I felt the same way, the first time I heard James speak. He is so good at what he does. I love how he can mix the science, the tech and comedy into a teachable session.
Fantastic! After many months of searching, FINALLY, Now I Know why my bass sounds like poop when I livestream (er, apart from musical ability). Thanks for giving me the vocabulary I need to isolate and solve each problem.
Man, what a timing! My church has just decided to suspend presencial services, so we are just doing lives. Thanks! I had a problem compressing my stereo bus, when the drummer hit the snare or kick, all mix goes down for a moment. And the vocals are really loud at TV!
I am late to the party seeing this video. But I want to thank you and say I agree with these tactics to get the streaming mix sounding its best - I hear many church casts that are obviously just sending the main live mix, and sadly it becomes distracting for this of us that recognize what’s going on. I imagine lots of folks at home just accept it as it is, similar to how folks accepted low bit-resolution MP3s in the early days of file sharing. I will be digging through your “catalog”, VERY much appreciate your straightforward approach to both mixing and explaining the mix. Peace!
Thanks! I think a lot of it has to do with the goal churches have with their stream as well... sometimes it's to create an online experience, and other times it's just so people can not "miss" church if they're stuck at home, and they just have to deal with the inconvenience of turning the level up and down, and the balance is wacky.
Hi James, I can't thank you enough for how helpful you are for many churches! I've been watching your videos to learn about church mixing and it helped me so much. I am a worship leader at my church and we started to broadcast the service live. I do have experience in mixing as I record music at home. But since our sound engineer and I lack knowledge in live stream, I am desperate to get some help on getting the right sound for all our church members, around 3000 members, to worship God at home.
Great video! Our current live stream mix when recording sounds a bit "dry" so I've been watching several videos on how to fix it and your video was great, thank you!
Your content is some of the most insightful material I've seen on youtube. I really like how you touch on topics that are basic enough for beginners to understand, while also sharing small pro tips along the way! For instance, I never knew about the vocal mix in mono vs ST relationship - definitely trying in my mix next time! Great content! Keep it up!
@@AttawayAudio hah thanks! Always learning still though! And you have a way of explaining things that makes me go, "oh that's why I do that..." or..."yikes I should be doing that!" etc. ;)
Thanks for the video. A lot of great tips that I need to work to fix our live service audio. We also Presonus audio equipment at our church but the live streaming audio is really bad :(. We really need to learn how to adjust all those channels properly.
I have a question ( a long one... ha) for anyone who might have an answer... I do live sound for a church and like most everyone we are now relying on our live streaming pretty heavy... So... I have been making a separate mix on a Aux and sending it out to be used for the live stream... Our video is going into a Black Magic switcher then to another computer where the combined output of all the cameras run into a video capture card and the audio I send out is then combined in the second computer where it is encoded and sent out for broadcast. I just feel like the quality of the audio is not good on the broadcast. I was wondering if I need to get a audio interface for the second computer where everything is encoded and sent out? I’m wondering if the sound quality looses so much definition because the a/d converter is stock and not doing a good job over transferring the audio to digital information... or is it just loosing its definition and dynamic when it’s encoded and broadcasted..... I would truly appreciate any insight.... Thanks!!!!
You need a reliable usb audio interface or a black magic device that embeds the audio into one of the cameras. That second way you prevent delay. Don't trust the onboard soundcard of your PC.
Awesome video .I'm currently having trouble with the drums on the live stream ,I'll try the the fast attack and the bus compression for this week's live stream thanks.
Awesome mix! Thank you for sharing. Some thoughts I had on the mix: I felt the drum compressor (especially the snare) attack times could have been opened up to about 50 to 60ms to give them a bit more energy and transient punch while "lengthening" or emphasising the decay time of the drum tone. The transient character of the drums really shone through in the FOH mix which I missed in the final mix. Also, I'd like to ask if you/your church uses loudness metering plugins to measure loudness of the outputs being sent to the livestream in LUFS (e.g. Youlean Loudness Meter or equivalent)? Or do you just kinda eyeball the levels? For me, I found setting the loudness around -16 (iTunes standard) to -14 LUFS (Spotify standard) was really helpful as a visual tool to consistently gauge loudness.
Thanks for the feedback! The idea of this method is to really crush the transients so that it's easy to get your mix levels up without having to worry too much about meters, which a lot of churches don't have, including mine. I usually prefer a much slower attack time for the punch, too. Also - you're on the right track with the loudness standards. I just don't have a way to measure them as of yet.
Kind of like a toyota camry compares to a rolls royce. One is solid and dependable and has lots of nice features, while the other is luxury in every way.
Hey, I really enjoy learning from your videos! Please consider to do a quick one about PA measurement with low budget? I always set up my systems with reference tracks.. but that’s not always very satisfying... greets n grooves
Assuming you have a digital board with a compressor on each channel, what should you compress and what should you not compress on your church's live stream?
Great question! Compress things that need to have less dynamic range, or take up less room in your mix, or stay right where you want them. Everything else, you can leave uncompressed. But honestly, I compress most things at least a little bit, for safety if nothing else.
This is really great information thanks. I hope you won't mind my saying that you talk much too fast. I was taking notes and had to stop the video lots of times to catch up. In the end, I reduced the speed to 80% and even then I still had to stop it quite often! Still the material was invaluable, so please take my comment in context.
No worries! I try to balance energy without rushing, but sometimes I miss the mark. Glad you're taking notes! All this info isn't much good unless you do something with it 😃
Watching for the 3rd time and still learning! The problem I'm having with layers of compression is a bit of noise in the broadcast signal. It gets close to 0 dbfs but quite dirt.
Yeah it definitely puts a microscope on your mix. It's kind of like those concave mirrors that make your face look huge and you notice for the first time the giant hair on the end of your nose... but maybe that's just me
We live stream at home with a Zoom L-8 mixer using a vocal mic and keyboard as input, using ecamm live for mac for livestream software. I just simply want to run the inputs through a simple DAW adding basic effects and have that output back to the L-8 to be sent into Ecamm. I tried this with GarageBand but ran into a regular noise. Can you suggest a different DAW that is simple and would work? thanx.
