If you're a musician, you're probably a perfectionist about sound.
Now let’s get into the hardware that you can set up
to have your stream being the best it can be.
There are many ways to do this, as simple as a mobile phone and a laptop,
a laptop and a USB microphone,
a PC with perhaps something like a Focusrite or a USB mixer going to a PC.
You will need a decent computer to start streaming.
It doesn't have to be a monster PC,
but it does need to have good graphics cards and be relatively new.
You will need a good Internet connection.
You should absolutely go Ethernet, definitely plugged-in,
download should be pretty sufficient, but you really need to
focus on a good upload as well, 5 to 10 megabits per second at the minimum.
You'll need quite a few USB slots available.
If you don't have enough on your laptop, especially a Mac,
you'll need to get a USB hub that expands the amount of ports.
This is the Yeti Blue, which is plugged directly
into a USB slot on your laptop or your desktop.
It even has a headphone out, so that way it's all in one.
This thing has gain, volume, headphones,
everything you need for a very simple startup for your stream.
You might already have gear that you use for recording or for touring.
If you want to hook up a mic and several instruments,
a simple USB mixer is exactly what you need.
The Focusrite Solo has an XLR input for your microphone
and a quarter inch Jack for whatever instrument you might
want to be feeding into the Focusrite.
Vocals are coming in the XLR.
Feed your instrument directly in the quarter inch and you're good to go.
This is a perfect setup for a guitar player or even a keyboard player or a DJ.
Over the years, I've slowly evolved my set up,
originally from a USB microphone and a guitar digitally
plugged in with a modeling amp, all on one stream PC.
If you want to get a little bit more in-depth, what I do is a 2-computer setup.
I use a MacBook Pro that's capturing all the audio with its own audio interface.
That audio interface collects the signal from 2 guitar inputs, vocals,
carries that from my Mac, I shoot the XLR,
left and right, out from that into my PC audio interface.
That is an Apogee Duet, that accepts the left and right from the Mac,
I USB that into the PC desktop and that's the audio people hear being pulled
from my Mac, fed through its own digital audio converter
into an audio converter of the PC into the stream.
This system is perfect for me.
You might have your own thing that you figure out on your way up,
or maybe some other musicians have done a system that you want to try out.
There is no right or wrong.
In the end it's all about creating great content for your channel that you love,
fostering that community, going from there.