Software

As many of you surely know, Corsair's peripherals are controlled through the Corsair Utility Engine (CUE), a powerful albeit somewhat confusing software package. The user experience isn't all too streamlined, and the interface definitely requires some getting used to. I caught myself discovering new features and options on my tenth or fifteenth visit, which is less than ideal. The first thing you should do, right after starting CUE for the first time, is to click on the cogwheel at the top of the interface to then select the "Show only connected devices" option. Before you do, CUE will not only show you the settings of the peripheral you actually own, but also a couple of others Corsair sells, even though they aren't connected to your PC. I guess the idea is for you to check out their settings, be impressed by the sheer number of options, and buy them. I have no idea if this works as a selling strategy, but I can confirm that it's annoying as hell until disabled. Only after the clutter of those "demo devices" is removed can you start actually going through the settings of your device - the Void Pro RGB USB in our case. The same menu where you activated the aforementioned setting is where you'll also be able to check out the battery's status, initiate an automatic firmware upgrade, enable or disable the voice prompts, and auto-shutoff and adjust the brightness of the RGB LEDs, if you decide to use them.


After clicking on the picture of the headset, you'll see its picture, two sliders and a button. The first slider adjusts the microphone volume and the one next to it controls the volume of the microphone sidetone. Here, you'll determine how loud you'll hear the sounds picked up by the microphone inside the headphones. If you're wondering why you'd want to in the first place, the explanation is simple enough - hearing yourself talking (with no delay) will prevent you from shouting or sounding nasal. I found it best when the microphone sidetone slider was kept at around the middle. The button under the sliders switches between stereo and Dolby Headphone:X 7.1 mode.


To control the RGB LEDs, or to turn them off, click on the "Lighting Effects" option on the left side of the CUE interface. Then, you'll be able to switch between available effects - Static Color, Blink, Breathe, Beat, Rainbow Pulse, and Rainbow. Everyone of these has a couple of additional options which will help you fine-tune it, such as the color picker or a brightness and speed slider, depending on the effect. To turn the RGB LEDs completely off, you'll have to select the first "effect" from the list, called "Select Effect". It boggles my mind why this option isn't simply called "Disabled" or "Lights Off", or something similar.


If you select "EQ Presets" from the left side of the CUE UI, you'll be able to activate and deactivate various factory sound profiles (actually system-wide equalizer settings) or create your own. The headset can switch between five of these, so if you want to add and use custom ones, you'll have to deactivate an existing one by simply clicking on the "switch" next to its name. I'm not a huge fan of any of the factory profiles and strongly urge you to stick with "Pure Direct", which is a completely flat one. "Movie Theater" adds bass and pushes the midrange forward in order for dialogue to be louder. "FPS Competiton" puts an even stronger emphasis on the midrange and should make it easier for you to hear the movement of your enemies, but alters the naturality of the sound in the process. "Clear Chat" boosts the 1-4 kHz range so that voices become louder and easier to hear. I had no trouble understanding my teammates or in-game characters without it. Finally, "Bass Boost" turns everything into a proper mess - the bass becomes boomy and the mids get a massive boost too, which is very unpleasant to the ear. Avoid it at all costs.

You can apply all of your settings globally, but you can also tie them to a certain game, if that's something you find useful. If you click on the big button in the upper-left corner of the CUE UI, you'll end up in the profile-setup section of the software. Here, you can add new profiles, link them to desired games, add custom profile icons and background images, copy and delete them, arrange them by folders, and so on.

The Corsair Utility Engine in its newest iteration still leaves a similar impression to that of its predecessors - it's a powerful piece of software, but not the most streamlined one. A couple of simple UI tweaks could make it much more intuitive. Good news is that it gets updated often, so chances are it will become more and more polished as time goes on.