and eliminate background noise, the Cetra True Wireless buds have omnidirectional mics that pick up sound in all directions. The result is surprisingly clear compared to other earbuds, but it comes with the healthy — or unhealthy — dose of background noise.

In a recording with a fan and air conditioner running 10 feet away, the mic presented my voice clearly with just the subtlest hints of sounding like I was speaking through a digital tunnel. However, when I started typing on my keyboard (a quieter membrane one, no less), the mics picked up a bit of that as well. Even worse, when I threw a YouTube video on a pair of desktop speakers, the narration from the video came through almost as well as my own voice.

If you’re in a quiet room, you’ll get a good result from the mics on these earbuds, but that’s where the positives of the experience will end.

One downside that’s nearly universal for Bluetooth devices is that a lot of their positive traits go out the window when you try to use them for input and output at the same time. The audio quality coming through the speakers simply tanks to awful levels when the mics are engaged. So using the buds for gaming and voice comms or Zoom meetings will negate their benefits.

Battery Life of the Asus ROG Cetra True Wireless

These buds are no slouch when it comes to marathon listening. Asus advertises them as boasting a 4.8 hour runtime with ANC on or hitting 5.5 hours with ANC off, and the case can add another 17 or 21.5 hours, respectively. I cranked up the tunes, switching between ANC modes occasionally but largely sticking to the strongest ANC level, and it was 4 hours and 20 minutes before the buds gave out. They can also charge quickly in the case. Just 10 minutes back in the case after my battery test brough the battery reading back up to 50%. Though my test fell slightly short of Asus’s estimates, they likely tested at a more conservative volume and ANC level that could see the buds last even longer.

Bottom Line

The Asus ROG Cetra True Wireless are a pretty good value, delivering solid audio performance and features such as active noise cancellation and a wireless charging case — which you won’t find in most $99 earbuds. Unfortunately, they’re just not dependable enough for gaming, which is what the ROG line is all about. If you’re looking for a decent pair of true wireless earbuds, these are worth a look, but if you’re a gamer you’ll find more reliable low-latency options on our list of best gaming headsets.

The Cooler Master CH331 gaming headset is directed toward budget-minded gamers and beginning streamers who want understated RGB style at an affordable price. The CH331 delivers when it comes to surround sound quality and comfort. 

Designed to compete with the best gaming headsets in its price range, the $49 CH331 will most definitely rock you with epic explosions. But it can also tickle your periphery senses with the crackle of a campfire behind you…or the slurping munching of a monster just behind that tree line.

The headset works great right from the box, but you’ll need Cool Master’s Master Plus software to unlock an equalizer and virtual speaker placement app.

Cooler Master CH331 Specs

Design and Comfort of the Cooler Master CH331

The CH331 is a basic corded headset that comes in a single color, black. The Y yoke frame is made of dark gray aluminum, while the headband is steel wrapped in buttery soft PU leather. The black on black vibe is accented with a subtle pulsing RGB light on the earpiece which is switched on from the cord.

The earpieces are quite squishy and covered in more PU leather, with oval shaped cups that completely cover the ear. The earpieces pivot outward on the Y yoke, but are otherwise stuck in place. The headband is adjustable, giving you an extra inch of length on either side.

A fabric wrapped cord is permanently attached to the left earpiece, and a chonky 3 inch long inline control panel sits about 20 inches down the cord. This put the inline control in my lap while seated, but on a taller person it might dangle about the navel. The inline control is extremely light plastic, so it doesn’t seem to add any weight.

There’s another 61 inches of cord from the inline control panel to your USB type A plug for a total of 84 inches (7 feet) between your left ear and your PC. Since my PC sits on the right-hand side of my desk, I can remain at arm's length from my tower without stretching the cord.

The headset is 13 oz, which is extremely close to a pound of extra weight strapped to your head. It’s pretty comfortable, but you will notice it. Since the headband is wrapped in smooth pleather, it's slick and will slide around a bit, especially while chair dancing. 

The inline control panel is a beefy 3.25 x 1.25 x .5 inches and has volume and mute buttons for mic and audio, plus a simple on/off for the lights. The lights are not programmable. 

Between the USB cord and the giant inline control panel, this is strictly a set of headphones for your computer desk, not for walking around.

Performance of the Cooler Master CH331

The CH331 headset performs exceptionally well for such a reasonably priced accessory. It delivers a virtual 7.1 surround sound that really puts you in the game. For example, while playing The Outer Worlds, I stopped to liberate a campsite, complete with a tiny cooking fire. I slowly spun my character and could hear the quiet crackle of the fire move from my left side, to behind me, then on to the right ear. At another spot along the trail, raptidons were lurking on a cliff above and to the left. I could hear them way before I could see them.

Not surprisingly, the CH331 put a lot of emphasis on bass for those bone rattling explosions. But there’s a good bit of range and separation, allowing me to clearly hear footsteps and bird chirping while the game’s soundtrack floated somewhere above my head.

When I switched to streaming music, I had the same experience. Bass was impressive and loud, but I could still hear Billie Eilish breathing in my ear during Bad Guy, something I don’t get from the Bluetooth earbuds I use around the house.

These are not noise-canceling headphones and you can still hear muffled background noise in the room, especially if you’re listening to conversation. If you have rock music pounding away, people will definitely be able to sneak up on you.

Microphone on the Cooler Master CH331

The CH331 has a detachable omnidirectional microphone that plugs into the left earpiece with a standard 3.5mm stereo jack. It’s mounted on a long flexible wire so you can place it in just the right spot. The mic can be muted with the inline control.

Features and Software of the Cooler Master CH331

Cooler Master CH331 headphones are designed to be plug and play. You can tap into an equalizer and adjust the surround sound if you download the optional Master Plus software from the Cooler Master website, free for Windows 10 and 11.

The equalizer didn't do much for midrange tweaking, and the sound profiles for Pop Music, Movie and Gaming all seemed remarkably similar and bass heavy.

The software doesn’t have options for the RGB lights, so you’re stuck with the default pattern that cycles through a rainbow of soft colors.

Bottom Line

All in all, the CH331 is comfortable enough to wear for long gaming sessions and the black on black color scheme wouldn’t be distracting for a streamer to wear. However, the giant control panel and USB cord is keeping this pair of headphones at your desk, not outside in the real world.

This headset has very decent quality for an entry level device, even if it’s rather bass heavy. Retailing at $49.99, the CH331 would make a good budget friendly purchase for a new streamer or gamer wanting inexpensive surround sound.

It may read like a tabloid headline, but it seems that Janet Jackson's 1989 song "Rhythm Nation" has the power to crash laptops, according to a blog post on Microsoft's devblogs - and a subsequent vulnerability has been raised on the CVE database, as noted by The Register.

The tale comes from a Microsoft devblog post by Raymond Chen, who recalls a story shared by a colleague from way back in the days of Windows XP - 2005 or so. It was noticed that playing the music video to "Rhythm Nation" - a moderate hit for Jackson, reaching number two in the Billboard Hot 100 and picking up a Grammy nomination for its production - over a laptop’s speakers would sometimes crash a different laptop placed nearby. 

This was, as you might expect, very puzzling. Eventually, someone applied their massive brain to the problem and worked out that, rather than being a response from the laptop to the quality of the music, the tune contained the resonant frequency of the victim’s 5,400 RPM hard drive, so playing the song near it caused the platters to wobble, contact the drive head, and crash.

As you’ll no doubt remember from high school, resonant frequency is a property of a material that sees an increase in oscillation amplitude when a force is applied at that particular frequency that you wouldn’t see if the force was applied at any other frequency.

The susceptible laptops’ manufacturer responded to the problem by creating a custom digital filter in the audio system that stripped the frequencies, nullifying at least the problem of a Jackson-pumping laptop junking itself. The problem went away, as did 5,400 RPM hard drives in laptops.

Until, that is, Chen published the reminiscence on his blog, dated 16th August. This seems to have kicked something into gear, or possibly sent out a pulse of resonant frequencies, and caused a new addition to the register of Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures, dated 17th August. The vulnerability has been assigned a reference number, and received an acknowledgement from security vendor Tenable.

When it comes to macro keyboards, Elgato’s Stream Decks usually come to mind. For many streamers, the highly-customizable input devices, complete with full-color screens under each key, are critical tools that allow them to perform complex actions in OBS  in just one step.

Loupedeck’s line of macro devices take the user well beyond streaming. Don’t get me wrong: Any macro keyboard, even a home-made Raspberry Pi one, can be used for other purposes than streaming — but how many have features integrated for video, photo, or even animation editing? Loupedeck’s consoles are built to work with Twitch, Adobe Suite, Ableton, Twitter, OBS, and music software such as Spotify right out of the box. 

I took a look at the three consoles in Loupedeck’s current lineup: the Loupedeck Live ($269), the Loupedeck+ ($279), and the Loupedeck CT ($549). Loupedeck also recently announced the upcoming Loupedeck S ($180), which is currently fully-funded on Indiegogo and is set to start shipping in the fall. Razer also recently announced its own branded version of the Loupedeck Live which is identical to the original but has Razer branding. 

Loupedeck Live

The Loupedeck Live ($269) is the smallest of Loupedeck’s current lineup and is geared toward streamers and content creators. It has 12 programmable touchscreen buttons, six tactile knobs, and eight tactile buttons (one of which is the dedicated home/back button). I don't know what it is about this black matte finish but dust LOVES it. Luckily there is a lock mode that turns off the touch screen and button functions so you can wipe off the console.

Just like the Loupedeck Live has a lock mode there is something called a Dynamic Mode where the buttons on the touchscreen will switch depending on the application running. I can have Photoshop and Premiere open at the same time, which is kind of overkill but sometimes necessary. My touchscreen buttons will change from photo editing to video editing just by clicking on Premiere. 

The Live has integrations with Twitch that can start a commercial break, welcome a new subscriber with a special sound effect, or simply stop and start your stream. Lined with three knobs on each side and eight round buttons at the bottom, the Live is suited to control volume, skip songs, and scrub through a video. 

It’s great for keyboard shortcuts in any program. For example, buttons can be created for copy and paste or activating full screen. The knobs on the side are called Rotating Dials. They have two functions, rotating infinitely with built-in notches and pressing in. This creates 12 functions out of these six knobs. The eight round buttons at the bottom are called the Workspace buttons, with the first one being the Home or Back button. These buttons help navigate between Workspaces or pages - which are a list of buttons that show on the face of the Loupedeck. There are two ways to move between pages; swiping or by pressing the round buttons to move on to the next page. 

This is the smallest of the Loupedeck consoles but still packs a lot of configuration power. With over 70 native programs supported in software, the  Live is great for any level of streamer, producer, programmer, or computer user — novice to intermediate. This is a piece of hardware that can grow with you if you’re just starting out. As an advanced streamer, I enjoy using the Loupedeck Live to try out new commands, engage viewers, and help streamline the process of streaming. It doesn’t take up too much room on your desk, measuring 5.9 inches wide by 4.3 inches deep, and 1.18 inches thick. It weighs about half a pound. 

The Loupedeck Live really helped me to get organized and categorize my movements and the processes I use to run one of my game streams. I can create one page, or a set of buttons,  for the beginning of my stream, swipe to the next page for the middle of my stream, and then go to a third page to wrap up my stream. And I can create duplicate buttons so I don’t have to switch back and forth between pages.

