New and shiny - big buttons and dials Stream Deck + | Elgato
From my point of view, not enough buttons, and the area with the “touchscreen” seems to be way to small, for my Size 10 Hands…
1 Like
Pretty cool. With the dials it seems like it might be a bit more specialized for streaming than the button-only Stream Decks, making it less likely to cross over into productivity use cases.
1 Like
With a touchbar too!
2 Likes
Very interesting
Any idea how customizable the touch screen part is and whether that works with Better Touch Tool yet?
Ordered as soon as I saw it. Not as a replacement but an add-on to my existing SD XL.
I’ve wanted Elgato to do a version with a knob or two since the beginning because I really want a master volume knob, not buttons, plural. (Also going to see if I can setup the other knobs to control volume of certain apps - slllllllllack - via SoundSource. So like a mini-mixer. That would be a dream. Update: from some of the reviews it seems like SD+ works with Elgato’s mixing software so that might be the way to go vs SoundSource.)
I’ve tried other controllers with knobs, like Monogram Console, but Streamdeck is just more compatible, versatile, and the LED keys are invaluable as function indicators that can be ANY icon/color, but also importantly as status indicators.
Call me a skeptic on the SD+ touchbar/strip but maybe they’ll allow much more customization than Apple did (likely one of several reasons it never took off). Even if the touchstrip ends up being mostly info-only it seems a cool way to change pages without burning a button and maybe will have some nice status displays.
I’m excited and will try to remember to report back here!
Edits: spelling and addl audio mixer info
1 Like
This forum is doing marketers out of a job. Who needs adverts when people pop by to show off their shiny toys 
I really want a Streamdeck, but I really don’t need one. I only use about 5 apps on my Mac daily, so my use case would basically just be controlling functions in those apps, and it seems a bit pointless for what I do. (E.g. do I really need a button that opens my daily note in NotePlan? Probably not.)
I am now interested though, how are people thinking that the dials/knobs would be used if not for audio?
My sound bar has a dial for volume (plus I have two keys on my mechanical keyboard for volume control), so I’m wondering what else dials would be useful for outside of streaming and gaming.
3 Likes
You can subscribe to their app and install it in your phone or an iPad and get the same functionality. It’s $25 a year last I checked.
Non-audio knob assignments I’ve seen/read in reviews:
- Brightness (of the SD+ backlight)
- Color temp, brightness of Elgato key/ring lights
- Brightness of light strips (not sure which are supported but they show it in the official elgato SD+ video)
- Webcam: ISO, white balance, shutter speed, manual focus, zoom, pan. tilt, exposure, contrast, exposure, saturation
- Color, grade
- Mic gain level (audio but not incoming, not outgoing)
- Timeline scrolling/scrubbing (as mentioned already)
- In/Out points (timeline editing)
- Shortcut keys - specify any key for the up, down, and tap for custom actions dependent on the current app or system-wide shortcut keys defined in OS, KM, Alfred, etc.
- Click the knob to rotate thru a user defined “dial stack” - whatever combo of functions you want to control
- Predefined profiles at launch: Photoshop, DaVinci Resolve, Cubase, “and even more in the coming weeks” (above vid)
One of the four examples on the product page is “Productivity Hub” so they’re targeting that market out of the gate, maybe even moreso than they did with the original SD:
https://www.elgato.com/themes/custom/smalcode/v19-img/pages/sd-plus/3-col-slider/productivity-hub.png?v=2
4 Likes
Is there a way, to connect StreamDeck XL and the StreamDeck+, to have one “unit” on the desktop?
I was hoping for a clean line across the top when side-by-side but looks like the SD+ is taller. This is screencap from the elgato SD+ video (Wave XLR to the left, XL to the right):
Regardless of that aesthetic issue, I have not seen any reference to some piece of kit that would physically connect the two making them one unit. Also don’t see any attach point on my XL that would facilitate a connection but it’s a good idea.
Initial Impressions after a few days
TL;DR: my favorite SD by far.
- The larger buttons on the SD+ are great for buttons where the label really matters. E.g. the built-in Music.app plugin which shows the album art of the current song. There are only eight but I have my XL sitting right next door, plus see the comment on pages in #3 below.
- I mentioned earlier that I was looking forward to setting up Shortcuts and SoundSource to control volume of individual apps (e.g. Slack). Because the SD+ enable/supports WaveLink (Elgato’s free virtual mixing software) it’s cleaner and easier to use it. Having a volume knob for Slack is glorious.
- Swiping the touch strip to change pages is so much better than hitting a button because it doesn’t take up a whole button and it’s a huge target area so you don’t even really have to look to make sure you’re hitting the page button instead of one of your other functions. Makes me want this on other SDs - it would make me way more likely to use pages.
- Pressing the knobs produces a pretty loud click that I wish was quieter (especially if the action is defined as mute) and took less force. You can also just tap that knob’s section of the touch strip to accomplish the same action with zero noise so this is what I’ve been mainly doing.
- I wish the touch strip could have an idle (or alternate) state which displayed user-defined status board type info (next calendar appt, badge counts, etc.). Having it tied to the knobs makes both easy to use but drastically reduces its flexibility (same downfall of Apple’s TouchBar). Maybe in a future software update.
Corsair (Elgato’s parent company) is having a 15% off sale on everything as part of this week’s madness so if you need any SD, Wave Link, mic arm, etc. now’s a good time.
Finally, AMA about it if you have questions and I’ll try to get back to you!
3 Likes
has anybody figured out how screen brightness can be adjusted from the knobs? It somehow doesn’t work for me.
Damn, I was hoping to have iStat style cpu/mem info on the bar.
I don’t really care what level the audio is set to, I just want to adjust it up or down…
1 Like
Hey there, the built-in Brightness dial is working for me. It looks like this in the SD software:
Is that what you’re using? If so, does the percentage on the touch strip display update when you turn the knob? If so, you might contact Elgato support. Maybe you have a defective SD+?
1 Like
I will try this again today but so far it didn’t work. I will explore it again.
Sorry but are you talking about the stream deck brightness or your monitor brightness. I wanted to adjust the monitor brightness.
has somebody figured out how we could use the stream deck to adjust monitor brightness with the knob?
- = F14 key
- = F15 key
1 Like
AMAZING thanks. I am delighted.