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If you’re on Mac a fairly cheap way (around $300/£250) to get a great sounding voice is to buy an ok microphone and Logic Pro. This will sound better than buyin

If you’re on Mac a fairly cheap way (around $300/£250) to get a great sounding voice is to buy an ok microphone and Logic Pro. This will sound better than buying a microphone of the same price. In Logic add an equaliser to counteract microphone and room deficiencies. Then finish off with a compressor to add extra “warmth” Once done, output logic audio to a virtual sound card (eg sound flower) and use that as an input for your audio conferencing. Great audio, for not too much money.

pta2002 5y ago
For that you can probably just use Garage Band, which is effectively just Logic with less features, and free.
happyhardcore 5y ago
Reaper [1] is a good alternative to Logic that's platform agnostic (Windows / Mac / Linux) and is cheaper at 60 USD (plus the software doesn't enforce any restrictions at the end of the free trial, but you should still buy the thing if you can afford it!) [1] http://reaper.fm/ http://reaper.fm/
- viraptor 5y ago
  Or https://ardour.org/ https://ardour.org/ for free - but that's trading money for sanity of the UX.
Mauricebranagh 5y ago
I have been playing around with this using Ableton live - windows really needs a native way of doing this like sound flower. I experimented using a second sound card and routing the out of my main to that - but I had ground loops. I wanted this for TTRPG streaming so I could treat my voice to fit with the character better.
- tnzm 5y ago
  >windows really needs a native way of doing this like sound flower. https://vb-audio.com/Cable/ https://vb-audio.com/Cable/ might interest you.
  - Mauricebranagh 5y ago
    I know I have tried that just so poorly documented I gave up lifes to short.
    - tnzm 5y ago
      It literally shows up as an audio device in Windows sound settings, and "just works" - what prompted you to reach for documentation? Unless you tried one of their more advanced offerings, like Voicemeeter - which also looks pretty intuitive judging from the screenshots. (Never tried it, on Linux I get this capability via JACK.)
      - Mauricebranagh 5y ago
        Wasn't so easy to configure live / my focusrite to do that when I tried.
        tnzm 5y ago
        Ah, I see you're a man of culture as well :) I've seen exactly what you're talking about, and yes - once a DAW is in the mix you have to account for the DAW's routing. Historically, audio routing is something you do within a DAW, between tracks and plugins and the like - and routing sound between separate apps is a niche OS feature based on hacks and workarounds (like VAC) instead of the OS providing primitives that map to the concept model. In an outboard setup you could at least trace the cables to see what's connected to what... and that's what audio routing on any OS lacks (JACK patchbays notwithstanding, since JACK is a pain to run alongside normal PulseAudio). If I remember correctly, it was non-obvious how to set up monitoring with Live and VAC, so I ended up using ASIO4ALL which can bridge multiple soundcards - but prevents other programs besides your DAW from using them. You're right, audio routing on Windows is a bit of a mess, MacOS is plug and play with strings attached, and on Linux there's JACK which has potential for greatness but is somewhat underdeveloped. Same as any desktop feature on these OSes :)
tnzm 5y ago
That's neither "fairly cheap", nor is going to sound better than buying a microphone at the same price and using free EQ and compressor plugins, nor is adding extra "warmth" the main benefit from using a compressor. (A compressor can help with making the the quiet and the loud parts more equal in volume, at the cost of amplifying background noise.)
elwell 5y ago
Interesting idea, would it noticeably eat into my CPU? (e.g., cause the fan to crank up) (MBP 16" 2020)
52-6F-62 5y ago
I think most of that is overkill (and not cheap) and most people would benefit just from a cheap USB dynamic or condenser mic direct. Logic Pro is overkill. Apple already offers a live virtual instrument and audio processing rig called Main Stage. It’s $40 rather than $300. https://www.apple.com/ca/mainstage/ https://www.apple.com/ca/mainstage/ But I think even that is overkill for your average office worker. Microphones are already tuned, so you’re getting expert input to the sound at that end already. That alone would be in another league to a laptop in a noisy room.

pta2002 5y ago

For that you can probably just use Garage Band, which is effectively just Logic with less features, and free.

happyhardcore 5y ago

Reaper [1] is a good alternative to Logic that's platform agnostic (Windows / Mac / Linux) and is cheaper at 60 USD (plus the software doesn't enforce any restrictions at the end of the free trial, but you should still buy the thing if you can afford it!) [1] http://reaper.fm/ http://reaper.fm/

viraptor 5y ago
Or https://ardour.org/ https://ardour.org/ for free - but that's trading money for sanity of the UX.

Mauricebranagh 5y ago

I have been playing around with this using Ableton live - windows really needs a native way of doing this like sound flower. I experimented using a second sound card and routing the out of my main to that - but I had ground loops. I wanted this for TTRPG streaming so I could treat my voice to fit with the character better.

tnzm 5y ago
>windows really needs a native way of doing this like sound flower. https://vb-audio.com/Cable/ https://vb-audio.com/Cable/ might interest you.
- Mauricebranagh 5y ago
  I know I have tried that just so poorly documented I gave up lifes to short.
  - tnzm 5y ago
    It literally shows up as an audio device in Windows sound settings, and "just works" - what prompted you to reach for documentation? Unless you tried one of their more advanced offerings, like Voicemeeter - which also looks pretty intuitive judging from the screenshots. (Never tried it, on Linux I get this capability via JACK.)
    - Mauricebranagh 5y ago
      Wasn't so easy to configure live / my focusrite to do that when I tried.
      - tnzm 5y ago
        Ah, I see you're a man of culture as well :) I've seen exactly what you're talking about, and yes - once a DAW is in the mix you have to account for the DAW's routing. Historically, audio routing is something you do within a DAW, between tracks and plugins and the like - and routing sound between separate apps is a niche OS feature based on hacks and workarounds (like VAC) instead of the OS providing primitives that map to the concept model. In an outboard setup you could at least trace the cables to see what's connected to what... and that's what audio routing on any OS lacks (JACK patchbays notwithstanding, since JACK is a pain to run alongside normal PulseAudio). If I remember correctly, it was non-obvious how to set up monitoring with Live and VAC, so I ended up using ASIO4ALL which can bridge multiple soundcards - but prevents other programs besides your DAW from using them. You're right, audio routing on Windows is a bit of a mess, MacOS is plug and play with strings attached, and on Linux there's JACK which has potential for greatness but is somewhat underdeveloped. Same as any desktop feature on these OSes :)

tnzm 5y ago

That's neither "fairly cheap", nor is going to sound better than buying a microphone at the same price and using free EQ and compressor plugins, nor is adding extra "warmth" the main benefit from using a compressor. (A compressor can help with making the the quiet and the loud parts more equal in volume, at the cost of amplifying background noise.)

elwell 5y ago

Interesting idea, would it noticeably eat into my CPU? (e.g., cause the fan to crank up) (MBP 16" 2020)

52-6F-62 5y ago

I think most of that is overkill (and not cheap) and most people would benefit just from a cheap USB dynamic or condenser mic direct. Logic Pro is overkill. Apple already offers a live virtual instrument and audio processing rig called Main Stage. It’s $40 rather than $300. https://www.apple.com/ca/mainstage/ https://www.apple.com/ca/mainstage/ But I think even that is overkill for your average office worker. Microphones are already tuned, so you’re getting expert input to the sound at that end already. That alone would be in another league to a laptop in a noisy room.