Elgato, a brand of Corsair, makes high-end and innovative tools to help you with your streaming, screen captures, presentations, and even general quality-of-life computer use enhancements.

It begins with the Wave:3 microphone; this is a broadcast-quality microphone full of features from its steel grille to its premium condenser capsule that captures verbal nuances with precision, to its multilayered noise shield that keeps plosive noises at bay - the sounds associated with letters like p or t where airflow from the lungs is interrupted by a complete closure in the mouth - to its cardioid polar pickup fine-tuned for speech.

The microphone comes with a USB-C connection, a headphone jack, an optional dual-layer metal mesh pop filter, an optional robust metal chassis shock mount, and controls like mute, gain, and cross-fade.

It sports a multi-adapter that works with all mainstream boom arms, though a solid desk stand is included so you can sit it on your desk, upright, or hang it from above using an arm.

Speaking of arms, Elgato sells its own Wave mic arm with riser extension that clamps onto your desk and comes over your monitor or from overhead, as well as a Wave mic arm LP (or “low profile”) that sits lower and brings your microphone up from below your monitor. So, no matter how big or small or high or low your environment is, there’s no need to be without professional broadcast audio because the Wave:3 has such a flexible range of options.

Spec-wise, it has 24-bit resolution, a 70-20000Hz frequency response, gain between -25dBFS and 15dBFS, 120dB max SPL, 95dB dynamic range, and weighs in at 280g and 153x66x40mm.

It doesn't stop with hardware; the free Elgato Wave Link software provides next-level mixing to help you blend up to nine independent audio sources in real time, each with its own individual volume. There’s no need to have your gaming audio outweigh your voice, or for your background music to dominate; you can turn each source up or down to make your perfect mix. What’s more, you can create two completely independent output mixes - one for you, and one for your audience, and monitor each on the fly.

Wave Link also supports third-party VST plugins giving you a vast range of audio effects.

It also integrates seamlessly into the Elgato Stream Deck - which segues nicely because iTWire has also been looking at this highly versatile, very clever - and immensely fun and useful - array of buttons. The Stream deck is a small board of customisable buttons, propped up in an angular stand that sits on your desk and gives you vast power at your fingertips.

The question isn't what can you do with the Stream Deck, but what can't you? With a huge array of plugins, you can program any Stream Deck button to mute sources, adjust levels, skip tracks, change camera angles, modify your smart lighting, send Tweets, pause PowerPoint, control Zoom … and just so, so much more. There’s a vast array of plugins - even Visual Studio for the developers, let alone Twitch Studio for the streamers. And any supported function can be assigned to any button either by itself or as part of a multi-action, allowing you to chain together an entire series of actions - all with a single button press.

With the Stream Deck you can truly take your streaming game to the next level, but even if you're not a streamer it truly offers immense power to automate and enhance your workflows whether a power user, office worker, developer, or anything else. It comes with 15 customisable LCD keys, uses USB 2.0, weighs 270g including the stand, and measures 118x84x25mm.

Check out the Stream Deck store for yourself.

The Stream Deck mk2 is $204.68 from Amazon, and the Wave:3 microphone is $239 from Amazon; it is also available from JB Hi-Fi and other retailers.

You can also combine them with the Elgato HD60X video capture unit for even more capability.

See them both in action here as we use both these tools together: