Whether you are streaming or creating videos, music is an important resource for any content creator. However, adding background music to your streams is not as simple as opening Spotify and playing your favorite playlist. Much of the music found on popular music streaming platforms is copyrighted, and using it can result in receiving copyright strikes. Platforms like Twitch have a three strike policy that can end in account termination if music guidelines are not followed.

Finding music that won’t end in a copyright strike can be difficult and confusing to do, especially with the many resources that show up with a quick Google search. To aid in simplifying the process, below is a list of several music resources available for content creators to use, and some are completely free.

Music

StreamBeats

StreamBeats provides DMCA-free music for content creators to use absolutely free, without credit.

Pros:

• Free
• Variety of genres
• Downloadable tracks
• No attribution required

Cons:

• Music genres may not appeal to everyone

Chillhop

Chillhop music is a Dutch label brand that partners with musicians worldwide to provide lofi beats.

Pros:

• Free
• Large selection of tracks
• User created playlists

Cons:

• Limited to lofi
• Attribution required

Pretzel

Pretzel offers a library of 600k Twitch safe and 150k Youtube safe tracks.

Pros:

• Large selection of tracks and genres
• Downloadable tracks
• 60+ curated stations

Cons:

• Paid service
• Unlimited download plan is pricey
• Attributes artist in chat every time a song plays

Epidemic Sound

Epidemic Sound provides users access to 50k music tracks and 200k sound effects tracks that can be used on a variety of platforms and projects.

Pros:

• Unlimited downloads
• Music and sound effects

Cons:

• Paid service
• Attribution required
• Personal plan is limited to 1 channel

OWN3D Music

OWN3D has been around for many years offering professional overlays and alerts to streamers. They have partnered with Epidemic Sound to offer access to over 10k music tracks and 25k sound effects tracks.

Pros:

• Free option available
• Pro plan includes access to overlays, alerts, and tools
• Access to a portion of Epidemic Sound’s library
• No attribution required

Cons:

• Free option is limited to 30 minutes of music or playlists per day and 25 sound effects
• Unlimited access requires a paid add on to the OWN3D Pro plan
• No downloadable tracks

Monstercat Gold

Monstercat is a Canada based record label that offers a Gold plan that gives access to thousands of music tracks for content creators to use.

Pros:

• Variety of genres
• Downloadable tracks
• No require attribution
• Usable on up to 6 channels

Cons:

• Paid service
• Smaller library of tracks compared to other options

NCS

NCS offers more than 1,500 music tracks across a large variety of electronic genres.

Pros:

• Free
• Downloadable tracks

Cons:

• Attribution required
• Limited to electronic genre

Soundstripe

Soundstripe provides music tracks and sound effects tracks and is used by several top organizations including Adobe and Microsoft.

Pros:

• Music and sound effects
• Downloadable tracks
• Curated playlists
• No require attribution

Cons:

• Paid service
• Creator plan is limited to 1 channel

Legis Music

Legis Music provides over 200 royalty-free music tracks for a onetime payment.

Pros:

• Onetime payment for lifetime access
• Variety of genres
• Downloadable tracks
• No attribution required

Cons:

• Paid service
• Small library
• Personal plan required to use on Twitch and YouTube

Slipstream Music

Slipstream Music has 650k+ music tracks and 300k+ sound effects tracks

Pros:

• Free option available
• Variety of genres
• Large library
• Curated playlists
• Creator plan allows 1 channel per platform
• Paid plan does not require attribution

Cons:

• Free option is limited in available tracks and requires attribution
• Paid plan is needed to access the full library
• Users with multiple channels on 1 platform will need to upgrade to the Pro plan

Outertone

Outertone has more than 2k tracks available for content creators to use in their projects.

Pros:

• Free
• Downloadable tracks available on Soundcloud

Cons:

• Limited selection of genres
• No dedicated music player on Outertone’s website
• Attribution required

GameChops

GameChops features a variety of remixes and covers of songs found in video games.

