Audio-Technica’s first USB audio mixer, the diminutive AT-UMX3, is one of the tiniest on the planet, almost small enough to slide into your hip pocket, though if you attempted it, I’d wager you’d look far from hip.

Designed for streamers of all levels of experience, the AT-UMX3 provides high-quality sound (up to 24 bits/192 kHz) in a simple but effective package. Although the plain black-and-white styling tends to conceal the fact, Audio-Technica’s new mixer is basically laid out like a traditional console, replete with a pretend meter bridge that makes the unit look like it’s made of Lego blocks.

On the left-hand side there’s a single mic preamp gain knob and output rotary ‘fader’, which you connect into on the rear panel via a Neutrik XLR/6.3mm combo microphone jack. This mic channel also provides 48V phantom for condenser microphones via a switch, a peak overload LED, and even a well-illuminated and sturdy mute switch – all the basics for setting gain correctly and operating the mic effectively. Next to that, a line-level mono/stereo channel accommodates a mono (or stereo) signal (a keyboard for example) along with a high-impedance guitar input, again controlled via gain and output knobs. All three inputs here are on ¼-inch jacks, so there’s no need to unplug one to connect the other, which is handy. A simple switch at the top of this channel shows a keyboard symbol on the left, and a guitar on the right, to make things self-explanatory for beginners. But you can’t have both instruments playing at once, I’m afraid – switching to Hi-Z cuts the signal from the stereo keyboard inputs.

The mixer is designed for streamers and podcasters of all flavours, which is why the third and final ‘channel’ is a stereo line-level ‘Loopback’ on a single rotary fader, with an on/off switch.

This allows you to mix your in-game or PC/MAC audio directly back into your live-stream via USB-C.

On the far right is a big headphones level control knob, above which is a slightly dinky on/off switch that cuts the microphone monitoring to the headphones only (for those who don’t want to hear their own voice in the cans, unlike the Mute switch, which cuts the mic entirely), and above that are simple green and red stereo signal and peak meters.

There’s no need for software drivers to get the mixer going either; just plug in your Windows PC, Mac, smartphone or tablet and you’re away.

This is a cool little product: deceptively well built, good sounding and easy to use. There’s enough in the way of features to meet a streamer’s basic needs, but not so many that the whole thing gets confusing or becomes a drag.

Check out the video overview: