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Now if you're using a mixer to get your audio into your live stream, you've got microphones hooked up to your mixer, but you need to get that mixer audio into your live stream, we're going to cover a variety of different ways to do that.

Now this is if you have something like a RODECaster Pro, a Mackie DLZ, or any other sort of analog mixer, or even digital mixer; we'll talk about the three main ways you can get that audio in.

Now if your mixer has a USB output, that's probably the most obvious way.

Of course, you take the USB from the mixer directly onto your computer, and then you use an app like OBS or some other encoding app to actually bring the audio in with the camera feeds, put them together, and then send them out to whatever streaming platform you're using, whether that's YouTube,

Twitch, whatever. Now there are some considerations here; when you do it via USB, you do have to accommodate for the fact that the audio will almost always arrive at the computer before the video arrives, whatever capture card you're using there. So you may have to do some sync.

We've got a video that we’ll put up in the future that will talk about exactly how to do that sync.

So if you're not already subscribed, make sure you get yourself subscribed.

The second major way is sending audio from your mixer into your camera.

Now this can be a little bit different depending on the type of camera that you have.

If your camera has balanced inputs and your mixer has balanced outputs, that's the easiest way to do it. Usually, the output on the mixer will be 1/4” TRS, sometimes XLR, and then the inputs on the camera will typically be XLR.

So you may need, if your mixer has 1/4” outputs, you may need a cable that goes 1/4” TRS balanced to XLR male to get that into your camera.

And with that cable, you can connect your mixer directly to your camera and that takes care of the connection.

Now if you have a mixer that only has balanced outputs and you have a camera, usually these are going to be consumer cameras, mirrorless, that has a 3.5 millimeter unbalanced input, then you are going to have to convert that balanced signal from the mixer to an unbalanced input. Now that can take a variety of different means.

In some cases, there are cables that will allow you to do this, but I would actually typically recommend something like the

Art CleanBox Pro to convert between balanced and unbalanced, and we have a video that we'll put up here that talks about how to make that conversion.

Now if your mixer has an unbalanced output, that'll usually be like a 3.5 millimeter output.

In some cases for older boards, it will also include two RCA outputs, usually called a tape output, so there’ll be left and right.

That's an unbalanced output as well. You can run that from your mixer into a camera with a 3.5 millimeter unbalanced input, you'll just need the right cable in that case. No special conversion.

Just, for example, if you have a tape output on the mixer, that's going to be dual RCA to single 3.5 millimeter TRS.

And that'll go from the mixer to the camera, and that'll take care of the connection. Now there are some things to keep in mind if you're using unbalanced cables.

Keep those cables away from AC power adapters and power cables.

Otherwise you may pick up some buzz or hum, and you might pull your hair out trying to figure out where that's coming from.

And that's the big difference between balanced and unbalanced connections, is that balanced is usually a little bit more immune to buzz and hum and RF interference and any other sort of interference.

Whereas unbalanced usually is at much higher risk of picking up those types of things.

So if you do use an unbalanced cable, just make sure you keep it away from the AC power adapters, keep it away from power cables, and run as short a cable as you can.

The longer it is, the more chance of picking up interference.

Now if you're running your live stream with a hardware switcher like an ATEM Mini, there are some ways to connect up too. So if you have a mixer that has a balanced output and you have a switcher that has a balanced input, usually that's gonna be an XLR input, then you can just run a microphone cable between the two or a 1/4”, if that's what your mixer has, to XLR cable to get that audio into your hardware switcher.

And that takes care of the connection there. On the other hand, if you're using a switcher that has an unbalanced input, like an ATEM Mini with a 3.5 millimeter microphone input, you will need to convert the balanced output from your mixer, via something like an Art

CleanBox Pro, into an unbalanced signal that the switcher can take.

So that'll usually be a 1/4” output on your mixer to the Art CleanBox Pro, and then a 3.5 millimeter stereo mini jack cable,

TRS cable, from the Art CleanBox Pro into the switcher.

Now what I would recommend is to keep that balanced cable to do the long run, if you have to run between the mixer and the switcher; the longest part should be the balanced cable so that you avoid any issues with picking up hum or buzz.

And then the shortest part should be that 3.5 millimeter unbalanced cable.

So that, again, is just a great way to make sure that you don't run into issues picking up interference.

Now, again, if your mixer has an unbalanced output, you can run directly into a switcher that has an unbalanced input, and you just need to get the right type of cable there as well.

So if it's a 3.5 millimeter TRS output on your mixer and a 3.5 millimeter input on your ATEM Mini or other hardware switcher, you just need to get a 3.5 millimeter TRS stereo mini jack cable and run it between the two and keep that cable as far away from power adapters and power lines as you can.

Now when you are running audio from a mixer to a switcher, you also have to take care of sync there as well because the audio will almost always arrive before the video does, and they'll be out of sync. So you'll be moving your lips, but the sound won't be coming at the same time.

So we, again, we'll have a video coming soon on this channel that will talk about exactly how to sync those up and using something like an ATEM Mini, it has the built in functionality to provide an audio delay so that it waits and you can make it so that it goes in sync with the video.

There's one other consideration that we need to take care of, and this will also be in a future video, is that when you are sending audio from your mixer into your camera or into a hardware switcher, you have to calibrate the levels between the two of them so that when, if you're looking at the meters on the mixer and they're hitting up against, maybe, -12, they also need to be hitting up against -12 in the switcher or on the camera.

And so we'll walk through how to do that with the RODECaster Pro or the DLZ Creator in an upcoming episode.

So hopefully that was helpful; if you have any questions, go ahead and leave those down below.

If you've not already subscribed, make sure you do that, and we'll be sure to get you more great videos on how to improve your lighting and sound for video.

Talk to you soon.