Recommendation for soundcard, compressor, etc?

[Guest wrybread]

I'm working with Radio Valencia (radiovalencia.fm), a small internet radio station in San Francisco. We're about 30 DJs. Before COVID era we did most of our shows in our studio, but like most people we went to all remotes for the last year. But now we just moved into a beautiful new studio and we'd like to get our stream sounding as good as possible.

 

We use SAM Broadcaster 4.7.4 with an external mixing board that feeds an analog signal to the computer, so the soundcard is responsible for digitizing the signal. Currently we're using a Soundblaster Audigy FX, and it's ok, but it certainly could be better. I'm thinking an external soundcard would be better to get out of the computer case and all the interference there. Does anyone have a recommendation?

 

Also I'm wondering what else people like to use in their signal chain to get it sounding really good. I really like the sound of Radio Paradise, their stream always sounds fantastic. Any tips for getting a stream sounding that good?

[GKIye]

Welcome to BW !

 

Sound processing is most important but not that easy to achieve the right settings.

Some presets of a software "looks" fine, but they all need some tweaking to achieve the sound were You are searching for.

 

I can suggest You 2 softwares who are in fact similar to eachother ... One costs money, and the other is open source

 

StereoTool :

Is a superb sound processor and works already fine if You buy a license to the Basic + Natural Dynamics + Declipper

Details : https://www.stereotool.com/

The developer is from The Netherlands

 

HellFire :

Is similar to StereoTool, but open source, so You gonna need somebody who has some knowledge about the setup.

Details : http://www.burnill.co.uk/

Source : made at the UK

 

These days most of the sound processing software is 32bit, so I suppose it can give some issues if You are still using an old version of SAM.

SB 4.7.4 is out dated and not anymore compatible with most of the today VST plugins.

 

Hope this was helpfull