Elgato Audio Balance & Game Chat Recording Tutorial

Elgato Game Capture HD: http://bit.ly/Y3Rjlf
Audio Diagrams: http://imgur.com/HhPt1Q8,tVpTV4l
Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
How to Livestream with Elgato: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTsBQe...
This video tutorial will show you how to record game chat with the Elgato Game Capture HD, how to use the default software to balance audio, and how you can do these things in Sony Vegas. This is a big overview style video. I do not wish to get super specific with exact numbers and settings due the amount of different microphones, sound cards, and setups out there. Specifics would not help anyone. Rather a good overview and understanding of how the software works and how audio "flows" will be much more beneficial.

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Closed Caption:

hey guys drifter here I've got a
tutorial video for you today there are a
lot of up-and-coming commentators out
there are a lot of you have bought
capture cards based on my
recommendations and many many many many
of you send me videos to watch asking
for some sort of criticism or
recommendation or feedback of some kind
and the number one problem that I see is
with audio audio problems how to record
game chat and how to balance audio so
that's what we're talking about today
we're going to go over a basic audio
flow diagram how to balance your audio
how to make your own voice sound natural
beautiful and sexy like mine obviously
and then we're going to be going over
how to record game chat so for those of
you that like to do the trolling videos
or just record your IT more clients chat
you can do that as well
now this is a sponsored video with el
gato so it's going to be based around
the elgato capture card that's what i
use and like I said I'm sponsored by
them but instead of asking for sales or
anything they only want me to make
tutorials and that's right up my alley
so here we go
oh and the game play in the background
is a game that i joined late and what
about as hard as I could on the other
team trying to solo this domination game
but i can't win without good teammates
the very first thing that I want to talk
to you about is a default audio flow
diagram because it's important to
understand what the audio is doing
before you start moving into changing
settings and doing custom stuff like
this so let's go over a basic audio flow
diagram in the upper left-hand side this
is by the default if you're using the
elgato you'll see that you have the game
sound effects your dashboard noise and
your game chat all go into the xbox 360
xbox 360 is going to send the game chat
to your controller and then to your
headset so you can hear it from your
headset you'll see that your microphone
goes from the speaker on the headset to
the control arm back to the xbox but it
doesn't go out the only noise that goes
out of the xbox and into your capture
card is the game chat and that's
sometimes that's if you've got me
yeah I game chat on set the voice the
speaker sometimes it doesn't
the dashboard and the game sound effects
and then it goes your computer and then
it mixes it up this is a very basic
default audio flow that's kind of how it
goes
and once it hits the O God O the O God O
is gonna smush all of those things into
one audio stream and you can't
unseparated that's why the color changes
and again if you don't have voice
through TV on that game chats not even
going to be flowing through there so do
be aware of that
sometimes you want that on and sometimes
you don't the number one thing that
people have problems with is balancing
their voice with the audio
you'll get a gameplay that sounds and
warning this is going to be loud
something like this
you guys are here they were doing black
ops 2 in today's episode of college
without somebody
you probably couldn't hear me their
overall of the explosions and loudness
what they forgot to do was to turn the
game volume down so that your voice is
loud enough to be heard over the
explosions
i balance my game audio a little bit on
the client side some people for a little
bit louder than mine but you definitely
don't want it loud and exploding like
that some people however can also do the
exact opposite like this
hey guys structure here this is the
really loud drifter on firing range i
mean studio domination talking about
stuff with an 94 while shooting people
in their face holes as you can see that
one was way way too loud you couldn't
hear any of the game audio at all of
other people were talking you wouldn't
be able to hear them and if you really
can't even hear the gunshots with
explosions was just all voice very very
loud voice blaring and that loudness
that reverberation that loss of quality
that you hear the loss of fidelity of my
voice
I call this the red bar problem we can
open up a side window over here and you
can use the red bars either in the
elgato software itself that will let you
know when your microphone or your game
audio is getting too loud when it hits
that red zone
it's gone over most speakers maximum
capacity to make that noise
so you're going to be losing quality you
want to avoid that the idea is so we're
just going to max out the loudest know
it sounds bad when you max out the
loudness you want it just barely under
the loudness level so that sounds really
nice and smooth
also in Sony Vegas it'll do the exact
same thing you have little bars on the
left and right they can slide bars you
can balance your audio here and it will
let you know if you watch the whole
video it will play and it will measure
your maximum decimals on the right up in
the top left that's not my top right
that's how mine set up and if it goes
above your maximum decibels if you start
hitting ready to start getting red
numbers that's very bad you need to
scale something down
another common mistake is having your
microphone input too loud this is very
different base from computer to computer
on Windows you can go into your audio
settings which is in the bottom right
hand corner you can click on your little
speaker and go to your audio you can
balance the input their most editing
programs or audio recording programs
also have a voice balance input and so
does the elgato capture card itself it
has a balance for your voice input if
you get your voice too loud
it's going to sound and look something
like this when you important
hey guys really loud drifter here again
my voice should be really blaring and
bumping it should look like one fat bar
that sounded like crap and i turned it
down a little bit just so that it didn't
break your ears
that's when the voice input is too loud
and you're going to be on that maximum
limit to record and playback if you play
it lower
and you import your voice it should look
something like this hey guys drifter
here this is my perfectly normal
speaking voice and the balance with the
rest of the commentary probably sounds
much much better
so I know I have kind of glazed over
