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The GoXLR is DEAD, but possibly Open Source?

 Hello, GoXLR Discord members (beta testers for now) If you are not aware, TC-Helicon has laid off all remaining staff in the Canada office, which was responsible for firmware/software/driver support for the GoXLR products. There are no longer any TC-Helicon members that are a part of this Discord. C) Before the team left, they provided the last update that is in Beta. We were told that support would be moving to a different team, but we have not heard anything since they were let go. This news was unexpected and the MVP's and Big Brains decided to make a post about the uncertainty of the device moving forward. We have been trying to assist with issues, but it is basically a full-time job to support 30k members of this Discord. We don't have admin rights to this server, but we have enough access to keep it running for the time being. You may ask why are you making a post if nothing is changing. Well, that is not the case. The Linux GoXLR app developer was working very closely with the GoXLR team behind the scenes and had enough information to build a proper fully functional app. They are very close to releasing a standalone open-source app that has all if not more functionality than the current GoXLR app and it works with windows/Linux and a MAC Port!!! We are hoping to move all future features to the new app and have it open source for others to contribute to it. We are soft launching the new discord to support the new tools (not associated/affiliated with TC-Helicon). Again, I'm not sure how much longer this discord will exist. Some of us will continue to support the legacy GoXLF2 app. We've done a good job of providing lots of help/FAQ's to fix most issues that come up with the GoXLR. More information to follow once we have more to share. We will also be sharing with the larger discord group in a few days. We don't want people to flood the new discord thinking they will get help with the GoXLR app. GoXLR MVP's and Big Brains II post the other discord link seperately
A GoXLR Discord server moderator posts a grim update on the future of the product and the official support server.

This was… not what I wanted, but about what I expected given the GoXLR product line’s lack of momentum since the pandemic started.

A moderator in the official GoXLR Discord Server posted a grim status update regarding the GoXLR product line and the official support server. It appears all remaining TC-Helicon staff in the Canada office have been laid off by MusicTribe (TC-Helicon’s parent company). These staff were the ones responsible for firmware, software, and driver updates and support for GoXLR products.

This comes after the original GoXLR product team left TC-Helicon (after releasing the GoXLR Mini and a couple accessories) to form the BEACN team (a product line which has also seen limited software support and slowed momentum, plus staff departures since launch) and a previous round of layoffs.

GoXLR was a promising product that really brought some innovation to the streaming-focused scene, which audio companies had yet to take seriously at time of release in 2019 – but carried a high cost and had quite a few downsides compared to similarly-priced professional audio solutions. The GoXLR Mini (review) came at a much more affordable price with the most important features in-tact.

Many exciting follow-up products were planned for the GoXLR line, including a “GoXLR 2” or “GoXLR Pro” which would feature dual USB hosts and a toggle to switch the motorized slider states between them for better dual PC compatibility, among other plans.

The potentially good news on the horizon is that a third-party developer has been working on an open-source, feature-parity app for the GoXLR that is compatible with Windows, Mac OS, and Linux, and should be finished soon – learn more about that at the GitHub Repo.

While this could breathe new life into the product, there are inherent limitations. As mentioned by the Discord mod, managing support for that many people is a “full-time job” and both supporting a complex, mission-critical (for streamers) app and providing tech support on a volunteer, open-source basis rarely runs smoothly, so we’ll see how things turn out. Plus, the firmware itself doesn’t appear to have been open sourced, so stabilizing onboard features or bugs will be difficult or impossible without some potential reverse-engineering.

MusicTribe apparently “doesn’t believe in marketing” for their consumer-facing products, according to an inside source during GoXLR’s release, and never gave much funding towards such endeavors – and most of their consumer products are clones of existing products, making it not surprising that they didn’t support the GoXLR in the way it was needed. However, given the initial hype for it (and the Mini’s) release and the added momentum at the start of the pandemic, it’s still quite sad to see it get cut off when streamers still use it daily for their streams.

You can join the new “soft-launched” Discord server for the open-source app here.

I guess as a bit of personal product advice: Maybe don’t buy a new GoXLR product anytime soon, especially for full price. Consider instead the Elgato Wave XLR or the Elgato Stream Deck + if you already have an audio interface (like the Audient Evo 4 (Amazon affiliate link)) instead. A more direct alternative would be the pricey Rodecaster Pro II (Amazon affiliate link), which I haven’t gotten to try yet, but have heard great things about – and have requested a sample to cover given the current context.

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