Razer has done really great with their peripherals as of late, even if they seem to cater to a “hardcore” audience. Their laptops are a tour-de-force, if a bit on the expensive side; and, lately, they’ve been knocking great peripherals out of the park, like their Razer Seiren microphone. But now, they’ve made an improved version of that, the Emote that makes it a must for streamers. As for everybody else, well, it depends what kind of personal flair you want to add to your recording experience.
The Seiren Emote has a similar build to the company’s last microphone. However, there’s a noticeable difference with an interactive display. Here, you can use one of many pre-programmed emotes to show off to your audience while you stream. And what’s more, plugging it into your PC enables you to set up custom emotes, based on the themes of your stream. It’s a neat little device when it comes to adding a personal flair to how you look when you broadcast.
Each emote can tie in with a feature on your particular stream. For instance, you can set up ones for cheers, raids, donations, subscribers, followers and more. This works via a Streamer Companion App that you can use via PC. It can get a little complicated to set up at first, but after a few quick sessions, I found setting up my own emotes to be smooth sailing. (And, no, they are not all poops.)
You can also test out several emotes and watch them change on the fly depending on what function you want them to serve. I did a little testing with this on a friend’s stream (through his high-end PC) and found its interaction to be razor-sharp. Actually, it took me all the effort for me to leave his home with it, as he kept saying, “Just leave it here!”
Like other Razer devices, the Emote also supports the Hue Smart Light system, so you can customize with any other peripherals you may have from the company. If you don’t have anything, you can still set up colors however you wish through the microphone.
But let’s talk about performance. After all, a show-off microphone is nice to look at, but what’s the point if people can’t actually hear you? Well, it does a great job performance-wise. It had no trouble tracking my voice (and my friend’s voice) across a number of surfaces, and even managed to drown out certain noises from other objects with ease (not completely, but enough to track the quality of who’s speaking). It’s running with the same tech as the Seiren X, for the most part, so you do get quality for your money.
And it’s also quite sturdy, too. The shock mount holds the microphone in place with ease. Even if you accidentally bump into it, it won’t go flying off your desk (unless you get really mad during a Fortnite session – which, thankfully, I did not). You can also adjust the mic to lean in or sit firmly in a stand, if you prefer to take that route.
Now, the real question is if it provides any value if you’re not a streamer. Let’s say you just want a good mic for podcasts or something like that. I can tell you that the audio quality is top notch with recording here as well, particularly with my internal programs. But $180 is a hard price to pay when other mics are available for around $100 or less. If you don’t mind forking over the cash, it’s worth it; but to some, if you’re not going to use its features, it may not pay you back handsomely enough.
One other note: the Razer Seiren Emote does not work with Mac. Considering I lean pretty heavily on this tech (and previous headsets from the company do work), I found this to be a disappointment. The Mac may not be as hardcore a machine as PC, but there are still some folks that use it with their streams. Fingers crossed that Razer introduces a compatibility update in the future to figure this out. Why leave gamers out in the cold?
In the end, if you’re not a streamer and you’re looking for a good mic to generally record stuff, you may be better off with a lesser Seiren model. But if you like to show off during your streams and really want to add a personal flair, it’s the best thing you can get (aside from camera, gaming rigs and green screen, obviously). Its display is excellent when it comes to emotes; and its quality can’t be beat, right up there with other Seiren models.
It just really depends on what side of the gaming business you’re on. But if you’re all about that Twitch or Mixer life, dig in.
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