over the last decade working as a filmmaker and a content creator and now as a streamer
i've purchased a lot of different equipment and tech and a lot of it has gathered dust
so i've learned my lesson for the most part so let's say that you're as a streamer starting to
earn a little bit of money on the side and you want to start reinvesting it
or maybe you have a part-time job and you're thinking of putting some of that money aside
in order to upgrade your equipment well today i'm going to walk you through the five different
areas you should be upgrading first in order to make sure you continue to grow as a streamer
and i'm even going to cover some of the purchases i really regret doing so let's get into it
hey i'm Eljay with streamscheme.com i'm also a variety streamer over at twitch.tv/eljayem_
links to put those in the description we have over 400 guys covering everything a streamer
starting out or an experienced one needs over at streamscheme.com so you should check those
out seriously it is a huge resource for you and it's entirely free today we're going to
be talking upgrades yes upgrades so essentially what are the five purchases you should be making
first off the bat in order to improve the quality of your stream and help you grow as a streamer
now all of these are going to assume that you have a decent pc already set up and running obs
or slobs and able to create at least 1080 or 720p streams okay without lag that's the assumption we
have to do here otherwise it doesn't really work obviously number one it's going to be
get a pc that can handle streaming properly there are time codes in the description as
well as in the top comment so if you want to you feel free to jump ahead to any part of the video
however let's be fair here if i'm going to show you some of the embarrassing things i've bought
and i've just gathered dust why don't you tell me the same what's something you've bought thinking
you'd use and then you've never used chug it in the comments maybe you upgraded to a really fancy
microphone or you got a really nice camera and you've just never touched it i don't know hit me
with it so what is the first area that i think you should be upgrading as a streamer well as i said
if you have a working pc able to run everything then your best bet is to upgrade your microphone
and your microphone mount now why a microphone and not a high quality webcam or something like that
well at the end of the day if you're running 720p or even 480p often people are fine with
that they're actually pretty okay with it most people however will instantly leave a stream the
moment the audio hurts their ears or just doesn't sound right back in filmmaking we used to have
a saying that audio was 60 of the film because people really cared even if they didn't say it
you might be sitting there and you might be saying to yourself no i care more about 1080p i promise
you if you walked into two streams almost 1080 and had awful sound and it was 720 it had great sound
you would stay in the sound one the first thing about microphones that i want to cover before i
jump into giving you some recommendations is this if you watch a microphone video that's designed to
teach you how to make your mic sound good or if you watch a review of streaming microphones and
you walk away thinking that as a small streamer you need to invest a heap of money into getting
the throat guzzler 5000 xlr microphone and a mixer because yes if you didn't know that you need some
form of extra device to connect the xlr to your computer then you've been a little bit misled
i say this because small streamers don't require xlr microphones i don't use one some of the larger
streamers on the platform don't use one you can take really good usb microphones and add filters
and all sorts of things to them inside your broadcasting software heck even just leveling
it on the desktop or positioning it properly and i honestly believe you can get better audio out of
that than an xlr you can also get a really nice mic arm that connects to your desk and get rid
of all the bumping and cracking and everything that you normally get seriously you don't need
to invest huge money straight out the gate if you have a usb microphone and it just doesn't sound
good enough for you yet i got a little bit of self chroma here for you go watch my video on how
to make any microphone sound better i seriously run you through how to make any microphone you're
using with streamlabs or obs sound better check it out it's linked in the description and should be
in the cards at the top the microphone i use is the at2020 plus usb microphone and there's also
other things like the elgato wave but essentially these are workhorse mics they'll do a fantastic
job the usb yeti series has done a fantastic job for a lot of people for years you don't need to
invest in huge amounts of stuff when you're just starting out i mentioned before also getting a
good mic arm the one i use is a psa rode mic arm it's linked below as well i love this little thing
it pushes out of the way when i'm not using it and i can realign it easily and quickly i bought my
at2020 plus and that road arm for less than what the mixes that people recommend for streamers cost
now i'm not saying you shouldn't eventually upgrade to an xlr and a mixer
trust me i have those i use those on my cameras i use them in everything i do they're fantastic
but when you're just starting out don't worry don't stress you don't need to invest a thousand
dollars into all this stuff you can just start out with a nice mount and a nice usb mic the second
investment you need to be making is into a webcam now i know there are people who don't want to show
their face but a webcam goes a long way to connect with your audience they want to be able to see the
emotions you're going through your laughter and it just gives them someone to connect with here's
the thing though every single time that i stream someone says to me hey lj what dslr are you using
and they are always shocked when i tell them i'm actually using the logitech c922 pro
webcam a webcam that has a stigma of having a terrible white balance and making everyone shiny
the reason they ask what dslr and why it looks like a dslr is right behind my webcam
right behind my desk i have this aperture led panel and then in front of that i have
filmmaker quarter diffusion essentially it's heat resistant paper that will cut the light in half
and you can achieve the same thing using baking paper but i i spent a lot of money on mine
yeah that's one of the things i regret this little led light is perfect because it lights me without
lighting my background my background has these little leds in it and if my light was too strong
then my leds would barely show up so just lighting me and then having all that space makes it look
really nice i have a whole video on lighting coming out in the new year so subscribe if you
want to see that obviously after the lights all set up i then go through and do custom settings
on my webcam and i apply a filter of a lut that i've made myself to make a camera look good
but that's all in the post-production side of things that's also going to come in the new year
now i know that not everyone is blessed like me to have a whole room that i can stream in
it's just my office that i've converted so if you can pick up a little green screen and light that