this but this is the number one problem
with commentaries this is what you want
to avoid and it depends on your editing
program there are two ways you can do it
in the elgato the elgato lets you adjust
your game volume by default and the
elgato and lets you adjust your voice
volume by default they have little
virtual knobs you can turn up and down
again you want to avoid the red you want
to stay in that yellow to green zones
those are the best
you don't want to get it too quiet
either too quiet you won't be heard you
just kind of have to play with it keep
rendering your videos and get a feel for
it
every computer is different every set of
inputs is different every sound card is
different so i can't give you a one
hundred percent perfect sort of solution
for this but that's how it needs to work
on the subject of quality you should
also avoid background noise one of the
more common background noises i get our
fans this is an example of what i would
sound like if I did all of my
commentaries underneath a fan
hey guys drifter here welcome to black
ops 2 in-depth today's episode we're
talking about this really loud fan that
keeps blowing in my face and making all
sorts of annoying noises I don't know
how or why it does that but my god it
must be magic
and to think that was a little fan I've
heard much worse than that
and finally we're at the little tutorial
on how to record game chat and how to
make it work
there are two challenges to this number
one is syncing your voice to the chat so
that you're not behind or ahead of
everybody else thankfully they all got
to input will do that for you so you can
do it your own if you want to record in
a third party program
I'm just teaching you how to do it with
the default el gato recording software
here since they're sponsoring all this
sort of stuff but you're going to need
an extra piece of equipment you're also
going to need either a headset like a
logitech or Microsoft headset that you
put around your head
or i would recommend an astro headset
sometimes a turtle beach headset or very
very high and logitech headset something
that has a mix amp so that you can use
the headset like it's a gaming headset
and run the USB into your computer and
record like that my particular Astro
system it has USB power and the USB
power is also a microphone output and I
take that and i plug that into the
computer you can see that by the
microphone line there from the headset
and then it also goes directly into the
mixamp what this is showing here in the
Astro had sent invoice through speakers
because you have to have voice through
speakers on for this to work you get
your game sound your dashboard sound and
your game chat and the game chats coming
through the speakers on the TV which the
xbox is playing through on the optical
cable on the hdmi cable on the component
cables however you set it up it's going
to be sending that noise to the elgato
it's also going to be sending your game
chat to your mixtape and your headset so
you can hear it
your headsets going to send voice to the
controller into the mixamp and the
headset if you're plugging it into the
computer via USB or perhaps a old RCA
cable or if you're using an external
headset that's not a mix amp that's not
an astro just something that's plugged
into the pc I used to actually run at
kimball headsets I used to kind of have
it like diagram one and have the old
like basic xbox headset and then i would
get dr. regular cheapo logitech from
walmart and just kind of laying around
my neck so that would also be recording
that's an option to go back and so my
old live streams and look at that but
the headsets also going to be sending
audio directly to the computer so and
the computer in this diagram is
basically representing the elgato
software the recording stuff right here
so the capture card is getting all of
your audio from the xbox including what
people are saying and it's sending it
straight to the computer and your head
set ascending straight to the computer
to the software program and the software
is going to mix all this up into one
audio channel once it's mixed you can
unbalance it's not reporting different
channels different tracks different
lines once it's mixed it's done
so it's important to get the balance
right but that's what's going on on xbox
at least I don't have a playstation 3
but it's very similar there are two ways
to make sure that the game audio is
lower than the game chat so that the
explosions don't drown out your teammate
speaking
number one is to simply go into your
game options in this case black ops 2
and i turn the master volume down
because the game audio is different from
the chat audio
and the master volume goes down that
turns down all the explosions turns down
all the gunshots turns down all the
everything's and it leaves the chat
audio relatively high this is my
preferred method of doing this it works
just fine
there is another method if you go into
your preferences and you make sure again
that your voices through that you have
voice through speakers on you need to
turn your game volume down to one and
your chat volume up to 10 what this does
is that every single time somebody says
something in the chat automatically kind
of quiet sore mutants the game audio and
makes their chat very very loud I don't
like this because it gives a very
disjointed a regular kind of feel to the
game audio but some people prefer that
and that's probably the simpler method
what I typically do as I put my master
volume on four ball four bars i put the
voice to speakers and i'm going to go
that balances it very well and I played
with my own personal headset which was
the Astro to kind of you - good balance
there
this is something that you're going to
have to do on your own you're gonna have
to record videos you can have to listen
to him you're going to do your own
quality check make sure that they're
good i wish i could give you a perfect
type in this number type in that number
it's done but everybody has a different
set up and you're gonna have to go
through this process on your own but
once you get it balanced
you're good to go and the software will
do everything for you for simple
reporting with game audio
there's other stuff you can do you can
record in other programs i use audacity
sometimes it's free to download that's
what I do most of my commentaries in you
can record your voice on top of the
commentary in Sony Vegas you can do post
commentary and the capture card there's
a lot of different ways to do it but I
hope that I at least get you started on
the right path i hope that i showed you
some of the common flaws with commentary
some of the common audio balance
problems and i hope that you took
something out of the audio balance
diagrams
if you're interested in anything elgato
related I've got a lot of links down in
the description and you can go check
those out and I've also got bigger
pictures of the audio diagrams on
immigrant links down there if you're
interested in those after out