Once a live stream is over I can move on to post-stream activities, such as opening Adobe Premiere to start working on editing the footage. With the help of the Loupedeck Live’s Dynamic Mode, my pages or workspace change when I open up different applications. If I’d rather wind down instead of getting right to work, I can set up a page for that. I can create different profiles and call them things such as “Stream Junae Profile,” “Post-Stream Junae Profile,” or “Leisure Junae Profile.” And have everything I need within those profiles such as Spotify controls and buttons to launch my favorite games or open productivity apps such as Microsoft Word to write articles — it’s very intuitive.

Loupedeck CT

The $549 Loupedeck CT is made for creative professionals who do serious video or audio editing. The Loupedeck CT is the largest of the Loupedeck consoles (as opposed to the Loupedeck+, which is more of a deck than a console), measuring 6.2 inches wide by 5.9 inches deep and 1.18 inches thick. The Loupedeck CT has the same buttons and knobs as the Loupedeck Live, and adds a bottom section which features a large dial and 12 square tactile buttons.

The Loupedeck CT is bulkier than the Live, tipping the scales at 0.8 pounds, but I wouldn’t change a thing. The black matte finish attracts quite a bit of dust, but is also very easy to clean. The separation of the touchscreen buttons and tactile buttons so I don’t click a function I didn’t intend to use is a great design.

The dial is definitely an upgrade. Every button on the Loupedeck CT has some kind of feedback — haptic or tactile — except for the dial. Baby, when I tell you turning this dial is like spreading whipped butter on a piece of bread with sugar and cinnamon, believe it! It’s so smooth! The dial makes scrolling through web pages, scrubbing through editing timelines, selecting colors, and adjusting highlights and shadows a very smooth, enjoyable process.

The dial and buttons — like everything on Loupedeck’s consoles — are customizable. Adding these buttons relieves the need to create a shortcut function. The 12 buttons include inputs from a keypad, such as up/down, Fn, and Ctrl — no more pressing Ctrl +Z like a caveman! The buttons also include shortcuts such as Undo and Save.

Every button, knob, and dial on the Loupedeck CT is customizable and works fabulously in Dynamic Mode. Dynamic Mode allows you to switch seamlessly between programs and continue to use the Loupedeck CT without interrupting your workflow. For example, I can be using OBS and switch to Ableton, and the buttons and functions on the Loupedeck CT will change with me. If there are multiple people using the Loupedeck CT, you can create individual profiles for each person — or you can create profiles for different work and lifestyle modes.

Some macro keypads limit you to three pages of buttons, but the Loupedeck CT lets you create up to 10 pages of buttons (12 buttons per page). That’s over 100 button functions available on one profile.

It doesn’t matter how many (or few) buttons you have, the Loupedeck CT’s dial is definitely its stand-out feature. I use the dial in photo and video editing to get precise measurements that are easily overshot on a mouse, or that take too long on a keyboard. For example, if I want to turn up an effect to an exact number — such as turning the vignette to 62 — it’s difficult on a mouse, but I can use the dial to get there without having to make precise mouse movements.

The Loupedeck CT does everything the Loupedeck Live does — it’s easy to program it to work with streaming platforms such as OBS and Twitch, and to get it to play SFX for streaming without having to program them in StreamElements. I especially like that the Fn buttons can be placed on the keyboard, as this means less programming.

The Loupedeck CT lets me do all the things I need to do during a stream, and easily integrates with Twitch, Streamlabs, and OBS. But it’s in post-stream content editing where the Loupedeck CT’s jog dial really stands out. Because the Loupedeck CT is larger, heavier, and has a dial — which is potentially easier to damage — I wouldn’t feel comfortable traveling with this bulkier console. But if you can afford it the Loupedeck CT’s versatility makes it a powerful streaming companion.

Loupedeck+

If you want the feel of a professional editing deck like the ones they use in studios, get a Loupedeck+. With more than 40 buttons, knobs, and switches, the Loupedeck+ is largest in the series, measuring 17.8 inches wide, 8.2 inches deep, and 1.9 inches thick, and weighing about 1.5 pounds — it’s roughly the size of a typical PC keyboard.

Unlike the Loupedeck Live and Loupedeck CT consoles, the Loupedeck+ doesn’t have a screen. Instead, it’s got buttons on buttons on buttons, mixed with knobs, dials, and switches — this is an editing machine that editors and producers will love! The Loupedeck+ is advanced enough to do all of the intricate things you need to do in photo, video, and audio editing, and it’s simple enough for a beginner to use.

The press in functions on dials reset their values back to zero — useful if you’re trying to take something such as color saturation back to its default. The color switches make it easier to adjust the greens, blues, and reds for photo and video color correction. The dials make it easier to accurately control the levels of functions rather than trying to guess by looking at sliding bars.

Thanks to notches in each knob, values don’t increase too quickly. Although the buttons on the Loupedeck+ have printed labels such as Temperature, Tint, and Saturation, they’re still customizable — you can overwrite the default functions to perform whatever functions you like, though you’ll have to remember what you changed them to (or, I suppose, you could re-label them).

The Loupedeck+ has built-in level buttons that you can use for different levels of editing. For example, Level 1 could be the default settings button, Level 2 could be all color gradients, and Level 3 could be for adding extra effects. Again, each button is still completely customizable.

If you’re new to editing photos and videos, the Loupedeck+ might be overwhelming at first. I’m not new to editing, but I don’t think the Loupedeck+ is an ideal console for me because while I like to edit, I also like to stream and have shortcuts on my console that open up regular applications such as email. The Loupedeck+ is highly programmable, just like the other Loupedeck consoles, but it’s definitely designed for editing photos and videos. It’s the cheapest of the three Loupedeck consoles, but it’s still $249 — so you should only choose this console if you really like the layout (and don’t mind skipping a screen).

Which Loupedeck is the Best Choice for You?

If you do any streaming or want the deck for general productivity work, the Loupedeck Live and CT are for you. The Loupedeck+ is mainly for professional photo and video editors who will use its dials for the purposes they have printed on them.

The Loupedeck Live and the Loupedeck CT integrate with with Twitch, Adobe Suite, OBS, Spotify, and about 70 other programs, while the Loupedeck+ supports Lightroom Classic, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, Photoshop with Camera Raw, After Effects, Audition, and Aurora HDR. They’re all highly customizable and can control volume and launch any shortcuts you want. If you want to create a shortcut that a program doesn't have, you can use the Loupedeck software to create a custom command.

The consoles also have the ability to save various profiles, either for different use cases or different users. The touch screen ability on the Loupedeck Live and CT allow you to swipe between screens or select actions, such as opening OBS. All models have Dynamic Mode, which means they can switch button functions and screens automatically as you move between different programs (e.g. OBS and Photoshop).

Another satisfying feature of the Loupedeck consoles is the haptic feedback you get as you touch the screen, rotate the buttons, or press in the buttons. The dial on the CT rotates smoothly, with no notches, no feedback, and no push in feature. The dial also has a mini LED screen so it’s unexpected to have multiple functions. Even the Control Dial on the Loupedeck+ has notches and pushes in creating another button function. On both the Loupedeck CT and Loupedeck+ the square buttons seem to contain blue switches.

For streamers and general productivity users, the Loupedeck Live is the best choice, while the Loupedeck CT is best for streamers who also do some video editing. The Loupedeck+ is for heavy video and photo editors.

I prefer the Loupedeck CT, as a content creator who streams and also dabbles in video editing. I’m mainly a writer, so I can setup profiles to streamline my writing process — the same goes for video editing. I’m an intermediate-level video editor, so the programmable Loupedeck shortcuts help a lot as I don’t yet have my video editing app’s menu and keyboard shortcuts memorized.

The Loupedeck consoles don’t cut my writing time in half, but they do cut down on how much time I spend digging through software menus, which is very nice. The Loupedeck+ is a different beast that’s somewhat above me — I don’t consistently edit photos or videos at that level, but it’s nice to know the options are there if I ever want to go deeper.

If you’re looking for a cool Raspberry Pi project to jam out with this summer, take a close look at this open-source MIDI controller and sequencer created by maker and musician Niisse. It’s 100% driven by a Raspberry Pi 4 and features handmade modules that handle special effects as well as input controls for real-time jam sessions.

This is a work in progress but so much progress has been made so far that we think it’s worth sharing. In the demo, Niisse is able to program a beat as well as play instruments with MIDI effects in accompaniment including electric guitar as well as keyboard. Effects can be controlled in real-time using modules and pre-programmed modulations.

The operation is driven by a Raspberry Pi 4 connected to a series of note control modules created by Niisse using SN74 type logic chips on a series of breadboards (at least while it’s in prototype phase). These breadboards feature a series of buttons, LEDs, and display modules to help him keep track of what note is being played as well as any numbers necessary to track the effect details.

The code created for this project was written by Niisse in Python and, like the rest of the project, is open source for anyone who wants to use the code or just take a closer look at how it works. This Python script used by the Pi is responsible for driving the sequencer application and handling input from the individual modules. Visit the RPiMidiSC project page at GitHub to check it out yourself.

According to his GitHub profile, Niisse is a software development student with an affinity for music and the technology that goes along with it. It’s no surprise he’s combined his experience into this open source platform that’s concert ready—even if it’s not totally finished just yet.

There are already plans in the works to upgrade the project. Niisse expressed interest in making the sequencer totally portable and documenting the build process over at YouTube. In the meantime, you can recreate this Raspberry Pi project in its current state by checking out his official YouTube channel where you’ll also find a groovy live demo of it in action.

Being focused initially on PC gaming, Razer cannot ignore such phenomena as game streamers. So the company has gradually built up a lineup of controllers aimed at these live content creators. On Thursday, the company introduced its Razer Stream Controller, enabling streamers to control their programs remotely. Interestingly, to build its Stream Controller, Razer used to design software from Loupedeck.

Razer's Stream Controller is a small box with 12 programmable keys, screens that can activate a software function or a macro, and six tactile analog dials used to control audio or things like zoom in/zoom out. The device measures 151×101.5×30.2 mm, weighs 210 grams (216 grams with a detachable angle stand), and connects to a Windows or macOS-based PC using a USB cable.

The device was developed by Loupedeck (yet it carries Razer's logotype on its front) and runs its proprietary software (perhaps with some customizations for Razer). That software supports not only programs used by game streamers (e.g., OBS, Twitch, vMix, Ecamm Live, etc.), but a bunch of other applications used by content creators, including such programs as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Philips Hue Bridge, and Spotify. Furthermore, Loupedeck has over 70 profiles, plugins & icon packs for several other applications. The software automatically activates profiles for active applications, though it is possible to start a particular profile using numeric keys on the front of the device.

Razer's Stream Controller is the company's direct rival for Corsair's Elgato Stream Deck. However, Razer needs to offer a complete set of products aimed at game streamers, so it has to have a controller which allows software and hardware control of a PC in a bid not to make its clients use hardware from a rival.

Razer's Stream Controller works with Apple's macOS X 10.14 (later) and Microsoft's Windows 10 operating systems. Razer's Stream Controller costs $269.99 in the U.S., just like Loupedeck's Live controller, which has the same design and runs the same software.