Pros:

• Free
• Available to stream on major music platforms

Cons:

• Attribution required
• No dedicated music player on GameChops’ website

Conclusion

Whether you are just starting out as a content creator, or have several years experience, this list provides a great variety of options that will fit into any budget. These resources, when fellowing the companies guidelines (such as attribution), provide content creators with great sources of music for any project.

This list will be updated and expanded as new music resources are released and discovered. Feel free to leave a comment below about any resources you know of!

The post Music Resources That Won’t End in a Copyright Strike appeared first on FxyNate.

Audio plugins are used to manipulate audio sources. Audio plugins have been used for both live and recorded audio for decades but were called signal processing and effects. These were built into audio mixers or routed out of the mixer to outboard gear that handled the specific signal processing or effect and then routed back into the mixer. Now, these have transitioned into being primarily digital and they are commonly referred to as plugins (or filters as in OBS).

There are many different types of plugins available, but there are a few that are commonly used when working with audio, such as: compressors, gates, expanders, equalizers, limiters, and noise suppressors. This series will be broken into two parts. Part 1 will break down the purpose of each plugin and part 2 will explain the order in which to use them.

The purpose of a compressor can be found in the name. It is designed to “compress” audio in order to reduce the dynamics of an audio signal (dynamics refer to the variation between loud and quiet parts of an audio signal). A threshold (user set limit) is set and any audio above this threshold will be compressed. Compression happens based on a set ratio. For example, a 4:1 ratio means that for every 4db above the threshold, the signal will be reduced by 1db, whereas a 1:1 ratio will reduce the signal 1db for every 1db over the threshold.

Because compressors reduce any audio above the set threshold, the audio signal will be lower than before the audio signal was compressed. To help with this reduction in volume, compressors include the ability to add make up gain (boost audio signal) after the audio signal has been compressed.

Compression works well to even out audio signals when a person is dynamic in the way they talk. Compressors can help prevent signal peaking (reaching max volume that can cause distortion) without being as harsh as limiters (discussed later). However, improper setup can “squish” the audio resulting in vocals or instruments that do not have a lot of dynamic range and sound flat.

Gates are used to allow audio levels above a set threshold through, while any audio levels below this threshold will be cut off. Gates function well with certain kinds of instruments (e.g. kick drums), but can be harsh on vocals because they abruptly cut off audio. While most gate plugins offer settings to help avoid abrupt cutoffs in speech, dynamic vocals can easily trigger a gates function by speaking louder and then speaking softer. A properly set threshold can avoid this pitfall, however a lower threshold could allow through unwanted background noises when no one is speaking.

Expanders are similar to gates, but with some noticeable differences. First off, expanders still cut off audio below a designated threshold, while increasing the gain above the threshold. Because of this, expanders function opposite to how compressors work. Compressors reduce dynamics, while expanders increase dynamics.

The second major difference is in how it cuts off the audio that falls below the threshold. When audio falls below a threshold on a gate, it will close, cutting off all audio. When audio falls below a threshold on an expander, it gradually reduces the volume until it reaches zero. Because of this gradual reduction in volume, it is much less harsh on vocals.

Another important aspect about expanders is that they can be set to add zero gain above the threshold, thus making them function like a softer gate.

Equalizers (or more commonly referred to as “EQ”) target certain frequencies of an audio source. EQ can be used to remove too much high end or low end frequencies. It can also be used to cut or reduce specific frequencies that are problematic (such as the frequencies associated with S sounds).

EQs can come in many varieties, including dynamic EQs. Typical EQs work by cutting or boosting certain frequencies regardless of volume, but dynamic EQs begin cutting specific frequencies once that frequency hits a certain threshold. This allows a fuller sound at lower levels while taming frequencies when they increase in volume.

Where compressors function by reducing audio by a certain ratio that exceeds a threshold, limiters function by preventing an audio signal from exceeding a set threshold. Limiters can be useful when you need to make sure an audio source never exceeds a certain level. Because of this, limiters can be harsher sounding when compared to a compressor, but they work well as a safeguard against signal peaking.