properly it'll go a really long way for you to up your production value and also to generally give
you more to play with so your takeaway here is that you don't need to invest in a super
expensive camera because your lighting is actually what's gonna get the most out of your webcam or
your dslr i've seen people using dslrs that look absolutely like a turd but i've seen people with
webcams that look great and it all comes down to how they've lit themselves if you're looking
for lights these elgato leds are fairly cheap and have a great cri which means a great color balance
or you can get these little aperture ones as well which are great for some accent lighting or just
for lighting your face if you get them close enough you should check them out there's links
in description a small note on this is a good looking face cam on your screen on your thumbnail
goes so far to get people to click on your stream from the browse one of the things i've been seeing
recently is a lot of people have got these borders for their face cam but they've actually placed
the border in and they've placed the webcam on top of the border and it's not sized right and
it looks really weird i'm just gonna throw it out there guys if you're using a webcam border
it goes on top of the face cam and the face cam is designed to fill it out and to cover the edges
so it looks really nice but our next tip is going to help with that so don't worry third on the list
is overlays alerts and everything that's going to appear on your screen now the reason i'm putting
this third is you don't need to invest in it early is because every one of their mothers making free
overlays these days you download slobs and make an account they give you a free overlay heck you join
our discord you get a free overlay pack everyone has them for you you don't need to invest in these
however down the line when you're wanting to bring all your branding to match and fit the
vibe of where your stream is it can actually go a long way to invest even if it's just a fiverr or
own 3d or nerd or die wherever it is to just get a full pack that comes with alerts and everything
whether you grab one of the free ones or the premium ones from any of the places i mentioned
i think it's really important to not make it yourself especially if you don't have design
experience i see a lot of streams these days who they've home brewed their own overlays and
they just don't have the photoshop or the design experience to actually make it look
nice and i think it's really holding you back there's just something different about coming to
a stream that looks polished and professional compared to a stream that doesn't have that
kind of aesthetic and design it's not the most important thing content is really what matters
but it goes a long way for those first impressions i'm gonna go into more of why that's a big mistake
in a little bit as well as talk about one of the purchases that i really regret that i also think
you really won't expect me to regret as much as i do but before i do that i want to throw it out
there if this video has helped you out at all or if any of the other content has helped you out at
all consider subscribing seriously we have videos on this channel about everything the best time to
stream the best games to stream growth tactics from zero to 25 you name it we have videos on it
or we have videos coming on it i'm still replying to every single comment that gets left on this
channel i'm gonna try and keep this going for as long as i can even though we're at like 16 000
subscribers now thank you so much everyone for that by the way if you want our free overlays
you can get them they're linked in the description in our discord so jump into there we'll also help
you install them if you have any trouble so what is the next area you should be reinvesting your
money into and what's the mistake that people make in it well it's your branding i'm actually
going to keep the branding separate to the overlay because i'm considering this your panels your sub
badges things that are just graphics just single non-moving graphic assets a lot of people really
just want to make their own to save some money or because they think they can do it but i promise
you you will look much more professional and you will go so much further if you just had a
real artist do it there are so many incredible artists out there who do this for a living they
create unique and honestly amazing works the sub badges that i got created with the crowns i love
them and i could never have done these myself and while i don't think sub badges are a good enough
reason for someone to subscribe i know for a fact that people have subscribed because they like the
looks of them so much i promise you investing your money into having a fantastic artist create all
your branding for you and maintaining a good relationship with that artist will go a long
way in the future i have to throw it out there as someone who worked commission artists cost
money because they have skills that others don't i promise you it is a great investment seriously
find yourself a fantastic artist so before we get into the worst purchase i've made the one
i regret the most for streaming here is our last thing i think you should be investing your money
into and a lot of you are probably not going to be surprised but there's a decent amount of you
probably will be surprised still and that is i think you should be investing in a journal or
a notebook every single day i fill up two whole journal pages with talking points jokes ideas for
the streams i make notes constantly about things i can do to improve my content and ideas and then
i lay it all out there as i'm streaming and if i ever have dead air or ever lose my thoughts
one little glance down oh yeah that's something i can talk about i promise you grab yourself a
notebook and a pen and start making notes in it it's a great investment doing all this will
improve your stream quality it'll help you grow because your content will be better
so what is the last thing what is the thing that i regret purchasing now you guys are going to
be completely surprised by this i bet you're sitting there thinking i bet he regrets buying
a giant green screen or some really expensive xlr microphone well no weirdly enough i regret buying
my stream deck here's the thing about the stream deck you get as much freedom and as much use out
of the thing as you're willing to put into it and yes it's helped me with transitioning scenes
adding some fun little gimmicks to my thing but the end of the day i think i could live without
it so my takeaway on this final section is if you can live without something if you don't need the
piece of equipment maybe just hold off because at the end of the day it could go to paying for
editing software or it could go to getting more sub badges next month or generally it could just
sit in your account until you have a slower month on stream seriously i didn't need the stream deck
it's given me some freedom and i can use it in the long term but i probably didn't need
to buy it when i did so those are the five areas i think you should be upgrading and in what order
if this video helped you out at all consider checking out our other content we have videos
about how to upgrade your gear for free for example how to make your webcam look good how
to make your mic sound good seriously check them out i'll see you guys next week thanks