Suggestion on how to get better audio with live/non-live productions

Audio Production Audio Effects
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My setup should be adequate for two kinds of scenarios. Live and nonlive productions. At live productions I’m talking mostly about meetings and presentations. On the nonlive productions is mostly recorded lessons and podcasts.

My current setup is a Rode Podmic with windshield, dbx 286s, and Motu M2. Before having the dbx I was doing everything using GarageBand for both live and nonlive productions. The problem at live was that it was introducing lags, cpu consumption and the problem of always having to open a problem and remember to pass it through GarageBand. Then I got a dbx and it basically solved live and nonlive at once. The preamp is silent and with lots of gain, compressor works fine, and the gate is very good.

The thing that I keep asking myself is, I’m getting the best audio with my current setup? Because I see podcasts like the Podcastage and in one if his videos the guy walkthrough all the plugins he uses to improve their audio. It’s crazy what can be done with plugins.

  • It’s normal to use tons of plugins on live presentations? Like when you see a live podcast and the audio is simply amazing clear, alive, no breaths, noises, etc… Usually this is the result of the hardware? Hardware effects? Software effects?

  • A good, and expensive, next step for my setup would be something like a UA interface? It has DSP so I could have the live audio with all the effects and the same time record raw if needed.

Sorry if the question is too vague. I’m just trying to find myself on all the options available…

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Whenever I do any live work I do not use plugins. My mic and my dbx286s together with my mixing desk do the work for me live as they are latency free.

With your mic and your processor you should be able to get a decent live sound for your voice. However if you then intend to introduce other elements, such as gaming, guests or music then you may need to add a further stage to compression either via a hardware unit or a software plugin but I would recommend monitoring direct from your mixer or interface so the latency doesn’t become a distraction if you go down the software route.

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It sounds to me like you already have a decent setup there. Are you using Adobe Audition at all? That alone has everything you would ever need to tweak things further if need be. If your Rode mic and DBX is set up correctly however you should have minimal need for any add ons.

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The same as @markdenholm and @Izabela - if you have a good hardware setup (mic and dbx) you’ll find any amount of plugins needed will be minimal. Adobe Audition can actually do 99% if not all of the job after that point if needed :slight_smile:

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Thanks for the tips guys! I think I was just letting me go with the wave of new hot tech/equips :sweat_smile:

And just a quick note I got the dbx after seeing your videos @Mike :grinning:

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