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Old 04-06-2020, 09:40 AM
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Methos1979 Methos1979 is offline
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Default AGF OPEN MIC FACEBOOK THREAD

I know there have been more than a few threads about this and I've read them all! Thanks to everyone that has chimed in. We recently embarked on trying several ways to get decent audio and video to stream on Facebook Live since we have a few shows that have recently come and gone and a few coming up until this is pandemic is over. What I wanted to avoid was having to purchase any more equipment than what we already have. Note that in all my experiments below video was never an issue. It always looks great. Audio on the other hand, not so much!

We had tried to record via Facebook Live stream both totally acoustic and through our Bose S1 in its usual position behind and between us with our Macbook Air in front of us. The results were horrible. I mean, REALLY awful. Compressed and tinny and just gross. A buddy of mine Facebook Live streams frequently and it always sounds great so I reached out to him. He said he just records live through his usual excellent setup directly into his iPad which he positions very close to his QSC K10.2 speaker. So I thought maybe I just needed to have the recording interface much nearer to the amplified signal.

I tried three things with the following results: Note - All the following attempts are with her microphone plugged directly into channel 1 of our Bose S1 and my Cole Clark Fat Lady 2 (dread) plugged straight into channel 2 of the Bose via wireless. EQ dialed as necessary for a very good tone with the ToneMatch switches set to Mic/Vocal position for both. The S1 is sitting on a small plant stand in front of us, in the monitor position facing away from us and pointing up (obviously) with the recording device set up just a few inches above and in front of the S1. Here are the results:

Test 1 - Facebook Live stream recording directly into the Macbook Air: Like the test from the previous day, just really, REALLY awful. Compressed, tinny, warbly, with volume and tone changing like some sort of algorithm is struggling to find the best balance of sound and failing enormously.

Test 2 - Facebook Live stream recording directly into a very old (version 1) iPad Mini: Very similar to Test 1 with the same fairly awful tones. Maybe not quite as bad as the Macbook Air but still nothing I'd dare use live.

Test 3 - Facebook Live stream recording directly into my Samsung Galaxy Note 8: Surprisingly really, REALLY good. Even great. We were impressed. I think this will be a good solution for us.

Note that I did record a few videos with the Android last week for use during a Facebook Live stream show that an Art Gallery did on Friday. On those they sound just okay with the tone varying quite a bit most noticeably in the bass registers going in and out. This was recorded straight into the mobile phone's camera app video recording and with the Bose behind us. So some combination of either the Bose placement directly in front and/or using the Facebook Live streaming to record made for a much better sounding video.

So there you have it. That's what works for us. We're going to run a few more tests. Next time we'll go through the EAE StompMix X6 mixer to add my mic to the mix and assuming that works we'll use this do our live shows or record videos in advance to Facebook Live shows as needed.

UPDATE:

So after this post I spend some time looking into some other solutions that would be relatively inexpensive. The iRig2 came up as a $39 piece of kit that would allow the ability to input a line-level signal directly into my Android phone. I ordered one from Sweetwater. While waiting for that I got a few suggestions that while the iRig2 was pretty good, the iRig Pro was better. Of course it was also $150 new. But I found a used for a good deal on Reverb so I bought that one too. Here is the results of testing of those two.

iRig2: This unit is small and easy to use. There are no batteries and it takes a 1/4" signal from a guitar or some type of output and has a 1/8" (3.5 mm) male plug input for going into whatever can take that. In my case it was my Android phone. There is a small gain slider on the slide for setting the level. there's a 3.5 mm out female jack for hooking up headphones to listen to the levels. There's also a 1/4" out for hooking up to an external source. I did a couple tests and it works fine. If you're looking for a very simple and relatively inexpensive source this would work well.

iRig Pro: This unit is larger than the iRig2 but still relatively small. For input it has a combo XLR -1/4" jack for input. It can run on 2 AA batteries or a DC power supply (not included). Note that it runs on 6 volts so a standard 9v supply will not work and likely fry it. It can also be run by power when connected using the USB port. It comes with several external signal cable types including the newest iPhone, iPad type connector, USB and two midi. There is midi in/out. There is a 48v phantom power switch for providing power to mics. There is a large gain dial on the front along with a gain LED light to let you know via color change that you have power (blue) and signal gain quality (green, orange, red). There is a second light that tells you if you are supplying phantom power.

This set up was by far the most simple for us. The signal chain was as follows: Two vocal mic and one acoustic guitar -> EAE StompMix X6 mixer -> Bose S1 Pro (in front, floor monitor position facing us) -> S1 line out to iRig Pro -> Macbook Air running Facebook.

We did a live test today for the new AGF Open Mic Facebook group and we got a great sound, much better than the stock intern mics. The one down side (sometimes a plus side!) is that you can only hear the mics and guitar. So any 'talking' before and after songs much be into a mic. This is a good thing for me as I have a tendency to 'sing along' with a song that would get picked up by the internal mics!

