Getting Audio to Your DAW for Live Broadcast || DAW Mixing Live Broadcast Setup

Getting multichannel audio to your DAW for your church's live broadcast is hard. Then you've got to get the mix to the streaming computer AND monitor your mix in real-time. I'll walk you through the options you have for both getting audio to your DAW for live broadcast, and how to get the mix to your camera or streaming computer, including Audio Over IP for Live Stream output.
Disclaimer: I'm a nerd, but not an IT guy. Some of these options I've found can work, but I haven't found all the pitfalls and workarounds. If you're an IT guru, reach out in the comments or by email and let me know so we can test some of these things out for all the other Sound Ninjas out there.
Update: We’ve discontinued our t-shirt store! Thanks for being a Sound Ninja!
Connect with me on Social:
Instagram: / attawayaudio
Facebook: / attawayaudio
This video is not sponsored by Strips Chicken in Kansas City, MO and Olathe, KS, but I'm a huge fan, and here's why: The owner and operator is an amazing person, and runs his business and team in a way that's first-class. He has his personal cell phone number on the receipt, so if you have a problem, he's the one that hears about it first-hand. He has exacting standards for his fried chicken fingers, donuts, and pork burgers, among everything else on his menu. ((Don't get me started on the house-made sauces... so delicious.)) He also raises money by asking patrons if they'd like to round up for foster kids, a program he started to buy vehicles for teens aging out of the foster care system. He puts his faith in action and takes care of those who can easily slip through the cracks and get lost.
If you're ever in the KC area, and have a hankerin' for chicken fingers or a pork burger, you should swing by.

[@SKINxSLAYER]

You definetly sound like you know what your talking about. I've always felt god wanted me running a mixer at a church. But am now only getting into mixing audio digitally and trying to learn how to record it... Keep these videos coming they help greatly

[@AttawayAudio]

Well I'm always learning 😃 glad you're answering the call of God to serve Him!

[@CED.Dweller]

You’ve helped me learn AND made me determined to check out Strips Chicken the next time I visit Kansas City! Attaboy, Attaway!

[@lfisher8154]

Nice video. Here is my setup if it helps anyone without needing to pull cables : Mixing the stream: In the tech both I have Allen & Heath SQ6 connected via USB to Tech Booth "TB" MacBook Pro running Logic Pro. From the streaming studio I remotely access Logic Pro and mix on the TB MacBook with L/R output routed back to SQ6. Stream audio is sent from SQ to ATEM switcher and Wireless transmitter (think wireless in-ear monitor). Monitoring Steam Audio: In the streaming studio the body back receiver output goes to powered speakers. Monitoring visually what is happening: iPhone with NDI Camera application captures stage and NDI viewer app on Stream Studio. For this to work well I recommend you use the campus intranet (not through the internet) for the remote access and NDI video. Depending on where your streaming studio is located your results will vary using the wireless transmitter to monitor audio.

[@rubensahas9280]

Amazing video . There is an another way where we can send multi channel audio from one laptop/pc to another through ethernet with daw. It's a free vst plugin restream from reaper works mostly on all the DAW. it can send audio directly to OBS to. Hope this would help someone 😊

[@michaelsteingard]

James. Using Dante Virtual sound card into a Daw in a remote room with protools. Using Loopback by Rogue Amoeba for routing local monitoring on the iMac. I was initially worried that this software solution for getting protools monitored locally would be unreliable, but it’s seemed stable for the past 6 months!

[@AttawayAudio]

Nicely done! I've been really impressed with the Rogue Amoeba stuff... more than one time I've wished I had a PC version

[@mikehines14]

Hey man! I use an aggregate device on an iMac and it works perfectly! That stinks you had some issues with it. The way I do it, I send everything on the Dante network and use DVS to get into the iMac. Then I use the aggregate device to combine Dante with a 4 channel Focusrite Scarlett, exactly like you mentioned. DVS takes up 64 channels so the Focusrite channels start at 65. So now I have a 68 channel "interface"; the aggregate device. When I go to our DAW (Cubase) I assign the inputs as aggregate device channel 1, not Dante channel 1. This is also super helpful because it allows us to have a talkback mic at the broadcast desk (plugged into the Focusrite) so I can talk to the band. The extra outputs on the Focusrite also give us a cue mix for soloing channels just like at FOH.

[@valik-stu]

what app do you use to aggregate?

[@mikehines14]

@@valik-stu It comes standard on macs. Search for Audio Midi, it's got a black keyboard icon. I had no idea it existed until I used it for this.

