FWIW this is a photo of my digs at CDM Studios in NYC, specifically the "booth" [room] where we did multi-person podcasts and multicast dramas, etc. Each person on a 416 going through a transparent preamp and a transparent compressor, sometimes through a Dan Dugan D-2 Automatic Mixing Controller with its auto-ducking. It's way overkill for anything except big budget high-status projects, but it's what we use.