**Audio Quality is Key: A Guide to Investing in the Right Equipment**

When it comes to streaming, having high-quality audio can make all the difference in creating an immersive experience for your viewers. However, investing in good equipment can be expensive, and it's easy to get caught up in skimping on costs. But trust me, you don't want to compromise on audio quality. In this article, I'll share my personal experiences with capturing cards and other essential streaming equipment that will help take your stream to the next level.

**Capture Card: The Elgato Game Capture HD60 Pro**

For me, the elgato game capture hd60 pro is a must-have. I use the pro version of this capture card, which is PCI Express plug-and-play, meaning it's literally sitting inside my PC right now on the motherboard. It's not taking up space and is USB-3.0 connected, making it super convenient to use. The software required for setup can be a bit overwhelming at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's seamless. I've been using this capture card for months now, and it's been a game-changer (pun intended). It's allowed me to easily switch between consoles like my Xbox One S and Nintendo Switch, which is perfect for those who want to play games on multiple platforms.

**Alternative Capture Card Option: Elgato Game Capture HD60s**

If the PCI Express route isn't feasible for you, I recommend going for the elgato game capture hd60s. This device connects via USB 3.0 and offers similar functionality to the pro version but with a more compact design. It's perfect for those who don't need the extra features of the Pro version but still want high-quality capturing capabilities. Plus, it's often priced lower than the Pro version, making it a great option for those on a budget.

**Seamless HDMI Switching: A Game-Changer for Multi-Platform Streamers**

If you're like me and have multiple consoles connected to your setup, you know how frustrating it can be to switch between them manually. That's where an HDMI switch comes in – it's a piece of hardware that automatically recognizes the device trying to be played and switches the video and audio source accordingly. This feature is especially useful for those who stream games on different platforms like Xbox One S, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4.

**Stream Deck: A Powerful Tool for Streamers**

The Stream Deck is another essential tool in my streaming arsenal. It's a piece of hardware that talks to software and allows me to easily switch scenes, post updates, and share commands with my chat room. While it may seem like an overkill for some streamers, I assure you it makes all the difference in terms of convenience and ease of use. The Stream Deck is made by Elgato, which means you know its quality is top-notch.

**The Importance of Quality Webcam**

While not as crucial as audio quality, a good webcam can make all the difference in creating an engaging stream. I personally use a Logitech C922, which is excellent for video quality and looks great on camera. However, please don't use it for audio – it's strictly meant for video. Using a webcam for audio can be detrimental to your overall streaming experience.

**Conclusion**

Streaming requires a lot of equipment, but investing in the right tools can make all the difference. From capture cards to HDMI switches and stream decks, there are many products on the market that can help take your stream to the next level. As always, I want to thank my amazing community for their support – if you're new here, please consider following me on Twitch below, and don't forget to check out those videos linked below to help grow your own Twitch channel.

**Additional Resources**

* Elgato Game Capture HD60 Pro: [link]

* Elgato Game Capture HD60s: [link]

* HDMI Switch: [link]

* Logitech C922 Webcam: [link]

* Twitch: [link]

