Audio Tips for Streaming - Acoustic Treatment for Audio Streaming

This video covers some basic acoustic treatment strategies as well as some general audio tips for streaming on OBS


Spot Panel:

https://www.gikacoustics.com/product/...



242:

https://www.gikacoustics.com/product/...


PIB:
https://www.gikacoustics.com/product/...


OBS Streaming Software:
https://obsproject.com/



restream.io:
https://restream.io/




"There’s nothing worse than going live in front of a bunch of people only for your chat to fill up with comments that you’re having audio issues. For content creators, quality audio can be far more important than good video, as bad audio can drive people away from your content beyond just making you hard to understand.

Problems with your audio can happen because of hardware or software issues as well as bad room acoustics and it’s always not obvious where your issues might be coming from, especially if you’re not well versed in professional audio setups. In this video we’re going to take a look at some room acoustic guidelines as well as some general beginner tips to ensure you sound crystal clear over the internet.

Often people immediately think about upgrading their microphone to get better sound, and it's true, nice mics do sound fantastic when used properly. But these days, even inexpensive mics can produce a clear sound when used correctly with proper Acoustic Treatment.

The main strategy for getting clear sound is to lower your noise floor. The noise Floor is the sum of all the background noise in your signal. This can be the air conditioner, traffic outside, echo, and even electromagnetic interference on sub par equipment all combining to make up your noise floor.
The easiest way to lower your noise floor is simply to sit closer to the mic. The louder your voice is in the microphone the more you can lower the levels which in turn lowers the strength
of the background noise.

Close mic-ing is the foundation of the "voice of god" radio announcer voice, where the proximity effect of most microphones gives a strong boost in the bass. These artifacts are sometimes brought out even more with compression or EQ to produce this familiar, authoritative, but very artificial sound. For something like a live stream you’ll probably want a more natural sounding voice while still having a low noise floor.

We may not have the option of close mic-ing depending on the microphone setup, so our other option for lowering the background noise is acoustic treatment. Adding absorption to your room can reduce the echo, reverb, and comb filtering that creates harshness and reduces clarity.

Even a few panels begin to improve things dramatically, especially if we can deploy them close to the microphone. If you are a full time streamer or content producer, then you may want to look into treating your work space as if it were a live recording room or isolation booth. A professional studio will have panels mounted on the ceiling above, and on nearby walls to create a record zone. A good record zone will isolate the talent and microphone from any nearby reflections that might distort your audio.

Art panels can help improve the sound quality in your room while adding to the natural aesthetics with custom art printed on high quality professional grade absorption.

Whatever your strategy for treating your room, you’ll still need to make sure you mic is working and sounds clean. A lot of beginners have trouble with setting up audio because unlike video, you can’t just look at a glance to see that it’s working. Even if you’re getting levels on your DB meter you still may not be intelligible to whoever is listening.

It’s generally a good idea to do a mic test recording before you start streaming. If you’re using OBS it’s as easy as hitting the record button then going back and listening to the file.

Sometimes your computer can be capturing clear audio, but problems with the stream cause bad audio for the listener. I like to use an app called restreamio. The website lets you stream to multiple platforms at once, but by turning all of the platforms off we can test that our stream is working before we go live to the world.

Depending on your settings, if you try to preview your audio on the device you’re streaming from while you’re streaming, you might get a loop or echo as the sound from your stream is captured and re-streamed. I like to do a round of “row row row your boat” if I’m going to test audio this way, but alternatively you can always check the audio from your phone or other device and pick up a free view in the process.

If you’re having issues with your audio, try troubleshooting both your system settings and stream settings and refer to the manufacturer for any hardware you’re using."