This guide will walk through a basic first-time setup of Wave Link on Windows.
Sections:
- Installing Wave Link
- Configuring Wave
- Configuring system sound
- Configuring game sound
- Configuring music
- Configuring voice chat
- Configuring a browser
- Adding Stream Mix to OBS Studio
Installing Wave Link
1) Disconnect Wave:1, Wave:3 or Wave XLR if it is currently connected to the PC
2) Download Wave Link from elgato.com/downlads.
3) Once the download is finished, install Wave Link.
4) After the Wave Link installation is finished, connect your Wave microphone to the PC.
Configuring Your Wave Microphone
The Wave:1 or Wave:3 microphone is automatically added as an input to Wave Link. It is required for Wave Link to work.
To edit the microphones hardware settings, click on in the area where the icon and name are displayed.
Name: Rename the Wave microphone input. Note: This only affects the name in Wave Link and not anywhere else
Input level: Real-time indicator of how loud the sound is that is captured by the Wave microphone
Gain: Adjust the gain or input volume of the microphone
Output volume: Adjust the output volume of the headphone port on the Wave microphone
Mic/PC Mix: Adjust the mix ratio between real-time monitoring of the microphone and sound coming from the PC via USB
For example, setting this to 50/50 means that both real-time monitoring of the microphone and the USB sound from the PC are sent to the headphone output at the same volume.
To only listen to sound from the connected PC, set the slider all the way to the right
To only listen to the real-time monitoring of the microphone, set the slider all the way to the left
Enhanced Low Cut Filter: Enable or disable a low cut filter that removes low frequencies under 120Hz from the microphone signal. To achieve a podcast/radio voice the enhanced low cut filter should be disabled.
Clipguard: Enable or disable Clipguard, the anti-clipping technology built into Wave. It is recommended to keep Clipguard enabled at all times.
System Sound
System sounds is the default audio output of Windows. All sounds that are not configured to playback through a specific Wave Link channel will playback through Wave Link System.
1. Click on the speaker icon at the bottom right of Windows
2. Click on the speaker name and a setting menu will appear
3. Scroll through the list and select Wave Link System as the audio output
All audio that has not had a custom audio routing set from your computer will now play through the Wave Link System channel.
Game Sound
The Wave Link Game audio input is meant specifically for routing game audio into Wave Link.
It comes with a special Low Latency Mode which you can learn more about here.
1) Open Wave Link
2) Click on the Sound Settings icon at the top right of Wave Link
3. Make sure to launch the game that you want to route to the Wave Link Game channel. Only then will it appear in the Windows sound settings
4. Find the game, and in the output column drop down menu, select Wave Link Game
Music
At this point all sound is going through Wave Link System, but you want to have your music come in via the Music input so it can be controlled separately. In this example we'll use Spotify.
1) Open Wave Link
2) Click on the Sound Settings icon at the top right of Wave Link
3. Make sure the app that plays music has recently played sound. Only then will it appear in the Windows sound settings
4. Find the music app, and in the output column drop down menu, select Wave Link Music
5. Music should now be playing through the Music input in Wave Link
Voice Chat
Now that music is playing through its own input in Wave Link, and is individually controllable, let's setup Wave Link Voice Chat. In this example we'll use Discord.
1) Open Discord
2) Click on the settings icon next to the username
3. On the left side select the Voice and Video tab
4. In the Output device dropdown, find and select Wave Link Voice Chat
5. Now, when chatting with friends, or doing anything in Discord, that sound will play through the Voice Chat input in Wave Link.
Browser
Music, videos and other sounds can come through the web browser, and it's nice to have it as its own input in Wave Link for maximum control.
1) Open Wave Link
2) Click on the Windows sound settings icon at the top right of Wave Link
If the browser is not shown in the list of applications, play a short sound by going to YouTube, and then it will appear in the list.
4) In the output column, select Wave Link Browser
5) Any sounds played through the browser will now be shown in the Wave Link Browser input.
Add Stream Mix to OBS Studio
Now that game audio, music, voice chat and browser are all in their separate mixes, and are controllable, it's time to add the Stream Mix to your streaming software of choice. In this example we're using OBS Studio.
1) Open OBS Studio
2) At the bottom right in the Controls box click on Settings
3) In the left sidebar click on Audio
4) Click on the Mic/Auxiliary Audio dropdown menu and select Wave Link Stream
Note: Set the Sample Rate in OBS Studio to 48kHz to avoid unnecessary sample rate conversion
5) Click on Apply and OK
Wave Link Stream Mix is now added to OBS Studio. We suggest keeping the audio level in OBS Studio at 0.0dB and use Wave Link to control the audio levels.
Note that any filters that are added to the Wave Link Stream mic sound affect all sounds, including the game, music and voice chat. Thus it is recommended to not use any filters on the Wave Link Stream input.