Custom synth projects are nothing new in the Raspberry Pi community but this open-source shader PCB known as Slimshader is definitely a breath of fresh air in the DIY synth world! Created by maker and developer Erik Oostveen, this project aims to provide custom visual effects to music in real-time.

According to Oostveen, Slimshader is a GlslViewer-based, open-source PCB designed to display shader files with a Eurorack design. It offers both analog and HDMI output for video, allowing users to add visual effects to music in real-time. If you’re new to shaders, these are graphic simulations that respond to audio input.

The Slimshader PCB was designed from scratch by Oostveen and features a graphics design printed across the top. It has a series of inputs available that can be used to program custom visual effects. On the reverse is a Raspberry Pi which powers the project. Slimshader has been tested and confirmed to operate with a Raspberry Pi Zero W, Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, and a Raspberry Pi 3B.

A custom image file was created just for the Slimshader which, can be downloaded from a Google Drive link available on Oostveen’s website. Shaders can be displayed and modulated using audio input, potentiometers, low-frequency oscillators, voltage control and even via MIDI. Oostveen recommends glslsandbox for finding shaders to experiment with created by various artists who share their work online.

Oostveen is dedicated to creating original designs for a myriad of musical uses, often developing exclusive electronics for the production of music. The Slimshader project is one of many creations he’s developed that provide tools and effects to enhance the experience for live performances. 

If you want to learn more about this Raspberry Pi project, check out the official Slimshader project page on Oostveen’s website. You can also explore the GitHub page for more details and closer look at the project in detail. Be sure to follow Erik Oostveen for more cool projects and any updates on this one.

That avant-garde album of whale song, back-masked beat poetry and solo trombone you recorded a few years ago can now be preserved for the entertainment and general bemusement of future generations of humans (or, perhaps, aliens). The long-term data storage experiment comes to us courtesy of Project Silica, a collaboration between Microsoft and the Norwegian government.

Known as the Global Music Vault, the idea is to preserve our culture for the future, just in case something apocalyptic happens or everyone wakes up one day having forgotten how to whistle. With a lofty aim like that, regular CDs or flash drives full of MP3s won't cut it. Instead, it needs to use something for storage that won't degrade over hundreds, or even thousands, of years. And to do this, the project has turned to Microsoft's Project Silica, which stores data in glass platters with a potential lifespan of many thousands of years.

The music vault is a parallel project to the Global Seed Vault, which keeps the seeds of today's trees and plants safe for the future, just in case we need to rebuild agriculture for any reason. The vault is located on the island of Spitsbergen, Norwegian territory, within the Arctic circle. It lacks tectonic activity, is permanently frozen, is high enough above sea level to stay dry even if the polar caps melt, and even if the worst happens, it won't thaw out fully for 200 years. Just to be on the safe side, the main vault is built 120m into a sandstone mountain, and its security systems are said to be robust. As of June 2021, the seed vault had conserved 1,081,026 different crop samples.

The music is to be stored in a dedicated vault in the same mountain used by the seed vault. The glass used is an inert material, shaped into platters 75mm (3 inches) across and 2mm (less than 1/8th of an inch) thick. A laser encodes data in the glass by creating layers of three-dimensional nanoscale gratings and deformations. Machine learning algorithms read the data back by decoding images and patterns created as polarized light shines through the glass. The silica glass platters are fully resistant to electromagnetic pulses and the most challenging of environmental conditions. It can be baked, boiled, scoured and flooded without degradation of the data written into the glass. Tests to see if it really does last many thousands of years, however, can be assumed to be ongoing.

Jurgen Willis, Vice President of Program Management at Microsoft, said, "In this proof of concept, Microsoft and Elire Group worked together to demonstrate how Project Silica can help achieve the goal of preserving and safeguarding the world's most valuable music for posterity, on a medium that will stand the test of time, using innovative archival storage in glass."

Of course, having a music vault is one thing, but deciding what to keep is also important. The Global Music Vault has therefore commenced Project ARV, which looks to gather musical expressions from across the world for celebration and safeguarding. So ready your trombones, people! We honk into infinity.

This Raspberry Pi digital audio workstation (DAW), created by maker and musician Stone Preston, takes the Raspberry Pi 4-powered synth idea to a whole new level. The project, known as LMN 3, is entirely open-source and packed with tons of cool features to make custom jams just the way you want them—with plenty of input options and tons of flexibility when it comes to sound wave manipulation.

The Raspberry Pi is a community-driven board and this project wouldn’t be in the same spirit if wasn't open source. Thankfully, Preston has shared all of the juicy details about how it was made, how it works, and what you need to do to make your own at home. All of the repositories are available over at his Fundamental Frequency GitHub profile for any curious party to look through.

Preston considers the LN3 project a DAW-in-a-box with tools to function as a synth, audio sampler and sequencer. This is one of many projects he’s created, past works include an Arduino-based weather application and a custom Arduino library for a 7-segment display module. No doubt this experience culminated into the clever project we see today.

A full build guide is available and includes an exact list of all of the components used in its construction. It’s built around a Raspberry Pi 4 and is assisted by a Teensy 4.1 microcontroller. A Pimoroni Hyperpixel 4 screen is used for video output while input is handled by rotary encoders, a joystick and a series of mechanical keyboard keys. Everything is housed inside of a shell made from an acrylic sheet.

The software used leaves plenty of wiggle room for drawing up custom effects and implementing original audio samples. The interface, firmware and everything necessary to drive the DAW is available over at GitHub for anyone to download.

If you want to recreate this Raspberry Pi project, check out the LMN 3 build guide for the full instructions. There’s also a demo video of the LMN 3 in action over at YouTube if you just want to see what it’s capable of. Be sure to follow Fundamental Frequency for more cool projects and any future updates on this one.

While it’s possible to run your Raspberry Pi headless (without a monitor), half of the fun is using the tiny PC to drive a display for videos, games, and an endless array of visual possibilities. However, one of the best screen options has to be RGB matrices. Today we’ve got a fantastic matrix project put together by Allen from Allen’s Lab, who created an impressively comprehensive dashboard for his 64 x 32 matrix.

As of writing, this is the only project over at the Allen’s Lab YouTube channel. However, the channel description indicates plans to upload more projects in the future ranging from robotics and 3D printing to coding projects from scratch.

If future projects are as feature-packed as this one, we’re definitely in for a treat. This dashboard includes many tools, including basic things like displaying the time and weather and integration with external apps like Notion, a system used for tracking to-do lists, and Spotify.

A closer look at the hardware inside indicates a Raspberry Pi 3B+ is the primary controller, but there’s no reason you couldn’t use a Raspberry Pi 4 in its stead. You can drive a matrix using something smaller like a Pico, but you'll need something a little beefier to take advantage of Allen’s feature pack. The case is 3D-printed with PETG and designed with a solid panel covering the matrix thin enough for the LEDs to shine through. The case also has a swivel feature and a tilt switch that changes the screen orientation when activated.

Allen programmed the dashboard with Python in conjunction with Hzeller’s RGB matrix library found over at GitHub. Weather updates are pulled from Open Weather Map, while Pushbullet handles phone notifications. The dashboard app selection is through a rotary encoder that includes a GIF player, the Game of Life, and even a YouTube subscriber counter.

If you want to recreate this Raspberry Pi project yourself, check out the demo video shared on YouTube by Allen’s Lab, and be sure to visit the project’s official GitHub page.

Corsair has a history of offering headsets with sound and build quality above what you’d expect for their price, and the new HS65 Surround ($80 MSRP at the time of this writing) continues this tradition. This new mid-range entry is a completely new design that answers some of the aesthetic and control complaints about its predecessor, the HS60 Pro Surround, while continuing to over deliver in build quality, comfort, and, most importantly, sound quality. And with both USB and 3.5mm connections, the HS60 works with your PC, as well as your PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch.

Not everything about the new design is a clear win — the custom SoundID profile feature didn’t click for me — but this attractive, great-sounding headset is definitely worth close consideration for gamers looking for a solid surround-sound headset that won’t break the budget.

Corsair HS65 Surround Specifications

Design and Comfort of Corsair HS65

The build quality of the HS65 Surround is top-notch. The headband and earcup mounts are solid aluminum, with tasteful matte black plastic earcups and an understated dark metal grille design and Corsair logo on each cup. (A white and gray model is also available.) 

There’s also subtle Corsair branding on top of the matte black headband. If you’re looking more for “tasteful” than “notice my awesome gaming headset,” this classy, understated design is definitely a step up from the faux camouflage of the earlier HS60 Haptic or the oversized mesh grilles and cross-stitched padding on the HS60 Pro Surround.

The extremely comfortable memory foam earcups have cloth on the surface that touches your head and protein leather on the edges. This helps keep them from feeling as hot as cans with leather all around can during long sessions, while still providing better sound isolation than completely cloth-covered designs. There’s also thick, comfortable memory foam on the bottom of the headband.

At 0.6 pounds (282 grams), these aren’t featherweights, but they are on the lighter side for cans with 50mm drivers. The aluminum-reinforced headband provides solid clamping force. On my largish head (I use the last two notches on a baseball cap), the HS65 Surround stayed firmly in place without feeling tight or constrictive. However, the headset was clearly at the limits of its flexibility when I wore it, so gamers with even bigger noggins might find it too tight.

Volume is managed with a simple scroll wheel on the left earcup; this is much easier and quicker to use than fancy touch controls or buttons hanging off the microphone cord. Corsair’s earlier designs had a microphone mute button that didn’t clearly indicate when it was pressed, but this new design has eliminated the button completely. 

To mute the HS65, just swing the non-removable boom mic up to its stored position and it will be disabled. This should help prevent accidental embarrassing or annoyed comments from leaking into game sessions — if you choose to insult your gaming partner’s abilities, you’ll know you’re doing it.

The USB-A dongle doesn’t have any controls. I don’t need duplicated volume controls, but a switch to toggle surround sound would be nice (instead, you’ll have to go into Corsair’s iCUE software).

Audio Performance of Corsair HS65

The HS65 supports both stereo audio and, using the included USB-A dongle, Dolby Surround sound. The large 50mm drivers do a solid job of reproducing the lows of bass and battle as well as higher-pitched environmental and musical cues.

I played Call of Duty:Warzone with 7.1-channel Dolby Surround enabled and the FPS Competition equalizer preset enabled, and I was able to get good positional audio cues without the bass of gunfire and explosions overwhelming the audio. I also chatted over Discord while playing, and swapping to the Clear Chat preset muffled the game audio a bit but brought out the voices of other players clearly. \

In the less action-packed Microsoft Flight Simulator, I dropped to the Pure Direct EQ preset, which clearly reproduced cockpit and environmental sounds. Panning around the exterior of a plane was great for showing off the effectiveness of the surround sound.

The USB dongle does an admirable job with both stereo and surround audio, but it also bypasses your PC’s built-in sound card. If your rig is equipped with high-end audio, you can put the dongle aside and plug directly into the 3.5mm jack to take full advantage of your motherboard’s native sound capabilities.

Thanks to its 3.5mm plug, the HS65 Surround is also compatible with consoles and older smartphones. I played Halo: Infinite with the headset connected to a controller, and the Xbox’s Series X’s Dolby Atmos for Headphones surround quality was nearly identical to what I heard using the USB dongle with the Windows version of the game on my PC.