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enrecently we've talked about twitch tips that can quickly and successfully grow your twitch channel in just a matter of weeks and believe me i've had people come in my own chat room saying david thank you your tips are actually helping so i just want to say back to you thank you for your support so let's keep this train going hello guys how are you today my name is david franco from twitch.tv david franco yes i'm currently watching the black ops 4 reveal behind me please don't be too distracted but um yeah anyway for today's video i figured we would keep this twitch tips thing going because it seems to be working well for me it seems to be working well for you so why not give you more tips but today i'm not gonna really talk about tips i'm gonna talk about more so recommendations in regards to tech because well let's face it without good tech your twitch streams aren't gonna be as good as they could be so let's talk about just that i have a full list of tech to go over so let's begin okay so first of all the most obvious one let's get it out of the way you're going to need a capable pc yes a capable pc i'm not saying like some kind of i3 or i5 chip or whatever you're going to need an i7 you're going to need a decent gpu pretty much a 1060 or above plenty of hard drive space or ssd space in my case i don't really like hard drives to hold all those games and yes i realize you can stream on an i5 computer but i don't recommend it you should put most of your money into two things your cpu and your gpu because let me tell you when you're playing games like rainbow six siege or pub g or whatever especially pub jason's it's still not that well optimized but it's gotten better and you're streaming at the same time you're going to need as much horsepower as possible and let's face it most of horsepower comes from your cpu so in my case i have the 8th gen intel i7 you know otherwise known as coffee lake and i've been loving it it has been a fantastic chip it runs very hot but i'm definitely getting my money's worth the second thing you're going to want are actually second things dual monitors um if you're not streaming on dual monitors then you're probably driving yourself crazy i see no reason why you should not have at least two displays on your setup like i do right behind me now of course i'm fortunate enough to buy myself two of these monitors let me read the modern number here dell gaming s2716dgr both of them right here guys i love these displays they're 27 inches one millisecond response time 144 hertz refresh rates not 60 hertz not 120 144 and guys let me tell you going for a 144 hertz monitor is no pun intended or perhaps it is it's a game changer it is an absolute game changer not even just for gaming just your desktop tasks in general guys i'm telling you the second you see your mouse cursor move in fluid motion it'll just click it's like why haven't i been using at least a 120 hertz monitor to begin with it is that big of a deal so yes i do have two of them as i've made very clear and yes they're not that cheap yeah they're both on amazon for currently i think between four and five hundred dollars each but let me tell you they are more than worth it however with that said you don't have to do what i did you don't need two of these same exact displays because well let's face it the faster monitor the higher spec monitor should be reserved for gaming i just happen to have two of the same one so there's no reason why you can't get another dell display or at least of the same brand so it matches so for this video i'm going to recommend the dell m27 blk that's another 27 inch dull monitor again it's not highly spec'd like these are but at least it's the same size similar design so they'll at least look kind of the same because i'm self-proclaimed ocd my monitors have to match as much as possible so yeah both of those displays will be linked right below the dell gaming one and the secondary dell for you know chat obs real-time preview and all that stuff because believe me you need two displays if you're gonna be streaming regularly it saves you that much time and frustration the third thing you're gonna need is a condenser microphone now i'm no audiophile i'm no microphone expert but from what i can tell in my experience a condenser microphone basically focuses on your voice and not the sounds around you so the clicks on your keyboard especially if you're using a keyboard like i am they're not going to be that loud the clicks in your mouse they're not going to be that loud and honestly you need to go for a microphone just like the one i have so for this video i'm going to link right below the audio technica at2035 condenser microphone it does use an xlr interface so you'll probably need some kind of audio interface and well i'm going to recommend the focus rights scarlett solo second generation second generation it's really not that expensive so yeah like i said that's also linked right below you just plug in a microphone uh via the xlr connection plug in via usb download the software the drivers and all that stuff make sure it's up to date and you are good to go and well now you can use that audio interface for any future microphones that you buy later down the line also speaking of microphones i should stress audio is exceptionally critical it's extremely important in your overall twitch presentation believe me i've come across streams that look great but the second they talk and their voice sounds like for the lack of a better word i kind of back out of