Note: Wave Link has now been updated to version 3. This reimagining has all-new features and an improved interface overall. Wave Link 3 is free, and will also work with a wide variety of microphones, not just those from Elgato.
Wave Link 2 has reached End of Life. It will still be available for download, but our development focus will be on Wave Link 3 moving forward. We look forward to improve audio for an increasing audience of great creators.
This guide will walk through a basic first-time setup of Wave Link on Windows.
Sections:
Installing Wave Link
1) Disconnect your Wave device 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.
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.