How to Legally Livestream Your DJ Sets

Livestreaming your sets can be of extreme value when trying to build your portfolio, getting feedback or just practicing your sets for fun. But we all know that it can be a lot of hassle trying to set-up your livestream and making it all work and sound great for your audience.

In this article, I will explain the easiest way of setting up your livestream with great audio. If you want to have some visual instruction you can also watch the following video.

Choose Your Platform

There are tons of streaming services out there such as Twitch, Instagram, Facebook, Periscope, and Youtube. You can use any of these or use your own specialized platforms. You can also use multiple platform streaming software. But when you're just starting out I suggest that you use 1 streaming platform first.

Use your phone for recording and filming your DJ Set

If you've ever tried to set-up a livestream before there's a chance you tried recording it directly from your phone. This isn't that great for getting great audio. You may even have audio from 1 side because only 1 side of your phone is picking up audio from the speakers if directed in the wrong direction.

There's however a great way to fix all of this with a few products that will take the audio source directly from your DJ controller.

TRS to TRRS headphone adapter

This adapter will make sure that your audio is recorded in mono so it can be played on both audio channels at the same time. This adapter will connect to your phone.

TRS to Male TYPE-C adapter

If you have a USB C port you can save an extra adapter by getting this adapter instead.

Audio aux to RCA adapter 6 feet

This will connect to either of the 2 connectors you will use above. This will then connect to your phone and on the other end it will connect to your DJ controller master out or booth out.

Phone tripod stand

Lastly, you can get a little phone tripod to aim your phone at your decks and yourself. If you want to get some awesome looking high shots, you may also choose for a large tripod to hold your phone instead.

With the little tripod you can choose to set-up your phone on your monitor speakers or anywhere else in the room that will help you get a great shot of yourself.

Test everything before you go live

The last and most important step is to test everything before you go live. This is to make sure nothing will break down during your live set and to check if everything that you've the correct settings for streaming.

For instance, one of the things that have to be configured right is the audio. The audio may be too quiet or too loud and will distort in your recording.

Hit record in your camera app

To find out how you can get the best audio level for your streaming you can hit record on your camera and turn your music all the way down with the master audio output controller on your DJ deck (make sure to fully enable your cross and line-fader first).

Then, you can raise the audio slowly until it is at the loudest volume. Something to note is that you have to know at what part in the video what loudness you've set the output to.

Something that is really easy to do is dividing the total knob into little parts which you can count for example (1-10). You can count with your hands in the air at what given audio output level you're at. This way when you watch back the video you can identify which audio level sounds best for your stream which is not too quiet but also won't distort.

Go Live

The last and most exciting thing to do is to just go live. Make sure to gather all your music and stream it to the world. And most importantly, have fun!