Tag: obs

Live streaming on YouTube

Here’s a guide for live streaming your TidalCycles session to YouTube.

This is the set-up I use so it’s specific to Mac with SuperDirt and Atom. There a load of ways to achieve this so it would be great to see the guide expand.

Requirements

Instructions

Soundflowerbed

  • Launch SoundFlowerbed
  • A status icon will appear in the top menu strip. Click it and tick the ‘Built-in output’ option under Soundflower (2ch)
  • Also on the top menu strip, click the speaker icon and from the output device options select Soundflower (2ch)

SuperCollider

  • Launch SuperCollider
  • Run the following command in SuperCollider by pasting it in the input window and hitting Shift + return anywhere on the line:
Server.default.options.outDevice_("Soundflower (2ch)")
  • Hit Cmd + Shift + L to recompile the class library
  • Launch SuperDirt with:
SuperDirt.start

In the post window you should see something like:

"Built-in Microph" Input Device
 Streams: 1
 0 channels 2

"Soundflower (2ch)" Output Device
 Streams: 1
 0 channels 2

This confirms that SuperCollider will output to SoundFlowerbed, which will act as the audio input to OBS for the stream.

Atom / other text editor

  • Launch Atom and save a new .tidal file
  • Exit full screen if that’s how the application is currently set. This is to overcome an issue with OBS detecting full screen application windows.
  • It’s also worth increasing your editor font size a few points so it’s clear in the stream.

OBS

  • Launch OBS
  • In the Sources menu click the + sign and select Window Capture from the list of available options.
    Soundflowerbed sources
  • In the next screen select the application and file name combination that matches your text editor.
  • Switch back to your text editor and set it to full screen mode. Then head back to OBS.
  • You should see a stream of your text editor being rendered in OBS.
    OBS screen capture
  • Click the  + sign again to add your audio stream. Select audio output capture and select Soundflower.

YouTube

  • Log into YouTube with an account you want to use to broadcast your performance to the world.
  • Click your user avatar in the top-right corner of the screen and select Creator Studio.
    Youtube Creator Studio
  • From the left-hand panel select Live streaming > Stream now
  • Enter basic information for your stream.
  • Under the encoder set-up section at the bottom, click Reveal to display your encoder key and copy it. This will be used to authenticate your stream with YouTube.

Back to OBS

    • Enter Settings and select Stream from the left-hand panel.
      OBS stream settings
    • Apply these settings:Stream type: Streaming Services
      Service: YouTube / YouTube Gaming
      Server: Primary YouTube ingest server
      Stream Key: paste the key you were given on YouTube

OBS Output Stream settings

You may wish to experiment with different settings for your stream (the bitrate in particular), I found these work for a decent resolution and audio quality, without encountering buffering issues.

OBS output settings

Encoder: x264
Rescale output: 1024 x 640
Rate control:  CBR
Bitrate: 500
Keyframe interval: 0
CPU usage preset: very fast
Profile: none
Tune: none

Start streaming

You’re good to go.

  • Click Start Streaming in OBS. In a few seconds the steam will be live on YouTube.
  • When you’ve finished click Stop Streaming and YouTube will create a recording in your channel. You can choose whether to share, edit, delete, and so on.

And finally, here’s one I made earlier.