Recording Podcast with MBOX 3, 2 Microphones (2 Hosts) and 1 Skype caller

[JimmyMcV]

Hi,

I have a Mac Pro and Mbox 3 with PT LE 8.0.4 and was wondering if anyone has any advice about my set-up. (I'm a new user of this Mbox so I'm not familiar with all of its capabilities).
_____
Here's what I'm trying to do:

Record a podcast with 2 hosts and 1 Skype caller. And during the recording all three parties need to be able to hear one another.

For the 2 hosts, I have one dynamic mic and one condenser mic (the latter requiring phantom power).
_____
Do you have any advice on how to best set this up?
_____
Here's one theory I have, but I have a feeling it's flawed:

1) Connect my 2 XLR mics into the MBOX (does it matter if only one requires phantom?).

2) Configure Skype to get its Input from the Mbox (if possible?). Now the caller can hear us.

3) Configure the Skype out to be the Mac Pro's S/PDIF out. Route that S/PDIF out into the S/PDIF IN on my Mbox. Now Protools is getting the sound of the Skype caller as well as the two mics.

(But that might create some delay or loop issues?)

How about an alternative to step 3:

Step 3B) Could ProTools have an input source for one track be the Skype caller's out? So, ProTools is getting 2 mic tracks via the MBox. And then Protools is also getting an input from the system out?

Ok, I have a feeling that's flawed as well.
___________

I'd like to see if I can avoid having to use extra Skype recording software or extra hardware to make this happen. If I'm going to record this thing using software only (plus the Mbox 3) I think the less software programs running, the better.

Thanks for any help!

Jimmy




Here are two forum posts where Skype recording was addressed to a degree:

http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=218319

http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=194335

[Park Seward]

you might have a conflict having one computer routing different audio from two separate programs running at the same time. You might should use a second computer for Skype.

I don't know if the output of Skype mixes out the input audio like a telephone interface would. If it doesn't, you'll hear the other voices delayed.

You'll have to mix the Skype audio with the other mics through a mixer and then output the mixer to the MBox.

[JimmyMcV]

I did make some progress with this, using both WireTap Anywhere and Audio Hijack Pro.
It seems I can't send Avid MBox audio to another application without having ProTools open, unless there's something i don't know how to do.

In WireTap Anyhwere:
- I created an interface for the ProTools audio. And i created an interface that routed the Pro Tools audio to the Left channel of the interface. And I routed the Skype audio to the Right channel of the interface.

In SKype: under Audio, I made the Input the "Protools" audio interface I created with Wiretap. The output was headphones.

In Audio HiJack, I hijacked the 2nd Wiretap Anywhere interface (the one with Protools + Skype audio) and I made the input that same interface.

Then I started a SKype call and hit record on Audio HiJack.

____________

The result was a file with 2 channels. One one channel was the Skype caller and the other channel was my microphone input coming into Protools via MBox.

It sounds "ok", though there are some level adjustments I need to make.

One problem, however, was a hum or buzz in the track. Not sure where that's coming from.
____________
I'm not sure if this is the best way to do this, but it's what I've been able to do so far. I'll keep trying.

[JimmyMcV]

I'm wondering if I really need Wiretap Anywhere to do this. I wonder if I can someone just do this with Audio Hijack.


Another thing I noticed was that the Skype audio was coming in too hot. I was kind of talking very close to the mic on the Skype computer. Maybe that was it.

[JimmyMcV]

Ok, I did a few more tests and definitely made more progress! It's working!
Thank you Avid for making your hardware/software more open lately.
_________
This time, I taxed my computer even more by simultaneously recording with Audio Hijack *and* Protools. And no hiccups whatsoever although that is kind of risky.

One big question mark I have is how I can better control the levels of the Skype caller. I was able to ballpark it by turning down the call volume on the Skype window. And Audio Hijack has a small, rinky-dink meter (without numbers or anything). But maybe Hijack has an Effects plug-in that would make a better mixer. Anyone know?

My other big question is whether I need WireTap Anywhere or if I can do this all in HiJack. I noticed that HiJack actually has some plugins called WireTap Anywhere. I couldn't get it working properly. Anyone know if this is possible?

Another question: the Hijacked Protools Mic came in too hot. How do I control the gain of the hijacked Protools audio? Is there a plugin in Hijack that will do this?
_________
But anyway, at least I have a working configuration. And next I'm going to add another sound input - from Soundboard or some kind of sound cue software. Hopefully that won't break the camel's back.
_________
To summarize, here's what I'm doing. Recording two podcast hosts via the Mbox 3m and recording a Skype caller simultaneously. And we can all hear each other without echo or delay.

Again, here's how I did it:

System Pref > Sound: Input is Avid MBox. Outputis Avid Mbox.

Protools LE: it's open and i have my two mic recording buttons selected (actually I just tested this with one mic coming in so far, to be honest). The two mics will be in the next test.

WireTap anywhere: I created an interface called "Mix Minus" . And all that is doing is taking in the ProTools Left and Right channels.

I created another interface called "Podcast". In this one, I'm sending both Protools channels to the LEFT channel of "Podcast". And I'm sending Skype Left and Right channels into the RIGHT channel of "Podcast".

Next, in Skype > Audio: Audio output is Avid MBox. Audio Input is "Wiretap: mix Minus"

Finally, in Audio Hijack: I added an "Audio Device" to hijack. And the device is... "WireTap: Podcast". The input device for this is "WireTap:Podcast" and the Output is "AvidMbox."

________
Now to record:
In ProTools, this wasn't necessary, but I decided to hit the record button and start recording my mic.

In Audio Hijack I selected Audio Device and clicked the Hijack button.

Then, in Skype, I Called my Caller.

Then, in Audio Hijack I hit the Record button. And I started my conversation.

When I was done, I hit the Record button again to stop, both in Hijack and in Protools.

Next, in Protools, I imported the audio file that Hijack just recorded. It's a stereo pair with one channel Mics and one channel Skyep. I right clicked on the track and selected "Split into Mono". That created two mono tracks.
Plus I also had the Protools recorded mic on another track already. So I had duplicates of the mics (again, maybe it wasn't necessary to record in Protools but I just wanted to compare).

I noticed that I can't get the Protools version and the hijack version of the mics EXACTLY in sync, even by nudging with the smallest increment. But it's not a big deal. They sound pretty much the same anyway.

One problem however (as I stated above) - -I noticed the Hijacked Protools audio (the Protools mic) came in HOT. Why is that? Is there a Hijack plugin that will allow me to mix down the hijacked protools? I don't know why it's different than what I recorded in Protools because the Protools version is perfectly fine.

_______

But anyway, i got something to work. That was a 10 minute conversation. I got to test it out on 30 minutes now.

Let me know if you have any better ideas about my configuration. If I could do this with less software (just Hijack, not Wiretap) that would be great.

Thanks for reading!