Multi-camera Recording Setup on a Budget

In this video, I show you my multi-camera recording setup for KZbin and Livestreams. I am using OBS to record four separate sources to one 4K file that I can edit later on. Using this method I have the versatility I am looking for when using multiple cameras and multiple locations for recording in my space. Using both old and new tech I have created a good baseline for workflow that I want for making videos.
Blog Post:
hackbatch.com/library/multi-c...
OBS Camera App for iOS:
apps.apple.com/us/app/obs-stu...
obs.camera/docs/getting-start...
DroidCam for OBS:
www.dev47apps.com/obs/
www.dev47apps.com/obs/usage.html
Music by Derrick R

[@DannyG-gn9vb]

Been looking for someone to help me with exactly this for sooo long. finally someone with the right information and so well laid out on your website. Really appreciate it

[@hackbatch]

Thanks for the comment I appreciate the feedback. I’m so glad it was helpful!

[@beyounow7204]

Perfect! Straight to the point. You saved me so much time in explaining what I needed to get going. THANK YOU!!!😃

[@FLPoolServicesincTampa]

I really appreciate the video you made it my brother !!! So far is the best one that I had watched!!!🎉🎉🎉

[@hackbatch]

Thanks for watching, I hope it helps you!

[@TSquadRVing]

Thank you so much for this video. Helped us out!

[@happybaak]

WOOOW! This is what i am looking for a looooooong time! This is very very helpful for me! Thank you for this very important information.

[@hackbatch]

I’m happy that it was helpful!

[@caroline___]

Thanks for the info and the details on your blog. Nice!

[@hackbatch]

Thanks so much, glad it helped!

[@gearscodeandfire]

This is an awesome and clever implementation AND it introduced me to your channel, which i am currently binging 🤘

[@hackbatch]

Thanks so much, I’m glad you are enjoying it!

[@FortheLoveofIt-podcast]

This is amazing. Thanks for the help!

[@luisfernandoenrique]

Thank you. Very useful and practical

[@hackbatch]

Glad I could help!

[@SoulCriminal]

dude you just made this so easy to understand compared to others...thanks

[@hackbatch]

Glad I could help! Thanks for the feedback

[@useruser-oc8xn]

Nice! Thanks for the info.

[@falonvela9197]

This is amazing!!! Thank you so much!

[@hackbatch]

Thanks! Glad it was helpful

[@fitzsocial6073]

Thanks so much man! you earned a sub!

[@CharlieVN]

Very cool setup, will try it 😁

[@hackbatch]

Thanks! I’m glad you found it useful

[@rontan8433]

Thanks for making this video

[@hackbatch]

Thanks for watching, I hope it helped!

[@BeatsbyLonza]

Thank you.

[@TheHazarrrd]

Great Explanation. I wonder if this would work with some 4k Webcams like a Logitech Streamcam as well? This would make producing multicam so much cheaper..

[@hackbatch]

I’m sure this will work with any type of USB video source including webcams! I just had the extra phones laying around so I tried that instead. Thanks for watching and your feedback.

[@nowyatalking]

Great video very helpful 💪🏾 question how do you get different video files if everything is recorded together? Or do you record all 4 on one screen than crop each into 1 shot in editing

[@hackbatch]

In this example I am recording them into one clip and then cropping in editing. I have tried other methods such as using the Source Record plugin for OBS but have not gotten it working reliably.

[@nowyatalking]

@@hackbatch thanks your the man I'm trying this out asap I currently use the advanced switch while recording it works great but sometimes while editing it gets a little to chopped this method give me more control of the editing 💪🏾

[@brokerhc]

Does the OBS software come for Windows PCs? Great video, very informative.

[@hackbatch]

Yes I use it on Windows now as well!

[@danweberhealing]

This was great Thanks brother. So as a musician who wants multiple camera angles at once and I want to record them simultaneously, should I use OBS? If they're not in 4K, just 1080 can I still separate them after to edit in imovie? Thanks!

