I’ve been a big fan of SteelSeries’ gaming headsets over the years, but I’ve always paired them with a dedicated XLR microphone for improved quality when I game with friends on Discord, hop on Zoom calls for work, or occasionally stream on Twitch. Now, SteelSeries is filling the gap in its gaming lineup of accessories today with the new Alias and Alias Pro microphones, designed with gamers and streamers in mind.

Both of SteelSeries’ new microphones are a first for the company, with a pill-shaped design that nests into a sturdy stand or attaches to a boom arm. Both use a custom one-inch condenser capsule that’s bigger than what we typically see on gamer-focused microphones, combined with a cardioid pattern.

The $179.99 Alias connects over USB and offers gain control at the front, alongside a mute button and an assortment of LEDs that can provide level monitoring. There’s RGB lighting, too, because every gamer needs customizable colors on their microphone.

The $329.99 Alias Pro is a significant step up, removing the onboard controls in favor of a dedicated XLR Stream Mixer — a control station that sits on your desk. It takes the XLR microphone connection from the Alias Pro and adds a pre-amp, +48V phantom power, and two USB-C ports. One is enough for a single PC setup, but the second can be used by steamers with a dual PC setup to connect to both a streaming PC and gaming PC.

The XLR Stream Mixer also offers a convenient mic mute button, gain control, and a customizable dial that you can pair to your headset volume. There’s even an additional mute button that you can customize to mute the audio channels found in SteelSeries’ Sonar software.

I’ve been trying out the Alias Pro over the weekend, and I’m impressed with what SteelSeries offers here. I wasn’t initially a huge fan of the Sonar app when it was a requirement at the launch of the Nova Pro Wireless headphones, but I’ve come to love it in recent months. Sonar is really where these microphones shine compared to the competition.

I’ve used a mix of apps like Voicemeeter over the years or even dedicated XLR interfaces like the GoXLR and Elgato’s Wave XLR. SteelSeries has really nailed the combination of a control deck for your desk and the software smarts to make it all work in tandem. The Sonar software offers up multiple audio channels, and you can easily drag and drop your apps into wherever you want them to output. SteelSeries does all the work of forcing Windows to comply, and it turns a complicated audio setup into a really simple process.

It also has an AI-powered noise-cancellation feature for the microphone, which is similar to Nvidia’s Broadcast app. It’s great at removing everything but your voice from conversations, so your barking dog or the construction workers nearby aren’t picked up at all.

I’ve been using the noise cancellation feature of Sonar for months now paired with a Shure SM7B and Wave XLR to record podcasts and YouTube videos and occasionally stream on Twitch. It’s a reliable tool that stops me from needing to rerecord audio if my dachshund decides to run into the room to try and play ball.

SteelSeries’ XLR Stream Mixer is the star of the Alias Pro show for me, and it’s far superior to Elgato’s Wave XLR. Whereas the Wave XLR sits there lifeless on my desk, the XLR Stream Mixer offers an easy way to see your microphone is picking up your voice and clear LED indicators for when you’re on mute or you’ve muted a particular audio channel. You can even customize the colors and brightness levels of the LEDs, so it’s super clear to see what’s muted or how your gain is set. The only downside to this XLR Stream Mixer is that it requires power from a wall socket, so if you want to use it with a laptop, USB-C isn’t enough.

The Alias Pro microphone is a great improvement over some of the more basic gaming microphones on the market today, but I’m just not a huge fan of condenser microphones. In my testing of the Alias Pro, I found that it simply grabbed too much of the room around me to produce an ever so slightly echoey sound to my voice.

I personally use a $499 Shure SM7B, a widely used microphone by streamers and professionals, so I’m totally spoiled by that microphone. Logitech, HyperX, and now SteelSeries are really trying to compete with Shure at a more affordable level. At $329.99 the Alias Pro is also competing with Logitech’s Blue Sona, a $349.99 dynamic microphone. I can’t quite help but wonder what the Alias Pro would sound like if SteelSeries had opted for dynamic instead, though.

I just wish that SteelSeries sold the XLR Stream Mixer separately. It offers the simple controls I want on an XLR interface, even if it’s not as fully featured as Focusrite’s Vocaster range. For gaming and streaming, it makes Elgato’s $159.99 Wave XLR look like a basic desk toy in comparison. I asked SteelSeries whether there are any plans to sell it separately. “We currently do not have plans to sell the Stream Mixer on it’s own, but if enough fans and consumers want it, that might be something we explore as we are always trying to solve problems for gamers,” says SteelSeries spokesperson Paul Murphy.

Even if you’re not interested in the hardware, SteelSeries’ Sonar for streamers feature of its GG app is an impressive way to route your audio in Windows if you’re a PC gamer or streamer. Once you let it take over everything, you’ll probably never go back to the complicated combination of apps to perfect your audio setup.

The Alias is available today priced at $179.99 (€199.99), and the Alias Pro also launches today for $329.99 (€349.99). Both can attach to SteelSeries’ new boom arm, available for $99.99 (€99.99).

Photography by Tom Warren / The Verge