I want to talk about some of the gear I actually use for my stream on Twitch and my Youtube Videos, which is all quite affordable, though much cheaper options are available in some cases, namely the camera.
I’ve been quite pleased with my Elgato FaceCam I believe I got it for about $129 but the price I see on Amazon varies from time to time, and it’s possible to find discound codes through elgato partners on twitch or youtube or wherever.
With good lighting (this is important) it does a great job as a primary camera for streaming. I find in darker settings it leaves a lot to be desired though, but lights can be really cheap!
I still use this really affordable Ring Light, though I have the Elgato Keylight Air on my throne wishlist right now for a big upgrade. The light I’m using now is a big step up from back when i had almost no lighting at all like you can see in this ancient clip of my early stream.
I have since also added these Programmable RGB Floodlights that were around $40 for the pair when I bought them. They’re great as long as you’re ok making changes using an app. I wish they were compatible with Lumia Stream, so I could control them with streamer bot, but i have not yet found a way to do so. We’ll need an upgrade there at some point, but these are totally great lights for the price and could be useful in other applications as well.
Similarly, I still use the HyperX Solocast which is a very solid USB mic for the price. I think I spent about $40 on it. IT comes with a little stand, but after a few streams using the stand I realized you really just need a boom arm, so i bought (and am still using) this Cheap Boom Arm and a Cheap Shock Mount for $20 each and it made an immense difference.
I recently also added a very cheap Pop Filter for the microphone as well to help block some breathing and pop noises, but it’s too new for me to really say anything about except that I had to update my noise gate in OBS after adding it into the mix.
About 6 months ago, I added an Entry Level Teleprompter to help streamline parts of the creation of my Youtube Videos. It made a big difference, since I don’t have the free time to do a million takes or perfectly memorize my script at the moment.
Much more recently I decided I wanted to add a heartrate monitor and be able to show it on stream, and I did a video about how to connect your heart rate monitor to OBS using Pulsoid. I’ve really enjoyed it for some games, especially Hunt: Showdown. Even 200 hours into that game i still get crazy spikes when i get into a fire fight in that game. It’s great when i play elden ring, or spooky games too.
I have a small list below of heart rate monitors that are compatible with Pulsoid’s app. This list is not exclusive.
Random Things I have mentioned on stream
Here is The “Magic Hiccup Straw” I always talk about on stream. I, for whatever reason, get the hiccups A LOT and my wife once bought me this magic hiccup straw. I, being kind of a grumpy gus sometimes, didn’t really even try it for months because being a person who gets the hiccups often also made me a person who can usually get rid of them easily, usually. Then one day I had some epic hiccups that simply would not go away and I tried the straw and it worked. Now I use it all the time and am considering buying a few more so there is always one clean and at hand.
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