Compression on the way in

Axe_meister

At work we are looking to do some live vlogs/discussions, etc and maybe post them online for the public, so we need to make them nice and slick, recording will be via Googlemeet/Zoom, etc.
So I'm looking at adding compression/EQ on the way in rather than in post processing.
Current equipment is a condensor mic, a normal two channel interface. Alas due for security reasons I can do very little config on my laptop, i.e. feed a DAW and have the output going into the video conferencing software.
What are my options? My thinking was as follows.
a) A new interface with built in compressor like the UA Volt
b) Outboard Mic pre+ compressor
c) Use my old mixer that has a couple of Aux outs (one pre-fader, one post fader) + outboard compressor.

Want to make this as cheap as possible, i.e. some cheap second hand ebay stuff.

What route would you take?

octatonic

I really wouldn’t bother for this use case. Compression during recording is usually best for music.

 If you don’t have enough gain from your microphone preamp then you may miss detail and then maybe you could use a small amount of compression.

This is easy to get wrong and over compressed audio just turns to mush. 

My advice is to not do this for the most part.

Axe_meister

Need to squish it a little, things can get a little shouty sometimes, or too quiet (just the dynamic ranges of peoples voices)

Stuckfast

Depending on how you're set up at the moment there may be easier and more effective ways to improve things. Can you give is a bit more detail? For instance is it just one person close up on the mic, or a single mic picking up multiple voices?

Danny1969

Doesn't Zoom literally  destroy the audio fidelity ? ... I know it did when I was teaching using a decent condensor during lockdown  

Axe_meister

It could be just me giving a presentation with just one mic in front of me, but I might be sitting quite a distance from it getting animated about something.
It could be 3 or 4 people sitting in sofas, it could be people around a desk with multiple mics.
Or a one to many Q&A session over the meeting software. 

Stuckfast

Hmmm, in most of those contexts adding a compressor risks making things worse. If you're far from the mic it'll just bring up the room reverb and ambient noise and make everything sound less professional, not more.

There isn't really a one-size-fits-all solution to make things better in each of those cases, unless you can give everyone their own personal mic and train them how to use it properly.

PolarityMan

Not withstanding the advice given above not to do it coudln't you use  a VST on the input and monitor via the DAW? There will be a bit of latency but for speech Id have though wouldnt be critical. 

roberty

My UAD Arrow has in-line plugin slots on the way in. It's idiot proof basically. The DSP happens in the interface but I think UAD are abandoning that

octatonic

roberty said:

My UAD Arrow has in-line plugin slots on the way in. It's idiot proof basically. The DSP happens in the interface but I think UAD are abandoning that

They are not.
They simply have some interfaces and plugins that do not now rely on DSP.

DSP is still the predominant approach because it affords lower latency monitoring.

People have been saying DSP is dead for over 10 years.
Answer this question?
With an entirely native system what do you do when you are 90% into a project and you need to overdub with plugins?
It is a complete pain in the ass.