Talkback On The Cheap

Recently I started running microphone cable around the house to record in other rooms, mainly because the room my computer is in is about the size of a small closet, and sounds like hell. As such I had need of a talkback system, but wasn't quite ready to go out and buy one of those Big Knob things or whatever. Here's how I got around it.

 

Talkback.zip

I configured this to work off the lowest key on my keyboard (E0) which I never use, but it would be quite simple to make it work with a foot pedal, or anything really.

 

First you'll need to connect the controller's physical MIDI input to the "Connect controller to this" Ornament on the "Click & Ports" layer. Then all the action happens on the "Talkback" layer:

 

First the note (E0, but you can change it in the "Note -> Fader" transformer) gets mangled into a Fader 9 (mute on/off) message and sent to the talkback channel (which should be in "input monitoring" mode all the time - obviously you need Software Monitoring on for any of this to work). This should be set to the input your talkback mic is plugged into. You could even aggregate in a USB headset, a Bluetooth mic or anything really. I've just got a cheap condenser sitting on my desk plugged into Input 2.

 

The fader message also gets sent to a bunch of transformers which "dim" the output when you're talking so it doesn't feed back, and the singer doesn't hear the track clattering through the talkback mic. Just like a real SSL or whatever! You can set the levels for "normal" and "dim" operation with the faders next to the Output object.

 

I've got some handy 1/4" M -> XLR M and XLR F -> 1/4" F adapters which you can use with mic cable to make a really long headphone extension and I just run a cable straight from the audio interface headphones output to wherever the singer's mic is.

 

That's about it! I've used this for a couple of days and it's working pretty nicely.

Really nice. Just gave it a quick try and it's working as expected, unmuting the talkback channel strip and simultaneously dimming the mix. Thanks for sharing!

Hey what's up? I am having trouble getting this to work on my setup. I opened your template and I believe I switched the Keyboard Note to C2 on my Midi Controller, but when I hit that button I am not seeing any action. I am a little new to the whole environment window and if you could help me out and give me some tips as to what exactly I am looking at with the wire routing I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!