When it comes to making PC upgrades, most people think of their componenets, or a monitor, or maybe even peripherals. However, one upgrade that's turned out to be one of the best I've ever made has actually been an audio interface.

I picked up a GoXLR Mini recently for cheap along with an XLR microphone. While the GoXLR Mini was technically discontinued at one point in time and wasn't supposed to be receiving updates, there have been changes and improvements pushed to it even after that date passed. The TC Helicon Discord is also a great place to go for support, and apparently, development is now continuing under a different team.

However, the reasons that the GoXLR Mini is the best upgrade I've made to my PC are reasons that will go for any decent audio interface.

5 I can route all of my audio to different faders

Granular control over everything

Audio interfaces differ in how they work, but the primary way that they manage to achieve what they do is through audio channels on your PC. Rather than just outputting to one device, they create multiple audio channels that all get mixed into one channel that's output to your headphones. On the GoXLR Mini, I have an overall system audio, game audio, music audio, and chat audio. The overall system audio is then sent out to my headphones, which I output from the interface to my SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless base station.

From there, I can decrease or increase the audio of different applications using the interface. I can lower the volume of my music if I need to (or mute it entirely), increase or decrease the volume of the game I'm playing, and also control my entire system audio from here. It's great when playing games as I don't need to tab out of the game I'm in to change my audio levels, and all you need to do to assign applications to different faders is to change what device they output audio to by default.

This alone has been a big upgrade, as I don't need to lower the volume of individual applications. I can just do it from my interface which sits to the left of my keyboard.

4 I can mute individual channels at the touch of a button

It's instant

If I want to mute an individual channel immediately, I don't even need to pull down the fader to mute it. Instead, there's a button below the fader that will just mute all audio coming from that channel. That means I can instantly mute and unmute audio as I need it, which can be incredibly useful.

Imagine you're listening to music while playing a game, but you suddenly need full audio to hear what's happening. You can quickly press the button to mute your music (without needing to adjust the fader) and keep playing as you were. When you're ready to hear your music again, simply press it again to unmute the audio channel.

The same goes for your microphone, which you can switch between being toggled muted or muted only when the button is held down. Both work well, though I personally use a toggle. You can even have it change color if you use a toggle so you know when it's activated or not. These features aren't on every audio interface, but many of them have it.

3 I can use better microphones

Audio interfaces are used to power XLR microphones

This is a given when it comes to an audio interface, but most people start using one because they want to use a better microphone. I picked up a Shure SM7B along with mine, and it sounds significantly better than the Blue Yeti that I had been using for nearly a decade.

An XLR microphone is better than a USB microphone for a lot of reasons. An audio interface (which you'll need for an XLR microphone) is a lot better at processing audio than your PC might be, and XLR cables themselves are robust, are capable of providing phantom power, and can reduce noise in your microphone too.

2 I can listen to myself with zero latency

Important for keeping on top of audio

Being able to monitor your microphone is incredibly important, especially for professionals. An audio interface typically enables this, as you can hear yourself, how you sound, and see if you need to turn your volume up or down.

This is also great for when you're applying compression settings, noise gates, or other options in order to get a feel for how you sound and what can be improved. It's not a necessity if you're just gaming with friends or having casual conversations, but it will help you sound your best if you want to use it.

1 Better audio options when recording

Or streaming

 
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When I'm recording with a tool like OBS, I can designate individual audio channels to be picked up based on the audio sources that my audio interface has. Rather than needing to play around with virtual audio cables, I can create separate sources that pick up individual components. For me, I have the following audio channels recorded when I'm using a replay buffer or streaming:

  • Game
  • Chat
  • Microphone

These are all that I need, and mean that if I'm listening to music it won't go out on the stream. You can do this for anything, as you can move applications between different audio channels if you don't want them to be picked up by your recording software.