Webcam as Talkback Mic?

Steve Ireland

Steve Ireland

New member
Hi folks. As the title suggests, I am trying to figure out if I can use my webcam as a talkback mic?

I have an Audient iD14 mk1. There are 2 mic inputs, both of which are being used when tracking guitars. This means I cannot use either of these inputs to stick a talkback mic on. So I have a webcam and I thought maybe there was a way to use the mic from that? It is connected direct to the PC via USB.

Maybe this isn't possible but if anyone has any ideas I would be grateful for advice.

Thanks for reading.

Steve
 
You don't say what system you are using for recording. If you are in Windows, then you're probably out of luck as you need to assign the audio input, which is going to be the Audient using ASIO. I don't think I've ever seen a provision in Windows setup where you can have additional inputs. It's not like monitors, where you have a choice of dual displays.
 
I tried to do this with the 14. At the time I found it all too confusing and I was using a usb little desk mic into the pc.

My remedy was to buy a proper 48v desk mic and a small behringer mixer to power it because I needed both mic ports on the 14 and also couldn't separate sound. I was green at the time and maybe this can be done? I also needed two headphones in operation which the mixer provided me with a second.

In hindsight I should have purchased the 44 instead of the 14 and this would have given me everything I wanted and been not much more expensive when done away with the mixer.
 
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That's one of the reasons I went for an 8 mic pre interface. 95% of my recording is done with one or two mics, but when I need more, they are available. It was a lesson learned when I tried recording a jam session with an H4n. The following year when I went to that event, I had a Zoom R24 and plenty of mics.
 
Shame. Wonder then if I could plug a wee cheap mic straight into the mic Jack on the PC? What do you think?

This isn’t a massive issue by the way, it would just be a handy feature.
 
You'll still have the exact same problem with the mic jack. You have no way to tell Windows to use that port for audio input once you have chosen the ID14. It's one or the other. About the only way I can see to add inputs is to find some type of mixer that uses ADAT. That gives you up to 8 more inputs. Unfortunately, that's probably not a cheap route.
 
There is no cheap way to do anything correctly.

If Confucius didn't say that, then he should have, because it's feckin true!!!!!!
 
Well - it sort of works. I can have cubase working normally, and on the other monitor I can view my ring doorbell and security camera and the audio from it bursts out through my interface audio output, but it's got huge amounts of legacy - fair enough the latency is expected but if there were any mics connected it would be weird. It's also not that controllable. you'd need to physically turn it on when you wanted to hear them, and I can't seem to route any audio from the interface to it to respond.

Maybe a baby monitor would work better - those little boxes that let you hear them and be able to speak back? They're quite cheap.
 
I was just hoping to set up a talkback mic that didn’t require me to sacrifice one of the mic preamps on my id14. If it’s not possible that’s ok.
 
rob aylestone said:
Well - it sort of works. I can have cubase working normally, and on the other monitor I can view my ring doorbell and security camera and the audio from it bursts out through my interface audio output, but it's got huge amounts of legacy - fair enough the latency is expected but if there were any mics connected it would be weird. It's also not that controllable. you'd need to physically turn it on when you wanted to hear them, and I can't seem to route any audio from the interface to it to respond.

Maybe a baby monitor would work better - those little boxes that let you hear them and be able to speak back? They're quite cheap.
Click to expand...
Baby monitor is an interesting idea.
 
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