Month: August 2022

The Best Audio Interface For Live Streaming

Upgrading your audio gear is always one of the first things we recommend you spend some money on if you want to level up your hardware. Maybe you’ve already used some brilliant USB mics on offer, and now you’re looking to get that broadcast sound. The Shure SM7B seems to be the one used by everyone, right? It won’t just plug into your PC microphone port!? What you need is an audio interface! We’re here to discuss some budget and mid-tier audio interfaces that will do the job!

The Budget Audio Interface

Most people will never need to go beyond this tier. These interfaces will connect to your PC easily and, in most cases, power your new expensive microphone. The recommendations for this level are the Focusrite Scarlett series, starting with the Solo.

The Motu M2 are also great devices, mainly since they include audio meter displays for setting levels and a decent DAC chip if you’re hooking up your headphones.

But probably the best choice for beginners is the Evo 4 by Audient. It has a feature called smart gain which will automatically set the input audio level for your microphone. This is extremely useful for beginners as it’ll ensure your audio isn’t clipping and give you enough headroom to apply effects for more advanced users.

An audio interface with many sliders and lights.
Photo by Sven Brandsma on Unsplash

Mid-Tier Audio Interfaces

So like I said, you don’t really need to go beyond budget audio interfaces unless your audio setup is a bit more complicated. For example, having a dual PC streaming setup, or you’ll need a variety of inputs for things like podcasts.

Now everyone is going to need different solutions, but in this case, I like to recommend devices like the RME Babyface Pro or the Audient id14. These are still relatively small interfaces with digital mixers allowing you to route audio between their inputs and outputs. So, if you want to split your gameplay audio and microphone audio to different outputs, you can apply different audio effects to each.

If you are producing things like a podcast, you may consider buying a mixer with USB functionality. These can vary in complexity, but generally, they have single audio mics that will output via USB. These are great for having physical controls to manage your broadcast, which will always be faster than apps with touch controls. 

A close up image of an audio interface.
Photo by Alexey Ruban on Unsplash

Tips and Tricks

There are some essential things to know about audio interfaces before you use them. First, you need to know how to enable phantom power, as microphones that require it won’t work otherwise. Usually, it’s a button, but sometimes you must dig through a menu to get it working. 

Audio interfaces act as playback devices in Windows, so if you’re going to be using them to monitor audio, make sure they are set as the default device, and if you still aren’t getting audio, check the monitoring settings on your device.

Some devices have a monitoring mode that only outputs audio from physical inputs like a microphone, not digital like your PC. So be sure to check these and adjust accordingly. Finally, when using your audio interface as a microphone device in XSplit Broadcaster, usually it’s a mono signal being received as a stereo source, so you may only hear the microphone on the left side. You can quickly fix this by having Broadcaster duplicate your audio to the other channel.

What audio interface do you use? If you have any questions, drop them in the comment section below!

The Best Work From Home Products

It’s year 2, 3, 4, or who knows how long of working from home. For some of us, it’s been even longer. We would say it’s about time to toss aside the folding chair, upgrade the shakey table and toss out that mouse with the broken right click. Today, we’re talking about the best work from home products with a view to improvements and upgrades!

The Best Work From Home Chairs

I’ve been working from home for a couple of years now, and the most important and best purchase I’ve made has been a proper ergonomic chair. A good chair, I feel, has good lumbar support for your back to help you sit with proper posture.

It also should have breathable material, so you don’t get warm and uncomfortable or keep the warmth locked in if you get cold quickly. It definitely should have adjustable height and adjustable arms again for ergonomic support.

I chose the Herman Miller Aeron chair, but I acknowledge these are expensive. While there are a variety of cheaper chairs, I do think this is the one thing you should put money towards to buy something that either lasts or has a good warranty, as the Herman Miller chair has. So whichever route you go, make sure it lasts and if you have the chance, try to take a test sitting.

A person sat in front of a computer with a webcam on it on their desk using the best work from home microphone.
Photo by Hillary Black on Unsplash

Computer Storage

A fast hard drive is essential if you work with multiple PCs, like a work PC and a personal PC at home. Unless you’re playing it fast and loose with your time, nothing is worse than waiting for a slow hard drive to transfer files. This also helps if you need to leave the home office and take your files on the go.

Generally, you will want to go for NVME drives like the Samsung T7 or Sandisk Extreme Pro. These drives are fast enough to edit 4k footage off of. Now they aren’t the cheapest, but if you wait long enough, you can usually get these drives on sale.

One last note is the Samsung T7 drives do have biometrics if your security is a concern, while the SanDisk drives can be hung on a keychain and are a bit more durable than the average hard drive.

The Best Work From Home Background Removal

I’d be remiss not to mention our technology for the work from home or work from anywhere crew. XSplit VCam allows you to remove, replace or blur your background. You can try it for free, and we’ve recently added some new features like auto-framing, the ability to take screenshots, and adding watermarks.

A Good Audio Setup

You’re going to be on a lot of calls on your computer. You want to be able to properly hear your co-workers and talk to them. So I recommend getting a good pair of headphones, and no, I don’t mean the 7.1 surround heavy gamer headphones. Getting a solid pair of comfortable headphones is a good investment.

Depending on your situation, you may want noise-canceling wireless headphones like the Sony XM series or Bose QC35 headphones. These are comfy and will block any background noise so you can focus on your call. If you’re doing multimedia work or don’t need noise canceling, you may opt for studio headphones like the Audio-Technica M50s or the Beyerdynamic DT770s. Now people need to hear you!

Microphones get expensive, so I recommend a solid dynamic USB microphone like a Shure MV7 or a Rode Podcaster. These will help reject background noise, save on the cost of needing an audio interface, and sound pretty lovely.

Person looking at their phone using the best work from home wireless headphones with their laptop on their desk next to some coffee.
Photo by Nubelson Fernandes on Unsplash

Lighting

This one may sound weird or obvious, but try to get some lighting if you’re doing video calls.  If you’re working with clients or freelancing, some lighting with your camera will make you look much better and more professional. It can be a room light, opening a window, or buying a lighting magnetic light like this Aputure MC. Whatever you can get your hands on to brighten yourself up.

So these are some of the work from home products we’d recommend getting an upgrade or a first-time purchase. Let us know in the comments what has been your best upgrade since working from home!