Audio balancing on my Stream

Hello everyone, I was just hoping to get thoughts on how i have my audio balanced.
My twitch profile is linked to my discord, my Vod name "Live!! Chivalry 2 patch notes and rants")
I want to preserve dynamics but also not have anything too extreme.

My last stream on my twitch page, time stamp 42:00-44:00; I talk over the game (the game audio ducks when i talk), then you hear gameplay by itself and I do a sound drop close to the 44 mark. I want all the details of the game heard clearly when I'm not talking, but have the duck not be too jarring when I do talk etec.

If anyone has an opinion on something that should go up or down i appreciate it

Some curse words are used in advance just fyi

MrGrizzB•7/24/23, 11:31 PM

curious what upward compressor are you using? maybe I read what you said wrong and you might not be using one haha

ChronicMayhemOP•7/25/23, 4:34 PM

@spacepillow So my current audio in this clip is based entirely on that video. I was weary about putting a compressor on game audio that I would affect it negatively but I guess I can try that instead of the duck
@mrgrizzb I'm using VST plugins, and the basic reaper compressor

ChronicMayhemOP•7/25/23, 4:35 PM

My chain goes
Noise gate
Presence boost
Compressor
Limiter

ChronicMayhemOP•7/25/23, 4:36 PM

And I am using a duck compressor on the game audio currently, My intention was to make it very subtle which I thought I had achieved that, but I guess not if people here disagree after listening.

My worry is when a lot of people don't use a ducking compressor the game audio is either way too low and I personally find that very annoying not being able to hear the details of a game someone is playing like footsteps, etc, or when they talk they're microphone is jacked up super high over the game audio and it's jarring

I'll re-watch the video and try to figure out a compressor on the game audio

MrGrizzB•7/25/23, 4:38 PM

I was more interested if they had a free upwards compressor and how they liked it. but thanks for sharing

ChronicMayhemOP•7/25/23, 4:53 PM

Basically just boost up your mids so you sound more clear

Sspacepillow And yeah, a *regular* compressor on game audio isn't recommended since it can ch...

ChronicMayhemOP•7/25/23, 4:53 PM

Since that is what I was worried about because I figured sound engineers picked these audio dynamics to be the way they are intentionally and I didn't want to mess with them

ChronicMayhemOP•7/25/23, 4:53 PM

That's why the duck seemed appealing to me

ChronicMayhemOP•7/25/23, 4:55 PM

@spacepillow So my microphone has a built-in high pass filter and a presence boost or you can combine them. I guess an SM7B has the same type of system

ChronicMayhemOP•7/25/23, 6:46 PM

@spacepillow i just raised it a DB before this so ill put it back. Thank you for taking the time its very much appreciated

Sspacepillow Oh, and nice stream btw. Webcam and background and everything looks great

ChronicMayhemOP•7/25/23, 6:46 PM

Thank you that means alot