** Official Recording/Streaming Tips & Tricks Exchange **

arc@css said:
The Snowball seems to get a lot of praise, but due to it being a condenser microphone I would have thought it's not as ideal as a dynamic mic. Does anyone here use a Snowball, and if so do you notice much in the way of unwanted audio like mouse clicks and so forth?
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All comes down to your recording environment... my advice would be unless you're positive your environment isn't too noisy and you will project your voice loud enough to dominate the background/signal ratio then you might want to consider a dynamic mic...

We used a Snowball for quite a while and always seemed to get unwanted background noise (we were trying to record 2 of us, mind)... we got terrible echo from our hallway and took to hanging a big fur blanket behind us to absorb some of it... Eventually we switched to Dual Shure SM57s (one each) and never looked back; they've been great!

(Not a plug for our channel but if you want to compare the difference in the sound try any of the earlier videos - link in my sig - anything before Stardew Valley I think, and compare that to something more recent... although it's cringingly bad commentary - "Foul Play" is quite a good example of the sort of noise it picks up because it's quite a button mash-y type of game)
 
arc@css said:
Yeah, I bought an AT2020, though by 'mistake' I bought the USB version. Tbh, I like the sound quality a lot, but boy.....does it pick up extra audio.
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Yeah i went against it and got the XLR with a Scarlet Solo Audio Interface, cuts out most of the outside sound which was worth the extra money.
 
uncle_rufus said:
All comes down to your recording environment... my advice would be unless you're positive your environment isn't too noisy and you will project your voice loud enough to dominate the background/signal ratio then you might want to consider a dynamic mic...

We used a Snowball for quite a while and always seemed to get unwanted background noise (we were trying to record 2 of us, mind)... we got terrible echo from our hallway and took to hanging a big fur blanket behind us to absorb some of it... Eventually we switched to Dual Shure SM57s (one each) and never looked back; they've been great!

(Not a plug for our channel but if you want to compare the difference in the sound try any of the earlier videos - link in my sig - anything before Stardew Valley I think, and compare that to something more recent... although it's cringingly bad commentary - "Foul Play" is quite a good example of the sort of noise it picks up because it's quite a button mash-y type of game)
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Yeah, I seem to remember you mentioning that. I've already taken a look at your channel before so I know that the audio quality is good, but I don't know if I've seen the more recent content. I'll take a look in a moment.

I've heard only positive feedback about the Shure mics, so I'll start hunting around for reviews and prices (I'm also considering the ATR2100 and the Samson Q2U).


Edit: Yes, I can certainly hear the difference, though I wish mine only made that level of noise! The Shure mics you're using make you sound clearer, too. :)
 
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Does anyone know if the 'Acelectronic Suspension Mic Studio Boom Scissor Arm' is worth considering, or is it a bit on the cheap and nasty side?
 
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arc@css said:
I've heard only positive feedback about the Shure mics, so I'll start hunting around for reviews and prices (I'm also considering the ATR2100 and the Samson Q2U).

Edit: Yes, I can certainly hear the difference, though I wish mine only made that level of noise! The Shure mics you're using make you sound clearer, too. :)
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Glad you think so! The SM57s (or 58s) are really good mics often used in studios to record all sorts of things (that's partly why we went with them; as we play guitar/bass as well so figured we could get use out of them recording instruments etc. as well)... They're not actually too expensive either for what you get, but you need to have an audio interface to use them (and one with decent pre-amps drives the price up a fair bit)

arc@css said:
Does anyone know if the 'Acelectronic Suspension Mic Studio Boom Scissor Arm' is worth considering, or is a bit on the cheap and nasty side?
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I think we had something similar when we were still using the snowball... it was okay - functional and didn't cause any problems despite feeling a bit flimsy. When we upgraded everything we bough Rode PSA-1s which seem to be fairly highly regarded (expensive though, can't decide if it was really worth it)
 
Puppetmaster said:
I chose CBR.
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Well, that rules out VBR then. Sometimes that can cause audio to become out of sync with the video, as I've found out on more than a few occasions when using ShadowPlay.

Hopefully, some of the more experienced people on here will drop in and help you out (I have literally no experience with streaming). :)
 
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Been testing out both Youtube and Twitch for streaming my gameplays I find Youtube is miles ahead of twitch for quality and user viewing.

