Routing Skype Calls and PC with separate tracks

R

RetroJonezin

New member
Hi all,

I am sure the skype recording conversation has been beat to death, but I haven't been able to find an answer to a specific question about sending pc audio to my caller, without sending their voice back with it cause echo.

First, my setup. I am using a focusrite 26 pro with mixcontrol and adobe audition. I have my Primary line outs going to my studio monitors, 3/4 going to a bottlhead crack headphone amp, 5 going to a sub, which leaves 6 open.

My friend and I have a weekly podcast and I have not been able to figure out a way to send him pc audio say from youtube to him through skype without sending his voice back with him, cause all sorts of problems. I used to have a steinberg UR44 where the loopback worked for this and for some reason his voice didn't echo, but on the focusrite it does. I switch to the focusrite because I needed better routeing for my other gear.

Is there a way for me to route my PC audio back to my friend without his voice coming with it?

I tried getting skype to pan left and the pc to pan right, but couldn't get that to work either. I though Skype had something auto build in to handle the echo but it isn't working for us. Thoughts?
 
Hi,
I wish skype supported multichannel input/output. It'd make this stuff so much easier.

I know exactly how I'd do this on mac but it's one of the few areas where windows+osx are totally different beasts and even then it's still a bit of a hoo-ha.

In simple terms you want to send all system audio to a+b (hardware or software) and then set skypes output to c+d (hardware or software).
Then you need some way to send a+b back to skype for your buddy to hear, and a,b,c+d to your master outputs.

You may be able to achieve this with soundflower 16ch virtual routing software and a DAW, but I'm way out of date on multi-interface support on windows, and Soundflower is considered an audio interface.
Is it possible to use two interfaces or an aggregate device on your setup?

Another way is just to use a different source for the audio you want to send to your friend.
If it was a second computer you'd plug your mic into it and send your friend the master output (music/youtube/whatever plus your voice), but then you have the problem of you not being able to hear that output and if you solve it, you'll be able to hear yourself too.
A little mixer would help but man, that's messy considering all you want to do.

Going round in circles a little.
Do you have any mixers or hardware, or any knowledge of virtual routing software?
 
Hey, I've spent an inordinate amount of time on this exact problem. Here's what I have come up with, using my own hardware, your mileage may vary with what you have but hopefully this is useful. Here's a link to a document I created for myself so I can remember how to make this work in future

https://drive.google.com/open?id=11yHO236wp1W-MaUcMuEplQNY4BLuLmM9hX2SdtE78nY

And a link to the mixdown of the recording from Mixcraft...

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1jtcc0nOl1bYXJnallzaVQ3ZXM

Let me know if you have questions and I can try to clarify anything that doesn't make sense. I'm certainly not an expert, but this seems to be working for me. The hardware I am using is a Soundcraft Signature 12 MTK, XLR mic, borrowed pre-amp.
 
Awesome!!! Thank you, I will try these options. I do have another source I could patch into my interface and route, but since skype is still listening on the left channel it seems even through routing my buddy still hears his voice. I think I can make this work with the items provided. It's mind boggling to me that there isn't a way to route application audio at the system level without third party applications or hardware.
 
RetroJonezin said:
I do have another source I could patch into my interface and route, but since skype is still listening on the left channel it seems even through routing my buddy still hears his voice.
Click to expand...

Maybe the problem is feedback then.
Does either of you use speakers for these voice calls? If so, use headphones.
 
We both use headphones. So a couple things. I was able to get the audio working correctly when testing but something failed on our actual skype call. I used saffire mixcontrol to route my mix to line out 6, I then patched line 6 out to line 1 in and that was working when I tested with my laptops, one using desktop skype the other windows app skype.

When I tried with my friend he was able to hear me but was not able to hear the music event though it was input on the same channel. My skype audio was even showing the meter move when I was sending audio. We gave up on him hearing my pc sound, and then halfway into the call he was able to hear himself, most likely because he was also being patched into input 1.

Would something like this work?
Virtual Audio Cable Home Page
 
Hmm..sounds like it's just mixed up.

You'd want one computer with your mic going in and your source of music going in (or playing from within).
The outputs of that would go to another computer where the skype call is being hosted.
The skype input would be set to whatever the above is.

That means your buddy hears your music and voice (stereo output from computer 1)but, unknown mistakes/settings aside, it's impossible for him to hear himself.
 
Ahhhh got it. So I could do it using my second computer. I was trying to get it to work using my virtual routing and patching. But the second computer would make it easier. Process the audio and my voice, patch out to interface and it's good to go. I could actually probably just use screen sharing to make my audio available to him. Essentially it's for playing back voicemails. If I would screen share and play the voicemail on the shared application or screen he should get the audio. Kind of wonky, but both should work.
 
Thanks for the help everyone. I got it working using a second laptop using tips from above, and then I used a separate mix in my virtual routing. Figured it would be helpful to come back and post the full solution if anyone else is searching for something similar with this hardware and software.

Here was the resolutions with the focusrite saffire pro 26 with mix control.

First I reset my mixcontrol so I knew that was back to square one.

I plugged in my mic into analog 3.
I routed my second laptop using a 3.5 to xlr to analog 2.
I create a second mix in mixcontrol and left all of the analogs set to 0 except for 2 and 3. Pretty much this. https://us.focusrite.com/answerbase/how-to-create-a-skype-mix-for-scarlett-or-saffire
I then routed the new skype mix to line output 6.
I patched output 6 to line input 1 for skype.

In Audition I was able to grab each as separate tracks. I grabbed the separate PC audio on input 2, my mic on input 3, and then was able to grab my skype caller on loopback 1.

Thanks again everyone!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top