Awesome work James. What a blessing to us audio techs at this time. Any tips on congregation mics? Current issues here - meetings are limited to less than 100 people with 1.5 m spacing recommended. Do you think it's still worth trying to mix through some ambience or is it likely to just add too much reverb to the mix? I presume if using ambience mics then pan hard left and right and apply a fairly savage use of HPF? Any tips on reverb itself? Obviously excessive reverb is more noticeable on a broadcast mix, as is the absence of reverb.
Great questions! Any ambience is going to help some, but it's got to be balanced with the camera shots. If you've moved all your cameras closer to make it more studio-like, then too much reverb/room will create a disconnect. But if you still have bodies in the room, by all means, use crowd/room mics. It can be as simple as a pair of 58s at the front of the stage with a generous HPF. If you're adding reverb, make sure you miss it more when it's gone than notice it when its there. I'm in the same boat this week, mixing at a church that's never streamed before.
Aloha from Hawaii! I had a question about this. Our church is currently working with a Qu-32, and we are currently using Mix 5-6 that sends the feed to Matrix, then to our livestream. We initially set it up this way so that the Matrix could be the overall master on the mix, and so that we could add additional compression if needed. After watching your video, we have been trying to figure out if we should use Groups to separate the vocals from instruments, or if we should just use DCA. The only problem with using DCA, is that we are unable to add additional compression to a select group of faders if needed. We found out that on a Qu-32, Groups acts more like a Mix, which sends a signal to either LR or a Mix; like Mix 5-6. We were hoping to go from: Mix 5-6 > Groups 1-2(vocals) & 3-4(instruments) > Matrix Just not sure if this is the correct path for this specific board. We were hoping to get your advice or a better solution on this, if you’re familiar with this board.
You're welcome! Are you playing the stream return back through the speakers? You'll want to have only the live mix going straight to the speakers, and monitor the live stream on headphones or studio monitors. There's going to be delay in the total system upload/download. Did that answer your question? I want to make sure I understood it right.
Check to make sure that there aren't any other audio sources coming into your computer. Sometimes when I'm running OBS and using OBS Camera on my iPhone, it turns on the audio from the phone as well. Not sure if this applies to your situation, but it's something to look into.
Live stream audio goes beyond tricky especially when using the same mixer for both. I use an Allen & Heath SQ7 but have2 different mixes, on for FOH and the other for live streaming. A big disadvantage that I've found doing it this way is in the EQ. Right now the way it's set up has a common pre fade eq that affects both the FOH and live stream. Effects are a challenge this way as well. I'd like some light reverb to give the live stream some space but the effects for FOH and live stream fight and begin cycling. Again, right now it's one or the other for effects. I've been experimenting with room mics and that seems to (obviously) bring in room noise and actual room reverb. The sanctuary is octagonal shaped with an extremely high ceiling and no acoustic treatments in the room so natural reverb is already there. Any experience with this board? I've been running it for almost 2 years but I'm an old analog guy and honestly haven't scratched the surface on it. Enjoyed the ideas. Keep them coming!
Love the SQ series. Plenty of flexibility without being confusing. Have you tried doing some test mixes with Virtual Sound Check and a private live stream to iterate and check your mix on other devices? That can help you dial in the trickier things like effects.
Hi James! We are using a Soundcraft Impact mixer and have no separate audio engineer to mix the stream sound separately. Is there a chance to build groups (sub groups for Drums, Instruments and Vocals) on this consol? At the moment we are mixing via an Mix-Channel (AUX) all instruments Pre-Fade and the vocals Post-Fade. We added some compression on that Mix-Output and I think it sounds not that bad, but sometimes the drums are "smashing" the compressor to hard. Do you have any ideas how this could be improved on that kind of mixer?
If you can group your inputs post-fader into drums, instruments, vocals, then you can more easily balance those 3 groups while mixing FOH at the same time.
The song is called "Grateful Love" by Jonas Park. There's links to the song and charts in the description of this video here: ua-cam.com/video/CYkDiRVEg9M/v-deo.html
We are small church, we are using Behringer Digital Mixer connected to OBS for audio to our Online services, but I'm not satisfied with the outcome. What can you suggest to make our audio better?...Thank You..
awesome, i tried it today those eq work as good starting base then just fine tune later on. My keys however sounded really trebly.. Nordnstage 2, just normal piano+pads. Any suggestions where to cut /boost keyboards its a bit tricky because piano seems to occupy the whole eq and they all sound essential.
Sometimes the sound that feels like too much treble is too much transient attack from the piano. Try putting your compressor in peak mode and see if that helps
Reverb or room mics are essential. When you're running live sound and you're in the room, the space itself adds some reverberant sound. We have to add that back in to make things feel natural for people listening on the other end. I'll add my normal types of reverb on vocals, instruments, drums, and then try and send JUST enough to the stream to make it "more conspicuous in its absence than in its presence." Basically, when I mute it, I feel something went away, but when I unmute it, I don't notice it as much.
Hi bro, I have question for you...pl help me We have tried our church first livestream last week. We faced sound quality problem in the live stream please read and give your suggestion... We have a audio system in the church and its 4..5 years old and working fine for the church hall audio and good. ( Yamaha 16 XU analog mixer, Lexicon reverb unit, Behringer 32 channel EQ, QSC power amp mounted on rack). Inside the church the sound i s good and happy with it.. The questions i need your help... 1. I have connected the Yamaha 16 XU Mixer Headphone out to the camera mic input for sound 2. But this gives lot of sound problem since the mixer headphone out is not a EQ out..while what we hear inside church is clean audio. The audio for live stream is not clean one, becoz its taken from the mixer headphone jack and not from the out put of the EQ. Will you pl suggest a ideal set up for me.. (Suppose if i take the out put spare jack of the Behringer EQ unit it will be line level signal and a mic level signal) please give a advice.