that stream because i cannot stand poor audio audio is everything well alongside video think of it as like a 50 5050 experience 50 video 50 audio or maybe even like 70 uh audio 30 video that's how important audio is do not skip on quality and speaking of audio headphones you don't need super expensive headphones but i do have two that i use one more so than the other nowadays my first was the astro a40 gaming headset with the uh preamp installed what mix amp they call it i mean it did its job but then eventually i got more serious about audio i bought myself a little dac which i'm not even going to bother lincoln right below because it's kind of it's not the best believe me i owe myself a better deck in the near future but i will link the headphones i bought right below these sennheiser hd 650s beautiful headphones are actually right here very comfortable they go nice and loud and the sound stage is very large which means you're going to get left channel way over here right channel way over here and they just sound fantastic for gaming and of course movies music and all that good stuff a little expensive but once again you don't want to skimp on audio quality so check them out treat yourself next up capture card if you're like me you don't restrict yourself to pc gaming and i've never done that and i never will do that in the future i can promise you right now because i'm not one of those pc mastery douchebags who claim pc is the only way to go sorry i know those are harsh words but it's the truth guys xbox one is great ps4 is great nintendo switch is great uh because for instance today i was playing rabbids on the switch but it was going through my pc uh via my capture card and that's where i'm gonna recommend the elgato game capture hd60 pro now i am using the pro version it's pci express plug and play it's literally sitting inside my pc right now on the motherboard i'm not going to go into the tech aspect of it but for me this is better because it's not taking up space it's not usb it's plug and play boom and of course there's software you have to install and drivers and all that stuff but it's been a beautiful capture card i love it it just works now for those who do not want to go to pci express route i recommend going for another elgato product it's the elgato game capture hd60 s it's just like my card but it's not a card it's a little capture device that connects via usb 3.0 and boom same story it's not as low latency as the capture guard i'm using but then again you should never be gaming while looking at the capture window uh the capture window is just there for obs to capture or if you're well capturing your gameplay for youtube and uploading whatever else so again elgato game capture hd60 pro and elgato game capture hd60s both are linked right below just choose depending on whatever your setup costs for and speaking of hdmi switch if you're going to have all these consoles connected like i do you're going to want some kind of seamless way for the hardware to automatically recognize what you're trying to play for instance if i switch from my nintendo switch no pun intended to my xbox one s then the hdmi switch kicks in and in theory it should automatically switch the video and audio source from my switch to my xbox one s and vice versa this is really really nice if you often find yourself playing games on a variety of platforms it just works it's beautiful and of course it does include a wireless remote than one i'm using now unfortunately the switch i am using is no longer on amazon i'm not sure why but i will link one right below that's perfect for you and it's quite affordable and also i do recommend going with one with four hdmi ports that way you have um you know enough room for xbox playstation and switch plus a bonus device such as an snes classic or camera or anything you can plug in via hdmi um at a moment's notice hey maui no i'm recording a video and finally last but not least i just have to kick maui out of my room he was messing with the lights um bonus stream deck now i'm not saying you need a stream deck but i will say it makes your streaming uh days and nights a lot easier basically the stream deck is a piece of hardware that talks to software and it allows you to easily switch scenes in obs tweet out that you're live post updates wherever on your social media networks you can share commands and text lines in your chat room it really is neat okay so i'm not going to go into like super detail in this video because there's a lot to talk about with the stream deck but just go to google youtube whatever and just search for stream deck it just happens to be made by elgato so you got to know its quality for gaming okay guys that's it that is it for today i'm not gonna go over everything that i own like my webcam my keyboard my mouse my mouse pad because honestly that stuff depends on your budget and whatever i just wanted to go over the things that i feel play a very important role in streaming okay you know what perhaps i should have talked about my webcam i'll also link it right below um it's a logitech c922 x something like that it's excellent it looks great don't use it for audio though please never ever use a webcam for audio yeah it should strictly be video and nothing else so guys thank you so much follow me on twitch right below i appreciate it i wish you luck with your own twitch channel and also don't forget i do have those twitch videos linked right below to help you further grow your twitch channel thank you so much you support me a lot and i'll see you next time peace i gotta