Loupedeck x Streamlabs Plugin Guide

Looking to elevate your streaming sessions by making them smoother, more engaging, and giving them a touch of professionalism? You're in the right place! In this guide, we'll show you how to link your Loupedeck device with Streamlabs Desktop. From setup to customization, we'll walk you through each step. Whether you're a newbie or a streaming pro, you'll find easy-to-follow tips to enhance your broadcasts. Let's dive in!

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Loupedeck Basics for Streaming

Before setting up Loupedeck and using it with Streamlabs Desktop, let’s go over the very basics of Loupedeck, its key components, and the terminology that you should know.

Workspaces: Custom environments on the Loupedeck device tailored for specific apps or tasks, such as streaming with Streamlabs. Within each workspace (marked by numbered buttons), you can add actions and touch pages to control specific apps.

Touch Pages: Within one workspace, you can add touch pages. For example, if you designate Workspace 1 of your Loupedeck device for Streamlabs, you can add additional touch pages within that workspace for switching scenes, controlling audio, etc. To switch between touch pages, simply use your finger on the touch-sensitive screen of your Loupedeck device to swipe left or right.

Dials: Analog dials allow for precise adjustments. In a streaming context, dials can be used for tasks like adjusting general audio levels or audio levels on specific scenes. Dial also have press actions that can be assigned to them as well. 

Dial Action: Any action that can be controlled with the dial knobs. These actions are marked by a circular arrow icon.

Dial Pages: Allows you to add additional actions to dials by creating additional pages. Swiping up or down on any part of the screen on your Loupedeck device allows you to change the dial pages. 

Button Action: Any action that can be controlled and assigned to a button on your Loupedeck device. These buttons are marked by a finger-tapping icon.

Touch Bars: With touch bars, you can also change the dial pages to reveal additional assigned actions.The touch bar displays which actions are assigned to the dials.

Touch-sensitive Buttons: The touch-sensitive buttons come with haptic feedback, offering a dynamic way to trigger specific actions or effects during your stream. This can be particularly useful for toggling sources, activating special effects, or engaging with your audience.

Customizability: Nearly every Loupedeck control can be tailored to the streamer's needs, making broadcasting more efficient and interactive.

Profiles: Allows you to have completely different templates (i.e., profiles for specific applications on your computer). Additionally, you can import/export profiles created for specific applications via the Louepedeck Marketplace. For example, you can download an Excel profile that’s already equipped with actions to make navigating the app much simpler. 

Installing the Loupedeck Software On Your Computer

1. Before getting started using the Streamlabs Plugin with Loupedeck, you must first make sure you have Streamlabs Desktop installed on your computer, you’re logged into your streaming platform of choice, and you have all your scenes, alerts, etc., set up and ready for streaming. If you need a refresher for getting started with Streamlabs Desktop, be sure to check out our setup guide before continuing on.

Note: Streamlabs should be installed on your device but not running.

2. Once you’re streaming ready, it’s time to install the Loupedeck Software on your device. Be sure to download the correct version for your operating system. Loupedeck currently supports OS X 10.15 or later and Windows 10 or later.

FYI, for the purpose of this tutorial, we’ll be downloading, installing, and setting with the Streamlabs Plugin for Windows.

3. Once you’ve initially installed Loupedeck onto your device, it’s time to set it up. Double-click the downloaded file, review and agree to the terms and conditions, then click Install. You may be prompted to confirm you want to allow Loupedeck to make changes to your device. If so, select Yes to continue with the installation process.

Creating Actions for Streamlabs Using Your Loupedeck

The Loupedeck Streamlabs Desktop plugin is seamlessly integrated into all Loupedeck devices, coming pre-installed with Software Update 5.8 and forward.

With a Loupedeck console, the possibilities are virtually endless for customizing actions on your device and enhancing your live streaming and recording capabilities via Streamlabs Desktop. In this section, we’ll walk through the basics of assigning actions to the buttons, pages, and dials of your Loupedeck, but please feel free to customize it in the way that works best for you. 