I made a short YouTube video of my signal chain and a brief tutorial of how to go live on the AGF Open Mic FB Group:



You can see a couple videos from today's test if you're on Facebook. My wife and I did two and Aaron (AEROUSA) also has one or two there as well. They are on the new AGF Open Mic FB Group page. This is a private group so only members have access. Just click on the link below and request to be added as a member. Once approved you can scroll down and watch the videos. We're planning a first group-wide open mic on this Sunday.

AGF Open Mic Facebook Group

Last edited by Lkristians; 05-04-2020 at 05:19 PM.
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Old 04-06-2020, 01:23 PM
Lost in Sound Lost in Sound is offline
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Good to hear you’re making some progress with it Methos, thanks for the info. I was also experimenting with a bunch of Facebook live stream tests and I kept getting a weird swirly/phaser typed of effect in the audio, especially once the vocals kicked in with the acoustic guitar. Tried a few different routing options and it was always there. Will continue to try and find the best sound possible. Will report back if I make some progress Have a good day!
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Old 04-06-2020, 03:08 PM
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Methos1979 Methos1979 is offline
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Originally Posted by Lost in Sound View Post
Good to hear you’re making some progress with it Methos, thanks for the info. I was also experimenting with a bunch of Facebook live stream tests and I kept getting a weird swirly/phaser typed of effect in the audio, especially once the vocals kicked in with the acoustic guitar. Tried a few different routing options and it was always there. Will continue to try and find the best sound possible. Will report back if I make some progress Have a good day!
Yes, that's a good description of the sound. I'm happy the Android records it well as the next step was going to need to be some sort of Macbook-specific external mic or some sort of interface to take a signal off our mixer and put it straight into the audio-in of a Facebook Love stream.

If anyone out there does this, I'd love to hear what gear you're using. Since we put both our mics and my guitar through our digital mixer it would be easiest to take the signal straight out of that and input into the Macbook Air, I suppose.
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Old 04-06-2020, 03:28 PM
slewis slewis is offline
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I just want to set-up my usual guitar/vocal gig set up, with my Bose S1 Pro, and go directly to my iPad for a live FB stream. I'm fine with thinking I need a decent USB mic to improve the audio -- that makes sense to me. I'm finding it hard to nail-down exactly what I need to connect to my iPad though, with a lightning plug -- is this it? (There are too many types of USB plug these days!!!)

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Old 04-07-2020, 05:34 AM
Lost in Sound Lost in Sound is offline
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So I did some more testing tonight and got a great sound! Here is my signal chain:

Microphone/Acoustic guitar > play acoustic > Mackie mixer > Apogee Duet audio interface > usb Out into MacBook Pro.

I then open Facebook and source the Stream Key which needs to be copied and pasted into the OBS Streaming app. This can be found once you click ‘live video’ on a post. I then open the free streaming software OBS on my Mac and set that up. Google for OBS/Facebook livestream setup procedure. Click the ‘start streaming’ button on OBS and it should open the window on your Facebook page. You then go back to your Facebook page and hit ‘go live’ and your up and running live.

I was monitoring my sound in the room off a JBL speaker, out of the Mackie mixer.

For some reason the sound was only coming through in the left ear when listening back on AirPods. So I need to sort that out. But happy to be finally getting a great clean sound out of it. I think the terrible sound was coming from when I was just streaming direct from the Facebook app on my Mac. Using the OBS software seems to have done the trick with getting a nice strong clean sound. Getting closer
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Old 04-07-2020, 06:00 AM
penrithrdstudio penrithrdstudio is offline
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Originally Posted by Lost in Sound View Post
For some reason the sound was only coming through in the left ear when listening back on AirPods. So I need to sort that out.
I had the same problem streaming to YouTube. In OBS, click Settings, go to Audio, and on the Channels dropdown, change it from Stereo to Mono.
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Old 04-07-2020, 07:52 AM
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Methos1979 Methos1979 is offline
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Originally Posted by Lost in Sound View Post
So I did some more testing tonight and got a great sound! Here is my signal chain:

Microphone/Acoustic guitar > play acoustic > Mackie mixer > Apogee Duet audio interface > usb Out into MacBook Pro.
Glad you found a solution. At $649 sticker price for the Apogee Duet, that is beyond the scope of trying to find an easy and inexpensive solution for me but it does sound like the real deal for those that do these live shows all the time.

I was checking out one of the other threads and the iRig 2 seems like it might be something I could use to stream a signal directly from my mixer to either my Android or my Macbook Air and at only $39 that's more in line with what I'm looking for so I ordered one of those from Sweetwater. They are sold out but were supposed to be getting more in this week. I'll report back on how that works once I get that.
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Old 04-07-2020, 09:27 AM
jricc jricc is offline
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Originally Posted by Methos1979 View Post
Glad you found a solution. At $649 sticker price for the Apogee Duet, that is beyond the scope of trying to find an easy and inexpensive solution for me but it does sound like the real deal for those that do these live shows all the time.

