One for the voiceover/home-studio Heroes...

Thanks Cromerty.

I guess what I'm trying to do (perhaps?) is have a series of "presets" for various clients, with various tones etc. set up.

I know I can do this in Audacity (which I use) using a settings Chain after the recording, but it would also be nice to know that I was recording edits and changes at EXACTLY the same settings.

So I guess it's around setting up a sound "profile" before I start, rather than relying on post-production techniques.

When I recorded at a Pro studio, I knew I could sit in the iso-booth several weeks later, and the producer could get me to sound EXACTLY the same. That's what I am trying to achieve, and with my current setup, which is not soundproofed, it is not always easy.

Still thinking this all through, so bear with me.

Where's Mr Bowyer when you need him....?

Hey Bruce -

One thing I do here since my wife and I share a single pro setup is to take photos of my channel mixer. My wife uses a different mic and tends to speak softer (only in recording, FYI) so we need two different setups for our screencasts and audio recording. For informal recordings, we use our own setups.

I used to place masking tape on my mixer but that works best for single user settings that you want to verify. When two people share a setup, or in your case multiple clients, then photos are probably the cheapest way to go.

Depending on what you do in post, you could set up filters and actions in Audition that bump the levels up or down accordingly. Audition lets you save your settings so you could create a profile for each client.

Masking tape and photos

I think I need to investigate the capabilities of Audacity in more detail...

This is one of the things I really like about GarageBand on the Mac. I record using a single setting on a good mic input, bypass the mixer, and use post processing to make tweaks, add effects, and adjustments. I have several post presets that I'll apply for various purposes. Even have a few for VHF radio / CB radio comms in my stack. 

Things seemed better for previous versions of GarageBand. The newest versions of Apple's consumer media and office suite really took some steps backward.

@Steve - I have a preset "sounds like a telephone conversation" preset that I apply in post-production sometimes, but I am sure it can do more....