I played with the Loupedeck Live S and loved it

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Loupedeck was kind enough to offer a Loupedeck Live S for me to play around with before the official launch. It’s quickly become my favorite streaming accessory to use in my day to day.

A tiny bit of background. When I hit the point that I needed a little something extra for streaming I didn’t have a lot of disposable income. What I did have was an ancient HP tablet lying around. I installed a piece of software that basically turned it into a very laggy Stream Deck knockoff.

That worked, for a while. Later on I got my hands on an actual Elgato Stream Deck, and that’s been my go-to ever since.

Well, until now, anyway.

Using the Loupedeck Live S

The Live S offers the same amount of buttons as a Stream Deck, in a similar layout. Three rows of five in a slightly more compact layout. The buttons themselves are firm, but the device offers a pretty serious vibration to let you know when you’ve activated a button press.

It’s also got fourteen pages to play with. While the device itself is a set of 15, a quick swipe can flip to the next page. And the next page. And so on. I definitely don’t have 210 individual actions I need to stick on buttons in my day to day. But I also didn’t think I had more than 15, and I’m already two pages deep in custom actions.

The Loupedeck software comes with a handful of default setups, attached to each of the four analog buttons. It’s got the usual launch shortcuts; Youtube, Twitter and Facebook among them, but the category specific defaults are the most useful.

The streaming defaults for Twitch are basically everything you need to micromanage your stream, at least as a beginner. The chat integration offers single button options for switching your chat to the different modes, like emote-only mode, slow mode or followers-only mode.

It has many other options available in the pre-programmed Twitch actions, like creating clips or setting markers. It’s also got that same kind of integration with StreamElements, OBS, Spotify and more.

That’s all in the software, though. Which is free. You can download it right now and really take a good look at what it can do.

The Loupedeck Live S, physically

The Loupedeck Live S isn’t especially big. It’s 5.9 inches by 3.4 inches – a little larger than a Stream Deck because of the dials and analog buttons. The dials, by default, control system audio and the device backlight. Each dial has a pretty satisfying click when turned, and can also be pushed in to double as another button.

The four analog buttons feel decently solid. There’s enough resistance there to stop you from accidentally pressing one. Each of the four buttons also features a built-in light which can be easily changed inside the software.

The Live S comes in the box with an attachable stand, and honestly it might be my one small complaint with the device. The stand is a fixed piece of plastic which clips into the back of the console, letting it stand on an angle.

The angle it sits on is well suited to being, say, right next to a keyboard. But I prefer my accessories a little farther away. It’s an odd habit, but I like to reach out to interact with my audio mixer, or now my Live S.

If I could adjust the angle I don’t think I’d have a single complaint about the Live S.

Final thoughts on the Live S

I adore the Loupedeck Live S. It fits in with all of my computer gear without taking up any significant space. It’s color-customizable to a level where I can make it match the colors of all my other gear and lights. The Live S is intuitive enough that I could use it essentially out of the box.

It’s robust enough that anything I could think of to try, it could do. If it couldn’t do it immediately it could be programmed to do with custom actions and macros. The Loupedeck Live S is so capable it’s almost entirely removed the need to have any of my other accessories and peripherals plugged in.

The best part? It’s competitive, price-wise. Other Loupedeck products are a bit pricey. They’re worth it, certainly, but they’re a serious chunk of change. The Live S is launching at $179 USD – right in line with its contemporaries.

This review is based on a review unit provided to the reviewer by Loupedeck.

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