Live-Stream Your Gig with Great Sound!

Sometimes, something happens that means you can’t play any shows for a little while. This not only makes the life of a musician or band a little bit boring, it also messes with that delicate relationship you’ve built with your devoted fans. To keep the love alive, you could easily live-stream a gig from the comfort of your living room or rehearsal space and you can even do it with great sound quality!

Live Streaming with Nothing But a Mobile Phone or Tablet
iPhone or iPad Plus Mixer and Microphones
A Mixer
Microphones for Solo Singers/Guitarists
Setup for a Band
Android Devices plus a Mixer, iRig Stream and Microphones
Complete Control Using Your DAW
Two Channels
See Also…

Live Streaming with Nothing But a Mobile Phone or Tablet

Let’s start with the easiest option available to everyone: live streaming from your smartphone or tablet directly to Facebook, YouTube or Instagram. No external microphones, mixers or interfaces are needed so, while it’s the most convenient method, there are a few things to pay attention to if you want to go down this route:

Try to keep things simple by performing with just vocals and an acoustic guitar. This won’t overload and distort the sound of the built-in microphone of your phone or tablet and will give your audience a nice and intimate little show, it also offers the chance to simply try things out.
Of course, if you’re a drummer or a full band, then this is unlikely to work out since the high volume will be likely make for an uncomfortable listening experience.
It’s also important to pay attention to the acoustics of the room you’re streaming from. A big, cold room or a hallway will not sound all that nice to a tiny built-in phone microphone. Maybe make a test recording in a number of spaces to check what works best. Performing in a carpeted room with curtains or even blankets on the walls will result in a little less of that annoying, unwanted echo and sound reflection making it into your show.

Live-Stream Your Gig with Great Sound!

iPhone or iPad Plus a Mixer and Microphones

If you’re not too convinced by the quality of the microphone built into your iPhone or iPad, then there is a way to get better audio quality out of your phone or tablet. (Don’t fret, Android user, your time will come later in this blog).

A Mixer

A mixer that works well alongside an iPhone or iPad is the Behringer XENYX X1222 mixer that comes fitted with a useful USB output that sends stereo audio. To hook up your phone or tablet, you’ll just need a Lightning to USB adapter that, once connected to the mixer and in camera mode or live-stream mode, automatically links the sound from the mixer to the live stream.

Microphones for Solo Singer/Guitarists

If you’re already set up to go live, then you need just a couple more things: a good vocal microphone, a cable and a second microphone for your acoustic guitar. If you have an electro-acoustic guitar, then you just need a single jack cable. All of this gear can be directly connected to a channel of the Behringer mixer, then you need to hook up a set of headphones and adjust the volume levels of the guitar and vocals and you’re ready to go.

Setup for a Band

If you’re a full band and want to play out of a studio or rehearsal space, you can certainly do it using a phone or tablet and mixer but you’re going to need a few more microphones and cables to capture the sound of the drummer, guitarists, keyboard player, triangle player etc… While it’ll take a lot more time to hit the right mix of the live sound, in principle, it’s going to work!

Live-Stream Your Gig with Great Sound!

Android Devices Plus a Mixer, iRig Stream and Microphones

If you’re a dedicated Android user, then you probably need a mixer with a fitted type C USB or micro-USB port. A great option is the Devine MixPad 1202 FX-USB mixer combined with an IK Multimedia iRig Stream. This setup would function in pretty much the same way as the setup for iPhones and iPads. The only difference here, is that you’re not using the USB mixer output but the master outputs. Simply connect a two-plug jack to two-plug RCA cable to the Main Outputs (left and right) of the mixer and then connect the other end directly to the iRig Stream. Then, use the cable that comes included with the iRig to connect your Android phone and you’re all set up. Just make sure that the output from the mixer isn’t too high so that distortion can be avoided.

Stuff Worth Knowing:

In terms of microphones, check out the links included in the setup explanation above.
Three cables come included with the iRig Stream: USB-C, USB-A and Lightning. If you have an Android device with a micro-USB port, then you’ll need an extra USB OTG cable to make it work.
The iRig Stream also works with most iPhone and iPad models (as well as Mac OS and Windows), but I would still recommend using it with the Behringer mixer. The connection is fully digital while the iRig Stream has an extra analogue link and keeping things digital might be best so that any chance of unwanted noise or interference is avoided.

Live-Stream Your Gig with Great Sound!

Complete Control Using Your DAW

If you have access to a studio or have a perfectly good and well kitted-out home-studio that you’d prefer to use, then of course, this is not only possible but probably the best option. Connect up your microphones and instruments as you would for a normal studio session and then tweak the live mix using your preferred DAW, whether it’s ProTools, Cubase or Logic. So, how do you get the signal from your computer to your laptop, phone or tablet? Well, basically, in exactly the same way that we’ve already explained.

Two Channels

For Android devices, you’ll still need to use the iRig Stream and a mixer while, for Apple devices, a mixer with a USB output is still required. The benefit of using this method is that the tracks are already digitally mixed on your computer so a mixer with two inputs that can take two left and right mono output signals from your audio interface is all you need. Check that the signal levels coming from the computer sound good through the mixer (you can do this with a set of headphones) then, connect up your iRig Stream and Android device or your iPhone and iPad to send them a DAW-polished stereo mix. Ideal if you want complete control over the sound!

Of course, there are so many possible methods of ensuring great sound when live streaming, but we hope that the methods layed out here are of some help. If you do have any questions or suggestions, just let us know in the comments!