In November of 2021 I had received a few emails from a company called SessionsLive. It was a platform for singers and musicians to livestream, which was ideal during COVID. It was free to join so figuring I had nothing to loose I eventually did sign up. There were so many talented artists from around the world, and a lot of cool people supported artists on this platform. I’d live stream (almost) every Saturday for few hours. It was something I really looked forward to.
This past December Sessions shut it’s doors. There was no warning, no emails and no explanation given (not as I am writing this). The worst part is that they still owe some of their artist money. I hope that the company will eventually release some sort of statement (at the very least), or somehow be able to reimburse the artists that are owed funds. Pretty crappy business practice if you ask me.
I looked into Live Streaming on Twitch, but the research I did said that their terms of service did not allow Karaoke feeds. So that was ruled out. YouTube also has the ability to LiveStream so I thought I’d try that out. I did some rough tests during the week, making sure Streamlabs OBS was configured to stream on YouTube and initially it seemed to work. The one problem I noted was that the vocals/backtrack/video were a little out of sync but figured I could fix it on the weekend.
I was looking forward to doing a little set on Sunday, as I hadn’t streamed since the end of November. I plugged my Rode NTA-2 mic into my interface (Steinberg UR22C) and then into my computer. Made sure the webcam was plugged in. When livestreaming I usually run the backtracks through iTunes. This way it streams a clean copy of the backtracks and I usually have my bluetooth headphone in one ear so I can hear the backtrack while singing. (monitoring streaming performances can be challenging as there is a delay)
But for some reason I could not get my headphones to work. If I didn’t have Streamlabs on I could hear the music from iTunes on my headphones, but as soon as I opened Streamlabs I couldn’t hear it anymore. I googled and changed some more settings but nothing worked! I finally caved and plugged some corded headphones directly into interface so at least I can hear.
I fixed my syncing issue so that wasn’t too painful. Now there was a volume problem on my vocals, they were so quiet. So much trial and error. So much time spent on technical issues that I didn’t have time to stream. And it’s still not 100% sorted out.
I am wondering if it’d be easier to get a mixing board that I can run the backtracks and vocals through. I’d be able to apply effects (compression, reverb and EQ) easier and have better control over the levels. It’s hard to be patient in figuring out all this technical stuff, when all I want to do is plug it in and sing! Fingers crossed that I’ll have better luck next weekend.
Tracey Sings 