[@danweberhealing]

also can I combine an android phone with an iphone? I have an old samsung A5 but may get an iphone 11 soon. Can you mesh the streams together in OBS from both Droidcam and OBS apps?

[@hackbatch]

I have used both the Droidcam and OBS camera app for iPhone at the same time in OBS without a problem! (I do it in this video in fact) 1080p will work just fine but you will end up with a 4k file to crop down to each individual camera in IMovie unless you use a plugin like Source Record for OBS but I have had trouble with it. If you take a look at the link in the description I wrote a blog post that explains how to to do it with 1080p sources.

[@danweberhealing]

@@hackbatch Thanks!!

[@purpkisses7599]

Thank you thank you thank you. Could you possibly do a 1 on 1 to help someone? Or do you have a detailed video on the apps and plug ins?

[@hackbatch]

In the description there’s a link to the blog post with instructions and the plugins you might find helpful!

[@truthunleashed5250]

Need more views on this subject brutha, yours is the best by far.....I am using a android samsung s22 and sony zv1 for podcasting for multi camera setup, will i need to use OBS and will these two work....thanks for your time.

[@hackbatch]

Thanks! If you check out the blog post linked in the description, there’s a section towards the bottom where I list the apps you can use for android to make this work. The four screen trick only really works with 1080p video sources so make sure the zv1 outputs 1080p to a capture card and not 4k. You can get a cheap usb capture card. Hope that helps!

[@truthunleashed5250]

@@hackbatch i will definitely check this out and purchase capture card, thank you again.

[@tribalchief1122]

Can I record from a pc and transfer the file to a mac for editing? Great video!

[@hackbatch]

Yup! Should just be a the file format you have as a setting in OBS, you can use .mp4 but I recommend .mkv and transcoding back to something you can edit with after you record. That means if something happens during recording and OBS crashes your file won’t get corrupted. Hope that helps and thanks for the comment!

[@tribalchief1122]

@@hackbatch thanks for the reply!! I really appreciate it and will give that a shot!!

[@melaniestamps]

I found your video and also read your blog post. Thank you for the information. To this point I have only done top view videos with my iphone but last night I tried using the "Detail" app so that I could see two screens on my laptop. The laptop camera and the top camera view. I recorded clips from the laptop for a intro and exit clip of me and then did the rest from the top view. I had trouble with the sound and video lining up. I think you call it lagging? Is this because it is over wifi? The clips were fine in "detail" for the most part but then when we transferred it to imovie for editing it messed up and I can't use the face clips because the sound doesn't line up with my lips moving. Can you lend me some guidance??? Remember I am a complete newbie at this multi camera stuff. THANK YOU!!!!!!! P.S. I love what your doing on your channel!!!!! keep up the good work!

[@hackbatch]

Thanks so much for the kind words! I have experienced this delay even over USB in OBS( which is what I use for recording) Fortunately OBS has a setting that lets me adjust the audio delay so that it matches with the video source while I am recording. Unfortunately I have never used the Detail app so I cannot say for sure what the issue is there. I can recommend if you are using a new Mac it might be helpful to look into an editing software like Davinci Resolve. It 's free and has a way to split the audio from video align it.

[@melaniestamps]

@@hackbatch my son was able to show me how to detach the audio in I movie - yay! Thank you so much for getting back to me and helping out!!!!

[@TheMilford]

does it need to stay as the quadrant or can the footage be edited later into a single frame with edits? excuse the noob question.

[@hackbatch]

The footage can be cropped and edited in a video editor later on. So you can record as quadrants in one file and edit it later on separately from this process.