The Dolby Surround audio also sounded great when I watched movies and TV shows. The battles in the Halo TV series sounded as immersive as they do in the game, thanks to the headphones’ strong-but-not-overbearing bass and excellent surround-sound simulation. Dialogue was clear even during action sequences.

Musically, I wouldn’t trade the clarity of my audiophile-focused (and admittedly more expensive) Sennheiser HD3s for the HS65, but the HS65s sound pretty good for gaming-first headphones. I got plenty of bass in Daft Punk’s “Technologic.” But highs and mids in songs with acoustic instruments, such as Bowie’s “Starman,” were crisp and distinct as well. Music is faithfully reproduced across the volume spectrum, with no distortion except at the very top of the volume dial. Maximum volume is plenty loud; I was at the top of my comfort level with both the Windows and headset volume dials maxxed out.

The non-removable mic, which swivels out of the way for storage, does a great job with a frequency response of 100-10,000Hz. Clarity is excellent, and its directional pickup did a good job of isolating outside noise. The swiveling design means there’s no pop filter, but neither I nor my teammates noticed any popping or clipping in recordings or during game testing.

Features and Software of Corsair HS65

The H65 Surround can be used out of the box without any additional software, but you’ll need Corsair’s iCUE software to enable surround sound, custom SoundID profiles, and to adjust equalizer settings. (It’s the same software package used by other Corsair devices, so you can also use it to adjust the RGB settings on Corsair keyboard and Asus Aura-enable devices.)

The equalizer module lets you toggle Dolby 7.1 Surround support and adjust the microphone volume. There are five EQ presets, and you can create custom presets as well. In addition to the Clear Chat, Pure Direct, and FPS Competition presets mentioned in the Audio Performance section, there’s also a Movie Theater setting and a Bass Boost preset. The Bass Boost preset felt a bit overblown, but the others were well-tuned for the HS65 Surround’s audio signature. 

New to the HS65 is support for Sonarworks’ SoundID technology, which according to Corsair is designed to let you tweak audio to your personal preferences. You select an audio track from a choice of seven different musical styles ranging from distorted guitars to screaming metal to mellow vocals. SoundID plays the track with various filters applied and you choose between A and B samples for each. Once you’ve done a series of these, the iCUE creates a custom SoundID profile based on your preferences. 

Sound profiles are, of course, subjective, but the results just didn’t work for me. I picked the filters that seemed to bring instruments and vocals to the forefront. But when I tried the SoundID profile with a variety of songs — ranging from Pink Floyd to Kendrick Lamar — the soundstage seemed wider but the vocals sounded muddied and the instruments less differentiated. Game audio suffered a similar perceived loss of clarity. I admire the intent, but I had much better results creating a manual profile with iCUE’s equalizer.

Bottom Line

The Corsair HS65 Surround delivers solid audio performance in a well-built, attractive package. It’s comfortable to wear for extended periods of time, and both 7.1 surround and stereo audio are clear and accurate. There’s a good amount of bass, but it’s not over-accentuated to the point that it negatively affects music accuracy — unlike some gaming headphones which overemphasize low frequencies. Corsair has a clear contender here for top choice in its price range.

Other headphones to consider in a similar price range include the HyperX Cloud Alpha, which provides stiff competition for the HS65 Surround in both sound quality and comfort areas but lacks a USB surround adapter, and the Fnatic React+, which has a similar feature set but a stronger emphasis on bass that negatively affects music clarity.

If there’s one kind of project we can groove to, it’s a Raspberry Pi radio and today’s melodious creation is made for those who have an insatiable taste for lofi hip hop. Created by a maker known as Nicholas Sherlock, the Lofipi radio uses a Pi to stream lofi hip hop videos from YouTube.

The project was designed from scratch by Sherlock, including its 3D-printed retro-style housing. The final Lofipi design looks like a retro speaker with two knobs for controls and a faux woodgrain finish. A button is present to enable users to pause and skip music while the tone knob controls a fade between two pre-programmed equalizer settings.

Breaking down the hardware inside reveals a Raspberry Pi 3B+ powering the operation alongside an X400 amplifier board. The project doesn't need the power of the latest Raspberry Pi 4. This is a project that can recycle that ageing Raspberry Pi that has been gathering dust. A speaker is necessary for audio output while a 5V Noctua PWM fan is included to keep everything cool inside the housing. In addition to looking professionally finished, it’s clear the case was made with function in mind as it provides full port access to the Pi on the rear.

To get the woodgrain finish, a texture was added digitally to emulate a natural wood pattern. The final Lofipi radio was printed using cherry wood PLA and stained with walnut-colored wood stain. Anyone interested in printing their own Lofipi radio can find the files at both Printables and Thingiverse. If you’ve never 3D printed before, check out our list of best 3D printers and maybe snag one for some fun weekend projects like this one.

The project required a little custom programming to get all of the peripheral functions working in tandem. The knobs and front button are connected via GPIO as well as the PWM fan. Sherlock created a few default settings for these components to adhere to ensure things like consistent cooling. To get a closer look at the source code, dig into the project files over at GitHub.

If you want to recreate this Raspberry Pi project, check out the original project thread shared to Reddit and explore the photo album posted to Imgur. Both of these are full of details, resources and provide an inside look at how everything goes together.

With most media digitized nowadays, the experience of picking up a physical album and interacting with a stereo to change the music is quickly becoming a thing of the past. However, despite the user-friendly interface of most music streaming platforms, the Raspberry Pi community has stepped forward to recreate the old school process—albeit with a modern twist. This cassette player project from Reddit user Waymonster doesn’t just play cassettes; he’s fitted it with an NFC reader to select an album by reading custom NFC cards.

The project isn’t the first wireless-operated stereo we’ve covered. We recently shared this Sonos radio that relies on NFC cards to change albums. This RFID-controlled radio interacts with Spotify to queue up songs and playlists.

What sets this NFC stereo apart from others is Waymonster’s decision to house the project inside of an old cassette tape player. According to Waymonster, there was enough room inside the stereo to accommodate the Pi project without removing anything. The original hardware remains intact and can function like a cassette player if you remove the NFC sensor.

Waymonster is using a Raspberry Pi 3B+ to power this project, but there’s no reason you couldn’t use a more recent model like the Raspberry Pi 4. The Pi is fitted with a HiFiBerry DAC2 HD HAT and uses a Mifare RC522 module to read the NFC cards.

Instead of streaming music from an online platform, Waymonster uses Volumio to play media stored locally on a NAS. He used the Volumio GPIO Buttons plugin to interface with the physical buttons on the stereo. Each card corresponds with a custom playlist comprised of tracks belonging to the album printed on the card.

The best Raspberry Pi projects are the ones you can make at home, and thankfully there’s plenty of material online for anyone interested in creating a similar project themselves. For example, Waymonster printed custom artwork on blank NFC cards, but you can use anything with an NFC tag.

There are a few ways to approach the software side—Waymonster recommends looking through this NFC Music Box project over at GitHub to get started. For more details, check out the original project thread shared to Reddit.

The Roland MT-32, you’ll no doubt remember, was a MIDI synthesizer first released in 1987 that became an early standard in computer music - being used to create the complete scores for several videogames from the likes of Sierra On-Line and Lucasfilm Games. Retro PC audio hardware is now highly sought after and this translates to high prices. One thing the Raspberry Pi is good at, is breathing life into the retro hardware scene and now, a British engineer has recreated the MT-32, in a much smaller case, using a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W.

Dale Whinham, from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK, is a PhD candidate studying computer science and game technology. In what little spare time he has, he restores vintage computers, and makes cool stuff. To coincide with the Raspberry Pi’s tenth birthday, he revealed his MT-32-Pi on Twitter, commenting that it is the “first piece of MT32-Pi hardware”, suggesting we may see more.

The synth is housed in a custom 3D-printed case, with matching stand, but the bottom half of the case can be replaced with a Flirc aluminum Pi Zero case to aid cooling. The screen is a full-size 128 x 64 OLED display, and it features two buttons plus a thumbwheel (with click button) as its controls.

The software is open-source, based on the Munt and FluidSynth synth engines, programmed in C++ and C and available on Github. “It also makes use of the Circle project by Rene Stange,” Whinham tells us. “This is a low-level C++ ‘bare-metal’ programming environment that provides a framework and drivers for accessing the Raspberry Pi's hardware. In many ways, from a programming perspective it's like having a 1GHz+ quad-core Arduino, a very similar style of coding.” MT32-Pi therefore has direct access to the hardware, keeping the audio latency very low, something he hopes audio enthusiasts and musicians will appreciate. 

With MT-32 ROMs being copyrighted material, the user is expected to provide their own, but the MT32-Pi does come with a general MIDI and Roland GS compatible SoundFont by S. Christian Collins. “This means that even without any extra data or ROM files, the user has a GM/GS-compatible synthesizer out of the box,” says Whinham. The synth is also compatible with the MiSTer FPGA hardware, which emulates consoles, classic computers, and arcade boards, via a USB connection.

MT32-Pi is the first piece of hardware Whinham has designed, and it will be open-sourced to match the accompanying software. He will be selling them  - in limited quantities to begin with - via his Ko-Fi shop. 

The Immerse GV60 marks the first standalone desktop microphone from well-known computer hardware and accessory company MSI. With its first microphone, MSI aims its sights at the live-stream gaming and creator market. As such, the plug & play GV60 has four polar patterns, each explicitly geared towards picking up pristine sound for specific situations like podcasting, capturing vocals, or instruments. Most of all, MSI touts High Resolution Digital Audio with a 24-bit/96 kHz sample rate, 3.2 times more data than the traditional sample rate/bit rate most rival microphones use.

With its premium finish, uniform dial placement and competitive price of $129.99, the MSI Immerse GV60 may be an excellent choice for some, but is arguably overkill for someone solely interested in broadcasting.

Design of the MSI Immerse GV60

The MSI Immerse GV60 is one of the slickest matte-finished black microphones I’ve ever seen. It has a premium design and monochrome color, making it an aesthetically easy addition to any setup. It’s got roughly the same dimensions as a Blue Yeti, measuring 120 x 125 x 295 inches. However, the Yeti has a more rounded shape than the somewhat boxy build of the GV60. I’m using the Blue Yeti as a comparison point here both because it’s a mainstay for hobbyists and because it’s what I had on hand when writing this review.

The GV60 is also twice as heavy as a Blue Yeti, weighing in at 2.4 pounds. Although these things make the Blue Yeti easier to hold, I still prefer the thicker build of the GV60. The design allows all control dials to be alongside each other, unlike on the Blue Yeti, which finds its dials distributed along its front and back. The GV60’s dials, which are all front and center, include a single knob to adjust between polar patterns and two knobs for headphone and microphone volume, respectively.

Having all the dials on one side makes adjusting the sound on the fly much easier on the GV60 as opposed to the Blue Yeti, which will have you making unwanted adjustments to the position of the mic to access certain dials. There’s also a dedicated mute button at the bottom of the mic that pushes in and out. When the mute button is active, the mic’s blue light, which indicates that it’s on, will turn red. Since the MSI Immerse GV60 utilizes no software, it’s less of a plus to include all these physical buttons and more of a necessity.

