This tutorial will focus on the technical aspects of making a shoutcast, as in what programs you need and what you need to do to make sure everything works, rather than focusing on advice on commentating, which may come at a later date.
Before you start, you need to realise that doing a shoutcast is NOT all that quick or simple. You need to dedicate the better part of a day to it, and be willing to do meticulous work for little material reward.The first thing you need to do of course, is to procure at least one recording program. It’s a good idea to have two; one for video capture of the actual gameplay, and another for recording your voice-over audio. The video capture software will take care of the in-game sound.
A separate program for voice-over is not a must have, but it does result in clearer audio, and can make editing easier. If you’re only doing an audio recording, then this is the only one you need.
The easiest to obtain and easiest to use video-recording software is probably the popular
Fraps program. It’s simple and easy to use, and breaks up your recordings into smaller files so you can spread them out if you don’t have a lot of room on your hard drive.
The free version of Fraps only records 30 seconds worth of footage at a time, so unless you want hundreds of files and want to keep pressing the record button every 30 seconds, you’ll need to upgrade. Obviously if you don’t want to pay for it, you can get an alternative free recording program, such as
CamStudio or
GameCam. Of course I cannot condone getting a pirated version of Fraps, nor a cracked version, so if you want to do that you’ll have to find your own way of doing so. (Hint: tutorials on youtube)
For audio-recording software, the best free one is probably
Audacity. (Props to Groundfire for putting me onto this) As said it is free, relatively easy to use for somebody who has no previous experience with anything like it, and is good quality.
Remember, a separate audio recording is not essential, but can be helpful.
If you have the necessary recording software, then the next thing you need is an editing program. There are tons of free ones floating around, and since you’re only making a simple shoutcast, not putting after-effects on a AAA movie, you don’t need anything too fancy. This is up to you, use one you feel comfortable with. Personally, I use VideoPad by NCHSoftware, you can download it
here.Once you have all of the software you need, you’ll want to do some fine-tuning. If you’re only using a video-recording program, you need to go into the settings and make sure it is set to record input audio.
To make sure you record the game sound in Fraps, you want to make sure this setting is turned on.
It's also important to make sure that Fraps saves the files in a location where you can easily find them and where you won't run out of room, so edit this function if necessary.
Finally, you want your video to be as high a quality as possible, and you also want your recording key to be in an accessible location in case anything happens and you need to stop suddenly, saving you editing work later.
If you’re recording with somebody else and using Ventrilo as the go-between, you’ll want to go into the settings on here and turn “ducking” off. “Ducking” is when the program turns down the games sound when you speak. Although useful for an actual game, during a shoutcast it can be quite annoying. None of these boxes should be ticked.
Once you’ve got all your programs ready and have all the settings the way you want them, it’s time to start the fun stuff!
Pick your game wisely. It’s usually best to ask people to send you specific replays that haven’t been posted on the forum; that way nobody who watches your shoutcast will know the outcome, and so will be more inclined to watch it. Shoutcasting a hyped up game that’s been posted on the forum is never a good idea; everyone has already seen it, and the shoutcast won’t be as enjoyable.
Once you’ve decided on a game, you now need to watch it before you start actually recording. The worst thing that can happen during a shoutcast is that you miss an important play or something funny or exciting. So, go through the replay, you only have to scan through, but be careful because if you miss something you have to load up the whole replay again; CoH doesn’t have a rewind button. Make sure you pay attention to the entire match. Don’t get too bogged down in one area, keep an eye on the other side of the map. The TacMap (Hotkey O) is good for this, as you don’t see the actual action, so you can devote your vision to the whole game. Take notes whilst you’re watching the game, take note of the time and where, but keep it simple and easy to understand in the heat of the moment. E.g. 14.34, right flank, Tiger dies to friendly V1. Have these in a quickly accessible place you can keep checking so you don’t miss anything. (If you’re only doing an audio recording this doesn’t matter quite so much, just make sure to point out when it’s going to happen)
When you’ve watched the game and got all the important bits noted down, you’re ready to record! Get your voice-over intro to the game scripted so you can just read it out without messing up, and then of course commentate the way you see fit. Remember to speak clearly at all times, especially if you’re not a native English speaker, as others may have difficulty understanding you if you get too excited. Make sure you do an extro as well, it just looks a bit more professional.
(This part of the tutorial assumes you are using VideoPad)
When you’ve finished recording the game, it’s down to the most tedious part – editing. Some hate it, and some love it, but you need to be patient if you’re going to edit your own video. If you used Fraps, whether for just video or audio and video, it will break up your files into smaller chunks, which you’ll need to separately place into your editing software.
To do so, simply click Add Media, select the right file, and accept.
Do one at a time or you may end up corrupting your files! They will link together perfectly, and if you wanted to be an amateur you could leave it at that, but that’s not how we roll!
Download
Freemake, a youtube video downloader, and download this video:
Zontar's IntroMake sure you download the video converter, not the audio one!
Once you've loaded up Freemake, all you have to do is paste the video url directly into the program, so just click anywhere on the main menu of it, and paste. The following screen will appear.
You then want to select the format you want it to be converted to. Choose MP4 for the sake of keeping it simple.
Then, just choose where you want it to be saved, preferably the same folder the shoutcast files are in.
Of course, if you want to make your own one, you can skip this step.
(This part of the tutorial assumes you are using VideoPad)
Put it at the beginning of your video, and make sure it fades in well. I like to keep things simple, but if you want to add any extras, such as arrows explaining what should happen next, feel free to do so.
Otherwise, you’re pretty much done! Save your video as an flv video under Computer / Data and under Preset, select Youtube HQ as a base. If you're comfortable saving and uploading a higher quality, feel free to do so.
Make sure you save as a Movie, not a Project File.VideoPad actually allows you to upload directly to Youtube during your save. Just select Upload instead of Computer / Data, choose Youtube HQ, and then enter the EiR Shoutcast Channel account details into the boxes below.
Name - eirrpropaganda
Password - applesauce12 (PLEASE don't abuse this! It's for the good of everyone, don't spoil it by being an asshole)
Now you’ve just got to upload to Youtube. If you didn't do this via VideoPad, you'll have to do it manually. I created a channel specifically for this, which some people don’t use for some reason (Zontar), so here’s the link and account details.
Name - eirrpropaganda
Password - applesauce12 (Again, please don't abuse this)
This can take a long time, so if you’re doing this in the evening, be prepared to leave your PC on overnight, depending on your connection and the size of the end product.
After that’s all done, there’s only one more little thing to do. Post it on the forum! Make sure you post it in the Broadcasts and Shoutcasts section, and do a nice little introduction as well.
For example, I use the following template, feel free to do so as well if you so wish.
Quick intro to the shoutcast
[b]Commentators[/b]
CommentatorOne
CommentatorTwo
[b]Players[/b]
[u]Axis [/u] [b]VS[/b] [u]Allies[/u]
PlayerOne PlayerThree
PlayerTwo PlayerFour
Credits
*** - Commentary
*** - Commentary
*** - Editing
*** - Title Sequence
Watch the shoutcast [url=VIDEOLINK]here[/url]
That’s pretty much it. The main thing is to have fun whilst you’re doing the actual shoutcast itself, as everything else can be quite stressful and time consuming. But when you pull it off, and everybody’s telling you how great it is, that’s when you know it was worth it.
