VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[cyclometh]

Randye: Can't come out to Connecticut, but all I did was sit on Skype video and take Amy through the steps of setting her stuff up.
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Corey "Vox Man" Snow
http://voxman.net

[cyclometh]

I'm writing up a followup post to my blog, but here's the final setup Amy and I worked out in various Skype discussions.



Knobs, Switches, bits and bobs! This assumes you're using the Allen and Heath ZED 10. You can do this with other mixers, but their configuration may be slightly different.

Key: Noon=straight up. 0 means zero on the dial, not all the way down! Down means turned 100% to the left. Up means turned 100% to the right. For buttons, on means down, off means up.

Channel 1, starting at top:

Gain: high noon.
HPF: Up (off)
HF: Noon.
Mid Freq- Noon.
Mid: Noon.
LF: Noon.
FX: Down.
Aux: Down.
Pan: Noon.
Level: 0 (NOT all the way down!)
Record: On
Listen: On

Channels 2-4- N/A

Channel ST1:

Gain: Noon.
HF: Noon.
LF: Noon.
FX: Down.
Aux: Down
Bal: Noon.
Level: 0 (NOT all the way down!)
Record: OFF (Careful, if this is on, your Skype partner will get loops!)
Listen: On

ST2: N/A.

Other switches and knobs on right, starting above ZED-10 logo, moving clockwise to right:

Record Bus, Aux-FX: N/A (if you use the USB interface, you can set these to what you need)

48v Phantom Power: Off.
Monitor Level: 0 (NOT all the way down!)
Monitor Source: Mix (Down position)
Headphone Level: 0, adjust to taste.
Phone Select Buttons (Record, Aux, Playback): All 3 on (down).
Playback to AUX and AUX MIX Level: Down.
Playback Level: 0 (NOT all the way down!)
Main Mix Level: 0 (NOT all the way down!)

When editing using the monitors on the Skype/Edit PC, you should punch the "Record" button off on Channel 1, or power off the mixer, or turn the Monitor Level knob down completely or you risk feedback (ouchies!)

Adjust levels sent to Skype by adjusting the monitor level knob, the channel 1 level fader or the main mix level knob. Adjust levels returned from Skype to your cans by adjusting the ST1 fader.

I think this covers how we set it up, let me know if you have questions!
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Corey "Vox Man" Snow
http://voxman.net

[cyclometh]

By the way, thanks to Kasey, George and Mike for all the great ideas.

A followup blog post:

http://cyclometh.com/?p=342
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Corey "Vox Man" Snow
http://voxman.net

[KaseyKruz]

[Bruce]

I don't know guys. You could just do this:



And if you've got those cool Ubangi holes in your ears you could do this instead:




You know kids, you're going to have to have SURGERY to fix that ten years from now when you decide that was a stupid thing to do.

B
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VO-BB Member #31 Enlisted June, 2005

I'm not a Zoo, but over the years I've played one on radio/TV. .

[bransom]

Okay, the first one is funny but the second one makes me feel ill.
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Bob Ransom
"I really need a pithy quote here."

[Mike Sommer]

BRUCE !! That really made me laugh.

Ok back to business here-

I'm seeing the problem that Amy was talking about. (She does not want to be using the Mic Port Pro) .

The only thing she can do, is get another interface if she does not want to us the M.

Unfortunately, from what I see here, I don't think there is a work around for the ZED's USB interface. That is a shame. But I'm sure there is a more elegant solution to this.
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The Blog:
http://voiceoveraudio.blogspot.com/

Acoustics are counter-intuitive. If one thing is certain about acoustics, it is that if anything seems obvious it is probably wrong.

[cyclometh]

The MicPort Pro can be replaced with any other interface. Amy indicated she has another MobilePre USB, which would serve just as well. Using that you'd need a different cable to patch from it to the mixer.

You could also use just the mixer directly but then you run into the issue of not being able to playback without turning off the audio from the remote side while you do.
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Corey "Vox Man" Snow
http://voxman.net

[asnively]

I'm not totally against using my M full time. It's awesome and noiseless; I'm not convinced that the this M-Audio MobilePre can make that same claim.

I was just under the impression that the Zed 10 would render it unnecessary, and it the M would get tucked back into the mobile rig.