You'll need another professional level output, not a headphone output. The headphone jack is speaker level, so it's a little different. If you could come off the stereo output's 1/4" jacks into a Y-cable going to your camera's 1/8" input, that'd be a cleaner signal than the headphone jack.
We have our livestream output set up on an Aux channel. I can change the overall eq and compression for the entire aux channel as well as the dB level for each of the 24 channels being sent to the aux. beyond that Is it possible to change the eq and compression on individual channels within the Aux? Or are you saying to change the in room audio so that it is catered to be broadcast? I’ll comment my soundboard equipment below.
You would have to double-patch the input channels. Most of the time though, you can get it sounding good for both. If your stream sounds good but your room doesn't, it might be time to address your speakers
I was wanting to share this with our worship leader but I not sure she will appreciate the first 45 seconds. What exactly was the point. Most adults know how to wash their hands and read a watch. Humor is a subjective thing, I get it.
There is a feature on the desktop version where if you put the playhead where you want to start when sharing, then click the "share" button and check "start at :45" it can do that automatically. Or you could say "just skip the antics at the beginning and go to 45 seconds. Some sound techs have an odd sense of humor and he's one of them"
Great video! We (a band) are just getting going on live-streaming and these are great tips for our mix. Thank you! A couple of general questions for you. Is Facebook Live still mono? Does Facebook Live and UA-cam do any kind of normalization shenanigans when live? In other words, safe to stream at peak -0.2dB? Need to worry about adhering to say a -14 LUFS or similar loudness standard when live-streaming? Thanks again!
FB live is stereo if you're coming from a streaming device, not sure if you're using a webcam or mobile interface. FB and YT will push down the level if it's too hot, but I couldn't find any information on them doing any other processing. So if you're aiming for -14 to -16 LUFS, you should be good to go
Hey great tips & thank you. please fill me on this James. let's say you are mixing FOH on outdoor concert and need to stream it live on TV Channel (we are still broadcasting in MONO in my country) in single mixing desk. what is the best way to it make good sound on both ends?
If you have groups on your console, try grouping things and compressing the groups and then sending that to a mono matrix for your TV output. Then just mix for FOH like you normally would, making adjustments to the group sends and group output levels to get it to sit right. Sorry for the late response! Hope it's helpful still 😁
@@AttawayAudio Thank you for the reply and waited for it. it makes sense now. Seems to be I WILL NEED A BIGGER CONSOLE NOW. at moment I'm using AVID S3L-X and with monitors(we are using same console for FOH and IEM's) and FX I'm maxed up in 24 busses
Any comments/tips on figuring out the latency when running broadcast audio from the mixer -> to logic -> then out to a streaming software? I’m using a large buffer in logic. And getting close to 2 seconds of delay. But not sure how to figure out the exact amount of video delay to add in OBS streaming.
Great question! I have a couple thoughts on it. The first is that you could clap on camera, and record the video output and then figure out the sync from there. Another way would require a second audio system, but you could record on two channels the input and then the final output to see how different they are. Kind of like this video, if you can excuse the clipped audio 😬 ua-cam.com/video/g1Y9YE44KSE/v-deo.html
When you gave your example for your grouped together mix at the 10:35 mark are you compressing your inputs first -> compressing the groups -> compressing the stereo bus? Or are you just compressing the groups and then compressing the stereo bus?
I see your on a Studiolive live in this video. What reverb do you like in the Studiolive live console that would be great for a live FOH sound? Which Preset to start with?
So I implemented tons of your tips this Sunday on our live and it was great. Unfortunately my vocals were a little to much out front but I’ll fix that for next time. We mix our lives on a separate system which is nice. You are a blessing to the church sound community. I thank you for all your work and pray God blesses you greatly! Btw what front of house console do you mix on?
That's AWESOME! Way to crush it! I think all of us are evaluating last week's mix and planning what we'll change this week. My mix was balanced well but a bit dry, so I'll make some room mic and FX adjustments. My FOH console depends on the church. Some are A&H SQ6/SQ7 or dLive, others are SSL L200 and the prayer room is L300. And then at home I have the PreSonus StudioLive series iii
I need emergency help with EQing my master bus for my broadcast mix. I can say I’m satisfied with my overall mix (effects, gain staging, balance, even eq on individual channels), however, I feel that when I get to eq my master bus o either overdo it or feel no enough is being altered by my eq moves.
I rarely touch the EQ on my master bus. If it’s not feeling punchy/full/bright/shimmery enough I try to fill that space with changes on input channels or groups
Attaway Audio Can we send you a bounced version of our mix and have you take a listen so you can give us advice? Or is that outside of the scope of the purpose of your channel...
Hi Attaway Audio, I have huge problem with live streaming. I heard different from UA-cam and live. While in live recording and live speaker, the sound is great, but unlike in UA-cam where the sound is muffled. What did I do wrong?
It could be that your speakers are too bright, so you don't have to add much top-end to get the clarity live, but over the stream, it feels dull. You could boost the top end on your EQ for the stream to try and get it to match better, or address the tuning of your live speakers.
Hall reverbs help connect listeners to a bigger space, if that's where the band is. Try thinking about what the viewer is seeing, and then try to match that with your reverb.
I have a Mackie pro Fxv3 16 channel. I stream through a Boxcaster device. I’m have problems with distribution or peaking . Or the pastor volume is to low. Need help
This video has helped me immensely! Thank you. Quick question: I’m mixing our broadcast on a matrix out of our main FOH board. How do I make these EQ adjustments and not have them affect my main mix? Or is this possible without a separate mixer for broadcast? Thanks again!
All your channel EQs will be the same for FOH and broadcast. The only way to weasel your way around that is if you have more console channels that you can "double patch" so they're looking at the same preamp, but they have different channel processing. Then send the duplicates to broadcast, the originals to FOH.
