Talkback - Gates, Comps, and Sidechains

[Jburn34]

I've been trying to figure this out for a while, but can't quite get it. There has got to be a way to set up an aux as my talkback channel, where whether using the sidechain on a gate or compressor, it will only allow audio passage when there is no recording going on.

Also, I would like to setup a talkback for the musician where their mic will come through an aux so that I can hear them through that channel during playback or when stopped, but not when recording.

I've been using aux's for this but I'm hoping to figure out a way to do it without muting and unmuting so much.

Anyone got ideas?

[Rail Jon Rogut]

Do it the same way you would with an analog deck.. generate SMPTE and use that to open and close a gate on the talkback aux track.

Rail

[Magnetic]

Do it the same way you would with an analog deck.. generate SMPTE and use that to open and close a gate on the talkback aux track.

Rail

Dude, what a cool tip! All together now, "Rail Rocks"...

[Steve MacMillan]

If you wan't the talkback mic to be open when you're not playing music... use the noise or smpte track as a sidechain to close a ducker (reverse of a gate). When the ducker sees the signal it closes the gate. The drammer compressor/gate does this. You can also duck with a compressor (so long as it doesn't have auto gain make up).

The sidechain into a gate works well for ambience loops, crazy delay regen, or record scratch noise you might have looping but you don't want to hear when you stop playback.

sm

[Jburn34]

How do I generate SMPTE. I knew you could do it in analog, but don't know how on PT. (I'm in LE, but didn't get any replies over there)

Thanks

[Rail Jon Rogut]

Use a MTC to SMPTE box, in the Session Setup Window select to generate MTC, put Pro Tools online and hit play.

If you don't have an MTC to SMPTE box, print a LF tone to an audio track and use that as your trigger.

Rail

[Mark Wheaton]

I am sorry I guess I am dense but I don't really understand this technique (Using a SMPTE track and a gate for a talk back system )and would love to try it. Can you direct me somewhere that can give me a step by step set up for this?
thanks

[O.G. Killa]

How do I generate SMPTE. I knew you could do it in analog, but don't know how on PT. (I'm in LE, but didn't get any replies over there)

Thanks

Instead of SMPTE, you can use a sine wave, pink noise, or white noise signal from the protools "Signal Generator" that comes with the DigiRack plugins (included in protools).

Create a New Aux track, insert the Signal Generator. Bus the output of the Aux track to a new audio track...Record the Signal Generator to the new Audio Track from the beginning of the song until the end of the song...Now delete the Aux channel.

Now you should have a Track in PT with your signal (sine, white, pink, whatever). Bus that to the Compressor/Gate side chain instead of the SMPTE signal. Whenever you you hit play or record the Tone will go to the compressor and turn the channel off. When you hit stop the signal stops and the compressor is open.

It's the same as using SMPTE but you don't have to deal with getting a SMPTE/MTC generator. Using the signal Generator works really well for those of us who do it all "in the box". My one complaint about this, the Signal Generator in Audiosuite won't work unless you already have an audio file to select. You can't make a new audio file with the sine wave in it, you have to overwrite an existing one. So that's why I usually don't use the Audiosuite version to make the tone. I just bus the RTAS version to a new track and record it from the beginning to the end of the song.

Actually, if you use templates a lot, you could have that Tone track as part of your template. Just make the file really long so that it will work over most songs. When you import your settings from your template you just also import the Talkback setup.

[Mark Wheaton]

thank you OG for making it clear how this works, now one more question. How to allow talk back to work as a slate so you can print slate to a track when needed. Since the gate shuts off the talk back when recording...

Also how about dimming? I find if my control room monitors are not auto dimmed by a talkback, I risk feedback in the talents headphones.

[RobMacki]

My one complaint about this, the Signal Generator in Audiosuite won't work unless you already have an audio file to select. You can't make a new audio file with the sine wave in it, you have to overwrite an existing one. So that's why I usually don't use the Audiosuite version to make the tone.

I believe all you need to do is make any selection on a track and AS will print a tone. Or for that matter any effect.
On AS Reverbs I will allways select beyond the region for the decay to last.