[@plinden]

wow! this saves us 1K compared to logitech 3 cam box

[@charlie1872]

Hi, Very interesting. I have a model railway youtube channel and publish through Streamyard. I try to use multiple webcams/iphones but have run into problems with the cameras dropping off. My setup is through my Macbookpro. I wire the webcams in through a card/usb hub and the iPhone(s) I invite via Streamyard. Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks

[@hackbatch]

Hi I have never used streamyard so I can’t say much on that. The setup I use here uses a few different apps with OBS. They are all linked in a blog post in the description of you are looking for alternatives to try. There’s an app called Detail that I have seen for Mac and IPhones that’s lets you do multicam over USB as well. Might be worth a look

[@charlie1872]

Thanks for responding, I appreciate that 👍

[@safetyhomeloans950]

loved your music selection, I found the artist...I just wanted to ask what the name of the song was. thank you

[@hackbatch]

Thanks! I make most of the music on this channel in GarageBand if they aren’t made and credited to someone else. I cannot actually find the name or the file of the song on my computer.

[@ejaybeatz3609]

how do you edit all video clips or are they just combined all in one?

[@hackbatch]

You can record a single 4K clip with all four 1080p sources within it and then crop multiple copies in the timeline of your edit allowing you to switch between which view is showing in your editing software.

[@johnmcclung4736]

What is the almost lantern-style diffuser on your LED light?

[@hackbatch]

It’s a little soft box that came with the Falcon eyes flexible light. I got it on Amazon. Not sure of the exact model. I have had better luck using an collapsible photography umbrella and a powerful LED bulb however.

[@WTSPod]

was curious how you didn't overload your usb hub with multiple cameras?

[@hackbatch]

No clue, I had it plugged into a usb c port on my MacBook. I always wondered what the limits were.

[@esemulka]

I am trying to resize my 2 multi camera video with a small PIP in right bottom corner. I have the capture of the 2 camera video but how do I resize or edit the video to place one of the videos in the right bottom corner of the multi video recirding?

[@esemulka]

Also I am using me cell phone to record the above 2 camera video to edit.

[@hackbatch]

You have to use two copies of the video clip in your editing software and crop it to the right size and place it where you want. Using a 4k file to record will get you four 1080p videos when cropped to the right resolution.

[@armandoperez3447]

How are you connect 2 different iPhone with obs camera app? I can only make one iPhone show at a time

[@hackbatch]

You need to add a new source for each iPhone in OBS.

[@armandoperez3447]

@@hackbatch what the heck?!!! I have had and used the obs camera app for years and didn’t know I can connect multiple iPhones to it. I try it a few hours ago and it didn’t work. But I just try it again and it work. I had to connect and reconnect one of the phone so they can be recognize. Thank you!! This have save me a lot of headaches

[@hackbatch]

Glad you got it working!

[@nowyatalking]

Back again how do you split the video sources evenly on the screen thanks in advance

[@nowyatalking]

Also how do you record in 4k

[@nowyatalking]

Also how do you record in 4k

[@hackbatch]

You can make a scene that has 4 different sources in it and resize the sources and position them in the scene window in OBS. To record 4 streams in 4K you would need to have an 8K scene or at least computer hardware capable of processing 8K video.

[@nowyatalking]

Thanks again for the info you've been a great help Ive been trying to built a low budget multi cam setup for the last month this is they way I'm going 💪🏾

[@hackbatch]

@nowyatalking Glad I could help! Good luck

[@Boss0Leeny]

Will this work for Live Streaming in real time ??

[@hackbatch]

In order to record the multicam scene and live stream at the same time you would need to use the Source Record plugin which is a 3rd party plugin similar to the other software shown. If you don’t need to record and only want to livestream you can just use OBS like normal.

[@user-xd9xs5wu7l]

what if i want to record each camera in 4k resulotion?

[@hackbatch]

That might be difficult depending on your computer’s performance. I don’t think you can record in 4K for each camera simultaneously using this method very easily.

[@OnlyCocoMousse2]

Can Obs Record 4 separate camera inputs as separate file?

[@hackbatch]

You can do that in OBS with the 3rd party Source Record plugin. I have never gotten it to work very reliably however.

[@AlwaysLaurenNicole]

What are you using to actually "start" recording all the cameras at one time?

[@hackbatch]

I’m using the Start recording button in OBS. Once all the feeds are coming live into the software the way I want them there’s no extra setup needed on the cameras to start the recording.