go break maui out of jailrecently we've talked about twitch tips that can quickly and successfully grow your twitch channel in just a matter of weeks and believe me i've had people come in my own chat room saying david thank you your tips are actually helping so i just want to say back to you thank you for your support so let's keep this train going hello guys how are you today my name is david franco from twitch.tv david franco yes i'm currently watching the black ops 4 reveal behind me please don't be too distracted but um yeah anyway for today's video i figured we would keep this twitch tips thing going because it seems to be working well for me it seems to be working well for you so why not give you more tips but today i'm not gonna really talk about tips i'm gonna talk about more so recommendations in regards to tech because well let's face it without good tech your twitch streams aren't gonna be as good as they could be so let's talk about just that i have a full list of tech to go over so let's begin okay so first of all the most obvious one let's get it out of the way you're going to need a capable pc yes a capable pc i'm not saying like some kind of i3 or i5 chip or whatever you're going to need an i7 you're going to need a decent gpu pretty much a 1060 or above plenty of hard drive space or ssd space in my case i don't really like hard drives to hold all those games and yes i realize you can stream on an i5 computer but i don't recommend it you should put most of your money into two things your cpu and your gpu because let me tell you when you're playing games like rainbow six siege or pub g or whatever especially pub jason's it's still not that well optimized but it's gotten better and you're streaming at the same time you're going to need as much horsepower as possible and let's face it most of horsepower comes from your cpu so in my case i have the 8th gen intel i7 you know otherwise known as coffee lake and i've been loving it it has been a fantastic chip it runs very hot but i'm definitely getting my money's worth the second thing you're going to want are actually second things dual monitors um if you're not streaming on dual monitors then you're probably driving yourself crazy i see no reason why you should not have at least two displays on your setup like i do right behind me now of course i'm fortunate enough to buy myself two of these monitors let me read the modern number here dell gaming s2716dgr both of them right here guys i love these displays they're 27 inches one millisecond response time 144 hertz refresh rates not 60 hertz not 120 144 and guys let me tell you going for a 144 hertz monitor is no pun intended or perhaps it is it's a game changer it is an absolute game changer not even just for gaming just your desktop tasks in general guys i'm telling you the second you see your mouse cursor move in fluid motion it'll just click it's like why haven't i been using at least a 120 hertz monitor to begin with it is that big of a deal so yes i do have two of them as i've made very clear and yes they're not that cheap yeah they're both on amazon for currently i think between four and five hundred dollars each but let me tell you they are more than worth it however with that said you don't have to do what i did you don't need two of these same exact displays because well let's face it the faster monitor the higher spec monitor should be reserved for gaming i just happen to have two of the same one so there's no reason why you can't get another dell display or at least of the same brand so it matches so for this video i'm going to recommend the dell m27 blk that's another 27 inch dull monitor again it's not highly spec'd like these are but at least it's the same size similar design so they'll at least look kind of the same because i'm self-proclaimed ocd my monitors have to match as much as possible so yeah both of those displays will be linked right below the dell gaming one and the secondary dell for you know chat obs real-time preview and all that stuff because believe me you need two displays if you're gonna be streaming regularly it saves you that much time and frustration the third thing you're gonna need is a condenser microphone now i'm no audiophile i'm no microphone expert but from what i can tell in my experience a condenser microphone basically focuses on your voice and not the sounds around you so the clicks on your keyboard especially if you're using a keyboard like i am they're not going to be that loud the clicks in your mouse they're not going to be that loud and honestly you need to go for a microphone just like the one i have so for this video i'm going to link right below the audio technica at2035 condenser microphone it does use an xlr interface so you'll probably need some kind of audio interface and well i'm going to recommend the focus rights scarlett solo second generation second generation it's really not that expensive so yeah like i said that's also linked right below you just plug in a microphone uh via the xlr connection plug in via usb download the software the drivers and all that stuff make sure it's up to date and you are good to go and well now you can use that audio interface for any future microphones that you buy later down the line also speaking of microphones i should stress audio is exceptionally critical it's extremely important in your overall twitch presentation believe me i've come across streams that look great but the second they talk and their voice sounds like for the lack of a better word i kind of back out of that stream because i cannot