Studio 'talk-back' mic?

[studiodrum]

What would the best way to rig a "talk-back" mic using a Tascam 424 MkII. . The drum kit will be setup in the next room, away from the mixer, and we would like to find a way to be able to talk to the Drummer through his headphones. . . We have a cheap mic and a stand. . and we might be using a small sub mixer as well. . (But, that is undecided yet)

Does anyone have any good ideas. . .simple or complicated? We're just looking for some diffrent ways to do this. . Thanks guys!!!

[masteringhouse]

Originally Posted by studiodrum

What would the best way to rig a "talk-back" mic using a Tascam 424 MkII. . The drum kit will be setup in the next room, away from the mixer, and we would like to find a way to be able to talk to the Drummer through his headphones. . . We have a cheap mic and a stand. . and we might be using a small sub mixer as well. . (But, that is undecided yet)

Does anyone have any good ideas. . .simple or complicated? We're just looking for some diffrent ways to do this. . Thanks guys!!!

Plug any mic into a channel and use the aux send (pre-fader if possible) to a headphone amplifier in the room with the drums. Use the aux send to send any other additional instruments. That way the drummer can get his own mix (e.g. bass up vox down) while you're listening to the mix that you want in the control room.

You can also send the aux sends to the submixer and set this next to the drummer so that he can mix things the way that he wants to hear them. But you will need to use a different aux for each instrument that he will have control over.

[studiodrum]

Hey 'Mastering-h'

Thanks for the info. . . But, can you explain that to me a wee bit slower, please . . LOL. I'm a little slow on the uptake, I've only been at this a short time, and I sometimes need thing explained in brief detail when it comes to hooking things up . . . Thanks again!

[masteringhouse]

Originally Posted by studiodrum

Hey 'Mastering-h'

Thanks for the info. . . But, can you explain that to me a wee bit slower, please . . LOL. I'm a little slow on the uptake, I've only been at this a short time, and I sometimes need thing explained in brief detail when it comes to hooking things up . . . Thanks again!

I never owned a Tascam 424 MkII, but in looking at the manual on the site here (see: http://homerecording.com/sounds/tascam-424mkii.pdf ) you're a bit limited in what you can do. Additionally dedicating an input to a mic for talkback on this machine is probably a bit too wasteful since you are most likely going to need to route all 4 tracks to the cue sends. The method that I was describing assumes that you have a dedicated console with more channels than your tape machine.

I would try the following with your submixer:

1. Send the cue out of the Tascam to a channel on the submixer.
2. Plug a mic into another channel of the submixer. Use this as your talkback mic. The mic doesn't need to be expensive. A cheap tape recorder mic with an on/off switch will probably do the trick.
3. Send the output of the submixer to your headphone distrubution amplifier or amplifier that you are using to power your headphones.