[@Headahhpodcast]

@@hackbatch so all the cameras are connected through cords? How that work if I was interviewing someone via zoom??

[@hackbatch]

You would need to add the Zoom window as a source in OBS. You can do that with a window capture or display capture source. That way you can record the Zoom window as well as any cameras you have connected with a cable to your computer.

[@Headahhpodcast]

@@hackbatch thank you !!!!

[@Boss0Leeny]

Is this possible with STREAMYARD ❓❓❓

[@hackbatch]

I don’t know I’ve never used Streamyard, sorry

[@jacquesredmond1332]

Where is your blog? I am getting a 404 error. :(

[@hackbatch]

Sorry about that! Should be fixed now, thank you for letting me know. The link is in the description again.

[@jacquesredmond1332]

@@hackbatch I appreciate it. If someone only needs 2 cams (one front and one down facing), how would you configure that?

[@hackbatch]

You can do the same trick with the base canvas resolution, setting it to two times the width of your camera resolution and match the height to your camera resolution. This will give you a video file from OBS that is really wide but just as tall as your camera’s resolution. Then you can place the camera views side by side in the canvas in OBS. You will have to crop it later in editing to show one cam at a time. Or, you can try the ‘source record’ plug-in, it has never worked completely properly for me but you may have luck.

[@jacquesredmond1332]

@@hackbatch This video you have is for those who already are familiar with camera setups, and making the changes you outlined wouldn't be a problem, however It would be awesome if you could do another video of this geared for the true beginner and break it down showing examples using 2 Webcams or 2 Smartphones, one for a front facial cam, and one for top down. This would be immensely helpful. :)

[@mavisbroadcast]

Hi team @Hackbatch - this is great, thank you for sharing. We would love to put Mavis on your radar, too. This is a cloud-based solution that enables multi-camera productions. Would you be interested in a free trial? Look forward to hearing from you. Cheers, the Mavis team.

[@hackbatch]

Hello, for business inquiries you can visit my website which is linked in the about section of my channel. Thanks for your interest in my work!

[@mokenOS]

Uh...Latency?

[@hackbatch]

I didn’t test anything for latency because I didn’t really experience anything noticeable. But perhaps I don’t understand your question. I was recording and not streaming so any inconsistency can be removed in editing.

[@mokenOS]

@@hackbatchThanks for the response! Using a canon 700D as webcam produces noticable latancy for me. Maybe its different with newer cameras and USB-C? I do know about the Latency compensation thing in OBS but i want to simplyfy the process and Having multiple cameras with different latencys recording into one single video file seems like a pain to synchronize. Wanted a way around that but i guess thats just how it is when using USB. But i realize now what im actually looking for is a no latency multicam STREAMING setup. Even though i might just be recording. Something like the "Elgato Cam Link Pro" is what I need....i think....

[@hackbatch]

@mokenOS Sometimes things are easier to implement in hardware but that usually means more expensive. Also note that I only have the iPhone and smartphone cameras connected over usb straight out of the device. My camera at the time as a canon m200 and I was using a cheap hdmi capture card to turn it into a usb video source but I was not using that camera as a usb webcam with any canon software. That might help to try a cheap capture card first and check the latency. I know that the USB webcam softwares can sometimes introduce latency and lowered resolution.

[@hermanherman1982]

Thank u for that. May i ask something? Lets say i have cameras…. LG Brio stream connected straight to a PC recording a scen from 2 angles and normal camera with LCD screen in my hands. No capture cards what so ever. Will this work? After copying material from camera in my hands, to my pc i would like to make movie using bits from all 3 cameras going back and fourth between files (cutting them in to smaller files and using them here and there) sorry fot „buttery butter” type of comment, im new to this. I used to stream live, never made movie. What to use to edit and render please?

[@hackbatch]

You can use a video editing software like Davinci Resolve which is a free download to drag your clips into a timeline and crop them to be the right size and switch between them in sequence.