stand poor audio audio is everything well alongside video think of it as like a 50 5050 experience 50 video 50 audio or maybe even like 70 uh audio 30 video that's how important audio is do not skip on quality and speaking of audio headphones you don't need super expensive headphones but i do have two that i use one more so than the other nowadays my first was the astro a40 gaming headset with the uh preamp installed what mix amp they call it i mean it did its job but then eventually i got more serious about audio i bought myself a little dac which i'm not even going to bother lincoln right below because it's kind of it's not the best believe me i owe myself a better deck in the near future but i will link the headphones i bought right below these sennheiser hd 650s beautiful headphones are actually right here very comfortable they go nice and loud and the sound stage is very large which means you're going to get left channel way over here right channel way over here and they just sound fantastic for gaming and of course movies music and all that good stuff a little expensive but once again you don't want to skimp on audio quality so check them out treat yourself next up capture card if you're like me you don't restrict yourself to pc gaming and i've never done that and i never will do that in the future i can promise you right now because i'm not one of those pc mastery douchebags who claim pc is the only way to go sorry i know those are harsh words but it's the truth guys xbox one is great ps4 is great nintendo switch is great uh because for instance today i was playing rabbids on the switch but it was going through my pc uh via my capture card and that's where i'm gonna recommend the elgato game capture hd60 pro now i am using the pro version it's pci express plug and play it's literally sitting inside my pc right now on the motherboard i'm not going to go into the tech aspect of it but for me this is better because it's not taking up space it's not usb it's plug and play boom and of course there's software you have to install and drivers and all that stuff but it's been a beautiful capture card i love it it just works now for those who do not want to go to pci express route i recommend going for another elgato product it's the elgato game capture hd60 s it's just like my card but it's not a card it's a little capture device that connects via usb 3.0 and boom same story it's not as low latency as the capture guard i'm using but then again you should never be gaming while looking at the capture window uh the capture window is just there for obs to capture or if you're well capturing your gameplay for youtube and uploading whatever else so again elgato game capture hd60 pro and elgato game capture hd60s both are linked right below just choose depending on whatever your setup costs for and speaking of hdmi switch if you're going to have all these consoles connected like i do you're going to want some kind of seamless way for the hardware to automatically recognize what you're trying to play for instance if i switch from my nintendo switch no pun intended to my xbox one s then the hdmi switch kicks in and in theory it should automatically switch the video and audio source from my switch to my xbox one s and vice versa this is really really nice if you often find yourself playing games on a variety of platforms it just works it's beautiful and of course it does include a wireless remote than one i'm using now unfortunately the switch i am using is no longer on amazon i'm not sure why but i will link one right below that's perfect for you and it's quite affordable and also i do recommend going with one with four hdmi ports that way you have um you know enough room for xbox playstation and switch plus a bonus device such as an snes classic or camera or anything you can plug in via hdmi um at a moment's notice hey maui no i'm recording a video and finally last but not least i just have to kick maui out of my room he was messing with the lights um bonus stream deck now i'm not saying you need a stream deck but i will say it makes your streaming uh days and nights a lot easier basically the stream deck is a piece of hardware that talks to software and it allows you to easily switch scenes in obs tweet out that you're live post updates wherever on your social media networks you can share commands and text lines in your chat room it really is neat okay so i'm not going to go into like super detail in this video because there's a lot to talk about with the stream deck but just go to google youtube whatever and just search for stream deck it just happens to be made by elgato so you got to know its quality for gaming okay guys that's it that is it for today i'm not gonna go over everything that i own like my webcam my keyboard my mouse my mouse pad because honestly that stuff depends on your budget and whatever i just wanted to go over the things that i feel play a very important role in streaming okay you know what perhaps i should have talked about my webcam i'll also link it right below um it's a logitech c922 x something like that it's excellent it looks great don't use it for audio though please never ever use a webcam for audio yeah it should strictly be video and nothing else so guys thank you so much follow me on twitch right below i appreciate it i wish you luck with your own twitch channel and also don't forget i do have those twitch videos linked right below to help you further grow your twitch channel thank you so much you support me a lot and i'll see you next time peace i gotta go break maui out of jail\n"