Streaming on Twitch – Week 2

Things have been going well so far with the streaming setup. I’ve added the two direct upgrades that I had considered in the previous post – a second monitor and the foot pedal. The second monitor is now used for all stream-related controls on the PC while streaming. I also use it for Discord and other applications that benefit from the vertical orientation. This has freed up space on the tablet for me to expand Touch Portal. The foot pedal is being used as a touch-to-speak for Xbox Live party chat, Discord, and any other communication applications.

I have also now added a new bit of software to the mix. VB-Cable is used to create a new virtual output -> input pair. I am utilizing this for audio monitoring in OBS. I can set an audio source to enable monitoring, and route that to the VB-Cable output. This gets routed then to the VB-Cable Input and captured by VoiceMeeter Banana as though it’s a Hardware Input. I can then route it to my headset along with game audio, while keeping the monitoring audio from doubling up on the stream output.

Potential Upgrade Paths

So far these have been my major pain points and they were all addressed easily enough. So the key remaining upgrade paths that come to mind are as follows:

  • Capture device. While the Remote Play function has been working well for me so far, the video quality could likely be better with a proper capture device. A capture device like the AverMedia Live Gamer Portable 2 Plus also provides a hardware means of capturing the Xbox Live party chat and game audio which could greatly simplify my audio setup. This expense would be almost entirely for the stream, so I’m holding off on this upgrade for now.
  • Better webcam / mic / lighting. I feel like these are upgrades that never really end for someone streaming, as there’s always going to be some new piece of kit that might look or sound better than what you have. Right now I have no real lighting considerations whatsoever, and I’m recording video from a Wyze cam with a modified firmware. My microphone I think is actually doing fairly well, but an upgrade to something like the Elgato Wave 1 or 3 would be nice. Again, not something I’m necessarily looking to spend money on at this time.

I’ve been storing potential solutions to these on my Amazon wish list. If at some point I decide to move forward with one of these, I’ll probably do some more research on viable products and make a post with my findings.

Image showing the URL of twitch.tv/hybridhavoc