Live Stream 101: How to set up a high-quality Facebook livestream from home
Intro
Musicians are among the many businesses and professionals rapidly adapting the way they do what they do in order to stay relevant and make a living during the COVID-19 Pandemic and the resulting restrictions on public gatherings. Just as bars and restaurants face challenges of how to continue offering their services and stay afloat as the economy takes a downturn, musicians are faced with the need to adapt.
Live streaming presents a low (or no) cost way to provide entertainment, engage your fans, broaden your fan base, and even make some money! This two-part blog series will walk you through every step of doing a high quality live stream. Part one of this blog series will cover the tech side and running a test stream.
Live Stream Overview
Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and many other platforms have functionality that allows the user to go live or live stream. This post will focus on how to set up and run a high-quality live stream using Facebook, a software streaming encoder (free), and tools you likely already have from gigging.Whether you’ve tried a live stream before or are considering this for the first time, one big way to set yourself apart is quality. If you haven’t yet, tune into some live streams on Facebook and Instagram and you can observe the variance in quality. Here are three examples of live streams done by Patrick B Ray (shared with permission and both run with assistance from Crescendo Management). If you want to skip to the “how to” part without exploring varying quality and how we landed on our setup, go on down to “What you need”.
In this first example we went live on Facebook using a mobile phone. It was impromptu. It was the early days of COVID and we were interested to see what initial engagement would be. Quality isn’t terrible but it also isn’t awesome. Additionally the camera gets a little wobbly because it is being held by a second person. Check out a few minutes to get a sense of what a no stress, no effort, live stream looks like: Watch on Facebook It’s not the end of the world to put yourself out there like this, especially for short sets. But there is a lot of opportunity to present higher quality streams with minimal work, and we’ll show you how!
Here’s a quick look at a slightly better version as we were experimenting with and learning how to optimize our set up. This video used Facebook Live, a DI box, a Digital Audio Interface, and a condenser microphone. But still didn’t have the quality we were looking for. Watch on FacebookTransitioning from going live directly from the computer camera to using OBS Studio’s free streaming encoder enabled us to achieve the quality we wanted for a long-form (2 hour) live stream concert.
Previously, musicians used live content to do snippets of shows and previews of upcoming releases with the thought they would often be consumed on mobile devices, on the go, or without much care for quality. But now that we are doing full shows online, it is important to consider how your audience's behavior has changed. Folks are at home and may be setting up your stream on the big screen, with nice speakers. They may even be clearing their floor to do a little dancing (I know we are!). And you need to have the content at a quality level to make those setups shine in order to truly wow and engage audiences. Remember: people listening on high-quality audio systems will be more able than others to hear quality issues with your setup, so let’s aim to impress! Check out Patrick's first full form live stream using the techniques and technology we lay out below. Watch on Facebook
What You Need
A laptop or computer with a webcam (built-in or external)
Microphone for vocals: https://amzn.to/3cfx8gT
Mic Stand: https://amzn.to/2yPr6Vz
DI for guitar or other instrument(s): https://amzn.to/2XshAlG
Digital Audio Interface: https://amzn.to/34swtWG
Studio Monitor Headphones (Optional): https://amzn.to/34vEVUY
Or, the slightly more expensive (and awesome version that we use): https://amzn.to/2wv02tY
OBS Studio (Free) - https://obsproject.com/
A Facebook Account (Preferably a Business Page but your personal page will work too)
A helper (optional but helpful, in person if your household is greater than 1 or remote as needed)
Getting Set Up
So first thing’s first: You need to get everything set up and checked well in advance, because there is definitely a learning curve, and you may need to run down to Guitar Center or, more likely, over to Amazon to order some connector or adapter you don’t have lying around. We’ll also assume here that you’ve got a basic understanding of audio setup, but if you don’t, there are a ton of great resources available on Youtube.
As a quick aside, you’ll find that our focus here is on audio quality, rather than video quality, and that is because, in our opinion, audio quality is much more important to a musician than it might be for a spoken-word artist, or a how-to video, where the viewer needs to be able to see the subject clearly.
Here’s a high-level overview of our recommended setup:
Location: There’s an old saying in the computer-science world that is just as applicable to audio engineering: “Garbage in, garbage out.” This means that, no matter how fancy your gear is, if the input signal is trash, so will the output be. With this in mind, here are some tips to improve your audio and video quality from a location perspective:
Be careful with echo-prone locations. Yeah, that means it’s probably not a good idea to record in your tile bathroom. Yeah, the reverb in there is great when you’re singing in the shower, but for recording, it’s not ideal because it’s not controllable. We can always add reverb later on in the chain, but it’s impossible to remove if it’s built into the source.
Get creative with the lighting: You don’t want to wash yourself out by shining a floodlight in your face, and, similarly, you don’t want to look like you’re peering out of a dark abyss at your audience. Find some warm, even light (we used white christmas lights) to provide adequate illumination without being too much.
Think about your background: Even if the video quality you’re able to achieve isn’t great, you can still make your surroundings interesting (but not so interesting that they’re distracting). We set up in front of a fireplace, and brought in a couple of people to include in the edges of the frame to make the viewer feel as if they were sitting in the second row of an audience. Even just having one person to clap for you at the end of each song can go a long way toward providing the dynamic with which viewers are familiar, if they’re used to seeing you live.
Be sure to find a location with very little background noise. Things like traffic noise, washing machines, and even noisy neighbors can be distracting in a livestream, and you’d do well to avoid these things in your selected location.