This is a great idea. One issue we are having is the compression we apply to the newly patched broadcast channels doesn’t seem to be effecting that channels signal in the aux mix we are using for streaming. Does built in channel compression typically only effect the main mix signals? We want to compress some of these channels much more in broadcast than we do to foh but can’t figure out how to do it using an aux
I’m running Into problems running the x32 into and irigpro I/o. I feel like the signals really hot coming into the irig I’m using a xlr cable. what output do you think I should come out of the x32 with? Should I create a different bus mix specifically for the irig? And if I do so will it still run all the dynamics eq and efx that are set for each channel? In case you haven’t noticed I’m new to the x32 and it’s hard to find a resource for this situation.
No problem! Most all of us are on the learning curve right now. The channel processing on your input channels will be the same going to your buses. If you use a second bus for the iRig, you can use that bus master fader to fine-tune the level going to the iRig. And just checking - you've got the input level all the way down on the iRig?
Attaway Audio I did have it at about 2 or 3 out of 10 originally, but I turned it up to 5 and turned my level out of the x32 down. What do you suggest?
I'd keep the iRig's input level down and get it fine-tuned with the X32. If you can't see the input meter on the phone's input, you might have to use virtual sound check (or even a recorded stereo mix) and either record a video with the phone internally, or try a private stream on UA-cam to check it. Hope this helps!
I did some digging, but I can't seem to make OBS see an ASIO device to be able to choose a specific input from my StudioLive, so I'm not sure that it'd be any different with the X32. If you're on a Mac, you may be able to create a workaround with SoundFlower though! Sorry I couldn't be more helpful!
@@AttawayAudio it could possibly be a device driver issue. I ran my SL32R audio to OBS using an older driver. OBS recognised and recorded the audio. I am not sure if this what you are talking about, but I got it running for our live stream this weekend. Hopefully this helps.
@@AttawayAudio ohhh hey, sound question. We currently use digital drums what is going to be the best EQ for a system like this? I wish I could mic individual pieces, but that's not possible. We have the AH qu32, and I'm still learning and VERY much appreciate your videos and suggestions 👍
You'd need an interface, or an option for running the stereo out through USB into the computer. My particular mixer has lots of USB channels I can run to the computer, so I recorded these back into StudioOne off the stereo bus.
We just upgraded to a new video camera and now the piano sounds horrible during livestreaming. It sounds like clunk, clunk, clunk. We use OBS and have a cable from the sound board plugged directly into the camera. Any tips? Here is a youtube link (go to 10:17): ua-cam.com/video/d8OlZqmHl5U/v-deo.html
If you’re going through a stream encoder, it can be stereo. I’ve been getting changing info on whether it’s mono live but stereo for the replay... but youtube is stereo so better to be ready for that 😀
Great tips! Let's be friends.
Thanks! Let's connect! Love your channel bro.. so much great stuff
So thankful for both of you guys!
I felt the same way, the first time I heard James speak. He is so good at what he does. I love how he can mix the science, the tech and comedy into a teachable session.
A trick: you can watch series on kaldrostream. Me and my gf have been using it for watching lots of of movies during the lockdown.
@Samuel Jack Yea, I've been watching on flixzone} for since november myself :)
Your videos are among the best free resources for audio engineering! (better than some of the paid resources I've seen too) Thanks for the info!
Wow, thanks Cody! I'm here to serve
Fantastic! After many months of searching, FINALLY, Now I Know why my bass sounds like poop when I livestream (er, apart from musical ability). Thanks for giving me the vocabulary I need to isolate and solve each problem.
glad I could help you identify it!
Man, what a timing! My church has just decided to suspend presencial services, so we are just doing lives. Thanks! I had a problem compressing my stereo bus, when the drummer hit the snare or kick, all mix goes down for a moment. And the vocals are really loud at TV!
Yeah a pumping stereo bus is annoying. I hope this helps! Stay safe, and wash your hands!
I am late to the party seeing this video. But I want to thank you and say I agree with these tactics to get the streaming mix sounding its best - I hear many church casts that are obviously just sending the main live mix, and sadly it becomes distracting for this of us that recognize what’s going on. I imagine lots of folks at home just accept it as it is, similar to how folks accepted low bit-resolution MP3s in the early days of file sharing.
I will be digging through your “catalog”, VERY much appreciate your straightforward approach to both mixing and explaining the mix. Peace!
Thanks! I think a lot of it has to do with the goal churches have with their stream as well... sometimes it's to create an online experience, and other times it's just so people can not "miss" church if they're stuck at home, and they just have to deal with the inconvenience of turning the level up and down, and the balance is wacky.
Clutch timing my dude.🔥
lol thanks Terrance! I'm here to serve the needs of my sound ninjas out there
Beautiful, probably the best video I have watched about this topic
Hi James, I can't thank you enough for how helpful you are for many churches! I've been watching your videos to learn about church mixing and it helped me so much.
I am a worship leader at my church and we started to broadcast the service live. I do have experience in mixing as I record music at home. But since our sound engineer and I lack knowledge in live stream, I am desperate to get some help on getting the right sound for all our church members, around 3000 members, to worship God at home.
I'm so glad it's helpful for you Jimmy H! It's definitely a different beast making the transition. Thanks for serving your congregation this way!
Great video! Our current live stream mix when recording sounds a bit "dry" so I've been watching several videos on how to fix it and your video was great, thank you!
Glad I could help! This can help too ua-cam.com/video/SFEVZkiS0J4/v-deo.html
This video hits 2 years already
Your content is some of the most insightful material I've seen on youtube. I really like how you touch on topics that are basic enough for beginners to understand, while also sharing small pro tips along the way! For instance, I never knew about the vocal mix in mono vs ST relationship - definitely trying in my mix next time!
Great content! Keep it up!
Thanks Isaac! Just trying to help those like you on the front lines. Thanks for serving Jesus where you are!