[@HaharuRecords]

Bro you have covered more solutions in 08:30 minutes that I can't handle in even one day...😁

[@esotomusic2629]

I got the aggregate device set up to work for my church broadcast. I combined Dante with focusrite and it worked.

[@AttawayAudio]

Nice! What DAW are you using?

[@esotomusic2629]

@@AttawayAudio We are currently using Pro Tools.

[@aenbeats]

Can you explain AVB routing? We have Studiolive 32 at church and we want to mix our livestream using studio one and sent it back to the console.

[@zareff]

We got the x32 USB card to a system running Reaper located on another floor with a 30ft active usb cable. It gets the audio to the daw just fine, but to route it out for monitoring locally and to other stream PC or video switcher we run Reastream plugin either in the master or separate pre master bus. OBS supports vsts, so that's how it receives the audio by setting up Reastream as a receiver on it. Latency is negligible for us. We've even tested it over wifi and it seems fine.It's a temporary setup that works surprisingly well until we save enough for a Dante setup.

[@AttawayAudio]

nice!

[@garryyoung6]

Dante. We have it installed on our console. I am hoping one day in the future we will set this up.

[@WayneWatson1]

I use dante in and a usb sound card (which also has a headphone for monitoring) to the encoder (atem mini pro), on a mac

[@theorignl4415]

James, are you still interested In experiencing the VB Audio stuff? I've worked in networking for several decades now(shh).

[@thefantasticmro3619]

I’m using Soundgrid at my church. I love it.

[@AttawayAudio]

Nice! Do you have a server or just going native?

[@thefantasticmro3619]

@@AttawayAudio we have a server.

[@EqDior]

Love your vids James. Another option is using a usb to cat5 adapter. those are normally good for running 200+ ft.

[@dennishoffleit]

Hi James, thank you for your videos. They are really helpful. Can you do one about How to mix live on the DAW. The biggest downside for me is monitoring in the daw. They don’t act like PFL on a real console. If you’re pressing Solo it’s quit in the output... Greetings from Germany.

[@AttawayAudio]

Hey Dennis! You'll need to change your solo setting from Solo In Place to PFL or AFL and select another path for the monitor output. Where exactly you do that depends on the DAW

[@dennishoffleit]

@@AttawayAudio thank you for you’re answer. I tried logic and Mainstage. There it’s not possible to change to something that works. What daw can be switched to act like a console pfl?

[@AttawayAudio]

I know Studio One 5 and Harrison Mixbus both have a Listen Bus for monitoring. Separate audio path, can choose AFL/PFL/Solo In Place, has options for plugins to process like Waves Virtual Mixroom, speaker/room EQ correction, and EQ for making it sound like a terrible speaker 😂 In Pro Tools there's an option in the IO menu that lets you select the path for PFL

[@dennishoffleit]

@@AttawayAudio I have seen it in your other videos about MixBus. And straight bought MixBus. ;-) That you for all your support and your great videos. It’s all about the low end. Avoid Soundtech Solo! Nobody leaves church humming the kick drum.

[@jgrinns]

We have Dante but I don’t even know how to use or access it…

[@ChrisPalmore-g4n]

How do I get separate gain control of FOH and BROADCAST mix ? Gain seems to be the only feature that is being shared

[@AttawayAudio]

You would have to get separate preamps, or a system that uses digital trim to do automatic gain compensation between the boards.

[@gabrielgheorghiu1976]

Another way, for Behringer users, could be the use of a P16 monitoring system witch will feed with a stereo cable (6.3 TRS to 2x 6.3 TS) a two channels USB audio interface connected to your streaming PC. You can use the P16-M to create a good mix by sending the channels on the "signal tap" of your choice. If more places to feed are needed, I think a P16-D will do the job. What do you think? Can this be done or is just in my head? I have an XR18 for my band, we're not using in-ear monitoring (we only use speakers), we never use more than 4 monitors on stage and I was thinking about sending the signal somewhere in a quiet place and make a mix for streaming. I am considering buying a P16-M for tests.

[@AttawayAudio]

It could work, but you don't have any additional processing available, and gain structure and level monitoring are limited, so it could get tricky.

[@gabrielgheorghiu1976]

@@AttawayAudio Thank you so much! God Bless!

[@jasonengle6835]

We use a aggregate audio output for our iMac. It has 4 channels; L/R to Bluetooth headphones, L/R to ProPresenter for livestream. My son set it up so would have to have him explain the details.

[@AttawayAudio]

Thanks Jason! What DAW? Logic?

