The TC-Helicon GO XLR MINI is a USB audio interface for Windows that offers users a great solution for streaming podcasts, games, or similar content. The four-channel mixer ensures intuitive control of the volume levels of assigned sources during live transmissions, allowing you to adjust both the numerous hardware inputs and several virtual audio channels on your computer (e.g. voice chat, game sound, etc.). In order to condense the GO XLR into the extremely compact GO XLR MINI, TC-Helicon had to remove the onboard sampler, motorised faders, and extended effects section - but the price has also been lowered accordingly.
The heart of the TC-Helicon GO XLR MINI is its accompanying app, which can be used to assign the four faders to the appropriate input channels, control the routing of the output channels, and set up a connected microphone (level, gate/expander, equaliser, and compressor), among a host of other things. You can connect dynamic microphones or simple headset microphones, as well as condenser microphones that require phantom power. The app can also be used to adjust the coloured LEDs of the buttons and faders, as well as the interior lighting of the unit. Another very useful function is the ability to store all non-global settings in presets for different applications.
The TC-Helicon GO XLR MINI offers all the essential mixing functions required for streaming games, tutorials, podcasts, and screencasts, in a compact box that is far more manageable than, say, a conventional compact mixer. Thanks to an internal DSP chip, you have access to basic sound processing for the microphone signal, without loading the CPU of the connected computer. Also helpful are the mute buttons for each channel, which affect either all of the output channels or an individual one (e.g. stream channel or voice chat only), and a beep button to censor any profanity or "offensive" words.
TC-Helicon was founded in 2000 as a subsidiary of TC Electronic in cooperation with IVL Technologies Ltd. and has since specialised in voice recording technology. TC-Helicon focuses primarily on portable audio interfaces. The product range also includes various signal processors designed for the voice, in the form of effect pedals or compact devices with microphone stand mounts. Since 2015, TC Helicon has belonged to Music Tribe, the holding company of Behringer, which has brought brands such as Midas and Klark Teknik under one roof.
The TC-Helicon GO XLR MINI offers the same kind of physical and virtual input and output channels as the larger GO XLR, and is therefore ideally equipped for a wide variety of streaming situations. On the hardware side, there are two mic inputs (XLR and 3.5 mm jack for headsets), an analogue line-in for playback devices (e.g. smartphones), and an optical S/PDIF input for game consoles (e.g. Xbox or PlayStation) as well as a headphone out and a line out (e.g. for a dedicated streaming computer) on offer. On the software side, five input channels (chat, game, music, sample, and system) and three output channels (broadcast stream mix, chat mic, and sample) are available. All of these virtual channels can be used as inputs or outputs in appropriate applications.