Creating Shortcuts for Loupedeck and Streamlabs

As previously mentioned, Loupedeck and the Streamlabs plugin is designed to make live streaming super simple. One of the first things you should do when customizing your Loupedeck configurations is assign a touch action for opening Loupedeck and Streamlabs. Here’s how:

1. Find exactly where on your workspace you want to add actions to open the application.
   
   
2. Navigate to the Custom tab, then select Open Application. Alternatively, you can hover over the touch button in Loupedeck, select the three dots > Create Custom Action > Open Application.
   
   
3. Towards the bottom right of your screen, you should see a field Select Application. Scroll through the list to find the application you’d like to add (i.e., Streamlabs, Loupedeck), or type out the name of the application and select it.
   
   
4. Click Save to apply the changes on your Loupedeck device. If editing from the Custom tab, drag and drop the action onto a vacant button.
   
   
5. Repeat these steps for any additional applications. All created custom actions are saved in the action tab, so you don’t have to make new ones each time. 

Pro-Tip: You can also create multi-action buttons to launch more than one action at once (i.e., streaming and recording simultaneously via Streamlabs Desktop). To do this, select Multi-Action from the Custom action tab, then drag and drop each action onto the new multi-action.

Scene Management

The great thing about using stream overlays to customize your live stream is that it’s a way to engage your audience visually. However, switching between scenes while you’re live streaming can be a bit cumbersome. Here’s a way to organize them.

1. Start by creating a Loupedeck workspace just for Streamlabs. You can do this by selecting Workspace in Loupedeck and then Create New. Name your workspace Streamlabs.
   
   Note: Creating a workspace before adding actions for Streamlabs scenes is not required (it’s simply an additional level of organization that can be used if you choose). Otherwise, feel free to work from the default workspace following the same steps outlined below.
   
   
2. Let’s start by adding scenes to the page. Do this by simply dragging and dropping the actions on the right to the workspace on the left until you’ve added all the scenes you wish to control via Loupedeck.
   
   
3. Say you have additional scenes from another overlay that you wish to add. A good way to organize those is to add a touch page to the workspace for that specific overlay. You can do this by clicking the plus sign (+) next to the small 1 above the workspace buttons in the Loupedeck software.
   
   On this new touch page, you can add scenes from an additional overlay the same way we did above. To switch between touch pages on your Loupedeck device, remember just to use your finger to swipe across the touch-sensitive portion of the device.
   
   
4. In the Audio actions folder, you can find actions to control things such as mic audio or even sounds on specific scenes. Where it makes sense, add audio controls to dial and touch buttons to customize your audio control throughout your live stream.
   
   Note: Similarly to touch pages, you can add additional dial pages so your dials can be assigned multiple actions. To this, select the plus size next to the 1 to the right of the digital Loupedeck interface. 

Streaming and Recording Management

Another touch page we recommended adding is a streaming/recording page to help you go live and record content literally at the click of a button.

1. Start by adding another touch page (as we did in the section above).
   
   
2. Now, drag and drop actions such as the Streaming Toggle and Recording Toggle so you can go live and record by simply touching the touch buttons.
   
   
3. That’s it! You can now start recording or streaming by simply touching the touch button on your Loupedeck device.

FAQs

I have Streamlabs and Loupedeck installed on my device, but my computer says, “Streamlabs is not running” in the Loupedeck Software?

This means that the plug-in is not connected. Confirm that you’re running Streamlabs Desktop and that the newest versions of both Streamlabs and Loupedeck are installed on your computer. If the issue persists, try restarting the Loupedeck software. 

The action buttons for my scenes say “offline”—how can I get them to get back online/running?

Scenes for inactive collections/overlays will appear offline. Double-check that the correct scene collection is active. Once the correct one is applied, your scene-related touch button actions should appear online.