Noise suppressors work to “suppress” unwanted noises that occur in an audio signal. Noise suppressors can be used in live and recorded audio that contains a lot of background noise. While noise suppressors work well to remove background noise, too much noise suppression can affect the quality of voices or other sounds. This is due to the reduction of background noise that may contain frequencies that are also found in voices.

Plugins are useful tools that can help shape audio and create great sounding videos or livestreams. Understanding how each of these work is essential to using them properly. In part 2, the order in which to use these plugins will be discussed to achieve the best results.

The post What Are Audio Plugins and How to Use Them – Part 1 appeared first on FxyNate.

Lets face it, at one point or another we will all experience disconnects while livestreaming. Disconnects cause interruptions during our livestreams, viewers leave, and multiple VODs are created. Thankfully, Twitch offers an option to help avoid these problems. This post will show you how to enable Disconnect Protection.

Twitch’s disconnect protection will display a disconnected image for up to 90 seconds in case a streamer disconnects while live. This allows the streamer time to resolve the issue and resume their livestream without ending the broadcast or creating multiple VODs.

How to Enable

Disconnect protection can be enabled from the Creator Dashboard, located under Settings > Stream. From there, just toggle on Disconnect Protection. Once enabled, you will have 90 seconds to resume your livestream the next time you are disconnected. If the 90 seconds are exceeded, the stream will go offline as normal until you go live again.

The post Enable This Setting in Case You Get Disconnected from Twitch appeared first on FxyNate.

Ever wish the music you listened to on stream was not saved to your Twitch VODs? Thanks to a feature on Twitch and OBS this is possible. OBS can send two separate audio tracks to Twitch, one containing all of the audio you want your audience to hear, and the second containing only the audio you want saved to your VOD.

How to Set Up

The first step to setting up 2 separate audio tracks requires OBS to be connected to Twitch. This can be done under Settings > Stream > Connect Account.

After you have connected your Twitch account to OBS, navigate to the Output tab. Here you need to make sure the “Enable Custom Encoder Settings” box is checked. Now check the “Twitch VOD Track” box that appeared from the previous step. Apply these settings and exit out of Settings.

Under the Audio mixer dock, click the gear icon to open Advanced Audio Properties.

On the left you will see your audio sources and on the right are the tracks these sources are being sent to. By default, track 1 is your live audio and track 2 is your VOD audio. All audio you want sent to your livestream needs to be checked off on track 1. All the audio you want saved to your VOD needs to be checked off on track 2. In this example, to exclude the music source from your VODs, only track 1 is selected.

Related Posts

Music Resources That Won’t End in a Copyright Strike

The post How to Exclude Music or Other Audio from Twitch VODs appeared first on FxyNate.

Download and Install

OBS is available as a free download from their website here. Once on their website, select the download for either Windows, macOS, or Linux, depending on your operating system (this guide is for Windows, but setup is similar on other systems).

Open the installer and follow the instructions to complete the install

Once the installer finishes, you are ready to launch OBS. On initial launch, OBS will ask you what you plan to use the software for. Select “Optimize for streaming, recording is secondary” and click next.

Base canvas and FPS will depend on your computer and network connection, but for now select 1920×1080 for base canvas size and 60 for fps.

Next you can choose to connect to the website you plan on streaming to (this makes the process quicker than using a stream key). Setting up during this step allows you to estimate the optimal bitrate with a bandwidth test. You can choose to exit out of the setup if you wish to connect your account later.

Settings and Configuration

If this is your first time using OBS, it may look intimidating. While the application offers a lot of in depth features, configuring it for streaming does not have to be complicated. Navigate to the settings tab located under Controls on the lower right. This will launch a settings window where you will configure your settings for streaming.

Stream

The stream tab is where you will select the platform you are wanting to stream to. Platforms like Twitch and YouTube offer a “Connect Account” button that makes it easy to pair OBS with the platform. If you prefer to use a stream key, that option can be selected and the stream key can be entered. Below is how to find your stream keys for Twitch and YouTube.

