Hardware ( mics, mic pre amps, channel strip, effects processor ) for live streaming

Andy Snadden

New member
Hi guys, I hope you are all doing well !

Im interested in building a hardware set up for high end live music performance over the internet. Im an acoustic singer song writer with a home recorded album out and I want to reach more people using live streaming technology.

At the moment Im using an Audio Technica 3035 microphone to capture both the vocal and the acoustic guitar, and running through an entry level Steinberg audio interface. The sound was pretty appalling and Im not totally sure why. I know both the mic and interface are low level. I also have a feeling the mic was not designed to take two live sources and perhaps the guitar was simply too far away from the mic. Here is a link to the livestream I did. You can hear that the guitar is phasing horribly. This is my first post and I just realized I cant post a link. If you just search Andy Snadden on Youtube and look for my livestream ( there is only one ) and please ignore the embarrassing English teaching videos they are not supposed to be on my channel.

Im wondering what you guys recommend as a hardware set up for me to achieve a top of the line, fully professional live streaming sound ?

Im willing to buy two new mics, one for vocal and one for guitar. Id like them to be the last mics I buy ( well my wife hopes they are the last, lol ) and Id like them to be excellent for both home recording as well as performance. And Im willing to spend some money. For the vocal I quite like the idea of a tube/valve mic with a sexy classic hardware pre-amp. But Im open to all ideas and suggestions.

Post mic Id like to be able to add compression and reverb to the vocal and compression and eq and reverb to the guitar. Do I need a mixer before the audio interface ? Id like the signal to go through some sexy hardware, maybe with compression, to smooth out the whole signal.

Finally, how important is the interface? Im aware that the Steinberg is entry level and Im willing to get a better interface if that is also having a significant effect on the sound.

I realize this post is long and Im asking some serious questions. I thankyou sincerely in advance for your time.

Andy
 
Im only using one mic to capture the vocal and guitar ( the guitar sounds like its phasing when I listen back to the livestream ). I have Logic Pro but Im not going through it. Is that better ? I simply set my computer audio input to my Steinberg audio interface. Thats it. So I go straight from the Steinberg into the Youtube and Facebook live-streaming application. I don't have OBS.

Am I doing something wrong ?
 
well I'll preface this by saying ive only done this a few times (live stream) but hopefully I can help.

im pretty sure ur interface has two inputs so I'd go ahead an pick up another microphone so you can better isolate guitar and vocals with two separate mics.

id run those into Logic Pro on two separate channels, one for guitar and the 2nd for vox. (vocals are inout 1 and guitar is inout 2) the advantage here is being able to eq and compress your vocals and guitar differently, or even add effects like reverb or delay to each channel. there are a lot of tutorials on best setting sfor each of these, but in general, get rid of all the frequencies below 100Hz using an EQ one both channels (tracks). on that same eq u can maybe boost a little 6k for you vox and maybe cut some low-mids in ur guitar (really depends on ur voice and guitar [my guitar is very 'boxy' sounding so im usually dipping a lot of 200-500Hz on my guitar]). Experiment and do what sounds good to your ear. after you've Eq'd your vocals and guitar you should compress them so the lower volume parts are balanced against the louder parts. for your vocals, i'd recommend doing a series of 2 compressors bak to back, with lighter settings; 3:1 on the first compressor and the next with 2:1ratio; this will level out your dynamic range without over compressing your vocals (which sounds squished and thin).

now that you have your vocals and guitar sounding balanced with each other you can add a limiter to the master buss. not necessary but good "safety' net for audio peaks. if you want to know more about all this I can elaborate later more specifically. Logic Pro has everything you need in terms of EQ, COMPRESSION, REVERB, DELAY ETC.

Now that youre sounding how u like, its time to feed your audio into the live stream! your gonna have to download and use OBS... I did a quick search, and the flange issue is a FB live problem, but people are getting proper quality when streaming via OBS. OBS streams to any platform for you and you have way more controls anyway. you'll set your audio preferences in OBS but there's a little work you have to do first :

download and install Soundflower (its an audio routing software). next go into your computers audio midi setup, (just type audio midi in the search and it has a little piano keyboard icon). create a new multi output device (and name it so you know what it is) and select/add your Steinberg interface plus soundflower2ch. this way, you're now able to route the same audio to TWO outputs instead of one. Back in Logic, change your system preferences audio output to to the MultiOutput device - so now your audio outputting to your Steinberg interface as well as soundflower 2ch. (that wouldn't be possible without setting up a Multi-Output Device).

In OBS, set your audio input capture to Soundflower2ch (it won't be called multi output device since its an input, but since your feeding Logic audio output to sound flower2ch, the inout of OBS will recognize the signal as an input in soundflower2CH). And now you're getting nice eq'd compressed audio from Logic into OBS ! , while also maintaining your headphone mix separately in from the Steinburg headphone output. (you may have to turn down the steinburg software console in the steiburg software since it'll be sending an output signal directly from your inputs - basically just ignore the Steinberg software console since we dont need it bc we are using Logic to output and audio signal)

it kinda of a pain in the ass on the front end but once you get all this going, which will only take a day really, you'll be able to login to OBS and Start streaming immediately, any time.

ask any questions . cheers and ease of experience to you!
 
Bro, oh my god Im sooooo sorry I missed your reply. I just totally forgot I was even on this message board and stopped checking. And there you go giving me a SERIOUSLY detailed and long and high level reply. Truly sorry dude. You rock hard and Im gonna try that approach for sure. Im still bummed that it has to be that complex. Id prefer to process the audio through hardware on the way in than go into and out of Logic. And it seems crazy that I need two bits of software. But damn it, I want to live stream so Im gonna try it. Thanks again Holmes and again sorry for the long delay in responding. Peace
 
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