[@JESUSismyLIFEforever]

Hi brother james.. can u help me improve our church service livestream via obs? Thanks in advance

[@jaimealves3742]

Awesome video. I'm a sound tech and IT guy, if you want to try some testing with the VBAN, contact me, I'll be glad to help!

[@AttawayAudio]

Email me! My email address is on my website attawayaudio.com

[@prestonpinkepank8609]

I got aggregate audio device to work with 2 x32 to allow me to have 48 channels of AES 50 from my Pro 9.

[@AttawayAudio]

Woah nice work! Btw, I saw some of your Good Friday service. Well done! Now you just need to get tablets for the music so the page turning isn't sound loud 😢

[@prestonpinkepank8609]

@@AttawayAudio I know! I keep reminding our Worship director and he did say something but they just didn't listen or forgot in the heat of the moment.

[@johnelbourne7676]

We're using AVB, using a 25m CAT6 and a thunderbolt adaptor, from a StudioLive 32S to a Macbook Pro running Studio One - works great most of the time. Very occasionally, even though we check the Macbook can see the 32S before starting Studio One, it loses the audio device set up, which takes a couple of mins to sort out. I then use a Focusrite interface to feed the audio back to the Livepro video switched and also (on a different set of stereo outputs) a couple of Focal Alpha 50s. I have a simplified diagram on this, but not sure how to share.

[@AttawayAudio]

Your description makes sense to me. Good work John!

[@daroad7407]

Can you share your diagram? I am setting up a new work station away from the mixing console and still not sure how to get the audio. I have AVB as well.

[@johnelbourne7676]

@@daroad7407 Not sure I can share a diagram here and the one I have is pretty complex because it shows so much more than just the AVB connection. The AVB connection is simple. CAT6 cable from AVB RJ45 socket on back on our StudioLive 32S desk to a Ethernet to thunderbolt adaptor, into a thunderbolt socket on the Macbook. The Studio One on the mac book sees the 32S, and can use it for "playback".

[@daroad7407]

@@johnelbourne7676 Thank you for your reply! I have StudioLive 64s for the service and use StudioOne 5Pro for broadcast mixing. I use USB to connect to StudioLive 64s to get signal for broadcast mixing on StudiOne. I want to move broadcast mixing to another room but cannot use USB for a long run. So will AVB RJ45 that you mentioned above can get the signal like USB to computer running StudioOne?

[@johnelbourne7676]

@@daroad7407 Yes exactly, assuming you're running Studio One on a Mac, I don't think it works on Windows. Our 32S appears as a "playback" device (i.e. input) when configuring audio devices in Studio One and all the input (mono and stereo) and flex mixes are available in Studio One as input channels.

[@florin1290]

Great video! I have the system already set up, everithing its working great and I am so happy with the results. I use via Dante, Logic Pro, WAVES plugins and Luke Hendrickson templete, but I have input delay. My question is how can I fix it or if you can recomand any plug in other than Logic Pro has? Thank you!

[@AttawayAudio]

I'm not sure what would be best in logic to delay your inputs. Voxengo has a simple delay plugin, but I'm not sure if they have au versions or logic does vst

[@florin1290]

@@AttawayAudio Logic doesn't use VST but cut be some way to do it! Appreciated your answer!

[@aldoruizshow]

yay first time catching a premiere from the top! Thanks for all you do! God Bless

[@AttawayAudio]

Woohoo! God bless you too Aldo!

[@avquach]

I’m in

[@wordfellowshipchurch5164]

We are running an x32 with a waves wsg card into super rack and back for live sound - We are also trying to set up tapping into that Soundgrid Driver to hook up a second computer running Studio One with its own set of waves plugins for the stream. We used to do it flawlessly and for some reason its not working anymore. Long story short, our audio guy had a stroke and he is on his way to recovery but not 100%. We can't figure out if its a driver issue or what. I am wondering if there is a way to get into his DAW and back out some other way (we used to send it BACK to super rack and into the Behringer board) but it eats up two channels off of our main board. We also have access to his presonus 32rm board. Any suggestions? May not be the best explanation lol. I may look into Dante as well if its an option.

[@AttawayAudio]

I'm in the middle of troubheshooting a similar thing for another church. It may be that there's a SoundGrid driver program that has to be running in order for the computer to properly see the card on the X32, but I could be mistaken. Haven't sussed it out all the way yet. You could use the Aux Inputs on the X32 as your return channels.

[@wordfellowshipchurch5164]

@@AttawayAudio I believe it was a driver problem! We got it fixed by downloading a different one. Thanks so much!

