Talkback setup?

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mattpulpfree

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I've been messing around with a small studio for a few months now and have recently started to try to beef it up a bit, but before heading any further and purchasing more equipment I need to understand how to setup a talkback system. I'm sure this has been asked before somewhere on here but I just discovered this and can't find exactly what I'm looking for with just the word talkback.

So I am currently using a Focusrite Saffire Pro 14 into a Mac with a couple M-Audio AV40 monitors and a cheap 4 channel headphone amp. currently my setup goes like this:

Microphones into Saffire Pro
Saffire Pro connected with firewire to mac
mac audio out into the headphone amp in
Monitors and headphones into the headphone amp outs

I'm sure that isn't the best setup either so any pointers on that would be very helpful too.

I am eventually going to upgrade to either a Saffire Pro 40 or a scarlett 18i20, but for now I'm stuck with the 14. So I'm hoping someone can help me figure out a solution that will work now as well as when I upgrade. I need to be able to setup a microphone in the studio that I can use to communicate with the drummer/guitar player or what have you when they are recording in the other rooms but I'd like to have it not be recording in the mix. I think that's what the talkback system would be for? But again, I have no idea where to start or how to set this up really.

I am sorry if this is a total facepalm of a post.
 
These things are/were a lot simpler with a dedicated recording console, but there are options for DAW users, you just have to find the one that fits your needs, and more importantly your DAW setup.

Basically, you need a headphone cue system...a way to feed the pre-recorded tracks and the live/real-time recording all into the headphone cue system, so that the players can hear it in their headphones, and also that you can hear it in your headphones or your control room monitors (assuming you have separate control room/live room).
Once that is configured, adding a talk-back mic in the control room is not a big deal, you just have to tie that also into the headphone cue system. A mic out in the live room will take care of the players, though in most cases, there will always be a bunch of mics already set up in the live room for recording, so you in the control room will hear them easy enough, though getting a nice balance so all the players can hear each other is a bit more involved, otherwise everyone is constantly removing their headphones so they can talk.

All that said....just how involved is your studio/recording setup going to be? If it's just you doing the recording/control room stuff, and at most, a single player in the live room....it's not going to be as complicated as you in the control room and 5-10 players in the live room....so, what do you see as the most involved type of session you will be doing?

I have everything in one open room, so even when I'm recording others, we can still talk and hear each other without having a dedicated talkback setup (though I do have that on my console).

I think in the end, if you are going to get a little comnplicated....you will find that a small hardware mixer will go a long way to helping you set up headpone cue mixes and also talkback.
 
At the moment (and for foreseeable future) it will usually be 1 - 4 people in the live room (usually just the drummer but I record a lot of punk / hardcore bands and they love doing "gang" vocals so headphones for them all would be nice too). I'd like to keep it as simple as possible and before I figured out the idea of the "talkback system" I was thinking I could route the headphones and studio room mic through a mixer and my saffire pro wouldn't record that, but again I have no idea what the setup for that looks like. I'm a visual person so talking to myself and trying to adapt what other people say is extremely hard for me sometimes.
Obviously I want the people in the live room to be able to hear themselves recording as well as hear me when need be, but again don't want the studio mic to be in the recording if possible.

I may have missed a few things, sorry. I just discovered this forum by chance and am in the middle of building an isolation booth.
 
Hi Matt,
a talkback system is fairly easy to visualize if you draw it out as blocks and connect them.

To feed multiple headsets the Behringer H/P amps have a good rep but if you have a bit of electronics savvy and a old 20W per ch hi fi amp handy that can be made to drive a gazzillion cans!

MOST important is a push-to-talk, non-locking switch on the TB mic! You do not want to leave it on whilst slagging off the drummers bird! If you MUST have a latching switch, gang it up with a 'king bright flashing LED!

If you have the cash you could look into the Hearback system made by Loud Technologies (I will just check that!).......http://www.heartechnologies.com/hb/hearbacksystem.htm

USED to be loud!

Dave.
 
So if I went with one of these (studiotechnologies dot com/product_m220 dot html) what would I connect the mic out to (or headphones out I guess too)?
 
OR is there a way to incorporate this ( www dot behringer dot com/EN/Products/MON800 dot aspx ) ? I saw some other posts about using it for talkback but would have no idea how exactly to hook it up.
 
mattpulpfree said:
OR is there a way to incorporate this ( www dot behringer dot com/EN/Products/MON800 dot aspx ) ? I saw some other posts about using it for talkback but would have no idea how exactly to hook it up.
Click to expand...

The Behringer unit is very cheap and not likely to give you good quality in that vital monitoring path.
This, SM Pro Audio M-Patch 4M - Thomann UK
Is likely to be better but monitor controllers with talkback are available at all price levels, some way above the SM.

Do download the Behringer manual however since it gives you a good idea of the way these things are hooked up.

Dave.
 
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