So @danmanisa mentioned he had a bunch of questions for me about streaming live songwriting/music production (since I’m doing said thing), and I figured, rather than waiting for him to start the conversation, I’d start it.
I must mention that I haven’t been doing it very long and I’m still learning (thus the reason for posting in Beginners), but I have some idea of the technical issues if anyone has questions about that.
I can’t tell you how to make money (though I can tell you how others seem to make money) or how to be successful (I’m still working that out).
The first thing I can tell you is that almost no one watches those streams on twitch. Even people with thousands of followers and thousands of subscribers who get 2-300 people for their live performance streams only get a tenth of that for their production streams.
Also, you can do it on a single computer, but it’s better if you have separate computers for audio and for streaming the video. I do it on a single computer, but the streaming software and the webcam eat probably 15% of my cpu, which puts limits on what I can do in the DAW. I can’t wait to get another computer.
I had never heard of Twitch before, prior to your other thread. So what exactly is it supposed to be, as I’m a bit oblivious. Is it an alternative to YouTube, or kind of a niche/micro-niche site? It looks like music and gaming stuff, though I have no idea of the full palette of content yet.
I think there’s a fascination with live streams, kind of like live music. And it’s possible that people that get on to watch live streams are multi-tasking (or trying to) while the live stream is running. That’s just an aspect of our digital ADD culture. Speaking of which, many people’s attention spans are pretty short these days, and long production videos may not get fully watched, if watched at all. Some of the videos I saw on there were hours long. I guess I just don’t get what the focus is for much of it.
Twitch started off as another platform (with a different name), but it’s primary mission has been, until recently, live streaming game play. But people have started live streaming all sorts of things, including music production, performance, art creation - you name it, someone has probably streamed it. The videos aren’t really the thing, and unless you’ve pay twitch some money every month, or you have an Amazon prime subscription that you’ve linked, your videos will be taken down after like 14 days. With the payments or the Amazon sub, they stay for 60 days. It’s not a platform of permanence. It’s more a platform where you can watch people play games and chat with them, or watch creators make stuff and chat with them.
Amazon paid nearly $1b for twitch a few years ago.
Yeah as Mark said, it is largely used for streaming computer gameplay. Many gamers who are on Twitch have multiple cameras (one on them, one capturing the screen) and earn some cash by simply being entertaining.
As a gamer myself, I watch it occasionally, usually to check out a game I am thinking about purchasing. It’s better than a Youtube clip because those clips tend to be edited to look good, or the person explains the game in it’s entirety. Sometimes I just want to see someone playing it just as I would to see if I’d enjoy it or not.
I am also a member of a Board Game group (geeez I have too many hobbies and passions!!) and we plan on Twitching a 24 hour session to raise money for an Australian Mental Health Organisation later this year, so I’ll be looking into the tech aspects shortly.
Yeah I figured that would be the case.
Interestingly, I think I’d be happy to watch someone mix their music and/or record it. But the setup would have to be different for each, as mixing you would want to see the screen mostly I’d assume and recording you’d want to see the actual physical process and care less about the screen.
It wouldn’t have to be all that different. You just set up different scenes in your streaming software, one of which will show your screen and the head shot from your camera(s). The others would just show your camera and whatever other details you want in the picture.
You’d definitely have separate projects for playing your music live. You can trigger lights via a midi track in your project, for instance (which is crazy stuff I only know you can do, not how), and you’d probably just want to have a stereo mix of the song without the parts that you’ll be playing so that you don’t have to worry about all the effects overhead (other than the effects you put on the live instruments you’re playing).
Wow, kind of an “interactive social connection” over the Internet. I mean, I guess that idea is not anything particularly new per se, but the implementation seems a bit different. And short lived content is an interesting twist, especially if they’re on Amazon AWS, but it appears the timeliness is of upmost importance in terms of relevance. And as you said, if it’s overwhelmingly live streams, then that’s its primary purpose.
Sounds like the new business model: create a startup company with a new tech concept, get some private investment to get it off the ground, then get a tech giant interested in buying you out.
I watched a few minutes of “Embrace: Mixing Song 2 - Stand”. I’m used to rather fast-paced mixing tutorials or demo’s where someone is talking/describing what they’re doing, so this was certainly different. I did take note of some plugins you’re using though, and it reminded me I meant to reinstall Camel Crusher as I used to use that a lot. It looked like you had Scheps Omni Channel on many tracks, and Scheps 73 on at least several. Just interesting to see what you’re using and choosing. I really like the song too BTW. A very Sabbath kind of vibe to it. I think I was listening to a loop for quite awhile, so it was a bit too much like mixing the song myself , so I’d be interested to hear the finished song or a BTR.
And for musicians, once we learn what works and what doesn’t, and once musicians learn that it’s even possible, nightly or weekly live shows on the internet become a thing, and growing your local fan base could become less necessary, since you can be growing a global following instead. Fans will subscribe to your stream for $5 or more a month, they donate, they gift subscriptions to each other. There are crazy interesting possibilities.
You can hear the final if you skip to the end - I play it through a couple times. I’m going to BTR that song tomorrow, I think. A friend said he heard some strange high pitched noises in a couple places, and I need to check that out first. He doesn’t know if they’re artifacts of something, or what.
I like the saturation in the Omni Channel. The dual noise gate is helpful, too, and the EQ is nice, though I’m still sort of figuring that out. The Scheps 73 does one thing for me that I really like, which is a little boost around 7k or so, I think - I just like the way it does that on certain things. And Camel Crusher - yeah - I love Camel Crusher. I wish I could get a 64bit version of it so I didn’t have to use JBridge, but that’s never going to happen.
WOW, you just blew my head off with that one! I mean, I have seen something like that on Facebook IIRC, but didn’t really think through the possibilities. It’s the year of the Internet Rock Star!
I Googled it and downloaded it, and it had installers for 32-bit and 64-bit. Their website Camel Audio seems defunct, so that free site may be the only one, this is it:
I really like the song too BTW. A very Sabbath kind of vibe to it. I think I was listening to a loop for quite awhile, so it was a bit too much like mixing the song myself 
, so I’d be interested to hear the finished song or a BTR.