Audio Compression

[craigry]

We are in an environment with a band on stage. The client wants to use their existing GoToWebinar account.

We take the audio mix and camera signals into a device that basically converts the signal to USB.

GoToWebinar (and other products) see USB Video from this device and USB Audio from this device.

When I send the signal, the audio cuts in and out like it is being compressed. It never goes silent... louder, softer, louder, softer.

The first call to LogMeIn said "there were issues. wait two hours. it will be fine"

The second call was there are no issues. You have to upload your videos to our system and play them back that way. Well, that is impossible because its live music. I can not upload it to their website.

They then sent me a support document to use Stero Mix. That doesn't work either, as that basically disables the microphone... which is where I select the USB Device as my audio input. (And, even tried playing the USB audio locally, then doing stereo mix so it picks it up that way - same..) I've seen some posts about a "downward expander first, then a compressor next. Probably a de-esser after that." and incoming audio.

I tried other services, one with 2 O's in the middle. It sounds fine. No issues. However, clients legal department will not use that brand because of theirr recent issues in the news.

Am I stuck here and just have to live with the crappy sound of the band? Spoken word sounds fine...

[Chris Droessler]

GoToWebinar employs a Downward Expander audio processor to eliminate background sounds during a GoToWebinar.  See my detailed explanation here: https://community.logmein.com/t5/GoToWebinar-Discussions/Choppy-music-audio-during-Webinar/m-p/21704... 

This works great for spoken word, but does not work for music of any kind.  It is also bad for presenters who have a wide dynamic range of volume in their voice.

We have asked GoTo to give us a switch to turn off this filter when we need to broadcast music.

In the meantime, the way to make your music work is to run it through a heavy compressor.  I mean compress it more then you would when mastering material for radio.  You have to crank the compressor up to 11!   An extremely heavy compression will take all of the soft musical sounds and make them louder.  Getting the sound level (volume) of every part of the music above the threshold of the Downward Expander is the only way around this.  You will have to practice with compressor settings to find what works without loosing the artistic integrity of the music. 

Extreme compression often requires a de-esser after the compressor.  If you don't have a de-esser, you might find you need to reduce the level of some of the higher frequencies, since they tend to get exaggerated during compression.

You will also have to run some test webinars to check the overall sound level.  Too high and you get mud.

If you run your band through a digital mixer, you should have access to all of this.  Let me know if you need additional help.  I've been in sound reinforcement and studio recording business for 50 years and GoToWebinar for about 10.

Best wishes.

"Without music, life would be a mistake." ― Friedrich Nietzsche

[craigry]

hah - just updated about another option I tried and also saw your response on another page....

We have an Allen and Heath QU-16 in that control room... We might have some external devices available too.