[@adamjsharp]

Hi! We're currently trying to mix our livestream audio with the same Behringer x32 that we use for the house mix. If we were to take advantage of the Aes50 and get a usb interface to run a wire to another room, that would connect to Ableton live, but would I be able to mix individual tracks that way, or would it all come in as a single mono audio file?

[@AttawayAudio]

Yes you can! It would be multichannel

[@adamjsharp]

@@AttawayAudio thank you for your response! Definitely going to be investing in that!

[@illfixyourhonda3230]

hey man do u still have that live worship course stuff that u advertise a year or two ago ? I really need some sort of training.

[@AttawayAudio]

I've got another training opportunity coming soon 😁 Are you on my email list? If you sign up for one of the free downloads in my videos you can get signed up to hear about it when registration opens

[@Jon415.]

Hi James! Hey I’m looking for some advice on reverb/delay for worship on broadcast. So I have reverb and delay nicely tuned for our worship time, BUT when there’s a break in between songs and the lead is speaking the reverb is waaay to apparent but if I turn it off it sounds dry. So basically I’m having to go in every time and take it down a bit and bring it back up when music starts. So I’m wondering if there’s an easier way then having to do this every single time. ? HELP! 😂

[@AttawayAudio]

Have you tried a DCA for your effects returns? Or have 2 reverbs - one to make things natural, and the other to match the music... have a mute group for the musical reverb and the delay.

[@Jon415.]

@@AttawayAudio geez why didn’t I think of that 🤦🏻‍♂️ 😂. Thanks Jimbo!!

[@fbcpraise]

If you use CAT5 cable, how long can these runs be? Out to the DAW and back to the broadcast computer.

[@AttawayAudio]

I think it depends on the protocol you're using, but I'm not exactly sure on the specs. That's what spec sheets are for.

[@lawrence_SoCal]

Standard CATx Ethernet spec is 90m cable run plus 5m patch cords on either end (100m/320+ft).

[@itownmusicians]

I use loopback for Mac to route my audio to my stream

[@AttawayAudio]

Nice! I'll check that out

[@Kuuuks]

Tried this but my video was faster than the audio due to all the processing what do I need to do to be able to sync the video and audio?

[@AttawayAudio]

You'll need to use a frame delay if possible. Or get a more powerful audio computer that can use a smaller buffer size

[@heliportpoe]

Another free one is Jackd , can send multitrack audio as well

[@suarlyorellana8901]

Hey, I have a problem I am looking for help because I can't solve it. The problem is that every time I connect my PC to my studio live series III the signal from the instruments stops coming to my mixer and I have to turn off my mixer to get signal again. Can someone help me. Thanks.

[@AttawayAudio]

Have you reached out to Presonus support? They're really helpful

[@noahprincivil103]

We have a Yamaha tf3.What should we use?

[@AttawayAudio]

You could use USB or Dante. Or find an expansion card that would fit your needs.

[@anthony_basta]

Merci beaucoup

[@JaredAlexanderStevenson]

Could you do more videos that show us as opposed to talking to us? I trust your knowledge, but I need someone to show me start to finish. Thanks!

[@AttawayAudio]

This video is more like a menu than a recipe. But yes, I'm planning on more step-by-step stuff in the future

[@JaredAlexanderStevenson]

@@AttawayAudio Thanks! I appreciate you brother!

[@jonathanreichardt2270]

One more option for audio over IP would be NDI

[@AttawayAudio]

I'll have to give that one a closer look!

[@JaredAlexanderStevenson]

Come to my church and help us 🥺... Pretty please.

[@AttawayAudio]

Email me and we might be able to set something up

[@JaredAlexanderStevenson]

@@AttawayAudio How do I email you?

[@thinklikeanant]

Currently using Blackhole to re route from Logic to OBS for live-streaming. It took a while to get a hang of it and it does have slight latency. Once it works though, it is worth the hustle it took to set it up. Also realised it is way easier to setup on another DAW like Studio One . Logic required one more step which took a lot of trial and error to figure out

[@AttawayAudio]

Sweet! I'll have to check that one out.

[@ming887]

I have been using blackhole too but with garageband. It was good for the most part. But in the last one week I've been having an issue getting it into Zoom. Any ideas on what I can try?

[@RevJorgeDiaz]

I think in time we'll use Dante. We currently have an X32 and are looking forward to purchasing the Luke Hendrickson template for our broadcast mix. What we currently use is a bus mix which gets sync to the video feed and then unto a Ray Encoder by Resi

[@AttawayAudio]

Nice! Luke's template is great 👍

[@dreamlargebelieve6453]

Interesting

[@TerranceNock]

if it was easy they wouldn't need us hahahahaha

[@hosj05]

Good day! How can I connect my audio from studio one 6 to obs studio? Thank you.

