Talkback

[PlnsMstkn4Jacob]

Ok I have a Presonus Firepod, and for the past year all my recording has been done in one room so there has been no need for talkback. Well, I'm about to have a seperate control room and I need a talkback function, but I don't want to spend all the money on the Presonus Central Station. Does anyone have any suggestions? Would it be totally ghetto to just have my PA system in the studio with a mic sitting by my desk to use as talk back through the PA?

[MadAudio]

That's one way to do it. Just make sure it's off when you hit record!

[jonnyc]

if you have a spare mic and micpre then just record enable an extra channel and if you need to, talk back while recording. its the way I do it and it always works.

[PlnsMstkn4Jacob]

I thought about that, it's just sometimes I don't really have a spare, but now that I think about it, it's a rare occasion that I use all 8 pre-amps at once.

[punkin]

Macki Big Knob...another option I suppose.

[Agent47]

Look into the Samson C-control. They're around £80 here in the UK.

Comes with built-in talkback mic + button (non-latchable), which you can route direct to your booth or into your mixer. Also has mono button, dim and mute, plus routes your mix to a variety of speakers and recorders. Little handy mixer really.

Tough little unit - I've been bashing mine for 3 years now.

I've got one to control my monitors, and I'll probably be using it's talkback when I finally sort out vocal recording in my house...

[innobidova]

Originally Posted by jonnyc

if you have a spare mic and micpre then just record enable an extra channel and if you need to, talk back while recording. its the way I do it and it always works.

That's what I'm about to do with my Firepod. If I must utilize all eight pres and still have talkback, I'll just get an additional preamp like the M-Audio DMP3.

[little guy]

what about using a crap pci soundcard. just have all output going through the firepod.

[tourettes5139]

How are you sending the headphone mix into the studio area? Is the headphone amp in the studio area or in the control room? What I would do is just run the outs that you are using to feed the headphones into a little cheap mixer, (could even be a crappy Berry), plug in a spare mic (once again, radio shack or the like would do the trick), and then run the main outs to the headphone amp. That's just how I'd do it.

[surfmaster]

i know behringer came out with a ridiculously cheap talkback and monitor bay sorta deal recently.

oh here it is
http://www.behringer.com/MON800/index.cfm?lang=ENG

its like $50 MSRP, and who needs a good quality talkback mic anyways. maybe its worth checking out, maybe its not, but just another idea.

-matt

[PlnsMstkn4Jacob]

Alright, so I have the HP4 headphone amp that I use with my Firepod. If I bought, say that Behringer Mini Mon where would I place it in the Firepod-Headphone Amp-Monitors chain?

[SRR]

Hay just called about that digimon, errr mini-mon at fullcompass today. They only want $33 for the sucker. I think it will work just fine for ME, if its usefull for someone else I don't know.

If I bought, say that Behringer Mini Mon where would I place it in the Firepod-Headphone Amp-Monitors chain?

Well for me, its gonna go like this: sound card outs 3 and 4--->mini-mon located in control room---->behringer headphone amp that is located in the tracking room/s

And seprately I have this going on: sound card outs 1 and 2---->passive RCA switch box---->two sets of speakers (wharfedales and altec computer speakers) and one home stereo integrated amp for control room headphones

That way, I have a talk back mic and overall volume control for downstairs, and I don't have a $33 "mixer/headphoneamp/talkback mic/etc" in my main monitoring chain. Now yes it is designed to go inbetween your main outs and then onto your main monitors and headphone amp, but I am not sure if that would be the best idea.....YMMV!!!!!!!!

As was pointed out to me in another thread on here the Samson C-Control (which the behri is almost an exact copy of feature wise) has gotten mixed reviews. Some say the C-Control is fine others think it rolls off the top end, others blah blah. Read the reviews at MF, Zzounds, etc. kind-a mixed if you ask me. Now did behringer do a better job then samson???