How to find Twitch stream key

Your Stream Key for Twitch can be found on the Creator Dashboard under Settings > Stream. The Stream Key can be copied from here and pasted into OBS.

How to find YouTube stream key

In order to find your YouTube Stream Key, navigate to YouTube Studio, then click Create > Go live (if this is your first time going live on YouTube, you will have to wait 24 hours to access the YouTube Studio page and access your stream key). Select Streaming software as the source type.

Once on the Stream page, under Stream settings there is a section labeled “Stream key” where you can copy your stream key to paste into OBS.

Output

Once OBS is connected to a streaming platform, you are ready to move on to the Output tab to configure network settings. First things first, make sure Simple is selected under Output Mode.

Video Bitrate is an important setting that will depend on your network upload speeds. Speedtest.net will provide you with your upload speeds and help you in determining what quality settings you can go with.

Different platforms have different recommended bitrates depending on resolution and frame rate. For example, Twitch recommends a bitrate of 6000 Kbps (6Mbps) for a 1080p 60 fps, while YouTube recommends between 4000 to 12,0000 Kbps depending on the codec used. Recommended specs can be found here for Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook.

Video Encoder needs to be set to Hardware, which will use the processing power of your graphics card, instead of your CPU. If you have a 2000 series Nvidia GPU or newer, you can select the “NVENC” hardware option under Video Encoder. 2000 series Nvidia GPU’s and newer have a dedicated hardware encoder called NVENC which handles the encoder process of your livestream. This prevents game performance from being compromised while streaming.

Encoder Preset largely depends on the hardware you are using. If you are using a decicated encoder like NVENC, you can use a higher quality preset since it does not impact the performance of your games. If you are using a graphics card without a dedicated encoder, the preset can be tailored towards performance if you notice an impact on your fps.

Video

Under the Video tab is where you will set up your base resolution and your output resolution. Base resolution can be set as the same as your primary monitor’s resolution (1920x1080p for example). The neat part about output resolution is that you can either set it to the same as your base resolution, or you can choose to downscale it.

Downscaling is beneficial when network speeds do not allow for a 1080p stream but support 720p. One thing to consider are platforms’ maximum supported resolutions. Twitch only supports up to 1080p, while YouTube supports up to 4k. If you are streaming from a 4k monitor to Twitch, the output will need to be downscaled.

Frame rate will also be dependent on maximum upload speed. If a choice between 1080p 30fps and 720p 60fps has to be made, it is recommended to go with 720p 60fps since higher frame rates will help the stream look smoother.

Audio

Audio adjustments can be made under the Audio tab. By default Desktop Audio and Mic/Auxiliary Audio are set to system default. Both of these can be changed, if needed, and additional audio devices can be added here.

Once finished, hit “Apply” and then “OK” to return to the main OBS program.

Audio can be monitored and adjusted under the Audio Mixer dock.

Scenes and Sources

The purpose of scenes is to allow you to easily switch between different predefined scenes that contain different sources. An example would be one scene setup as a starting scene containing an intro graphic and another scene setup as a live source with a desktop capture or other source. Working with and adding scenes is simple to accomplish under the Scenes section in the lower left hand corner. By default, OBS adds a scene called “Scene.” This scene can be renamed by right-clicking and selecting rename.

Additional scenes can be added by clicking the + button.

Once a scene has been created, sources can be added to it by selecting the scene and then clicking the + button under the Sources section.

There is a large variety of sources that are available to add depending on the equipment being used. A desktop capture source will capture the monitor screen that is chosen and anything displayed on this screen will show up under the captured source. In contrast, an application capture will only capture and display the chosen application. Desktop capture is a convenient way to display whatever is on your screen, but uses more CPU power, so it might not be the best option for everyone.

Browser sources are a great way to add alerts and chat overlays to your stream. Streamelements is one of several companies that makes it easy to add alerts and chat overlays.

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