external talkback mic for D-Command

[Stig Eliassen]

Honesty - you gotta love that.

[Cawbaby]

I read about this problem before I purchased my Icon and I thought, how bad could this be? It's BAAAAD. Maybe I'm spoiled from my Harrison but I use to have to tell people not to whisper in the back corners of the control room because the musicians in the studio were distracted.
Anyway I was getting ready to wire up the external talkback and noticed if I
disengaged the internal and external talkback buttons when I hit the talkback there was still a huge amount of noise (hiss etc) in the circuit. I don't think it's the mic. Maybe if the external mic input is amplified significantly the noise floor could be lowered. I don't feel I'm being picky. This is an obvious problem (uncool). Digi should probably look into this. I know I don't want any of my clients hearing that kind of noise anywhere in my system.
If anyone has found a solution for this please post.
thanx

[Cawbaby]

OK, I hooked an external mic and it works fine. Only room noise and not that extra amount of hissing etc that the internal mic causes. You guys were right all along. It's definitly the mic.

[Will Russell]

Hi,
While I appreciate Chris' honesty I disagree with his explanation for the horrible noise with the internal talkback system.
I disconnected the internal mic and the noise persists, so it is not the mic but rather the related circuitry. There is something in that circuitry that is not grounded or shielded properly. The Digi tech I talked to about this acknowledged the issue and indicated that fixing it was "on their list" but not to hold my breath for a fix anytime soon.

Too bad because it's an awesome piece of gear otherwise.

[jjsoundoc]

Hello,
Experiencing the same noise problem with talkback on a D-Control. Digi has confirmed that the problem is a circuit board that they were re-designing.
The re-design is now months overdue.
It's bad enough for VO talent to regularly complain.
I might expect it on an O2R, but not a board in this price bracket.
Never had a TB problem with other consoles including, Neve, Euphonix, and DDA.
JJ

[Cawbaby]

Go ahead and hook up a mic on the external. It solves the problem.

[saggsy]

has anyone thought of using a shotgun for TB - it'd sure cut down on control room noise (as long as the engineer doesn' t move around too much, to be out of the pattern).

also could you not just have the send to the headphone amps gated to get rid of the noise in the 'noise floor' ??

[subwoof]

I put an old EV 635a dynamic mic I had laying around (Omni) on my D-Command and Control 24, and compared to the built-in mic it sounds like a U-87 in the headphones! Clean and clear, comparatively speaking.

Mike

[kptkarl]

<<The Digi tech I talked to about this acknowledged the issue and indicated that fixing it was "on their list" but not to hold my breath for a fix anytime soon.>>

"on their list" since the day of the first ICON installation!!!

[zakco]

Originally Posted by Cawbaby

Go ahead and hook up a mic on the external. It solves the problem.

I have tried both the internal and external talkback and they BOTH suffer from a constant, overbearing hiss. Aside from the mics' obvious tonal differences, switching between the two makes no difference in the level of hiss. I could forgive the crappiness of the internal if I could get a clean quiet signal out of the external...so far no luck. What am I doing wrong?