Make sure you’re near your audio-capture device. This is probably the greatest factor within your control (aside from running your stream through an encoder). This means you need to put the microphone close to your face for vocals, or close to your instrument and adjust the volume levels accordingly. Furthermore, if you’re in a non-ideal acoustic environment, this can drastically improve your audio quality. We know you want to get your awesome boots in the frame, but if your microphone is 15 feet away, your sound will really suffer! We cannot overstate the importance of this.
Audio Setup: If you’re using a mic and a DI, get your mic plugged into the Digital Audio Interface, and get your DI setup and plugged into the Digital Audio Interface, then plug the Digital Audio Interface into the computer. If you have the ability to monitor the inputs (as in the Scarlett 2i2 we used), use headphones to adjust your levels to the desired balance, and each adjusted to the point that each channel does not clip during your most energetic dynamic (sing your loudest, most raucous song as a test). Once you’re setup with that, it’s time to get into the software and adjust your levels. We used the setup guide on the OBS website to get setup on our Macbook Pro (just a heads up, if you’re using an external audio device, you’ll need to use an external plugin, available via links on the OBS website). Similarly, we adjusted our levels to avoid clipping in the software during the most energetic dynamics.
Encoder Setup: Why use an encoder? Because the audio and video quality we found streaming directly from Facebook’s interface was seriously lacking, and, being sticklers for audio quality, we weren’t satisfied. You may find that the video quality produced using an encoder isn’t that great, either, but our experience has been that the AUDIO quality is vastly improved using an encoder. As a musician, that’s what you care about, right?
Doing a Test Live Stream
The easiest way to do a test live stream is on your personal profile with the privacy settings set to “only me”.
Click Go Live on Facebook. If it jumps into a tour of the updated publishing tool, go through that to use the new publisher.
Your initial setup will all be in the left side panel.
Choose Share to Your Timeline.
Change the privacy to Only Me.
You can leave the title and description blank.
Next look to the main panel and choose your tech settings. You’ll have the option Use Stream Key, Use Camera, or Use Paired Encoder.
Select Use Stream Key.
Under settings, we recommend unchecking End Live Video if Stream Stops. In case your internet cuts out briefly, you don’t want to start an entirely new stream.
Next we’ll take a quick break from Facebook to get OBS all set up in case you’ve never used their free software before.
OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) is a free software that will allow you to stream to Facebook Live and other platforms with a higher quality than if you just used Facebook Live. Start by downloading their software here.
Next we’ll go through the setup wizard. It will ask if you want to optimize for live streams or recordings. Select Live Streams. It will ask the display size. We stayed with the default of 1440x990.
Next you’ll need to add sources. We just used the built in camera on the laptop, but OBS provides the functionality to add external video devices as well, which will give you better video quality than the onboard laptop camera. Under Sources click the + sign and Video Capture Device, then name the device appropriately. Under Device you will see a drop down of available devices and can select it there. Again we stayed with the default resolution of 1280x720. After adding the device drag the video window to be full width. There will be a narrow black band at the bottom.
Since the camera doesn’t take up the whole picture you actually get a little real estate to play with (using overlays) to promote your website, tipping information, or anything else. More on that later!
Next go through the same steps to add your Audio Interface as an Audio Input Capture. Be sure to consult the instructions on the OBS website if you’re using a third party external audio capture plugin (for Mac users).
Last step on OBS for now, we’ll add a line of text with information on how people can tip you. Under Sources click the + sign and Text (Free Type 2) then name the text Tips or some other descriptor. Type in a line like Tips optional but appreciated. Venmo: @username. Then select a font that matches your brand. Click Okay. Resize and reposition the text to be centered in the black band. If it is not legible increase size. You may need to shorten the text block if it isn’t fitting.
This is the minimum you need to go live. Arguably you don’t even need the text, but tips! We’ll talk more about image overlays, slideshows, and the like in the bonus section of this post (to be added in the coming days). So for now focus on getting your video and audio in good shape and stay tuned for some bonus tips coming soon.
Now to actually go live on Facebook.
Copy your Stream Key and paste it into OBS. They may ask to run some tests - go ahead and do these. They will not be part of your Facebook Stream.
Within OBS click, Start Streaming. It will take a few seconds and then the video will appear on the Facebook Live window. You won’t be live until you select Go Live on Facebook.
When you are all set up and ready to do your sound check go ahead and click Go Live on Facebook.
After you’ve done a song or sound check snippet click End Live Video and on the prompt that appears click okay. You’ll now see a screen asking you to rate the stream. There is also an option to View Post. Select View Post and watch the video and listen for audio quality.
While listening to the test stream, listen for reverb, environmental noise, and clarity of vocals and instruments. Make sure your audio quality settings in OBS are set to the maximum your stream will handle if you notice any audio quality issues. Make sure your audio levels are set such that you can comfortably listen to the stream at 75% volume on your phone or laptop, and that during louder parts of your test stream, you don’t hear the audio clipping.
Your settings from your test stream should save for your next stream, but always be sure to check those settings before each stream.
That’s all for part one! Spend plenty of time getting your test streams where you want them. We did about six test streams to get to a happy place. The next post will cover scheduling to go live and promoting your show. Stay tuned!
Doing a live stream using tips you learned from Crescendo? Tag us and use #crescendocrew for a chance to be featured on our social media channels!