Livestreaming Suitability

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DigitalDelay7
Posts: 1
Joined: 17 Aug 2018

17 Aug 2018

Hey guys! First post here - wondering if someone more knowledgeable might be able to help me.

So, I've used Reason for years. I use it to score film and videogame soundtracks and to create fills for difficult transitions in my DJ sets. I really love it, I feel like I know it pretty well, and I've come to rely on it for a lot of uses. As an aside I like to do a bit of live sound engineering in my spare time, too. I've just managed to land myself a pretty great job as a support analyst and the engineering aspect has given me a neat idea for a problem that's popped up at work.

So, every two weeks we have a company wide meeting that's broadcast to every office in the company all over the world. We normally host it in the office that I'm based in. I've watched a couple of these now and there are some really rudimentary audio issues that could be solved with a few fixes. The main one that concerns me, however, is that pretty much all of the presenters I've seen have some pretty poor mic technique. This is to be expected, as most office workers will have never held a microphone, and can get pretty excitable/nervous when one is placed in front of them. They'll often wave it around as they're talking, hold it at their side, thus going almost silent to anyone not in the room, then shoving it in their mouths and nearly blowing the desk up. The audio for these events is pretty dreary and I'd like to make myself look good at my new job by sorting this out.

I'm going to be giving some training to presenters to help with the sound dynamics, but I don't expect much of it to sink in as I'll be running them through it just ahead of their presentations and they'll have their own data to worry about, as well as having every single pair of eyes in the company on them, adding to their nerves and distracting them from using the mic properly.

What I wanted to ask was this - I need compressors. But we don't have a rack in the office and it would be unreasonable for me to ask for one. If I was to set up a decently specced conferencing laptop and buy a Reason 10 licence can I run the mics through the desk, into the laptop, utilise the compressors I know my way around in Reason, and broadcast the event live around the company? I've never had to use Reason in this capacity and I don't know if it has any sort of live broadcasting abilities. Initial Google quests have turned up nothing; leading me to believe this is not even remotely viable, but I thought maybe one of you guys might have had this idea at some point. Anyone have any sort of input? Thanks in advance for any help!

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selig
RE Developer
Posts: 11685
Joined: 15 Jan 2015
Location: The NorthWoods, CT, USA

17 Aug 2018

My first suggestion is to put the mic on a stand/lectern, or to use either a headset (over ear) mic or a lav/clip on mic instead of a hand held microphone. This would allow the presenters to forget about the microphone and just speak.

I don't believe any compressor available is going to solve this issue, and you'll add some latency by going through Reason (though it's probably not a big enough delay to be a deal breaker).
Selig Audio, LLC

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wireless
Posts: 100
Joined: 14 Apr 2017

17 Aug 2018

How about a left-field idea - Voicemeeter Banana.
I've been using this to help make videos and needing a solution that can mike physical and virtual (digital streams). It's donationware - so try and then consider a donation.

Main thing is that it is a software mixer that off the bat has three faders for physical inputs (i.e. microphones - which can be fed into a PC soundcard as audio, into an external audio interface or simply USB). Then the 'relevant' part - each fader has an in-built compressor and a noise gate. In practice it's ridiculously easy to use. What I've described so far is about 5% of it's capability, but as a no-brainer, low cost solution, it might just be what you need.

VB Layout.jpg
VB Layout.jpg (275.96 KiB) Viewed 615 times
https://www.vb-audio.com/Voicemeeter/banana.htm


Regards

djadalaide
Posts: 234
Joined: 11 May 2018

17 Aug 2018

There are hardware solutions out there, and it sounds like sticking to analog is the best option as you can easily control the input and output and monitor it as you go live - not delayed by a few milliseconds.

Most of the behringer or yamaha cx-range mixers have some compressors on the input stage of the mic channels for a budget option.

There are some really good limiters on the soundcraft signature series mixers as well.

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EnochLight
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Posts: 8405
Joined: 17 Jan 2015
Location: Imladris

19 Aug 2018

DigitalDelay7 wrote:
17 Aug 2018
If I was to set up a decently specced conferencing laptop and buy a Reason 10 licence can I run the mics through the desk, into the laptop, utilise the compressors I know my way around in Reason, and broadcast the event live around the company? I've never had to use Reason in this capacity and I don't know if it has any sort of live broadcasting abilities. Initial Google quests have turned up nothing; leading me to believe this is not even remotely viable, but I thought maybe one of you guys might have had this idea at some point. Anyone have any sort of input? Thanks in advance for any help!
The short answer is yes. But... Reason is a DAW first a foremost, so "live broadcasting abilities" is pretty much the same in Reason as it is in most other DAW. You'll likely need a proper USB audio interface that does audio-loopback. I wouldn't count on having success with any sort of integrated audio that comes with any decent spec'd laptop, no matter how much cash you drop on it.

What app/service are you using to live broadcast around your company? How many clients would you need to stream to?

I also agree with Selig - getting a proper mic setup for everyone involved isn't an unreasonable request, IMHO. Headset mics for everyone involved might be the easiest/cheapest route.
Win 10 | Ableton Live 11 Suite |  Reason 12 | i7 3770k @ 3.5 Ghz | 16 GB RAM | RME Babyface Pro | Akai MPC Live 2 & Akai Force | Roland System 8, MX1, TB3 | Dreadbox Typhon | Korg Minilogue XD

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