I'm looking for some sort of plugin or other component that can take a recording or a track in Logic and automatically raise or lower the level as needed, similar to the automatic gain control offered in a Symetrix 422 or an Aphex A320 Compellor.
Our church is working on getting a multitrack recording system going, but our FOH and monitor consoles don't have direct outs, and doing half-inserts isn't a valid solution (nevermind that we can't then insert processors in the channels). (We're currently moving facilities, and so we'll be getting a recording setup going in the future.) But for right now, we're just recording the basic LR mix. Of course, then, the speaking segments are far quieter than the worship, which makes them hard to hear on the CD and DVD recordings. Compression really doesn't work for obvious reasons, and manually boosting the levels is time consuming and annoying, especially because you can't just select it and boost it--you have to automate it to get a smooth fade/blend between the level changes.
I've looked all over the 'Net and can't find any type of plugin that does this. I know Logic really wasn't designed for this type of work (maybe Soundtrack would be better suited to this--I own it but haven't messed with it much), but it seems that SOMEONE would have created this plugin. Does anyone know of such a plugin? Or is there an easier way to do this that I'm completely overlooking?
TIA,
Chris
P.S. Not sure if this is the appropriate place for this type of question, but I figured that church sound engineers are familiar with these types of needs, so they might know. If not, maybe a moderator can move it to the recording forum or something...