Soundboard vs.Voicemeeter ?

[StarbirdX]

My church has been livestreaming to facebook during the pandemic and since I'm the most technologically advanced member of said church, I've been asked to look into a proper streaming setup. I was thinking it would make sense to upgrade the soundboard (its at least 40 years old) which is used to controle speakers, mics, and facemics. Integrating this funtionality into the computor which will be used to run Streamlabs by controling all these audio devices with Voicmeeter Potato seemed like a good idea, but after spending an hour searching google for any information regarding this (and finding absolutly nothing), I'm not so sure.

 

Any opinions/info about this would be much appreciated! Audio stuff is so confusing, I much prefer networking. 

[S0nar]

Voicemeeter rocks! The biggest issue with it is it takes some audio routing knowledge. I use the big guy every day for live broadcasts. 

 

With that, you are at a cross roads. All OBS or stream labs needs is 1 feed. If your goal is to take the live service and feed that audio, a simple audio usb codec is all you need. No VM (potato or otherwise) You can run everything though the analog board you have now. 

 

Voicemeeter, for me at least, is perfect for routing audio within your computer. Skype to OBS that type of thing. Great for giving conferencing platforms a mix minus. (Live mix, minus themselves, is sent back) If you incorporate video calling into your services then lean on VM. 

 

As a networking guy you will love the VBAN option on VM. It is essentially AOIP without spending 6k on a fancy Axia board and system! If you have questions send me a message, I love audio problems. Been solving them for years now.

[The Flying Sloth]

Respectfully I entirely disagree with S0nar, Voicemeeter sucks bad when you try and use it alongside studio grade hardware, seriously, just get a cheap stereo audio interface, run the line outputs of the mixer straight into that and voila, you've got your church service. No need for messing with Janky software.

Sloth

[S0nar]

Your right 

13 hours ago, S0nar said:

All OBS or stream labs needs is 1 feed. If your goal is to take the live service and feed that audio, a simple audio usb codec is all you need. No VM (potato or otherwise) You can run everything though the analog board you have now.

That was my first suggestion. Use the audio system that works and us a single audio codec. My go to right now is Behringer UMC22. I just wasn't sure how determined OP was to using VM. 

 

VM is great for internal routing. Do I have to restart the Audio Engine every couple of hours? Sure. Is it hard to program at times? You bet. But do you have to get Skype to talk to OBS and Zoom at the same time? It does the trick. 

 

At the end of the day you have to look at your smallest pipe. Live streaming a Church service from a mixer to a phone really can be done with an $5 iRig and a 1/4 inch patch cable. We all want a couple of Blackmagic boxes, 8k cameras and a Wheatstone AIOP system to play around with. But you have to use what we got and slowly replace and change on our way to Broadcasting Shangri La. 

 

I also appreciated the "respectfully" Sloth. And thanks for your recommendations page. I've used RE20's most of my career, but I love my 320 at the house. 

[The Flying Sloth]

5 hours ago, S0nar said:

-snip-

Both the 20 and 320 are great mics, there's a reason EV have been one of the industry standards in dynamic mics for decades. 
You might be surprised how good a lot of cheap microphones have become, you can mic a full drum set for under $400 now (MB75s on close mic, EV PL33 on kick and 3U CM1 Teals on OH) with stunning results, to the point where I almost don't miss the RE20 or U47 on kick, MD 421s close and 414s OH.
The clone game has really stepped up recently too, the Thomann Shure clones are damn close to the real thing as are the Behringer e906 (and other) clones. 3U Warblers are Premium FET killers and Advanced Audio straight up clones the big names (especially vintage ones) and sells them for the price of a cheap mass-produced tube mic.

It's a great time to be a gearhead,
Sloth

 

[StarbirdX]

Thanks to both of you for the help! I think I'll just stick with the soundboard and use VM for internal stuff. Thanks again for all the info!