Always quality. Quality. Quality.
You're very kind Michael! Thanks for watching
This was INSANELY helpful!! Thank you so much!!
Glad it was helpful! You're welcome Calandra!
wow this was so timely
Nice video James, very helpful and very timely!!! Thanks for all you do!
Glad it was helpful! Of course you're like a major pro, so you don't need my tips
@@AttawayAudio hah thanks! Always learning still though! And you have a way of explaining things that makes me go, "oh that's why I do that..." or..."yikes I should be doing that!" etc. ;)
Thanks for the video. A lot of great tips that I need to work to fix our live service audio. We also Presonus audio equipment at our church but the live streaming audio is really bad :(. We really need to learn how to adjust all those channels properly.
I have a question ( a long one... ha) for anyone who might have an answer... I do live sound for a church and like most everyone we are now relying on our live streaming pretty heavy... So... I have been making a separate mix on a Aux and sending it out to be used for the live stream... Our video is going into a Black Magic switcher then to another computer where the combined output of all the cameras run into a video capture card and the audio I send out is then combined in the second computer where it is encoded and sent out for broadcast. I just feel like the quality of the audio is not good on the broadcast. I was wondering if I need to get a audio interface for the second computer where everything is encoded and sent out? I’m wondering if the sound quality looses so much definition because the a/d converter is stock and not doing a good job over transferring the audio to digital information... or is it just loosing its definition and dynamic when it’s encoded and broadcasted..... I would truly appreciate any insight.... Thanks!!!!
You need a reliable usb audio interface or a black magic device that embeds the audio into one of the cameras. That second way you prevent delay. Don't trust the onboard soundcard of your PC.
Awesome video .I'm currently having trouble with the drums on the live stream ,I'll try the the fast attack and the bus compression for this week's live stream thanks.
Thanks Ed! Let me know how it went (even though that was 2 months ago 😂)
I tried both and they worked out great , thanks
Great tutorial videos! Thumbs up from Germany!
Danke Patrick!
Awesome mix! Thank you for sharing.
Some thoughts I had on the mix: I felt the drum compressor (especially the snare) attack times could have been opened up to about 50 to 60ms to give them a bit more energy and transient punch while "lengthening" or emphasising the decay time of the drum tone. The transient character of the drums really shone through in the FOH mix which I missed in the final mix.
Also, I'd like to ask if you/your church uses loudness metering plugins to measure loudness of the outputs being sent to the livestream in LUFS (e.g. Youlean Loudness Meter or equivalent)? Or do you just kinda eyeball the levels? For me, I found setting the loudness around -16 (iTunes standard) to -14 LUFS (Spotify standard) was really helpful as a visual tool to consistently gauge loudness.
Thanks for the feedback! The idea of this method is to really crush the transients so that it's easy to get your mix levels up without having to worry too much about meters, which a lot of churches don't have, including mine. I usually prefer a much slower attack time for the punch, too.
Also - you're on the right track with the loudness standards. I just don't have a way to measure them as of yet.
Increíble saludos des CNV Mexico
thanks, hope everyone is safe!!
you bet Marcus! Thanks! And wash your hands!
how do the Presonus compare to the SSL mixer?
Kind of like a toyota camry compares to a rolls royce. One is solid and dependable and has lots of nice features, while the other is luxury in every way.
Hey, I really enjoy learning from your videos!
Please consider to do a quick one about PA measurement with low budget? I always set up my systems with reference tracks.. but that’s not always very satisfying...
greets n grooves
Great suggestion! I've got some ideas for you that work on a slim budget 🙌🙌
Thanks ,this is was so helpful
So glad I could help!
love your videos!!! thank you
You are so welcome! Thanks for watching wesfield09!
Assuming you have a digital board with a compressor on each channel, what should you compress and what should you not compress on your church's live stream?
Great question! Compress things that need to have less dynamic range, or take up less room in your mix, or stay right where you want them. Everything else, you can leave uncompressed. But honestly, I compress most things at least a little bit, for safety if nothing else.
This is really great information thanks. I hope you won't mind my saying that you talk much too fast. I was taking notes and had to stop the video lots of times to catch up. In the end, I reduced the speed to 80% and even then I still had to stop it quite often! Still the material was invaluable, so please take my comment in context.
No worries! I try to balance energy without rushing, but sometimes I miss the mark. Glad you're taking notes! All this info isn't much good unless you do something with it 😃
Watching for the 3rd time and still learning! The problem I'm having with layers of compression is a bit of noise in the broadcast signal. It gets close to 0 dbfs but quite dirt.
Yeah it definitely puts a microscope on your mix. It's kind of like those concave mirrors that make your face look huge and you notice for the first time the giant hair on the end of your nose... but maybe that's just me
@@AttawayAudio that's an awkward / pretty accurate observation.
We live stream at home with a Zoom L-8 mixer using a vocal mic and keyboard as input, using ecamm live for mac for livestream software. I just simply want to run the inputs through a simple DAW adding basic effects and have that output back to the L-8 to be sent into Ecamm. I tried this with GarageBand but ran into a regular noise. Can you suggest a different DAW that is simple and would work? thanx.
But how do you make these adjustments for the live stream without effecting the house mix?
Awesome work James. What a blessing to us audio techs at this time. Any tips on congregation mics? Current issues here - meetings are limited to less than 100 people with 1.5 m spacing recommended. Do you think it's still worth trying to mix through some ambience or is it likely to just add too much reverb to the mix? I presume if using ambience mics then pan hard left and right and apply a fairly savage use of HPF? Any tips on reverb itself? Obviously excessive reverb is more noticeable on a broadcast mix, as is the absence of reverb.
Great questions! Any ambience is going to help some, but it's got to be balanced with the camera shots. If you've moved all your cameras closer to make it more studio-like, then too much reverb/room will create a disconnect. But if you still have bodies in the room, by all means, use crowd/room mics. It can be as simple as a pair of 58s at the front of the stage with a generous HPF. If you're adding reverb, make sure you miss it more when it's gone than notice it when its there. I'm in the same boat this week, mixing at a church that's never streamed before.
