Evolution of an Electronic Music Stream - Part 1: The First 5

12 months ago, I pressed the "Start Streaming" button for the first time.
Since then I've notched up over 75 hours on Twitch, Mixcloud, Brixton Radio and now VIMM.

Kicking off a series of posts about how my streaming setup has evolved over time, let's take a look at my first few streams...

1st Stream

I'd already been into modular synths for almost a year at this point so playing the modular wasn't new - but it was around the first time that I had a setup that could produce a complete live set. Note that I'm using 2 phones as webcams.

2nd Stream

Experimenting with standing up using a slide from my son's climbing frame on a keyboard stand as a table! Sitting vs standing is something I've continued to play with - both have their advantages for different vibes.

3rd Stream

In the dark!

We were extending our house at the time and I thought it would be interesting to stream from half the built extension with completely open walls, building materials everywhere and no lighting.

I made a table from 2 builders scaffold supports and a piece of wood - I still love this setup!

Stream 4

I kept streaming from the extension building site for a while as the room slowly started to resemble a room over the next 2 months.

At this point though it was completely exposed on two walls and part of the ceiling and it was getting cold into late October - hence the big coat.

I'd also this time worked out how to do automatic transitions between scenes - with my two different cameras (still using phones).

I still use automatic transitions between views like this in my streams today - because I have enough to do to produce the music without worrying about manually changing camera angles.

5th Stream

I think this is the darkest one I ever did - I was just a silhouette really - but I think if I was ever going to do that Halloween was the right time. I even put a little pumpkin in the shot (though I don't think any viewers noticed it at the time!).

You can see that the walls of the extension now have plasterboard on them so it seems there'd been quite a bit of progress on the building work.

Here's an excerpt from that 5th stream for an idea of the music I was creating live around then (not that any 2 sets were much alike of course!)...

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/789582200

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That's a quick tour through my first ever streams - all on Twitch (for now).

I'm going to continue this as a series of posts. I won't detail every single one, but I will talk about any interesting setup changes - be they visually, with my musical equipment or with my streaming setup itself.

I'll also write about how I came to start broadcasting on Brixton Radio and now VIMM, right here on Hive.

Till then - hope you're all having a great week Hivers!