Underneath the microphone is where you can find its 3.5mm headphone jack and USB-C port, located next to its built-in threading. Its 10 foot (3m) USB-C to USB-A cable is lengthy and comes with a rubber tie at the end for cable management. The GV60 comes attached to a swivel stand alongside a separately packaged pop filter that fits on the top of the microphone. The stand can swivel the microphone 180 degrees vertically and securely hold it in place. I was never afraid of it falling or spinning out of control. The stand uses two screw caps in order to keep the mic in place. As a result, both ports are easy to reach when the mic is on a stand. The pop filter is made of foam and effortlessly slides on and off. It has its uses, which I’ll discuss more below, but aesthetically speaking, I like to keep it off.

MSI Immerse GV60 Specs

Sound Quality on the MSI Immerse GV60

MSI says the Immerse GV60 is able to reproduce high-resolution digital audio as a result of its higher-than-usual sample rate. Most microphones utilize a sample rate commonly found in CDs, 16bit/44.1Hz. According to its spec sheet, the MSI Immerse GV60 uses a studio-grade 24bit/96kHz sample rate. And during my use, I did find the audio to have more clarity than my 16-bit/48kHz Blue Yeti, and that’s coming straight out of the box without any subsequent software tweaks.

MSI included four polar patterns on the Immerse: cardioid, bidirectional, stereo, and omnidirectional. Omnidirectional picks up sounds from all directions and is better for capturing environmental noises than voices. When I tested this pattern, despite being close to the mic, it ended up picking up my surroundings better than my gibberish. When it did come through, my voice sounded a bit muddy. The bidirectional pickup pattern utilizes the front and rear of the microphone to pick up sound and is best suited for instruments or when two individual voices are present. 

Stereo uses the left and right channels of the microphone to pick up noises and is meant to produce a realistic, general sound for capturing a choir or someone singing. I came through fine when testing my voice under this pattern, but it sounded like playback from an old camcorder. I’m sure the stereo setting is useful under certain circumstances outside its recommended use. Maybe for a true-crime podcast recording. However, I never found a practical use for the stereo polar pattern.

As a live streaming microphone, however, the caridoid setting is the most important, as it utilizes the front of the microphone to pick up voices and block out ambient noises. There was a noticeable jump in sound quality from my Twitch streams compared to my usual set-up with the Blue Yeti. Viewers immediately told me that I sounded much crisper than usual, and I recognized the difference in clarity when I watched the playback of the stream later. In Streamlabs OBS, I usually use a noise gate and noise suppression filter. But with this new microphone, I no longer needed to use a noise gate.

However, a noise suppression filter will still be necessary in order to isolate sounds like the clicks of your mechanical keyboard. You still may hear slight sounds from the impact your fingers make on your desk, even if your mic is on a boom arm like mine is. During my morning meeting for work, I couldn’t use the same software filters I’d use in Streamlabs OBS. So the GV60 picked up every semi-truck honking through traffic outside my window even though the mic volume was fairly low.

Speaking of OBS, live broadcast software similar to Streamlabs and platforms like Twitch only support or recommend 48Khz audio. They’re compatible with 24-bit/96 kHz audio just fine, but the audio will be downsampled nonetheless. This makes the GV60 and its high-def digital audio more practical for a variety of creator uses, instead of the singular use of live streaming that some may be planning to use it for.

There’s a dedicated control dial to adjust between the four polar pattern options on the fly. It’s a bit difficult to change that specific dial without holding onto the microphone itself, which may give off scratchy feedback in the act. In contrast, adjustments for the mic and headphone dials slide easily to the left and right.

The bottom of the GV60 houses the 3.5mm headphone jack and its USB-C to USB-A port. The jack is for real-time monitoring, which provides zero latency during playback, so you can instantly monitor your voice for volume and clarity. The built-in threading on the mic’s bottom center is for an adapter that connects the mic to a five-eighths inch boom arm. The Immerse GV60 fit into my Blue Compass boom arm fine with an adapter attached. When attached to a boom mic, both the port and jack are in plain view and easily accessible.

Accessories and Compatibility of the MSI Immerse GV60

The MSI Immerse GV60 comes with a swivel stand that can adjust the microphone up or down with ease. Two screw caps keep the microphone in place and swing it up and down. That makes it a more helpful stand than some others, which is great if you’re not interested in using a boom arm. That said, it is better to move microphones as far away from your keyboard as possible when recording. 

Unfortunately, there was no boom arm adapter included in the box. And since my original adapter was stripped inside my Blue Yeti, I had to wait a few days for a new one to arrive before attaching the GV60 to my Blue Compass. Once it did, the USB-C to USB-A wire lined up nicely with the boom arm without much effort. I also tied down excess wiring with a rubber tie. But it was disappointing that a boom arm adapter was not included in the packaging.

The GV60 also includes a pop filter that comes in handy to hide mechanical keyboard clicks entirely if you use a noise suppression filter. I used the microphone both with and without its pop filter, and during playback recordings, I found some differences. With the pop filter on, a bit less ambient noise crept in during playback. Certain harsh consonants starting with the letter “P” clipped the audio in the Audacity voice recorder app when the filter was off and the Project Rate was set to default (44100 Hz). When I tried those exact words with the filter on, there was no clipping. But when the Project Rate in Audacity was set to 96000 Hz, there was no clipping at all with or without the filter. Regardless, it’s nice to know that the filter does indeed make a difference and isn’t a gimmick.

Bottom Line

The MSI Immerse GV60 is a great choice for its intended audience. Out of the box, without any sort of alterations, the GV60 provides excellent clarity. In fact, audio from the mic fresh out of the box had much more clarity than my previous setup with a Blue Yeti and an assortment of Streamlabs OBS filters. 

However, most broadcast software and platforms like Streamlabs and Twitch recommend 48Khz, so the boost in sample rate may only be beneficial if you plan to use the microphone outside of streaming. Software like Streamlabs will support 24-bit/96 kHz sample/bitrate just fine, but keep in mind audio will be downsampled. You will also need software to deliver a proper stream without any outside noises.

If you’re a stickler about microphones picking up keyboard clicks, as the GV60 does, there are workarounds, such as the pop filter that comes with the package. Another workaround would have been to include a boom arm adapter as an incentive to get the microphone away from the same surface as your keyboard, but I had to buy one myself since MSI doesn’t include one in the box.

All of these issues aside, the MSI Immerse GV60 is a solid choice when compared to similar 3.14mm capsule mics like Blue Yeti or HP’s HyperX Quadcast S, both of which tap out at a 16-bit/48kHz sample rate at relatively the same price. Even other options like the Razer Seiren V2 Pro, a cardioid microphone with 24-bit/96 kHz sample/bitrate, are bogged down by overly complicated software. Another cardioid option with a 96 kHz sample/bitrate, the Neat Bumblebee II may be cheaper but is less suited for game streamers. 

But we can only recommend the MSI Immerse GV60 to streamers who intend to use their microphone for other creative applications outside of gaming. There are cheaper options that will get the job done if you’re just a streamer. Pick up the GV60 if you’re a streamer that also may need high def audio reproduction for other creative ventures.

Looking for some chilled beats to work to? Prolific tinkerer Tod Kurt, also known as Todbot, has you covered with an RP2040-based system that uses CircuitPython to mash up breakbeat samples, including the famous Amen break that started it all, into a never-ending background thump. The story comes via Hackster, and there's code on Github for those who like to roll their own.

The system works with any RP2040 board, such as the Raspberry Pi Pico, using its PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) pins to generate audio signals. Kurt chose to base the project on Adafruit's ItsyBitsy RP2040. The code chooses random WAV files from a curated list of samples, and uses CircuitPython’s AudioMixer object to mix them together. As the samples are often of different lengths, you’ll need another program to do the beatmatching. 

AudioMixer is configured with the same number of voices as there are samples - nine in this case - so it’s possible all the samples could be playing at the same time. Remarkably, and despite a few bass and cymbal interludes, the short video of the never-ending breakbeats Kurt has posted on Twitter never sounds disjointed or jerky.

Kurt’s simple output hack sees the audio signal passed across a breadboard to a 3.5mm audio jack, and on to a portable speaker. In fact the whole system is technically portable, as it’s powered over USB from a rechargeable power pack, so you can take your beats to church, the supermarket, a movie theater, anywhere your breakbeat soundtrack would be appreciated, really.

The Amen break comes from an instrumental B-side, composed in 20 minutes in 1969, that backed the single "Color Him Father" by the Winstons, a soul group from Washington DC. The seven-second drum break, later mercilessly sampled by hip-hop artists, came to be the basis for much drum ‘n’ bass music. However, the Winstons, and their drummer Gregory Coleman, have never seen a cent in royalties. Color Him Father won a Grammy award, but the Winstons had little success and ceased performing in 1970.

Kurt's CircuitPython projects, including this one are detailed via his GitHub project pages.

The Razer Kraken V3 is the second in a family of four new sleek RGB-powered V3 series headsets released by Razer in 2021. Despite its confusing name scheme, the V3 is an improved version of the base Razer Kraken V3 X (we initially thought the V3 X would be the better one, but it is actually the budget option). 

As such, the V3 comes with improved Hybrid Fabric and Leatherette Memory Foam ear cushions, Razer TriForce Titanium 50mm Drivers (over the V3 X’s 40mm), and of course THX Spatial Audio instead of 7.1 Surround Sound. 

For under $100, the Razer Kraken V3, with its streamlined design, offers a lot of comforts and, at times, some impressive audio output thanks to the enhancements its software provides. Against all the bells and whistles, however, this inexpensive headset lacks some quality of life and compatibility options under prolonged usage.

Specifications - Razer Kraken V3

Design and Comfort of Razer Kraken V3

Although RGB lights have become a bit tired in the PC enthusiast space, these cans make them look great. It’s even better if you live under the Razer Ecosystem as I do, as Synapse’s software allows the headset lights to match the mouse and keyboard if they’re also Razer products. I’m using the BlackWidow V3 Pro and Deathadder V2 Pro in tandem with the Kraken V3, and it truly enhances the ambiance of my setup.

The unit’s cushions and adjustable padded headband also feel like a dream. The cans themselves sit so lightly on your head that sometimes you can forget they’re even on. I had them on for an entire day, and my ears weren’t scalding hot or sore by the end of it. The V3 also features a flexible HyperClear Cardioid microphone that can detach from the headset, which is excellent because audio playback is the core of what makes the V3 worthwhile. The headset also has a dedicated button on the left cup next to the volume wheel.

Audio Performance

This iteration of the Kraken V3 introduces Razer’s TriForce Titanium 50mm Drivers to the family, described to push out “exceptional highs, mids, and lows that [don’t sound] muddy, providing a more dynamic listening experience for deeper immersion,” according to the Kraken V3’s landing page on Razer’s site. 

I tested this by immediately listening to a few songs, starting with Busta Rhymes’ “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See” and “Truck Volume” on Spotify. Both records deliver heavy kicks and epic bass, respectively. The cans produced the thump I was looking for out of the box, but the track(s) truly began to shine when I played around with the enhancements Synapse provides. I played around with the bass meter under the Music preset under the Audio Equalizer until I was satisfied with the results, and boy was I satisfied.

