GoXLR no longer has developers to maintain the audio mixer

Update (04/07/23): Music Tribe has addressed the situation publicly, stating that it's still figuring things out. We've included the comments below.

Original article (03/07/23): The GoXLR and its little brother took the streaming world by storm back in 2018, as the colourful audio mixers wrapped multi-channel sourcing into an affordable RGB-clad package. Unfortunately, the pandemic hasn’t been easy for maker TC-Helicon and its parent company MusicTribe, resulting in sudden redundancies that mean there’s pretty much no one left to support the products beyond 2023.

A moderator shared the sad news in the GoXLR Discord, stating that the company’s Canada offices have completely shut down. While there’s no official word that the products have entered an end-of-life status, the staff affected by the layoffs primarily handled all software, firmware, and driver support, leaving little hope for the devices beyond a final beta update.

In a series of tweets, TC-Helicon Gaming addressed some concerns by reiterating that customer service is now housed under Music Tribe, the Discord will remain open, and the parent company will still sell its gaming gear. The full transcript is below:

"We’ve read your messages, and understand your concerns. We hope this post will shed some light on the current situation and answer some of your important questions. Our Canadian office is indeed closed. What does this mean for you?

• "First - all warranty cover continues under Music Tribe, the only difference to you is the name. The cover and care remain the same.
• "Second - our Discord server will stay open.
• "Lastly - our gaming products will continue too. We’re deciding the best way to do this to provide you with the best quality products we can create. We’ll let you know more when we do.

"To be very honest, we’re still figuring out the rest. The one thing that’s certain, and always will be, is our utmost dedication to you - our amazing supporters. Please bear with us in the interim as we figure out the logistics.
Thank you from all of us here at TC Helicon and Music Tribe."

This puts an unceremonious end to products that were in the pipeline, such as the GoXLR 2, which was originally postponed in 2019. More worryingly, however, it sparks concerns for GoXLR and GoXLR Mini owners given just how reliant on software the two devices are. Neither can function without the app running in the background and while the program should continue to work as is, both bugs and security issues will now go unchecked until Music Tribe chooses how it wants to proceed.

A third-party developer has an open-source app in the works called GoXLR Utility that promises feature parity across Windows, macOS, and Linux, providing a little light at the end of the tunnel. So far, reception for the new app has been positive, but it’s worth noting that it’s a volunteer-led effort and could suffer worse capacity issues than the original team.

As disappointing as this is, it’s not the most surprising turn of events. TC-Helicon, and by extension MusicTribe, didn’t seem to scale as the popularity of GoXLR products surged in the streaming space. Release of new products stalled following the Mini and software development was oftentimes slow after the core product team left to form Beacn (which has also seemingly slowed in development according to Streamguides). Bigger brands started paying more attention in the space, and all the goodwill TC-Helicon built with a solid first mixer only went so far as the company struggled more than its rivals during the pandemic.

With the GoXLR now officially dead, it’s time to turn our attention towards other products in the space. The closest you’ll get is the Razer Mixer, which is a near carbon copy of the GoXLR Mini feature-for-feature, but supported by Synapse software. It’s a personal favourite of mine, and rather affordable (relatively speaking). On the more expensive end, the Rode Rodecaster Pro II is a good replacement for the full-sized GoXLR, but with more channels, dual USB and Bluetooth channels, and the ability to record directly onto a microSD card.