For the sound echo on the mics, turn off the external speaker on the computer and see if that works.
🙌
Thank yoooou!
You're weeeeeeelllllllllllllcooooooooommmmmmme!
How do you meter DBFS? Are the channel or main L/R meters on x32 reading DBFS?
Boas dicas. Grato.
De nada amigo
Yesterday I was hoping you'd be producing a video like this. Wonderful as always James, but no "sound ninja" during your hand-wash routine?
next time 🤷♂️😂🐱👤
Aloha from Hawaii!
I had a question about this. Our church is currently working with a Qu-32, and we are currently using Mix 5-6 that sends the feed to Matrix, then to our livestream.
We initially set it up this way so that the Matrix could be the overall master on the mix, and so that we could add additional compression if needed.
After watching your video, we have been trying to figure out if we should use Groups to separate the vocals from instruments, or if we should just use DCA. The only problem with using DCA, is that we are unable to add additional compression to a select group of faders if needed.
We found out that on a Qu-32, Groups acts more like a Mix, which sends a signal to either LR or a Mix; like Mix 5-6. We were hoping to go from:
Mix 5-6 > Groups 1-2(vocals) & 3-4(instruments) > Matrix
Just not sure if this is the correct path for this specific board. We were hoping to get your advice or a better solution on this, if you’re familiar with this board.
I would set it up sending vocals to a group, instruments to a group, drums to a group, send those groups to the matrix.
thank you for this great gift , how do you stop the live streaming sound echo through the mics ?
You're welcome! Are you playing the stream return back through the speakers? You'll want to have only the live mix going straight to the speakers, and monitor the live stream on headphones or studio monitors. There's going to be delay in the total system upload/download. Did that answer your question? I want to make sure I understood it right.
Attaway Audio , no so I have nothing going through the house mix , just an aux output to a computer , not sure 😔
Check to make sure that there aren't any other audio sources coming into your computer. Sometimes when I'm running OBS and using OBS Camera on my iPhone, it turns on the audio from the phone as well. Not sure if this applies to your situation, but it's something to look into.
Live stream audio goes beyond tricky especially when using the same mixer for both. I use an Allen & Heath SQ7 but have2 different mixes, on for FOH and the other for live streaming. A big disadvantage that I've found doing it this way is in the EQ. Right now the way it's set up has a common pre fade eq that affects both the FOH and live stream. Effects are a challenge this way as well. I'd like some light reverb to give the live stream some space but the effects for FOH and live stream fight and begin cycling. Again, right now it's one or the other for effects. I've been experimenting with room mics and that seems to (obviously) bring in room noise and actual room reverb. The sanctuary is octagonal shaped with an extremely high ceiling and no acoustic treatments in the room so natural reverb is already there. Any experience with this board? I've been running it for almost 2 years but I'm an old analog guy and honestly haven't scratched the surface on it. Enjoyed the ideas. Keep them coming!
Love the SQ series. Plenty of flexibility without being confusing. Have you tried doing some test mixes with Virtual Sound Check and a private live stream to iterate and check your mix on other devices? That can help you dial in the trickier things like effects.
Do you use a DAW to get all the audio of the live stream ?
Hi James! We are using a Soundcraft Impact mixer and have no separate audio engineer to mix the stream sound separately. Is there a chance to build groups (sub groups for Drums, Instruments and Vocals) on this consol? At the moment we are mixing via an Mix-Channel (AUX) all instruments Pre-Fade and the vocals Post-Fade. We added some compression on that Mix-Output and I think it sounds not that bad, but sometimes the drums are "smashing" the compressor to hard. Do you have any ideas how this could be improved on that kind of mixer?
If you can group your inputs post-fader into drums, instruments, vocals, then you can more easily balance those 3 groups while mixing FOH at the same time.
Thanks man, you really helped me dial sound in the right way, just for curiosity what name of the music that band is platina?
The song is called "Grateful Love" by Jonas Park. There's links to the song and charts in the description of this video here: ua-cam.com/video/CYkDiRVEg9M/v-deo.html
We are small church, we are using Behringer Digital Mixer connected to OBS for audio to our Online services, but I'm not satisfied with the outcome. What can you suggest to make our audio better?...Thank You..
Use buses to compress groups together, then send those to a matrix and compress there. Route that to OBS
awesome, i tried it today those eq work as good starting base then just fine tune later on. My keys however sounded really trebly.. Nordnstage 2, just normal piano+pads. Any suggestions where to cut /boost keyboards its a bit tricky because piano seems to occupy the whole eq and they all sound essential.
Sometimes the sound that feels like too much treble is too much transient attack from the piano. Try putting your compressor in peak mode and see if that helps
Maybe I missed it but I didn't hear you talk about applying reverb. Do you and, if so, what and how do you apply.
Reverb or room mics are essential. When you're running live sound and you're in the room, the space itself adds some reverberant sound. We have to add that back in to make things feel natural for people listening on the other end. I'll add my normal types of reverb on vocals, instruments, drums, and then try and send JUST enough to the stream to make it "more conspicuous in its absence than in its presence." Basically, when I mute it, I feel something went away, but when I unmute it, I don't notice it as much.
Hi bro,
I have question for you...pl help me
We have tried our church first livestream last week.
We faced sound quality problem in the live stream
please read and give your suggestion...
We have a audio system in the church and its 4..5 years old and working fine for the church hall audio and good.
( Yamaha 16 XU analog mixer, Lexicon reverb unit, Behringer 32 channel EQ, QSC power amp mounted on rack).
Inside the church the sound i s good and happy with it..
The questions i need your help...
