Things I Love: The Stream Deck

It would be easy to discount Elgato’s Stream Deck because it was originally built for Twitch streamers. But, you’d be doing yourself a disservice. I find that having a small set of software-configurable buttons attached to my PC is incredibly powerful. And the secret, as is usually the case, is good software.

What launched in 2017 as a tool for streamers to create macros that would let them create single button presses that triggered common tasks on their streams—changing scenes, adjusting lighting, muting audio inputs, and running chat commands—has become much much more. My Stream Decks have become powerhouses of productivity because Elgato included multiple ways for the Deck to interact with other applications. Full disclosure: This is not a sponsored post, I bought one when they first launched, because it seemed like a fun novelty, and over the years have upgraded and added a few more. I currently have two Decks in-use on my desk today, a Stream Deck + and a Stream Deck XL.

The Deck has three basic superpowers. It can interact with pretty much any application on your computer, it can automatically change modes based on what your using your computer for at any given moment, and it lets you stack multiple actions onto a single button press or toggle. Combined, these three powers make these devices incredibly flexible and capable of automating complicated workflows. Let me explain.

The Deck’s first superpower is that any button can trigger pretty much any keyboard shortcut, which lets you interact with virtually every piece of software running on your desktop. You can also set buttons to open or close specific programs, run a command line, perform common system tasks (like muting audio), or adjust settings on the Stream Deck itself (brightness, switching between pages of buttons, etc). The Stream Deck also includes a full plugin infrastructure, which people have gone wild with, adding support for thousands of their favorite applications to the devices. And finally, if that isn’t enough for you, the SDK lets you write your own code that interacts directly with the device.

The Deck software’s second superpower is that it’s context-aware. It knows what software you’re running at any given time and can adjust the buttons that it displays accordingly. As an example, when I open Premiere, it becomes a bank of hotkeys for timeline manipulation, exporting videos, capturing screenshots, etc. When I’m in Audacity or Audition, I get hotkeys for audio editing and shortcuts to the folders where audio lives on my computer. And when I open Zoom, it swaps to buttons that let me control my OBS Virtual Camera and turn on my lights for a conference call. The rest of the time, my Stream Deck is a hardware interface for my audio mixer, a home automation control pad, and a tool that lets me control OBS. Your use will almost certainly vary.

But you can just use keyboard shortcuts to do all of this, right? That’s true for the most basic functionality, but the Stream Deck’s third superpower is that it lets you bundle up multiple actions into a single hotkey, including supplying pauses between steps. This lets me turn checklists and other multi-step tasks into single button presses.

For example, before I bought a Stream Deck, I had a checklist of things to do before I started a stream on a post-it stuck on my monitor. It included software to launch, settings to toggle and confirm, lights to adjust, and more. I went down that checklist every single time I started a stream. Now I hit a single button to launch all the software I need, arrange the newly-opened windows in their proper positions, configure my lights and audio for broadcast, and more. Then I hit a second button to launch the stream, which starts a pre-roll reel for whatever game I’m playing, mutes my audio inputs, joins the appropriate Discord channels, and pushes the stream live.

The thing that happened, after I started using a Deck for a while, is that every repetitive task started to feel like a Deck problem. When I was testing microstutter for PC World a few weeks ago, it was a moment’s work to setup a hotkey that triggered my profiling tool and started a video capture within a few milliseconds of each other. That made capturing a 60 second loop of gameplay and performance metrics a single button press that I could easily trigger while I was playing games. I have hotkeys that automate my common tasks in Premiere and Affinity Photo, clip web links to my Notion story ideas page, toggle my online presence in all my chat apps between Online and Invisible, and a bunch more.

(The only downside of this is that I have to resist the urge to over-automate tasks, lest I become a living example of this XKCD.)

The Hardware

The biggest knock against the Stream Deck family of devices is that they’re overpriced for what they are, which I think was more fair in 2017 than it is today. With 1000s of software integrations for the Deck hardware, I think the pricing the the Deck hardware is justified (but they also run frequent sales on their store and Amazon).

What started as a 3x5 row of buttons has become kind of a complicated product family, especially as you dig into the new stuff that they rolled out at Computex last week. Here’s the quick rundown:

• Boxes with buttons and knobs - This is the core hardware but it comes in a bunch of different shapes and sizes now

  • Stream Deck - This is the overarching category for physical Stream Deck hardware with buttons

    • Stream Decks are basic grids of buttons. They come in three different sizes: Mini with 6 buttons, XL with 32 keys and standard with 15. They’re rolling out versions with more tactile scissor keys now as well.

    • Stream Deck Neo - This is an 8 button keypad with a small screen for date/time/weather and a pair of dedicated touch buttons for switching between different pages of buttons.

    • Stream Deck + - The Stream Deck + adds 4 analog + click knobs and a touchscreen slide bar to an 8 button Stream Deck. It also supports a handful of clamp-on accessories, including an XLR-audio interface and a USB hub.

• Software options - There are also a handful of software implementations

  • The Steam Deck Mobile app for phones and tablets gives you a way to test drive the whole ecosystem for free. The phone apps give everyone access to 6 buttons. Beyond that, they charge $25/year or a one-time charge of $50 for unlimited access to the app, which feels kind of expensive for an app.

  • You can also add software buttons to your Windows or Mac desktops using the Stream Deck version 7 software (in beta right now). In order to unlock the Virtual buttons on your desktop, you have to own a hardware Stream Deck or certain Corsair peripherals.

• The weird hardware - This is where the Deck expansion is happening.

  • Studio - A rack-mounted Stream Deck that works with Bitfocus Companion. This one is really designed for professional audio and video applications, so it’s safe to ignore.

  • Pedal - a really sturdy, 3-button pedal that’s used for Mute buttons, triggering video capture, or other hands-free activities. If you need a pedal, you probably already know it.

  • Stream Deck Module - If you want to build your own custom hardware that includes Stream Deck buttons, this is for you.

The cheapest and fastest way to get started is to download the Stream Deck Mobile app for your phone. It walks you through the initial set up and process of connecting your phone to your PC or Mac, and the free 6 buttons, combined with the auto-switching profiles and paging features may be enough for you.

I think that both the Stream Deck Neo and Mini offer good jumping off points if you’re interested in trying the hardware. The paging buttons built into the NEO make it really flexible for people just getting started, but I don’t think you can really go wrong with any of this hardware—unless you just buy it and leave it sitting in a box on your shelf for two years.

If you decide to purchase some hardware, please consider using the links in the post. They’re affiliate links, which generates a few bucks per purchase and helps support the newsletter (and me and my family, which I appreciate).

If you do end up integrating the Stream Deck with your workflows, please smash the reply button and share your favorite tips and tricks! I’ll share the best ones with folks in a future edition of the newsletter.