[@Jordanj1203]

AVB

[@markfangrad5628]

Have you tried NDI?

[@AttawayAudio]

I haven't! Thanks for the tip!

[@markfangrad5628]

I've never tried either .

[@BurninSven1]

I use an atem mini, an intensity pro capture card and cheap behringer mixers. I got an ada8200 going in to a delta 1010 Pci soundcard hooked up to line in 1 on the mini and a 16 channel behringer mixer to line in 2. If I want I can also hook up my atem tvs to the mini via a cheap china made sdi to hdmi converter to get 6 extra cams and the soundcard audio I have hooked up to it. The atem mini is cheap and offers the worlds first way to hook up two unbalanced stereo audio signals to a hdmi stream so no need for to buy any expensive stuff just to get on air and route some audio around.

[@AttawayAudio]

Nice! I've heard really good things about the ada8200.

[@obidavekenobe]

mmm, one sound tech or two?

[@AttawayAudio]

Definitely two for this. Otherwise setup a multibus system on one console

[@Nujola]

Does studio one let you use two audio interfaces one in and out

[@valik-stu]

Audinate doubled the price for dante virtual soundcard and the license attaches forever only for 1 device, they became so greedy...

[@AttawayAudio]

I'm not sure I know their motivations, so I can't say that they're greedy. But it did take them a long time to fully support M1 mac hardware with VSC, so my guess is they just priced themselves too low to start and didn't have the programming staff hired to do that job quickly, thus the price increase. It's still WAY cheaper than any audio interface.

[@valik-stu]

@@AttawayAudio maybe you're right about the price, but once-only license is wierd

[@itownmusicians]

I use loopback for Mac to route my audio to my stream

[@EldRiCkVis]

So the idea is to send your mix to the computer to process it before sending it back to be placed online? I am new to this, but we are running our sound directly from our mixing board to the livestream using a fairly inexpensive audio interface from Behringer, the u-control uca222. This of course we do right next to FOH(not ideal). We have an X32 (with regular aes50 card) and are looking to improve our sound quality and have a dedicated room for the livestream mix. What is the difference between having to upgrade to Dante rather than just buying the aes50 usb interface from Klark Teknik?

[@AttawayAudio]

Dante has more flexibility for routing and networking as far as I know. But if you're using a simple setup, there's little difference.

[@dwaynearthur1476]

Excellent Solutions!!! Will try , I’m fight this battle right now .

[@AttawayAudio]

Sweet! Spoken like a true sound ninja

[@Nujola]

Does studio one work with 2 audio interfaces?

[@AttawayAudio]

Not that I know of, but the Voxengo plugin can help you get an extra pair of outputs if you want

[@blessedson69]

Hi James, thanks for your videos. They are very informative. God bless! I have a studiolive 32 4.2 ai. I would like to set up a DAW. What the best to go about it. HELP!!!

[@AttawayAudio]

I think you'll need FireWire adapters

[@blessedson69]

Thank you Brother. God bless you!

[@MsDream1979]

Non avevo mai pensato che un audio inappropriato mi avrebbe distratto da Gesù

[@AttawayAudio]

Then you're a better man than me

[@BlackCoinCrypto]

I've been running Dante virtual sound card for a year now into reaper. I'm using a Dell i5 8010 optiplex 8Gb. It's been great. 32 channe,l auto tune on vocals CPU load is 11 to 18%. Whole system cost less than $2000NZ.

[@AttawayAudio]

Nice! What's your latency setting on VSC?

[@BlackCoinCrypto]

@@AttawayAudio 6ms. Which once it gets up and over to our OBS pc (also running DVS) is less than the delay caused by the ATEM. We still need to delay the audio some more to sync with the video.

[@BlackCoinCrypto]

@@AttawayAudio Not sure what you ment by VSC DVS setting are 64x64, 2048 samples.

[@AttawayAudio]

@Kerrin Zwart Virtual Sound Card... I just used a different Three Letter Acronym (TLA) than you did 😁

[@MrFolder40]

What about a USB active extender?

[@AttawayAudio]

Test it for us and let us know! Reliability is key.

[@josepalma1241]

Did it work ? I’m trying to run it like that as well ?

[@zareff]

It works. We have a 30' active usb cable from the x32 to the daw PC the going to the floor bellow.

[@lawrence_SoCal]

Or, we left streaming PC in sound closet, then run a 50ft long DisplayPort cable, plus a separate Active USB cable for keyboard and mouse