1. I have connected the Yamaha 16 XU Mixer Headphone out to the camera mic input for sound
2. But this gives lot of sound problem since the mixer headphone out is not a EQ out..while what we hear inside church is clean audio. The audio for live stream is not clean one, becoz its taken from the mixer headphone jack and not from the out put of the EQ. Will you pl suggest a ideal set up for me.. (Suppose if i take the out put spare jack of the Behringer EQ unit it will be line level signal and a mic level signal)
please give a advice.
You'll need another professional level output, not a headphone output. The headphone jack is speaker level, so it's a little different. If you could come off the stereo output's 1/4" jacks into a Y-cable going to your camera's 1/8" input, that'd be a cleaner signal than the headphone jack.
We have our livestream output set up on an Aux channel. I can change the overall eq and compression for the entire aux channel as well as the dB level for each of the 24 channels being sent to the aux. beyond that Is it possible to change the eq and compression on individual channels within the Aux? Or are you saying to change the in room audio so that it is catered to be broadcast? I’ll comment my soundboard equipment below.
Presonus StudioLive 24.4.2
You would have to double-patch the input channels. Most of the time though, you can get it sounding good for both. If your stream sounds good but your room doesn't, it might be time to address your speakers
I was wanting to share this with our worship leader but I not sure she will appreciate the first 45 seconds. What exactly was the point. Most adults know how to wash their hands and read a watch. Humor is a subjective thing, I get it.
There is a feature on the desktop version where if you put the playhead where you want to start when sharing, then click the "share" button and check "start at :45" it can do that automatically. Or you could say "just skip the antics at the beginning and go to 45 seconds. Some sound techs have an odd sense of humor and he's one of them"
How do I send my stereo mix into my iPhone ?
You’ll need a stereo audio interface with a lightning connector output. For Jon Thurlow’s channel, he uses a iRig Pro Duo and it works great
Great!! Thanks for the tip!!!God bless you
Great video! We (a band) are just getting going on live-streaming and these are great tips for our mix. Thank you! A couple of general questions for you. Is Facebook Live still mono? Does Facebook Live and UA-cam do any kind of normalization shenanigans when live? In other words, safe to stream at peak -0.2dB? Need to worry about adhering to say a -14 LUFS or similar loudness standard when live-streaming? Thanks again!
FB live is stereo if you're coming from a streaming device, not sure if you're using a webcam or mobile interface. FB and YT will push down the level if it's too hot, but I couldn't find any information on them doing any other processing. So if you're aiming for -14 to -16 LUFS, you should be good to go
@@AttawayAudio Thank you for the reply. No streaming device - just a computer running OBS in our case.
Nice seeing the SL series 3. Your subgroups, did you use 3 of the 4 designated subgroups or just repurpose 3 of the flex mixes?
Yeah I love it! I made the flex mixes into groups so I could have more stereo groups than the A-B and C-D.
Hey great tips & thank you. please fill me on this James. let's say you are mixing FOH on outdoor concert and need to stream it live on TV Channel (we are still broadcasting in MONO in my country) in single mixing desk. what is the best way to it make good sound on both ends?
If you have groups on your console, try grouping things and compressing the groups and then sending that to a mono matrix for your TV output. Then just mix for FOH like you normally would, making adjustments to the group sends and group output levels to get it to sit right. Sorry for the late response! Hope it's helpful still 😁
@@AttawayAudio Thank you for the reply and waited for it. it makes sense now. Seems to be I WILL NEED A BIGGER CONSOLE NOW. at moment I'm using AVID S3L-X and with monitors(we are using same console for FOH and IEM's) and FX I'm maxed up in 24 busses
Any comments/tips on figuring out the latency when running broadcast audio from the mixer -> to logic -> then out to a streaming software?
I’m using a large buffer in logic. And getting close to 2 seconds of delay. But not sure how to figure out the exact amount of video delay to add in OBS streaming.
Great question! I have a couple thoughts on it. The first is that you could clap on camera, and record the video output and then figure out the sync from there. Another way would require a second audio system, but you could record on two channels the input and then the final output to see how different they are. Kind of like this video, if you can excuse the clipped audio 😬 ua-cam.com/video/g1Y9YE44KSE/v-deo.html
When you gave your example for your grouped together mix at the 10:35 mark are you compressing your inputs first -> compressing the groups -> compressing the stereo bus? Or are you just compressing the groups and then compressing the stereo bus?
compress it at every stage :)
I see your on a Studiolive live in this video. What reverb do you like in the Studiolive live console that would be great for a live FOH sound? Which Preset to start with?
that's a loaded question! I'm making a video about the reverb on that board... the reverb time controls are less than intuitive.
@@AttawayAudio Agreed
So I implemented tons of your tips this Sunday on our live and it was great. Unfortunately my vocals were a little to much out front but I’ll fix that for next time. We mix our lives on a separate system which is nice. You are a blessing to the church sound community. I thank you for all your work and pray God blesses you greatly! Btw what front of house console do you mix on?
That's AWESOME! Way to crush it! I think all of us are evaluating last week's mix and planning what we'll change this week. My mix was balanced well but a bit dry, so I'll make some room mic and FX adjustments.
My FOH console depends on the church. Some are A&H SQ6/SQ7 or dLive, others are SSL L200 and the prayer room is L300. And then at home I have the PreSonus StudioLive series iii
Attaway Audio yeah my mix was a little dry as well. Keep up the good work!
would these tips translate for a church who doesn't want to "live-stream", but record and upload post-edit using a DAW?
Absolutely. Happy mixing Joseph!
For the group/master compression, what ratios are you using?
2:1-4:1 but mostly below 3:1
I need emergency help with EQing my master bus for my broadcast mix.
I can say I’m satisfied with my overall mix (effects, gain staging, balance, even eq on individual channels), however, I feel that when I get to eq my master bus o either overdo it or feel no enough is being altered by my eq moves.
I rarely touch the EQ on my master bus. If it’s not feeling punchy/full/bright/shimmery enough I try to fill that space with changes on input channels or groups
Attaway Audio I appreciate your help and I appreciate your help and advice always, bro.