By the way, thank you to you all for this amazing thread! I know that a lot of people, including the sizable population of VO-BB lurkers, will benefit from all this.

Thank you especially to Corey who spent a LOT of time very patiently walking me through the set-up, and, as an added bonus, remotely logged into my Windows box and fixed a serious problem I was having (I was rooted and infected by a nasty trojan! I've got to stop going to sketchy porn sites--but I can't help myself! )

I had a scare yesterday...after rebooting one of my machines, after everything was working like a charm, I could hear playback but the other person couldn't! I just couldn't puzzle it out, since I hadn't changed anything.

Corey had a flash of insight, and sure 'nuff! Skype had taken the bold initiative to switch from my main mic to the webcam mic. (It's a REALLY nice webcam mic, so neither of us noticed the difference!) Now it is all working awesome again. If you would like to experience it from the director's POV, feel free to Skype me (my Skype user name is <myfirstname>)
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[KaseyKruz]

A real simple setup would have everything plugged into the board on the channel inputs and the main outs going to the main recording PC into a decent audio card or audio interface like an M Box. Aux Out from the board would go to the Skype PC audio input and the Skype PC audio output would go to a channel on the board. Whatever audio you want sent to the Skype call can be sent by using the aux knob for that channel. Skype would be setup to use the PC's on board audio card for send and receive. The Skype channel can be monitored in the headphones as you work and even added into the mix to the recording if you want with the push of a button or two.

Monitor outs should be used for the monitors in the system when needed, if needed, and can be controlled by the MONITOR LEVEL knob. I assure you that this is tried and true and verified by an audio engineer as the logical way to make the connections. I'm not saying that cyclometh is completely wrong, but it seems to be a bit more hoop jumping than needed.

I would not recommend using RCA connectors for any audio in this chain, save for maybe the monitors for editing, and that's only if the true audio quality is of no consequence, such as editing out breaths and mis-takes. RCA connectors are consumer grade and not usually used for professional audio.



***The Mobile Pre would NOT be necessary if you have a nice pro grade audio card in the recording PC***

I also am not clear why, as in cyclometh's diagram, you would have a separate recording PC and editing PC.

Amy, do you not record and edit on the same PC and have the Skype on another PC?
I 'm not trying to muddy the waters, but I've been taught that the mixer is the main input for everything and audio is then routed from there where it needs to go. I've been doing this for twenty years now, and logic is the key. Using headphone outs and monitor outs to feed other audio inputs is not recommended.
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Does life start at 40?

[KaseyKruz]

-double post-
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Does life start at 40?

[KaseyKruz]

[KaseyKruz]

[cyclometh]

Amy required the ability to play back audio recorded during the session to the user on Skype. (edit: You changed your post since I wrote this one. If the USB signal does come in to St2, that setup may work) This necessitated a bit of a different setup. Most PCs these days don't come with an onboard soundcard that would be good for pro recording, but is perfectly useful for Skype or gaming.

In my case I have the thing set up so I can do it all with just the mixer, I send mix-minus to Skype and all is happy. However, in that scenario, as in yours, the audio recorded during the session cannot be played back to the remote party.

Also, Amy uses a separate machine for her editing needs, which also runs Skype during her recording sessions and is located in another room (I believe for sound isolation).

Lastly, the RCA jacks are only used to feed audio from the monitor to Skype. I know that RCA is consumer-grade, but easily will carry a high-enough quality signal for a telephone or VOIP conversation.

The reason for using the headphone jack on the M is simply that it has no monitor or line out. Amy could just as easily use her second MobilePre and its regular line outputs, but indicated she preferred the quality of the M.

In the end the audio quality of the recorded track is not affected by the mixer, as the sound goes from mic to M to disk, then once the session is done the files are transferred to another machine and worked on. The final product has very few components in the chain used to produce it.
_________________
Corey "Vox Man" Snow
http://voxman.net

[cyclometh]

Amy, the setup Kasey has posted is simpler than what we ended up with as I didn't fully realize that the audio from the usb went to the ST2 channel.

We could modify your setup to eliminate the need for the M and just use the mixer directly. I think you indicated you liked using the MobilePre for the editing side, though.
_________________
Corey "Vox Man" Snow
http://voxman.net