Talkback mic and headphone setup - G5 / 002 rack

[mlad]

I have a 002 rack setup. I have my main vocal mic and headphones in the vocal room and a talkback mic and headphones setup at the computer. I currently have the 2 mics on the mic inputs 1 and 2. The 2 headphones are hooked up with a splitter coming out of the headphone jack on the front off the 002. Monitors are connected to the monitor outs on the back. My main question is how or can I set up the system so that I, at the computer, can talk to the person in the vocal booth using the talkback mic and the person in the vocal both can talk to me, even when not recording, using the vocal mic while we each can listen to each other through headphones.

I know this is a newb qustion, but any help would be greatly appreciated.


G5 Dual 2.0ghz
002r
KRK V4 Monitors
Rode NTK

[where02190]

Check out the Samson C-Control for $99.

[JFreak]

it's all about what you and the artist want; the easiest/cheapest solution is to share same monitor channel (which you are doing if you have splitted the headphone out) - you need to set up a mic for yourself also, and mix its signal into whatever you and the artist are monitoring. this is not so good situation, because the artist and you will almost always disagree about the volume level which is under your control and not the artist's.

or you can add another monitor channel(s) and have different mix for the artist and for yourself; however, you still need to set up a mic for yourself and feed its signal into the artist's mix. but having another channel you won't need to listen to yourself while you talk.

just remember to mute your mic when you record if you don't want to disturb the artist. some engineers put a ducker into talkback channel which activates the channel only when you talk loud enough. i'd still prefer manually opening/muting the channel.

--

there are plenty of outs in your 002 rack. if you have the budget, it would be nice to give the artist the level control of the monitor headphones - consider buying a headphone amp, a presonus hp4 for example (or even some cheaper device). the presonus one, though, is simple enough for anyone to use and you can feed a stereo mix into it.

[mlad]

Thanks for the help.

The sampson looks like what I am trying to build, just all in one box. However I would think that sound quality could be an issue. I think a seperate headphone amp is the way I will probably go. Anyone have any other suggestions?

[nerd513]

i just got a samson unit for $59 that i hook to the headphone out of 002r then run that to head phone distrubution in booth. it has a headphone out and talk back xlr for for talkback. simple and cheap but does the trick. samson is coming with some cool little things in the $99 range. not the best quality but will work untill u can afford something better.

[spicyitaliano]

Mackie's got a new solution coming out called the Big Knob. It has the talkback mic built in and has a simple monitor matrix. It just sort of cleans up a lot of problems. You could incorporate this with a small mixer in the vocal room for their own mix. Just ideas. The possibilities are endless. Just see what you like the best and work from there.

[mlad]

Money is not much of an issue. What is the best way to get this done, short of going to a control24.

[where02190]

The C-Control sounds great. The Mackie Big Knob won't be out for several months yet, it's still really in the planning stages, but looks to be a very nice device.

Presonus makes a device that does what the C-control does and a few more things for about 4x the price.

[mlad]

Thanks for the help anyone.

The C-Control is on order.