Attaway Audio Can we send you a bounced version of our mix and have you take a listen so you can give us advice?
Or is that outside of the scope of the purpose of your channel...
Can you pan a mix without affecting the mains?
Depends on the board... some follow main pan, others let you select whether you do or not
Hi Attaway Audio, I have huge problem with live streaming. I heard different from UA-cam and live. While in live recording and live speaker, the sound is great, but unlike in UA-cam where the sound is muffled. What did I do wrong?
It could be that your speakers are too bright, so you don't have to add much top-end to get the clarity live, but over the stream, it feels dull. You could boost the top end on your EQ for the stream to try and get it to match better, or address the tuning of your live speakers.
@@AttawayAudio like boosting up the low and mid-low?
what the type of FX suitable for broadcast ?? i want use for live full band mixing...
Hall reverbs help connect listeners to a bigger space, if that's where the band is. Try thinking about what the viewer is seeing, and then try to match that with your reverb.
@@AttawayAudio ow okey.. thanks so muchhh.. i’ll try it..
I have a Mackie pro Fxv3 16 channel. I stream through a Boxcaster device. I’m have problems with distribution or peaking . Or the pastor volume is to low. Need help
Distortion
Are you running sound for the room at the same time as your stream? Or is it a dedicated console?
about how much compression do you suggest?
On inputs, 5dB average is a good starting place. For buses, if you have a high ratio, just a couple dB is a good amount.
This video has helped me immensely! Thank you. Quick question: I’m mixing our broadcast on a matrix out of our main FOH board. How do I make these EQ adjustments and not have them affect my main mix? Or is this possible without a separate mixer for broadcast? Thanks again!
All your channel EQs will be the same for FOH and broadcast. The only way to weasel your way around that is if you have more console channels that you can "double patch" so they're looking at the same preamp, but they have different channel processing. Then send the duplicates to broadcast, the originals to FOH.
@@AttawayAudio Thank you! Great Idea.
This is a great idea. One issue we are having is the compression we apply to the newly patched broadcast channels doesn’t seem to be effecting that channels signal in the aux mix we are using for streaming. Does built in channel compression typically only effect the main mix signals? We want to compress some of these channels much more in broadcast than we do to foh but can’t figure out how to do it using an aux
Sir,
what is a STEREO Bus? Is that the main L and R fader?
That's it!
@@AttawayAudio got it!
should u live stream in mono or stereo?
Stereo
I’m running Into problems running the x32 into and irigpro I/o. I feel like the signals really hot coming into the irig I’m using a xlr cable. what output do you think I should come out of the x32 with? Should I create a different bus mix specifically for the irig? And if I do so will it still run all the dynamics eq and efx that are set for each channel? In case you haven’t noticed I’m new to the x32 and it’s hard to find a resource for this situation.
No problem! Most all of us are on the learning curve right now. The channel processing on your input channels will be the same going to your buses. If you use a second bus for the iRig, you can use that bus master fader to fine-tune the level going to the iRig. And just checking - you've got the input level all the way down on the iRig?
Attaway Audio I did have it at about 2 or 3 out of 10 originally, but I turned it up to 5 and turned my level out of the x32 down. What do you suggest?
I'd keep the iRig's input level down and get it fine-tuned with the X32. If you can't see the input meter on the phone's input, you might have to use virtual sound check (or even a recorded stereo mix) and either record a video with the phone internally, or try a private stream on UA-cam to check it. Hope this helps!
Attaway Audio ok I will definitely try that I appreciate you helping me and your kindness God bless you and keep the great videos coming!!
Hey there! If I’m taking audio from the x32 to obs and I setup a bus mix out is there a way to plug it directly in using usb?
I did some digging, but I can't seem to make OBS see an ASIO device to be able to choose a specific input from my StudioLive, so I'm not sure that it'd be any different with the X32. If you're on a Mac, you may be able to create a workaround with SoundFlower though! Sorry I couldn't be more helpful!
Thanks for your response and don’t apologize, at the very least I learned how to wash my wands properly today. Lol
@@calebdesjardins616 lol 😂
@@AttawayAudio it could possibly be a device driver issue. I ran my SL32R audio to OBS using an older driver. OBS recognised and recorded the audio.
I am not sure if this what you are talking about, but I got it running for our live stream this weekend.
Hopefully this helps.
If you want you could email me about it. My church runs the same thing
Any suggestions for using propresenter 6 we have never tried it because we've never had to use video streaming
I have no experience with using propresenter! Sorry I can't be of more help!
@@AttawayAudio well figured I would ask
If you're on FB there's the Church Sound & Media Techs group.. lots of proP questions and answers there
@@AttawayAudio ohhh hey, sound question. We currently use digital drums what is going to be the best EQ for a system like this? I wish I could mic individual pieces, but that's not possible. We have the AH qu32, and I'm still learning and VERY much appreciate your videos and suggestions 👍
The best way is to.... have each channel individually at the sound board. Until you can do that, I really don't have much advice for you 🤷♂️
Do you go from the soundboard straight into a computer?
You'd need an interface, or an option for running the stereo out through USB into the computer. My particular mixer has lots of USB channels I can run to the computer, so I recorded these back into StudioOne off the stereo bus.
We just upgraded to a new video camera and now the piano sounds horrible during livestreaming. It sounds like clunk, clunk, clunk. We use OBS and have a cable from the sound board plugged directly into the camera. Any tips? Here is a youtube link (go to 10:17): ua-cam.com/video/d8OlZqmHl5U/v-deo.html
7:25 okay then... Guess I'll pan my guitar back
If you’re going through a stream encoder, it can be stereo. I’ve been getting changing info on whether it’s mono live but stereo for the replay... but youtube is stereo so better to be ready for that 😀
Turn off the faucet while you're applying soap.
Good call
Turned the video off when you started to talk about turd, very unprofessional, and it's about church audio? Low.