For example Twitch you can without being a partner stream unlimited bitrate and 60fps but the view can only watch source quality if the view internet not fast enough his/her view will buffer along.
Youtube even if you stream at very high bitrate the view can change the quality preset and even at the same res/bitrate Youtube provides the best quality.

I tried a 1080p 60fps @10mbps stream and the quality is excellent with Crimson Relive
 
Hey guys just starting using shadow play and I have a few questions .

I have just started streaming to Twitch at 720p at 60 FPS and all seems to be running well, I also have 920 Webcam , I noticed that the cam fades in to the background, is there anyway to change it so it doesn't blend in ? it makes me look a little blurry ! Also can you use more than 3 Mbits for Twitch ? or is that the max you can use ? Currently streaming Fifa & Rainbowsix
 
Getting the hand of this video making thing. The game I was making videos for died a death, and so I've created a politics channel instead (link). Got a decent microphone finally which helps a lot.

I've done a couple of videos now in ultrawide format. The interview I did in 21:9 I think works particularly well. Do you guys have much experience recording in ultrawide?
 
For OBS users, what preset are you using?

Surprisingly, not the most demanding of games, but in one of the Quake levels, the video randomly displayed corrupted images, and then when I re-recorded the same level again, upon playback I noticed skipping frames.

At the moment, I'm experimenting by changing the preset to 'low latency - high quality' from just plain high quality. Bitrate is 50,000.


Edit: I've tried lowering some settings but it still persists. Strange, especially when you consider all of the other more intensive games/mods that I've recorded without issue. :confused:

ta08k8.png



Edit 2: I'm starting to think it's something else now as despite lowering the settings considerably, it still producing a momentary freeze - and it tends to begin around half way through the level. That said, it didn't happen on two of the shorter levels I tested.
 
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After goodness knows how many times replaying the same level, I finally managed to get a stable test recording, though that still doesn't explain why it occurred. These are the settings I used:

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I gave the graphics card a good clean with a dust blower, so whether it's that and the time of year, I don't know.....
 
Apart from having to use gefarce experience, any reason to not use shadowplay? Far more performance efficient for recording.
 
Disco_P said:
Apart from having to use gefarce experience, any reason to not use shadowplay? Far more performance efficient for recording.
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If you just want to record some footage with no fuss; don't need to split audio tracks and so on - then yes, it's very good. Brilliant performance when recording. :)

Make sure you set the bitrate to 130 (or whatever the current maximum is).
 
Disco_P said:
Apart from having to use gefarce experience, any reason to not use shadowplay? Far more performance efficient for recording.
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It is OK I guess but OBS Studio (or Xsplit) using the NVENC option gives you exactly the same performance benefits and the same quality options with way more features. I just don't see the point of Shadowplay these days unless you really can't work out how to use OBS Studio or Xsplit.
 
Cromulent said:
It is OK I guess but OBS Studio (or Xsplit) using the NVENC option gives you exactly the same performance benefits and the same quality options with way more features. I just don't see the point of Shadowplay these days unless you really can't work out how to use OBS Studio or Xsplit.
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Unfortunately this isn't true. The nvidia tech that allows such great shadowplay performance (nvfbc) isn't open source or free so OBS cannot use it. Test it yourself and you'll see a significant performance drop with nvenc.
 
Cromulent said:
It is OK I guess but OBS Studio (or Xsplit) using the NVENC option gives you exactly the same performance benefits and the same quality options with way more features. I just don't see the point of Shadowplay these days unless you really can't work out how to use OBS Studio or Xsplit.
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The one feature I did like with Shadowplay was the buffered recording thing (hit a key to instantly save the last X minute window of recording) as I don't think all of the other programs have that (some certainly do but not the ones I've used; DXTory and OBS)... I think there are a few more fully featured programs that do though
 
Disco_P said:
Unfortunately this isn't true. The nvidia tech that allows such great shadowplay performance (nvfbc) isn't open source or free so OBS cannot use it. Test it yourself and you'll see a significant performance drop with nvenc.
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I've never seen a significant performance drop when recording with NVENC. Then again I can record using the CPU and still get a consistent 60fps in the vast majority of games. Even if OBS Studio doesn't have that feature I'll still stick to it because of the other features it has and I also need it for streaming anyway. So if I am recording a stream while I am live so I can edit it later OBS Studio is the perfect choice.
 
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