A Growth Hacker’s Guide to Growing Your Twitch Channel In 2022 UPDATED (Part 3/6): Equipment, Software, Tools & Settings ⚙️
Want to read the different parts of this series at your own pace? Fast track to:
Equipment can be important, however, there are loads of successful streamers that never use a cam/mic and don’t have a powerful PC.
💯 ProTip: your equipment and setup should be based on what kind of streamer you are trying to be.
Tom’s Guide to Twitch Streaming really helped me out with my equipment choices in the beginning and helped manage my expectations around what I needed to start off. I got paralyzed by trying to be perfect in the beginning and thought I needed the most high-end hardware right away; try not to think like this!
You can also check out these kits from Gaming Careers. If you guys haven’t heard of Gaming Careers, you need to check out their content. Pete is a MASTER on all things equipment, software, tools, tutorials, and settings for streamers of all shapes and sizes!
Pete regularly releases great tutorials on all sorts of stream-related and equipment topics to help make your stream look totally pro! From there, you’ll need to do your own testing and optimizations depending on your equipment, computer and connections speeds.
💯 ProTip: so many new streamers rush into streaming without properly testing and optimizing their settings like sound, camera quality, bit rate, etc. DON’T BE LIKE THIS! Do your research and take thet time to optimize!
⭐️Download and learn how to use OBS (UPDATED 11/17/2021)
OBS Studio is the original and best streaming software, in my opinion, and learning how to use it was one of the first things I did as a new streamer.
It can run a wizard that analyzes your internet speed and computer hardware and then optimizes your settings to suit the exact setup and connection you have. This is a newer feature, but I WISH I had this when I first started streaming! All the manual setup and configuration you have to do on other clients can be a huge turnoff to new streamers. I used to SLOBS, but they haven’t been very responsible with respecting content creators so I have let them go as an option.
That being said, OBS is not the only streaming client around and I would encourage anyone reading to check out Twitch’s broadcast application library here to see more options!
For power users, OBS Studio is equipped with a powerful API that enables plugins and scripts to provide further customization and functionality specific to your streaming and/or production needs.
You can utilize native plugins for high performance integrations or scripts written with Lua or Python that interface with existing sources.
Regardless, OBS Studio is the gold standard for streaming on Twitch… so it will not hurt to learn it in the beginning even if you end up changing your setup down the road. Check out the video below for a basic overview on how to set up OBS Studio.
📹Optimize your mic settings (ADDED 04/18/2020)
Whatever mic you use, make sure you optimize the hardware with whatever streaming platform you’re using. There are levels, filters and so many other settings you can use to make your mic sound perfect for your viewers… and it’s gotta be as close to perfect as you can make it!
Watch Pete’s video below on advanced mic settings. It makes your stream so much easier to watch if your sound/mic settings are properly optimized for your environment.
📹Optimize your webcam quality (ADDED 04/18/2020)
While you’re at it, don’t forget about your webcam. Watch Pete’s video below on making sure your mic’s settings are optimized to look as clear as possible; don’t underestimate proper lighting!
🛠 Learn how to use the Twitch Inspector tool (UPDATED 08/10/2019)
Your stream settings need to be configured based on so many variables like connection speeds, computing power, what games you’re playing, etc. It can be really hard, and frustrating, as a new streamer to fix and troubleshoot things like dropped frames, lag, and bitrate issues.
Twitch Inspector helps you diagnose issues with your broadcast. It can help you pinpoint what exactly is going wrong and offer suggestions on how to improve. Here’s how to use it. This video will show you exactly how to troubleshoot and improve the smoothness of the stream for your viewers.
💯 ProTip: get a tech-savvy friend to look at your test stream on their end. Have them critique your audio/video quality, lag, bitrate, etc.
In my humble opinion, this is something that really differentiates amateur streamers from pros. Why? Because viewers notice when you take a bit more time troubleshooting to make things run a little smoother. I would even encourage new streamers to ask viewers how their stream quality is once or twice during your stream. You will get good advice on leveling your audio, adjusting your bitrate, etc.
Before we move onto the next section, it’s worth checking out the Twitch Creator Camp for new streamers (and even for current streamers looking to improve their stream). I highly recommend skimming through it. As each streamer has vastly different needs, the creator camp does a good job at covering everything. Next, let’s talk about your Twitch channel presentation.
❌DON’T make these common mistakes! (ADDED 04/18/2020)
Depending on your internet, hardware, and settings… your stream might be buffering, have an inconsistent frame rate and/or dropping frames. This can be one of the most detrimental mistakes that make viewers exit your stream immediately. Because of the vast amount of streamers with perfect settings out there, you’ve got to spend time optimizing ALL your settings that are specific to your internet connection and hardware.
- TwitchTest (A lightweight Windows program that performs a bandwidth test for Twitch)
- Twitch Inspector Tool (Inspector analyzes and assists in the troubleshooting of internet connection or encoder related issues while broadcasting to Twitch)
- Twitch Analyzer (Copy/paste a twitch channel URL and it will look at everything from the streams bitrate stability, dropped frames, keyframe checks, stream availability, video frame rate, stream quality checks to stream info)
Check out the video below for a full tutorial!
And with all that said… ON WE GO to the next section on your overall Twitch channel presentation!
P.S., enjoying this series so far? Check out my other article on how to take your Twitch stream on the road where I talk about how I kept up my streaming schedule all across Japan for two months!
P.P.S., this series has blown up a lot more than I ever could have imagined! It seems to be helping a lot of new Twitch streamers and many people are writing to me asking how they can support me. Here are a few things to consider: you can tip me anywhere from $1-$5 through PayPal directly here, or you could share this article with anyone else looking to get into streaming, or you could follow me on Twitch and come say hi next time I’m 🔴LIVE! Thanks everyone, and happy streaming!
