What tech do I need for quality FB Live

[leew3]

Originally Posted by phcorrigan

Definition of a musician: Someone who hauls $5,000 worth of equipment 50 miles in a $500 car to play $50 gig!

Well...we only drive about 5 miles and don't often make the $50 so perhaps it balances out!

[Chriscom]

Originally Posted by Chipotle

I found a link to this tutorial video elsewhere:

Full disclosure, I haven't tried the apps. It assumes you have a Mac or PC available. But being able to capture good mics through your interface will help the audio part of things. Obviously, for the video you want something better than a webcam too, but I'd sacrifice some video quality for nice clear audio, myself.

Hey man thanks! I'll check it out today. Really appreciate it.

I, too, would rank audio as more important video.

Facebook livestreams are popping up all over the place in my extended circle, and I'm beginning to see more whose quality is acceptable (by my suddenly rigorous standards). Here's one from last night, I'm going to ask him what he's using. Whatever he's using for the last steps of injecting it into Facebook, it sounds like the initial feed is just a mic in the room.

FWIW compared to last night, what I'm seeing on the replay this morning is same audio quality and very, very slightly less video quality. And his volumes were a little low at first, so after comments he boosted them. Singing starts around 5 minutes, he was fully boosted by 7 minutes for sure.

https://www.facebook.com/JoeDownerMu...0885999766436/

[Chriscom]

So that guy I linked to, Joe Downer, has already replied and here we go:

So I’m just running my mic into my mixer to add a little bit of reverb, and then to my L1. I have a Shure MV88 that plugs directly into the lightning port on my iPhone. It has a really nice stereo sound. That’s it! I try to keep it simple

So my vocals and guitar are coming out of the L1, and the MV88 picks it up in the room and essentially supersedes the regular iPhone mic

And I take it he's using his iPhone for video.

[Akousticplyr]

Looks interesting. Simple but it works. Also looks like he’s using the half stack method on his Bose L1.

I’m also looking at doing these live-streams. I think it’s going to be the new normal for the foreseeable future. Good luck to all.

[DavidE]

I did one last week. I plugged into my Bose S1 which was off camera to the side of an iPad. Several musician friends said it was the best sounding audio they’ve heard and they’ve watched a bunch. I did have the reverb too high on the vocal though. I’m doing another show on FB Monday. iPad was a recent 5th generation regular iPad. Nothing fancy.

[hubcapsc]

Originally Posted by DavidE

I did one last week. I plugged into my Bose S1 which was off camera to the side of an iPad. Several musician friends said it was the best sounding audio they’ve heard and they’ve watched a bunch. I did have the reverb too high on the vocal though. I’m doing another show on FB Monday. iPad was a recent 5th generation regular iPad. Nothing fancy.

What software? GarageBand?

I have one of the latest iPads with a fast cpu and big
SSD I use for GPS, but I'm not accustomed to using
apple software.

-Mike

[Chriscom]

Responded to a new thread about this, and thought I'd copy my reply here:

I'm now trying this, which means I ordered it but who knows when it will get here

https://www.guitarcenter.com/IK-Mult...#productDetail


Here's a short to-the-point video that explains it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rqPiXpcd1I

I think this will do the trick, but I'll find out.

Many of the sudden-livestreamers around here used their gigging setups and planted mics in front of them--the MV88 would work great in that setup. The only hitch is, that's if you're off in the woods or have understanding neighbors. I can't do that in my apartment, so I'm trying the mixer approach as well.

In fact since it's just me with voice and guitar, I'm using my Boss VE-8, which has many output options including a mono 1/4-inch, perfect for the iRig2. A surprising amount of mixers have USB output options--including my Yamaha MG10XU (as does the VE-8). But that gets into drivers and stuff, trying to avoid all that.

[Chriscom]

Additional routes here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaQFY0WVsks

Haven't done any of this myself yet, but another video I saw said the direct-cable options (the last two in this video) can make it very hard to control the signal without overwhelming the phone.

[JackB1]

OK so he's basically plugging into his L1 and then using the phone for everything with the Shure MV88. I tired that mic and wasn't overly impressed with it for the $150 price tag.

