MBox for Voice overs

[Simpson]

I'm using Pro Tools LE with the Mbox primarily for voice overs. I'm pretty much a beginner. I need to know how to set up the software and hardware so the voice over talent can hear themself in headphones. Any help would be nice!!! [email protected]

[neeel]

Create a Track
make sure it's not muted
Set its output to analog 1 and 2
plug their headphones into the front or back headphone jack on the Mbox
Record Arm the track
Hit Control and Spacebar together

Viola!

[MDog]

Create a Track
make sure it's not muted
Set its output to analog 1 and 2
plug their headphones into the front or back headphone jack on the Mbox
Record Arm the track
Hit Control and Spacebar together

Viola!

Or to avoid the latency induced delay effect, you can create a track and make sure it _is_ muted. Then adjust the mix knob until you get a good blend of any background tracks and the live mic input. Hit Record.

To hear what you just recorded, unmute the track and press play.

To punch, create another track, unmute the original track and mute the new track. Repeat step 1.

[Simpson]

Thanks for the advice;

I'm still having some trouble, though. I need to be able to hear what's going on as well as the person doing the voice over. When I plugged in headphones to the front and the back, only the back ones worked. Is there some way I should come out of the line output to send to the Voice over talent? In that case, do I need more hardware (a mixer, for example)?

Also, what does hitting ctrl and spacebar together do?

[Simpson]

Or to avoid the latency induced delay effect, you can create a track and make sure it _is_ muted. Then adjust the mix knob until you get a good blend of any background tracks and the live mic input. Hit Record.

To hear what you just recorded, unmute the track and press play.

To punch, create another track, unmute the original track and mute the new track. Repeat step 1.

Forgive my ignorance but does this apply to doing voice overs or music recording where the person recording would need to play/sing with pre-recorded tracks? What I'm trying to do is have someone be able to do voice overs while hearing themselves talk; naturally, I (the engineer) has to be able to hear as well.

Thanks!!!

[ccool]

Welcome to the club!

I originally bought M-box for VO work. However, I self-engineer, rather than use an engineer.

The space-bar makes the thing go -- enabling you to listen to what's been recroded. When you hit the space bar with the ctl key, it makes the thing go and record. You can also point&click to do the same thing.

Now, monitoring with the M-box is somewhat awkward, in terms of work flow. That's because thd little knob on the front enables you to either monitor mic or line source before it goes to the computer or after it's gone to the computer. Obviously, if you listen to what's being sent to the computer and what has been processed by the computer at the same time, there's a delay -- called LATENCY! So, to eliminate hearing the latency, you've got to turn the knob to the extreme left, counterclockwise.

If you record and want to listen back, you've got to rotate the knob from the extreme counter-clockwise direction. To eliminate the knob twising (which is a real hassle), the recommendation is to put it in the middle. That way you get a blend of the signal before it's processed and after it's digitized. However, then you hear the latency.

So, you mute the track you're recording.

When you playback, you should be able to hear what's been digitized/recorded. Just hit the space-bar. You may hear nothing. That's because the track has been muted. Un-mute it. And, you then can hear what you're playing back, assuming the recorded track is NOT muted. Again, if it is muted (which it always was in my case, because I'd forget to unmute the track), you'll not hear anything. So, you've got to un-mute it. Remember that: I told myself that a thousand times. And, I still didn't hear what I'd recorded. Oh, I forgot. Sometime, you'll forget to turn the little knob counter clockwise, because you've turned it to the extreme clockwise position for playback monitoring. And, then, when you record and mute, you'll hear NOTHING.

When you remember to un-mute, you'll try to record and you'll hear latency. You'll stop, approach the M-box, cursing, and twist the knob to the extreme counter-clockwise position.

It's a two stroke thing: play and unmute are the stokes you'll execute. The knob is definitely a twister.

WHAT WOULD BE NICE IS A MACRO OR SOMETHING THAT WOULD FLIP BETWEEN NO LATENCY MONITORNING AND MONITORING THE DIGITIZED SIGNAL WHEN YOU HIT RECORD VERSUS PLAYBACK with one stroke. It doesn't exist.

One thing I tried was using an external mixer, like the Yamaha 10/2. There are also other inexpensive mixers around that you can use for monitoring. But, be forewarned that you've got to connect and operate everything so you don't get a electronic gear coupling that can create a feedback loop. In other words, you need a separate headphone/monitor monitoring circuit.

The temptation will be to use the mixer for the mic and plug a line into the M-box. Then, for monitoring what's been recorded you'd run the analog output of the M-box back into the mixer. You can easily create a feedback loop. While you can make it work, you'd have to be vigilent in flipping knobs, mousing, and stuff. I found that configuration to be awkward.

Ultimately, I was not satisfied with the M-box and upgraded to a 002-Rack. The 002-Rack has a low-latency capacity that solved the monitoring problems, petter pre's, and plenty of inputs and outputs. It's kind of an expensive solution, compared to other sound cards (the M-box ain't nothing but a sound card), but I'm totally happy now. And, my home-studio work-flow is good.

I'll hasten to add that I know many VO talents who use the M-box and are perfectly happy with it. You can get the job done using it.

Good luck.

[MDog]

Forgive my ignorance but does this apply to doing voice overs or music recording where the person recording would need to play/sing with pre-recorded tracks? What I'm trying to do is have someone be able to do voice overs while hearing themselves talk; naturally, I (the engineer) has to be able to hear as well.

Thanks!!!

This applies to voice over, music production, foley, whatever you want to monitor without latency. If the talent wants to hear themselves in a set of headphones, you'll probably find the latency delay unworkable. This is the reason Digidesign designed the Mix Knob on the MBox.

A mixer is another solution, but not really any less complicated than the built-in MBox Mix Knob.

In voice over work, many times the talent wants to punch a single phrase or word. You will need to hear the previously recorded take to record the punch. That's where the dual track scheme comes in.