However, the true litmus test for finding the best settings combination was listening to a Trance track called “Deep Down” by Josh Dresden and Winter Kills. It showcases the perfect blend between soft, angelic vocals and heavy kicks to the backdrop for some serious bass. I landed on boosting the base by 25% and turning Sound Normalization to 50% while using the Music Preset. I also went into the settings of Spotify and toggled the Highest Playback and Loud Volume settings on. Lastly, for the heck of it, I signed up for a free trial of Dolby Access and used the Detailed option under the Music Intelligent Equalizer for some extra clarity. The resulting playback was godly. Although Dolby Acess may be a bit excessive and the settings above sound great without it, the Spatial audio noticeably sounds better alongside Atmos. 

This sentiment also extends to watching films with the V3. Using Dolby Access Detailed settings alongside the Movie Preset in Synapse was true immersion. I watched Dune for my third time, this time using the headset. In this watch-through, I realized just how much Hans Zimmer’s score contributes to the epicness of the film. 

THX Spatial Audio helped immensely while playing games with that type of audio already baked in, like Cyberpunk 2077. The echo of my steps as I gave chase to a Cyberpsycho in-game gave me anxiety, and the crisp sound of the shotgun blast that took my enemy out made me recoil in my gaming chair. I also grew to appreciate the sound quality of each gun during online sessions of Back 4 Blood.

Unfortunately, the device is USB only. As such, the V3 does not offer wireless support. Having no wireless option wouldn’t be a problem if immersion didn’t work so well with the headset. I was so into Dune that I got up and almost dragged my $1,700 PC with me to the bathroom because I forgot I had them on and plugged into my desktop. The headset is also limited to PC, PlayStation, and Mac, which is also disappointing. I would love to use this headset with an LG CX and absorb Dune in native 4K alongside a profound audio experience from the V3. I would also love to use this on mobile to play Xbox Game Pass titles on the go. But alas.

I also had a few playback issues when listening to music. At first, I thought it was due to in-app music player settings making the music peak. Then, the same thing happened during a regular video chat via Google Meet.

Microphone

The mic has a diaphragm design that can capture 360 degrees of audio, making it serviceable if needed. Still, the quality of the mic is that of a headset and doesn’t offer clarity anywhere close to the best desktop microphones. 

What’s nice are the software’s mic settings that allow users to tweak the noise gate, vocal clarity and volume normalization. It also offers mic presets like Mic Boost, Conference, and Broadcast. I found Mic Boost alongside some tweaking of the clarity to be the best overall setting. I held a video conference where I could be heard loud and clear. It was even used during a session of Back 4 Blood when someone stole my health pack. I got my displeasure over the action across very well over the game’s baked-in voice chat. 

Software

As I’ve continuously alluded to, the Synapse software is really where the V3 shines. The tabs for the V3 include: a general Sound section for assigning sound properties, a Mixer to set THX Spatial settings to individual apps, a tab for testing the calibrations of the headset’s Game, Music, and Movie Mode presets, Enhancements for audio settings, Mic for microphone settings, and Lighting to tune RGB colors.

However, I did find it confusing which software I was to install out of the box, because the Razer Kraken V3 X requires you to download 7.1 Surround Sound software from its site. To use it, though, you must have an activation code. I spent more time than I’m willing to admit looking for a non-existent activation code before I concluded that only the lesser product of the V3 family needs it. The V3 needs no such thing, and all its software can be simply added to your existing Synapse download. The drivers required will also arrive during a fresh install. 

The user interface is simple to understand, and it’s easy to adjust settings with a simple drag of a slider. The audio equalizer is immensely helpful, but the presets are so in-tune that I rarely ever needed to change the equalizer knobs themselves.

Bottom Line

The glossy Razer Kraken V3 is a stylish, budgeted headset for gamers looking for quality sound without having to spend close to double its price to get it. Although the microphone could be better, it gets the job done. The most significant selling point here is the cans’ sound quality, alongside the benefits the software brings to the headset and your setup if you’re also sporting other Razer products. As long as you’re not a mobile or Xbox player, the V3 will fulfill your gaming needs and can double as regular headphones if you need to bump music privately.

We’re always amazed at the restless minds of makers in the Raspberry Pi community and today we’re sharing a super cool — and dare we say groovy — synthesizer mod from Blitz City DIY. In a recent post shared to Twitter, she shared a musical demo of a MIDI synth that relies on the tiniest RP2040 powered we've seen, Adafruit's QT Py RP2040.

In this project, keyboard input is handled by an Oskiton Scout synth—a 17-key synth kit intended for Arduino compatibility. Instead of using an Arduino, MIDI output is transmitted to a QT Py RP2040 running CircuitPython via UART.

According to Blitz City DIY, the QT Py RP2040 is using CircuitPython to interpret the MIDI input from the Oskiton Scout and sends the data over to a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ via USB. CircuitPython has a dedicated library for working with MIDI, and when used with the tiny $10 QT Py RP2040 we have an exceptionally simple means to add MIDI to any computer. 

The code for the project mixes MIDI notes, a numerical value which represents the musical note, with a duration to play a note for a set time. Looking further into the code we can see that each note is also represented by a color, shone from the NeoPixel found in the Oskiton Scout synth. So play a note, and watch the synth "play a color". To get a closer look at the code used in this project, check out the official Blitz City DIY page at GitHub.

This isn’t the first Raspberry Pi project we’ve covered that dabbles in the world of MIDI-based input. In the past, we’ve seen a Raspberry Pi Pico-powered MIDI converter for guitar and a full-sized Pi used to add MIDI support to a Korg Monotron synth. 

If you don't already know MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a means for computers and instruments to communicate between each other. MIDI was made popular in the 1980s and 90s by musicians wishing to experiment with the rising home computer scene. An example of which is the Atari ST, a 16-bit computer with built in MIDI that could change the sound of instruments and issue a complex series of instructions to a sequencer.

Check out the original thread shared to Twitter for a demo video of the MIDI synth in action and be sure to follow Blitz City DIY for more cool Pi projects. 

Well, this is nice. A Canadian electronics tinkerer and Twitter user known as Ben S has created what can only be called a sarcasm injector using two $4 Raspberry Pi Pico boards. It sits between his keyboard and computer and, rather than employing irony to apply the lowest form of wit to his caustic missives, instead flips the caps lock setting on and off to mAkE hIs TeXt LoOk LiKe ThIs. 

The injector is triggered by a simple flip switch on a box marked ‘SaRcAsM’, and employs a man-in-the-middle attack to intercept and decode the keyboard input, adding the caps lock signals to every other stroke. The two Pico boards are connected over UART, one appearing to the computer like a normal keyboard, and the other acting as a USB host to read the keyboard input.

Some of Ben S’s other inventions include a GameCube controller MIDI converter, 3D printed plier tips for retrieving objects from his plughole, and an upgrade to a cheap digital calliper that lets it run from an AAA battery. They’re all excellent, no sarcasm intended.

The Asus Rog Delta S Animate has taken a bit of a left turn when it comes to design, both against competing brands but also against that of its predecessor, the Delta S. The biggest draws to this headset are the AniMe Matrix feature (an LED dot matrix display that lives on both earcups) and the AI Noise-Canceling microphone. Crisp sound is a speciality of Asus’ headsets, but another addition that’s refreshing to see on the Animate is the long, 5 foot USB-C (or 3.3 foot USB-A) cord. The Asus Rog Delta S had a shorter cord and wasn’t as comfortable to use. Both cables are braided and can be used with PCs, Macs, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch and mobile devices.

All in all, this feature list means that Animate adds a ton of versatility to the Delta S’ already great audio.

Design

The “D-shaped” earcups on this headset are unique and very much give me triangle vibes, despite their official name. I’m not opposed to this; I like to see headphones opt for unusual earcup shapes to try for more comfort than the norm. I am fully enjoying this scalene triangle — see and you never thought you’d use geometry! Curly-haired nerds, check this part out: The headband that goes over your head is a PU leather wrapped cushion. I have had minimum snagging on my hair while wearing these headphones. I’m also not afraid to get hair products on my headset. It’s really easy to clean. I take a damp paper towel and wipe the headset clean, and that’s it. The Animate is also really lightweight for how big and bulky it is. It weighs under a pound. This makes it easy to adjust the headset while it’s on my head. 

While adjusting the Delta S Animate, I noticed the LED earcups are made from molded plastic and the top part is wrapped in PU leather. The latter is the same material that one of the two available earcup cushion sets is made from. The other set is made from fabric, so you can choose between more breathability with fabric or more passive noise cancellation with the PU leather. No matter which earcup cushion you wear, you won’t overheat. They are both designed to stay cool for longer wear times. The removable microphone stem is wrapped in PU leather and the microphone itself is molded bendable plastic. It’s very flexible. It can turn in any direction and it never feels like it’s going to break or snap. 

On-earcup controls for the Animate headset include a switch for the AniMe Matrix display and a volume wheel that can also be used to mute the mic by pushing it in. This made it difficult to tell when the mic was muted, though. Although there is software, it doesn’t tell you if the mic is muted. It also doesn't tell you whether or not the mic is connected. A red light on the microphone does let you know when the mic is muted, though that’s difficult to see. 

On the AniMe Matrix display, when the mic is muted, there’s a very subtle soundbar LED that turns off to let you know you’re muted, and that’s only available on the Soundwave setting. However, this is hard to see because the panel isn’t really for you, it’s for others (livestream viewers, in my case) – unless, of course, you’re taking off your headset just to see whether or not you’re muted. 

Just like the Razer Seiren Emote microphone, the Delta S Animate really focuses a lot of attention on its AniMe Matrix display, which adds to the visual engagement of, say, a streamer’s setup. There are a few different LED settings baked into the dot matrix display’s software and even hardware. The top setting on the AniMe Matrix display switch located on the backside of the left earcup is Soundwave. The Soundwave setting syncs LED bars to your voice and moves them up and down as you talk. The middle setting is for turning the LED panel on. This also allows you to showcase different patterns on the AniMe Matrix display, whether they’re one of the many that come preloaded through the Asus Armoury Crate software or are custom patterns that you’ve created yourself. 

The last setting on the AniMe Matrix display switch toggles the display off. Yes, you can turn off the display whenever you like and turn it back on without having to reprogram the light pattern each time or otherwise fuss around in software. The volume dial is underneath the display switch. It’s not a rotating dial or a rocker button like on the Logitech G435. Instead, it’s a spring-loaded pivoting audio control wheel that you push up or down to control the volume. The wheel can either be held up or down to change the volume to the desired setting, like the volume buttons on a TV remote.

Audio Performance

There are several audio settings included in this headset's software, including Gaming, Music, FPS, Communication, etc. The settings make a difference, so definitely play with them, but the key takeaway here is that this headset sounds great. 

Now, if I’m getting ready to game, there are a few different types of gaming sound settings. There is one for FPS, Racing, and RPG. They all sound different. I won’t get the same effect while playing Rogue Company on the basic Gaming sound setting or on the Communication one. Once it’s switched to FPS, though, I might as well be in the game. I’m not a Rogue Company guru, but I noticed I have an easier time telling where footsteps and shots are coming from with the FPS setting on. It is nice to have that type of surround sound for shooters. 

