Microphone levels for live recording

john isaacs wrote:

Adrian Tung wrote:

So for recording, the general advice is to keep average levels to around -18 to -12dB to give yourself enough headroom to avoid clipping. The recording can then be boosted and processed afterwards.

But what about for live recording, e.g. for anything ranging from something as simple as a video conferencing call or video game team chat, to something as elaborate as a Twitch stream or live podcast?

I find that if I stay with the -18 to -12dB rule of thumb, the result is generally quite soft. In some live scenarios like concerts (or even some elaborate podcasts that I see on YouTube), I think there's a full time sound guy that sits at the mixer and rides the levels as the situation demands?

But besides riding the volume, which might not be practical in some situations, and barring applications that can apply filters like limiters and boosts (I think OBS has those, not sure if Zoom or Discord do), do you still follow the recording rule-of-thumb, or do you boost the mic signal higher (and how much higher)?

Edit:

So after some Internet research I found that a virtual mixer with built-in effects is one recommended option, and something like VoiceMeeter Banana comes highly recommended. But looking at the features as well as setup guide, surely this benefits mainly singular specialized setups, and is less useful for multiple use cases (the equivalent of having to crawl behind the rack and unplug/replug cables every time you want to switch between scenarios)...

Sometimes you just want a simple 5-second solution for that business Zoom meeting...

Or maybe no one really cares about your voice clipping in a Zoom meeting or Discord team chat... just crank up that gain and save the complexity for the setups that count... 🤔

The simplest solution is to record dual mono tracks with one track attenuated 10db, and replace clipped audio later. Some RODE mics do this with what they call a Safety Channel.

But you'd need the live app (whether that be OBS, Discord, Zoom, Slack, or whatever) to be able to play only one channel, while at the same time have another app record the other channel?