Roland's first gaming product is the Bridge Cast streaming mixer
Expect submixes, voice effects and a novel way to customize how it looks.
Roland may be a mainstay in the electronic music world, but it also dabbles in the occasional creator product, too. This year at CES the company has unveiled an audio interface aimed squarely at streamers and it’s called the Bridge Cast ($299).
Like rival products such as the GoXLR or Rode’s Rodcaster Pro II, the Bridge Cast offers a way to pipe different audio feeds (chat, music, game audio, browser sounds and so on) to different destinations - usually your local mix and the one your audience hears.
As you’d expect, there’s an input for an XLR mic and options for dual/submixes along with a selection of vocal effects. There are four channels with rotary controls for mic, aux, chat and game. Each channel also gets a mute button for quickly removing unwanted audio without diving into settings. An intersting touch is the ability to customize the faceplate so if your channel, stream or team has a logo you could add some branding into your Twitch or YouTube feed.
Deeper control will apparently be available via the companion software to fine tune the mic sound or even the EQ of your game audio.
The streaming space has become a massive opportunity for legacy audio companies, and it’s good to see Roland furthering its commitment to this space. How it stacks up to its rivals though, remains to be seen, but if your new year’s resolution was to finally get that stream off the ground then it looks like you have one more option to consider.
