Blog
How to Make a Starting Soon Screen That Moves With Your Music
Make a stream starting soon screen with bars that move to your BGM. Export one video, loop it in OBS, and add the day's title and start time as OBS text. Includes music rules for streams and when a live visualizer fits better.
- Published
- Updated
- Make your starting soon screen as one video: your channel name and "Starting Soon" on a background, with bars that move to your BGM.
- Add that video to OBS and set it to loop.
- Keep the day's title and start time out of the video, and add them as OBS text on top.
Split the Screen Into One Video and the Text That Changes
Some parts of a starting soon screen stay the same every stream, and some change each time.
| Kind | Examples | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Same every stream | Channel name, "Starting Soon", background, BGM, movement | One video |
| Changes each stream | Today's title, start time | OBS text on top |
If the changing text stays out of the video, you can reuse the same video for every stream. Swap in a new video only when you want a seasonal background or new music.
A Looping Video, or a Live Visualizer in OBS
There are two ways to get bars that move with sound.
| Make a video and loop it | Run a live visualizer in OBS | |
|---|---|---|
| Reacts to | Only the BGM in the video | Whatever is playing on stream, including your mic |
| Setup | Make one video | Plugins or other setup in OBS |
| Look each time | The same every time | Changes with the sound |
If you talk during the waiting screen and want the visuals to react to your voice, a live visualizer in OBS is the better fit. If you play set music and want viewers to see the same screen every time, one video is simpler. The BGM is inside the video, so the sound and the movement never drift apart.
Use Music That Is Cleared for Streaming
The BGM on your waiting screen needs to be music you are allowed to use on streams. On YouTube, playing copyrighted music in a live stream can get the stream replaced with a placeholder image or cut off, according to YouTube's help page.
Even free music has its own rules about streaming use and credit lines. Check the license of each track before you use it.
Make the Video in Sonoray
The Sonoray editor adds bars that move to your BGM and exports a video. It is free, and the video has no watermark.
Sonoray does not add text to the video, so put your channel name and "Starting Soon" into the background image first. Leave the bottom part of the image empty for the text you will add in OBS.
- Make a 16:9 background image with your channel name and "Starting Soon". Leave the bottom quarter or so empty.
- Load your BGM file (MP3, WAV, or M4A) in the editor.
- In Setup, set the format to 16:9 and choose your image as the background.
- Choose Bars as the shape.
- In Adjust, open Size & position and place the bars between the text and the empty area at the bottom.
- In Export, set the resolution to 1080p and export an MP4. The file will be 1920 × 1080.
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Shape | Bars |
| Width / Height | 84% / 20% |
| Position X / Position Y | 50% / 62% |
| Response / Smoothing | 1.00× / 80% |
The video is as long as your BGM. Sonoray does not fade the sound in or out at the start or end of an export. Even so, the point where the loop restarts may not be perfectly seamless. Pick music whose end flows into its start, and listen to it loop a few times in OBS before you go live.
Loop It in OBS
- In OBS, click + under Sources, add a Media Source, and choose your video under Local File.
- Check Loop.
- Click + again and add a text source for today's title and start time, then place it in the empty area at the bottom. On Windows it is Text (GDI+), and on Mac it is Text (FreeType 2).
- In the audio mixer, set the BGM a little quieter than your voice.
Names can differ slightly between OBS versions and display languages.
For the next stream, you only need to change the text.
Make One Waiting Screen That Moves With Your Music
Try the bar placement first with a sample track.