Originally Posted by Chriscom

So that guy I linked to, Joe Downer, has already replied and here we go:

So I’m just running my mic into my mixer to add a little bit of reverb, and then to my L1. I have a Shure MV88 that plugs directly into the lightning port on my iPhone. It has a really nice stereo sound. That’s it! I try to keep it simple

So my vocals and guitar are coming out of the L1, and the MV88 picks it up in the room and essentially supersedes the regular iPhone mic

And I take it he's using his iPhone for video.

[Chriscom]

Just a head's up, I'm still doing a FB livestream but have postponed it to next Sunday. Will let folks now how it turned out and I plan to post an excerpt for y'all. I could do it with just my VE-8 but if I have time between now and then I may try my T1 Tonematch.

Be safe all.

[Br1ck]

I'm part of a team trying to set up a virtual open mic. We are on our third platform. What works great for video chat is so far abysmal sonically. Even turning off the features designed for great meeting audio, the apps have very aggressive compresion built in. The video part works great.

So far Zoom and Google Hangouts have flunked. I'm working with technically astute folks. Back and forth between two people is fine.

And if you are looking to buy video gear, good luck. Every church in America is trying to do the same. A lot of stuff is back ordered.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by Br1ck

I'm part of a team trying to set up a virtual open mic. We are on our third platform. What works great for video chat is so far abysmal sonically. Even turning off the features designed for great meeting audio, the apps have very aggressive compresion built in. The video part works great.

So far Zoom and Google Hangouts have flunked. I'm working with technically astute folks. Back and forth between two people is fine.

And if you are looking to buy video gear, good luck. Every church in America is trying to do the same. A lot of stuff is back ordered.

Hey Br1ck, keep us up on what you find works. I've been messing with Zoom, and it's a mixed bag. Mark Hanson did a workshop over it last week, and I'd say it was more than adequate for teaching on my computer, with 30 people on. But a lot depends on people's connections. I can broadcast via zoom to another computer right here in the house, and it's excellent. But between an east coast friend with slow internet it was only marginally acceptable, even with just 2 of us. I'm not sure any platform can deal with that, but I'd be interested in what you come up with.

[martingitdave]

Originally Posted by Br1ck

I'm part of a team trying to set up a virtual open mic. We are on our third platform. What works great for video chat is so far abysmal sonically. Even turning off the features designed for great meeting audio, the apps have very aggressive compresion built in. The video part works great.



So far Zoom and Google Hangouts have flunked. I'm working with technically astute folks. Back and forth between two people is fine.



And if you are looking to buy video gear, good luck. Every church in America is trying to do the same. A lot of stuff is back ordered.

Zoom can work. I’ve already hosted 3 open mic sessions with Zoom and I’m hosting another one tomorrow night. There are a number of tricks and tweaks that can help. Most of our attendees are in the same larger metro location, so that helps. It’s not ideal, but adequate. I assume you know only one person can have their mic active at a time. The key to hosting is to be quick with the mouse and the participant’s mute buttons. Knowing how to secure the meeting helps too.

[El Conquistador]

My little guitar circle group tried a Zoom virtual circle last night. There are things that need to be tweaked on Zoom to make it sound good. This video was VERY helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkG7yOTRIAk&t=328s

Rather than adding all kinds of hardware, along with to the Zoom tweaks, I simply added a USB mic, https://www.amazon.com/Samson-Meteor.../dp/B004MF39YS

The other 3 participants said my voice and guitar sounded really good and have all since ordered the Meteor mic.

So, things sounded and looked good AS LONG AS ONLY 1 PERSON WAS PLAYING AND SINGING. But as soon as we tried to either add guitar fills from another person, or, worse, tried to add harmony, things got bad. We are hoping Zoom has a tweak for this.

Steve

[JackB1]

How did you capture vocals and guitar with the one mic?

Originally Posted by El Conquistador

My little guitar circle group tried a Zoom virtual circle last night. There are things that need to be tweaked on Zoom to make it sound good. This video was VERY helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkG7yOTRIAk&t=328s

Rather than adding all kinds of hardware, along with to the Zoom tweaks, I simply added a USB mic, https://www.amazon.com/Samson-Meteor.../dp/B004MF39YS

The other 3 participants said my voice and guitar sounded really good and have all since ordered the Meteor mic.

So, things sounded and looked good AS LONG AS ONLY 1 PERSON WAS PLAYING AND SINGING. But as soon as we tried to either add guitar fills from another person, or, worse, tried to add harmony, things got bad. We are hoping Zoom has a tweak for this.

Steve