The headphones have seven areas the sound can come from. Rear left, side left, front left, front center – front center is when you hear it in both ears. Then there is front right, side right, and rear right. On top of surround sound, this helps each sound optimization be unique. For example, Communication only uses front center. During my Discord calls, I noticed the difference between settings. I liked using the Communication setting. It only used two of the spatial sound sendings and that was enough. I heard voices very clearly. It's almost like the treble is up, so voices sound better. 

While listening to “Grindin” by Clipse, that’s when I knew this headset is built different. This $200 headset could give Beats by Dre a run for their money. Grindin is the ultimate bass and subwoofer test. I switched the sound optimization to Music, changed the equalizer to Hip Hop, turned on the Bass Boost, then turned it up. Finally, I enabled Virtual Surround Sound. Doing all of this made me feel like I was in the studio hearing the beat for the first time. The Animate does a great job utilizing spatial audio. It’s very immersive. It wasn’t hard to acquire the desired outcome. Overall, the audio settings have a lot of options and are easy to use.

Software

The Asus Delta S Animate’s software, Armoury Crate, controls the microphone, sound optimization and AniMe Matrix display. Seeing the intricacies of the software, I thought I was going to get overwhelmed quickly with all of the options available. But Armoury Crate gave me a different list of settings that allowed me to change my sound optimization depending on what I was doing, which helped make it more approachable. If I was just talking on Facebook Messenger, there was a Communication setting to help focus on the speaker’s voice. If I was listening to music, I could go to Armoury Crate and change to the Music setting to get the full bass and studio sound of, say, “Crawl” by Childish Gambino. 

There are also options to turn Reverb on and off and tweak the Bass Boost, Compressor, Voice Clarity, Noise Gate, Perfect Voice (which boosts voices to provide clearer communication) and AI Noise Cancellation settings. And there is an equalizer. With so many options to adjust, it only makes sense that you can also create and customize different user profiles. There are so many possibilities with an audio interface like Armoury Crate. 

Beyond sound settings, AniMe Matrix, a tab in the Armoury Crate software, is where you’ll customize the display. This is a whole other beast within itself. The LEDs are not RBG, but can depict up to 10 seconds of animation. These 10-second clips can then be looped together, and the most clips I’ve combined is 101. I’m not sure what the maximum amount is, but it’s safe to say it’s pretty high. It’s cool to know I could create a whole music video if I wanted. The whole effect is like a Lite Brite toy, but only with white lights. It’s really cool. It doesn’t bother me one bit that it’s not RGB lighting. RGB is on everything. A simple monochromatic effect that uses highlights and contrast is enough for this display and helps it stand out.

I’ve been randomly dropping GIFs in Armoury Crate to see how they look on the LEDs. So far, none of them have really taken, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop trying. Each cup packs 247 LED lights. With over 400 LEDs embedded into the headset, the AniMe Matrix display gets a little warm when in use, but not hot. Still, you can feel the temperature difference between the side of the headphones and the AniMe Matrix display where the animations appear. 

The earcups can be linked to show the same animation on each side, or there can be a different animation on each earcup. There are about 20 loaded animation presets, and there’s a good deal of variety. Remember those LED belt buckles with scrolling custom text options that you used to wear with your oversized Girbaud (Jabos) jeans and rhinestone Bugs Bunny graphic tee? There is a Text Effect just like that available in AniMe Matrix. 

Another nice feature: Just like I can create different profiles and switch between them, I can also assign games on my PC different profiles with the headset. When I have the perfect EQ settings for the speed run game, Aeon Drive, I can attach the profile to it. That way, every time I open the game, the profile will switch and I don’t have to open up Armoury Crate.

Microphone

The Delta S Animate has an impressive unidirectional microphone and settings to back it up. I have the ability to change my microphone from 48kHz to 96kHz under Device Settings in Armoury Crate, which means I can push out higher quality audio at the cost of bigger files if need be. I can control the noise gate and enable AI Noise Cancellation, which is god-tier levels of control. The cool thing about the noise cancellation gauge is that whether it’s on low or high, it feels like it is still doing a solid job of compressing any background noise. 

If the cancellation is on, you can’t hear me clapping unless I start talking. If it’s turned off, you can hear me clapping. I enjoy the fullness of my voice when listening back on streams. Even on those late-night streams where my voice got really low and raspy, the mic picked it up. When I stopped talking, it was like I muted the mic. This was with AI Noise Cancellation. I did notice if there is a lot of background noise and the noise cancellation is on, the mic does its best to only get your voice, but you will start to sound a bit choppy and spacey. If you have a quiet room, the noise cancellation removes the ambiance and background noise and brings your voice forward a bit more. 

Echo isn’t too much of a concern. When I removed the noise cancellation and turned my headphones all the way to the point where anyone standing by could hear, then my mic started to pick up the sound. But that’s a rare situation.

The Animate mic and the Armoury Crate software both integrate well with OBS. It’s not hard to use it while streaming. The more the EQ settings are tweaked and different profiles created, the easier it is to stream. Anything touched in OBS doesn’t compromise the settings in the software. Having so many customizable options for this microphone frees up time to focus on things like making sure the audience can hear your audio. Using the Animate mic while streaming, I felt a lot less distracted because usually, my audio has to suffer. Or I’m dissatisfied with the way the game sounds to me because I’m so focused on making sure my viewers hear everything perfectly. With this headset and software, it’s less strenuous.

Bottom Line

The Asus ROG Delta S Animate is really lightweight, really comfortable, and really customizable. The two included earcup sets are cozy and don’t smush to my head. Instead, their unique triangle shape fits around my ears. Both sets also stay cool over long sessions. I enjoy the idea of versatility here. 

Speaking to versatility, being able to choose whether I use this with my handheld consoles or on my PC is nice. The probability of me using these cans in public is a bit slim, but I could see these as a plane ride accessory sans detachable mic. The mic picks up my voice clearly and I can tweak the EQ settings for any occasion. Even though the headset is made out of plastic, it doesn’t feel cheap and it’s flexible. It’s a $200 headset with $200 worth of functions, software, and comfortability. 

I’ve seen a lot of headsets that are good for new streamers or content creators or even someone who has just started their PC journey. This headset is none of those. The Animate is for someone who wants to learn about audio and experience a higher level of audio control. Getting this pair of headphones as a noob isn’t a bad idea. They can be used as a plug-and-play device, but you won’t get to experience the full capabilities that way. Still, you can learn how to use with ease over time. It's a headset that will grow with you.

Whether you’re creating videos for YouTube or streaming to Twitch, few things are as important as the quality of your audio. A video can be sub-par, but when your content is painful to listen to, viewers will tune out, which is exactly why investing in a good microphone is so important. If you’ve already invested in one of the best gaming microphones and are ready to level up your setup, it’s time to consider a microphone that’s able to grow with you over time. The good news is that you don’t need to break the bank to pick up a great studio microphone that will sound great years into the future.

The King Bee II is exactly such a microphone. It features a large condenser capsule that delivers a rich, realistic sound that’s perfect for vocals and instruments. And because your microphone may just wind up guest starring on your stream, it also features a unique design that feels like it came from the Fallout universe. At $169, it’s reasonably priced and even includes a shock mount and pop filter for added value. You’ll need a good audio interface to make the most of it, but if you do, it’s an excellent choice for all forms of content creation.

Neat Microphones King Bee II Specs

Design of the King Bee II

Neat Microphones has always had a unique design language. Its first-generation products leaned heavily into the bee theme with strong black and yellow styling. 

Though the original King Bee was highly regarded for its audio quality, its honeybee striped body left some users wishing for something a little less straight from the hive.

The King Bee II gets rid of the yellow and sticks with the black, but still manages to look unique and eye-catching. It’s built like a tank but its metal body tapers downward like the abdomen of a honeybee (or a bullet). The microphone capsule is hidden behind a three-inch circular grille that’s flat on one side and rounded on the other. Together, you have a head and a body. Stick a pair of wings on the back and it would be a king bee indeed.

Despite the insect theme, there’s something that feels distinctly vintage about the mic. Maybe it’s the lack of hard lines and angles, or maybe it’s just the Neat logo with its Saturn-like ring stamped the front, but I can’t help but think of the Fallout video game series when I look at it. The King Bee II would feel right at home in that retrofuturistic version of the 1950s United States. 

It might seem counterintuitive to focus on looks to such a degree, but in the age of face cams, looks matter, even for audio devices. And, on that level, the plain black of the King Bee II should fit better with more setups than the original King Bee. The change between the two models makes the difference between being a cool talking point and being a flat-out distraction to viewers.

Like the original, the King Bee II uses a 36mm condenser capsule. It features a wide frequency response range of 16Hz - 20kHz, exceeding that of many competing condensers like the Beyerdynamic Fox or Blue Yeti Pro. That wide frequency response range allows it to deliver exceptional clarity and detail for lifelike audio capture. That same quality also means that the microphone will pick up a greater amount of noise in the surrounding environment.

Using any condenser mic requires more planning and preparation than the competing dynamic microphones currently popular in the world of content creation (like the Shure SM7B), but the results are hard to beat if you’re after a natural sound. The King Bee II picked up every keystroke from my mechanical keyboard, no matter how quietly I typed. It even picked up the sound of my PC’s fans on quiet mode. The most popular solution is a noise gate (such as the one built into OBS), as it will mute the microphone when you’re not talking, but if you find yourself contending with a lot of outside noise, a condenser microphone may spell trouble regardless. 

The mic comes equipped with a single cardioid polar pattern. For most people, this will be all they need. Cardioid is tuned to pick up sounds occurring directly in front of the capsule, reducing the sound from the back and sides. This polar pattern is a great fit for single-source recording, like when you’re recording solo or broadcasting yourself to YouTube, but if you’re interested in face-to-face interviews or a multihost podcast, a multi-pattern mic is going to be a better fit. Off-axis (back and sides) rejection also isn’t the strongest, so you’ll hear more of what’s surrounding the mic than on a more directional condenser like the Earthworks Icon Pro.

Unlike many microphones popular among gamers and streamers, the King Bee II connects over XLR instead of USB. You’ll need a USB audio interface capable of delivering 48V of phantom power to drive the microphone and send its signal through to your PC. That’s an added cost, but if you plan on creating content into the future, it’s not a bad investment.

Most of the best gaming microphones connect over USB. and it’s easy to see why. A USB microphone is plug-and-play and easy to get up and running with. They often include headphone jacks and act as external sound cards for your PC. But, as many creators discover, they’re unable to grow alongside your setup. By connecting over XLR, the King Bee II is able to be plugged into other audio devices, such as a mixer for dual PC streaming. It’s also able to connect to standalone effects units to further enhance its quality or streaming consoles like the T.C. Helicon GoXLR. USB microphones don’t have that ability, so if you decide to upgrade in the future, you’re stuck buying a new microphone in addition to your upgraded gear.

The King Bee II benefits from higher quality interfaces too. It features an exceptionally low amount of self-noise (6dB), so there’s nearly no audible hiss generated by the microphone itself. In combination with the frequency response range and sound character of the microphone capsule itself, this helps ensure that what you’re hearing on the recorded track is exactly what went into it, without the mic getting in the way. Cheaper interfaces often have low-quality components that create a quiet hissing sound, negating one of the benefits a condenser mic offers. It’s not necessary to spend hundreds of dollars on an interface, but it is worth investing in one that has positive user reviews about its preamps.