I was checking out one of the other threads and the iRig 2 seems like it might be something I could use to stream a signal directly from my mixer to either my Android or my Macbook Air and at only $39 that's more in line with what I'm looking for so I ordered one of those from Sweetwater. They are sold out but were supposed to be getting more in this week. I'll report back on how that works once I get that.
Hi Methos. I had an irig2 and it was ok. I then purchased the Irig Pro which is 100x better. It does cost $149, but Ive tried it with both android or ios and it works fine. With android, you need an OTG cable. The Pro has a dual xlr/1/4" input and the sound is much improved and it seems to be an easier solution.

My whole setup goes like this guitar/vocal into Yamaha MG06x mixer into the Irig Pro into the phone. I have been posting a song a day to my Facebook page, and started simple with just the phone, but since doing this setup, the sound quality has really been better.

Full disclosure, I did not stream, just recorded a video and posted.
Just another idea...good luck!
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Old 04-07-2020, 12:41 PM
Lost in Sound Lost in Sound is offline
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Thank you Penrithrstudio for the tip! After I posted the comment I read something about that setting. Much appreciated.

Methos, I agree. I had the Apogee interface already in the studio. The irig 2 should definitely get the job done, from what I’ve read online.

I’m liking the sound of Jricc’s setup, and seems like it’s sounding great.
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Old 04-07-2020, 03:27 PM
gfirob gfirob is offline
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I have a friend, a professional musician, who says he is almost matching is pre-virus income with Facebook live streams. He has guitar and base, two mikes going into a mixer and from that into a PA and then a late model ipad, using the ipad internal mike and it sounds really good (really good being relative of course, on Facebook). He has his paypal address on the Facebook page and in a sign in the shot. He has an established fan base and is very well known in the region, and he promotes it as much as he can on Facebook. So the technical part is pretty easy. Since this is so simple, he does it at a (now closed) club, at home, and just about anywhere else he wants.
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Old 04-07-2020, 04:13 PM
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I'm doing a combo live/FB Live thing. Full PA set up and then just into my iphone. Working fine. Two things I've learned is FB won't let you go landscape or upside down. Of course I didn't figure that out till my son called say the entire concert was sideways. The second thing is to keep your phone or ipad powered because it takes a lot of juice.
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Old 04-07-2020, 04:39 PM
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Methos1979 Methos1979 is offline
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I'm doing a combo live/FB Live thing. Full PA set up and then just into my iphone. Working fine. Two things I've learned is FB won't let you go landscape or upside down. Of course I didn't figure that out till my son called say the entire concert was sideways. The second thing is to keep your phone or ipad powered because it takes a lot of juice.
Really? With your iPhone? We can go landscape on FB Live with our Android phone. Not sure why you can't. That seems odd.

Also, as an update for those following, I now have a new iRig2 and used iRig Pro on the way to audition. I couldn't cancel the Sweetwater order for the iRig2 in time after finding a used iRig Pro for a great price on Reverb so I'll just get them both and that will allow me to A/B them and add info here. Stay tuned.
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Old 04-08-2020, 05:40 AM
pjbelsch pjbelsch is offline
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I feel like i am an expert at facebook live streaming now with this

My set up is as professional as you can get without spending a lot of money.

So I use OBS(open broadcast software) its free, its easy after you pick up the learning curve and highly configurable..

I use my iphone camera as a camera input option for the live streaming or your can use your ipad, or webcam. I run another application that posts words and graphics over the stream as well.

For audio i have the following from beginning to end:
mics,guitars, drums > Behringer x32 > 2-main behringer outs > focusrite scarlet > macbook pro > OBS

If you want to PM me I can send you a link to a video i did at church so you can view and hear how it sounds.
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Old 04-08-2020, 06:11 AM
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After reading this iRig2 thread I found a video on youtube from "Ray Ortega" on using this ...great short 3min video..seems I can plug into direct from my mixer to my Samsung J7V phone....seems like the answer to get good sound to send out to friends we cant sit with now. Has anyone used this yet to their android phone? I would like to hear any comments or trick you have found to make it work proper.
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Old 04-08-2020, 08:29 AM
jricc jricc is offline
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Originally Posted by Lost in Sound View Post
I’m liking the sound of Jricc’s setup, and seems like it’s sounding great.
If anyone wants to hear what my set up sounds like, guitar/vocal into Yamaha MG06x mixer into the Irig Pro into the phone. u can visit my Facebook page Joe Riccardello. Listen to Let's Stay Together. Most of the other videos are using the iphone mic.
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