[SRR]

Hay bought and installed my mini-mon tonight. Had some extra time while the wife was out, to hook it up in my main monitor chain just to see how it sounds. By gosh I am shocked that its this good. So I said it has to be masking something so I hooked up left monitor directly to the sound card and the right monitor through the mini. Played with the levels a little to balance them out, then I played back some stuff that I know very well, both in mono, and stereo. For the life of me I couldn't tell which one was going thru it and which one wasn't. Maybe my wharfedale's aren't that good, I know they are only a $125 per monitor, but I thought I would be able to tell a difference easily, truth is I can't. And if I can tell the difference its so small, that imperfections between each of the speakers or maybe bewteen my ears would make a larger difference. I don't know, I think I was epecting much worse from behri. So far I am 2 for 3 from behringer. Had a UB802, blah that thing was lifeless as far as preamps go, and now I have a 4700 headphone amp that is fine and the mini-mon that as far as I can tell is fine. Gonna have to do some more listening, gotta find something wrong with it, I mean for $33 it has to be degrading the signal....right? More to come, maybe......

[Adam P]

The signal path on that should be completely passive, I would think, so I wouldn't expect it to degrade your signal a whole lot.

By the way, that Behri unit looks remarkably similar to the Samson C-Control

[SRR]

I don't think its passive, as passive would imply a cut only volume control, and this thing has plenty of gain to it.

[SRR]

Ok did some more testing. I hooked up my 1010lt left's output to my passive RCA switchers right in on input 1, and the 1010lt right's output to the minimon's rights in, then the minimon right out to the passive switcher right in on input 2. And then the passive switcher to my right speaker. Make any sense? Any way if you follow the signal chain, by selecting input 1 on the passive switcher I am hearing the m-audio through the passive switcher and on to the right speaker, and if I select input 2 I am hearing the m-audio through the minimon to the passive switcher on to the right speaker. I ran stuff through cubase to a mono group, so both of the outputs being used on the m-audio got the same signal. Then I switched between the two signal paths. There is about a 99.984232% match between the two signal paths. Neither one jumping out as being better in anyone category. Needless to say after this test I am confident enough to say, the minimon for a home studio will probably get you buy with out major signal degredation, something that when I bought it, I thought I was assured of that wasn't going to be the case and that is why it wasn't going to be in my main monitoring chain. I am going to have my brother in-law (sound installation installer) give it a listen to tomorrow and see what he thinks and if he can pick out one being better then the other. I know nobody prolly cares about this test, but thought I would share anyway.

[PlnsMstkn4Jacob]

I care, and now I feel more confident purchasing the minimon.

[SRR]

Ooooh, forgot two things, the headphone amp that is built into thing, kind'a sucks, no not kind'a, it does suck. The second thing, I don't think any of its outs are balanced, duh the RCA outs aren't, but it seems the 1/4" are only a TS connection according to the manual. It doesn't matter to me, since my sound card outs aren't balanced anyway. Other then that......not to bad.

[Semitone]

Have you heard of the Mackie BIG KNOB? Its one of those little do-dads you add into your existing DAW configuration so you can have monitor control and, if I'm not mistaken, talkback. Check it out & see if I'm a liar.

[SRR]

Of course you are right, presonus has its central station too, but its not $33.....Check it out and see if I'm a liar

http://www.zzounds.com/item--MACBIGKNOB

[punkin]

Originally Posted by punkin

Macki Big Knob...another option I suppose.

It does in fact have talk back.

[punkin]

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[Alien00]

Well, for hobby use Behringers Minimon 800 might be ok, but for professional use the Minimon is just not good enough. The Minimon alters the sound, and this in a certainly not pleasant way. The nice thing about the Minimonis that all the buttons lite up so it looks like a christmas tree, but a christmas tree or a washing machine sounds better than the Behringer Minimon

[Alien00]

Originally Posted by PlnsMstkn4Jacob

I care, and now I feel more confident purchasing the minimon.

Dont buy the Minimon if sound quality is important for you, YES its cheap, but why is it cheap, guess.. it sounds cheap. Its your decision,
But you´d be better off togive the money to charity than wasting it on the minimon

[Creamyapples1]

I see alot of yapping about it being shitty but I don't see any scenarios or examples of setup/use to go along with that.

We can bad mouth it all day, and I'm sure we're well aware that Behringer has put out some major stinkers. Let's get real though...Give us some specifics.