Along with the microphone, Neat also includes a pop filter and shock mount. Both are custom-made to match the mic. The shock mount tapers down to match the body, and the pop filter snaps into place flat against the plane half of the grille. The pop filter works well and blocks all but the most powerful plosives (gusts of air caused by “p” and “b” sounds). It also has a neat honeycomb pattern in front of its mesh filter. All bees, all the time. The shock mount doesn’t work quite as well, isolating the mic from the sound of the arm itself when making adjustments but still letting even minor bumps straight through into the recording. 

One accessory will still need to be purchased separately, and that's some kind of stand to put it on. This isn't uncommon among studio XLR microphones but is definitely something to bear in mind if it's your first. You'll need a strong boom arm, too, if you opt for one over a desktop stand. At nearly two and a half pounds, the King Bee II is simply too heavy for many entry-level boom arms to hold without drooping.

Sound Quality on the King Bee II

Looks, accessories, and specs might be important, but nothing trumps sound quality when it comes to a studio mic. Neat promises “the clearest, most accurate sound found anywhere” and while that might be a little bit of a reach with the decades of mics now available on the market, there’s no mistaking how well-tuned and natural it sounds. 

The work week I spent with the King Bee II was the definition of mixed-use. I spent time recording voiceovers for an upcoming video review on my YouTube channel. I recorded keyboard typing tests. I tracked a new song in audacity with multiple acoustic guitar layers and a vocal line (I’ll save your ears the pain of hearing it). I recorded nearly a dozen isolated tracks in Audacity. In each of these, the track I got back sounded exactly like what I put in and was rich in detail.

Here’s a sound sample so you can hear it for yourself:

Much of this has to do with how Neat has tuned the capsule. According to a frequency response graph included in the documentation, from 50Hz all the way to 2kHz, the response is a straight line. There’s no coloration. Higher than that, between 2kHz and 8kHz, the response elevates and brings out details in vocals and instruments. The King Bee II does a great job of retaining even small micro-details, like the texture of voices or how guitar strings resonate in harmony with each other. The tuning adds life and energy to recordings.

There is a bass roll-off at 50Hz (getting rid of some unwanted room noise), but I was impressed by how full and rich my voice sounded. I don’t have a natural radio voice, but it did a great job of capturing those bass frequencies, giving me that extra bit of oomph I usually turn to dynamic mics for. The capsule has a moderately strong proximity effect that sets in at about 3-4 inches (proximity effect is the extra bass when speaking close to the microphone). By turning up the gain, it still manages to sound full up to a couple of feet away, but by that point, the distance adds unwanted reverb from the room, hurting the quality in a different way. It’s safe to say that within any reasonable distance, it’s possible to get this mic sounding good with only a turn of the gain knob.

The only downsides I encountered were the mic’s sensitivity to plosives without the pop filter installed and the lack of any kind of high-pass filter or volume-reducing pad. Simply installing the pop screen mitigates the issue with plosives, but it does color the sound ever so slightly to sound a hair less full. The lack of high-pass filter or pad is a bigger omission, making it harder to cut out low rumbles or mic very loud sources. These added features would probably have driven up the price, however, so it feels like a fair concession to keep the mic accessible. 

Bottom Line

The Neat King Bee II surprised me. Having never used the original King Bee II, I can’t make that comparison. But, I’ve used many great microphones from some of the biggest brands in the business: the Audio-Technica AT4040, the Blue Microphones Bluebird, the Earthworks Icon Pro, the Rode Procaster and Broadcaster and many more. This microphone easily earns its place alongside that list of favorites with its natural, full sound, and it does so while costing $50+ less than the cheapest of those competitors.

Well, it’s cheaper if you already have an audio interface. If you’re purchasing one of those at the same time, the cost proposition changes and $169.99 easily jumps to $200 or more. Depending on your choice of interface, that could still be a good value, but may also push outside of your budget for a microphone setup.

If that’s the case, there’s no shame in picking up a great gaming microphone. After all, a great “gaming” mic is probably just a great-sounding mic in general. The Beyerdynamic Fox is an excellent choice for just over a hundred dollars. The Elgato Wave 3 is another exceptional option that even adds a GoXLR-like software mixer for only slightly more.

If you do have an interface, or don’t mind buying one, the King Bee II still rules the hive when it comes to overall quality at this price.

The Roccat Torch puts all of its controls at your fingertips with its mixer-style audio base, and with its intelligent and functional use of RGB lighting, it also ensures that your settings are always discernible at a glance. There is also no need to install Roccat’s unfortunately unfinished NEON software to get the full experience. It’s a shame that this software is incomplete, but it’s great to use the mic right out of the box, and the features that work do so very well.

Conversely, the gesture-based, contactless muting feature is neat when it decides to work but frequently makes errors. Thankfully, like the software, this gimmick can be safely ignored without compromising the overall functionality of the Torch. Roccat has created a solidly priced mic with good audio and some delightful convenience that makes it easy to like despite some flaws in overall execution.

Roccat Torch Specs

Design

The Roccat Torch is a slim and tall mic that mounts to its own included mixer style stand and can also be easily mounted to a boom arm using standard threads. The front of the mic features an RGB-lit Roccat logo and the back has the more understated, non-RGB logo next to a single USB-C port that connects the mic to the base. Roccat also includes a short cable for when the capsule is mounted to the stand and a long cable for use with a boom arm. 

On top of the mic is one of the Torch's more interesting features – a contactless, gesture-activated mic mute sensor. It's very cool to mute or activate your mic without touching the unit, but in practice, gesture detection and sensitivity are a bit of a mixed bag. I often found myself flailing my hand at the sensor, hoping that something would happen to no avail. Out of a mixture of frustration and embarrassment, I would often opt to use the physical mute button instead. The sensor's location can pose issues when adjusting the mic's position as well, as it will often read the proximity of your hand as a gesture input and mute the mic against your wishes. This can be particularly problematic when the mic is mounted to a boom arm.

The Torch's base features a pickup pattern selector, a notched monitor volume knob with a push-button mute function and a gain slider. The back of the base features two USB C ports (one for connecting the Mic to the base and the other for connecting the Base to your PC), a 3.5mm headphone jack for latency-free monitoring, a brightness level button and a three-position slider that allows you to adjust the proximity range for the contactless mute sensor or turn it off altogether. 

The mic itself has a solid feel, featuring a metal body and grille. However, the base is made of hard plastic and feels cheap compared to the mic. While the rubber feet on the base do a good job of keeping it from wobbling and shifting about on your desk, the mic mount itself wobbles with the slightest of movements. Unfortunately, you can't fix this as there's a certain point beyond which it can't be tightened unless you're fond of the mic being backward.

Sound Quality

The Torch provides good sound quality for its price range, with a wide frequency response, clear audio reproduction and a built-in pop filter that helps eliminate those annoying peaks when making consonant sounds. While the sound of your own voice through the Torch isn’t going to blow your mind with its level of fidelity, it is certainly in line with what you should expect out of a $99 mic. 

What sets the Torch apart from similarly priced mics is the variety of available pickup options. Via a conveniently placed dial on the front-mounted mixer panel on the Torch’s base, you can switch between Cardioid, Stereo and Roccat’s proprietary “Whisper” pickup pattern. If you’re streaming solo, Cardioid is what you’re going to be using most due to its narrow focus, helping to eliminate ambient noise. Stereo is a good option for podcasting with a friend or any situation where you’re trying to capture more than one source at once, but it should be avoided if you’re going it alone as it picks up far too much room noise. Both of these options should be familiar to most streamers or podcasters.

Where things get interesting is in the addition of Roccat’s “Whisper” pickup pattern. Aptly named, Whisper greatly boosts the mic’s sensitivity so it can pick up your voice clearly at very low volumes. This setting is ideal for streamers with roommates or family they don’t wish to disturb while active or for folks with naturally quiet speaking voices. Whisper is certainly not ideal for every situation as its extreme sensitivity can easily drive speech at normal volumes into distortion. Still, it is nice to have an option like this available at the twist of a knob.

The Torch also scores high marks for making its lighting more than just a gimmick. Instead of being there purely for aesthetic appeal, the RGB lighting employed by the Torch provides helpful visual cues. For example, your gain settings are indicated by how high up the lighting travels on either side of the mic – turn it all the way up, and the side lighting will reach the top of the capsule. These lights also change color to show which pickup pattern you’ve selected. The mic also glows red to indicate when it is muted. This is an extremely helpful way to read your settings at a glance and a thoughtful application of RGB lighting that I’d like to see more of from competitors.

Features and Software

The vast majority of features present in the Roccat Torch can be experienced with no additional software. The Torch does not work with Roccat’s SWARM software, but it is compatible with Roccat NEON, which is currently in Beta. So what do you get with Neon? Well, practically nothing, to be honest. In its present state, NEON only serves as a way to turn AIMO dynamic RGB lighting on and off and to send Roccat a support ticket – both of which are actions you can take without ever taking the time to install the software.

Bottom Line

Roccat’s first entry into the world of streaming mics is both a little bit more and a little bit less than what you’d expect – it is a well-built mic with a sturdy metal frame and grille attached to a plastic base, and it is overall more useful than it is attractive. Audio reproduction is solid and in line with what is generally acceptable for a mic in this price range – what takes the Torch a step beyond is its three selectable polar patterns, including the very useful “Whisper” mode. However, the most standout feature of the Torch is RGB lighting that is actually useful. Instead of just looking pretty (which it certainly does), the Torch’s lighting allows you to see what your settings are at a glance. Since RGB lighting isn’t going anywhere, let’s hope we see more creative and thoughtful uses of the effect like what the Torch has to offer.

Where the Torch doesn’t shine as brightly is in its software package, some design quirks and half-baked features. At least at the time of this writing, Roccat Neon is pretty much useless – offering nothing apart from the ability to turn the lighting on and off and send an email to Roccat. Sorry, chums, but both of those things can be accomplished without installing more driver software that I don’t really need. The Torch’s mixer-style dock is also useful from a control perspective, but the plastic construction feels underwhelming compared to the mic itself. The mic also never seems to screw into the dock tightly – it wobbles at the slightest touch. In my case, it can’t even hold still when I’m typing away next to it. It’s also odd that the Torch needs to be connected to its base via USB-C whether it is docked or not – the short connector cable included for use when the mic is docked can be awkward to wrestle into position.

The Torch’s biggest sin is its gesture-controlled mute feature. In theory, it’s great to be able to mute and unmute your mic with a Jedi-like wave of your hand. However, in practice, it can be quite irritating, because the sensor can occasionally be picky and indiscriminate when it comes to which gestures it will recognize and at what range. It’s a neat idea that is ultimately more troublesome than it is useful, often activating when it is not wanted or refusing to cooperate when it is needed. Thankfully, you have the option to turn this feature off completely. Use it and thank me later.

Where does this leave the Torch? It’s certainly not perfect, but at this price point, it doesn’t need to be – it needs to deliver a solid user experience and punch in its weight class in terms of features and audio quality. Despite its shortcomings, the Torch does that and offers a little bit extra, too, making it well worth a look.