Phone Patch Help Needed!!

[Glenn Moore]

Wondering if anyone who is use to working with a JK Audio AutoHybrid (or maybe any other phone patch) can help.
My phone patch works fine but I always have to record the other party on my computer. What I need to do is have the option of either recording them or not, while still being able to hear them..and have them hear me....while I record the script into the computer. If I bring down the channel the phone patch is on I cannot hear them at all. If this is impossible I'll have to go the old route of plugging a headset into the cordless phone. Anyone's help is appreciated. I go into a Mackie 1402-VLZ Pro board. Thanks!

Glenn Moore

[Paul Plack]

Glenn,

If you look at the assign buttons to the left of your LED VU meter, you should have the ability to assign the Alt 3/4 bus to the "Control Room" or "CR" with one button, while keeping Alt 3/4 isolated from the main output by leaving the "ASSIGN TO MAIN MIX" button unpressed.

If you set it this way, pressing the "Mute" button on the channel used for the phone patch should remove it from the feed to the computer, but leave it on in your headphones.

Note - You can still wind up with a little headphone leakage into the mic, but hopefully they're polite enough not to talk while you're in the middle of a take that should be a keeper.

Paul

[jsgilbert]

You definitely want to make sure you have good fully closed cell headphones. If your mic pre has any additional outputs, you can route them into your phone patch, avoiding your recording chain altogether. One other thing you can do is route everything from the output on your computer, instead of the input. This way it's not possible for the signal to get into the recording unless it leaks out via your headphones. The advantage to this is also that you will be monitoring your recording after it has been digitized and returned to analog. You will be able to hear if any type of artifiacting takes place and if you have any type of processig going in, you'll hear the final effects.

[PChristy]

Yeah, what Paul said. Or, what I do is simply pot down the phone patch slider while I'm talking (recording) and bring it back up for their comments. They don't get to interrupt me that way, but I can live with that! You don't want line noise in your recording.

[Glenn Moore]

Thanks for the help guys. Luckily my session got moved to later in the week so I got a day or so to figure this out.

[Jacoby]

Glenn,
Pauls's route works great, since you have the "ALT 3-4" option... I was just wondering: can't you just listen to the client with the "Solo" button, without opening the fader? I know that when solo is pressed, it mutes all other channels, but by pressing solo on your own mic channel too, you can hear yourself again. This is how I do it.

[Glenn Moore]

I'll have to see. My "recording booth" (closet) is almost 15 feet away from my mixer and computer so I'll play with it tonight. Lost my voice so not feeling like doing much of anything. Ofcourse I had to cancel a session for today. Talk about bad timing. UGH!

[jsgilbert]

My gear is also in the live room and the booth is just me and the mic and a mic stand, whcih is why when I'm on a phone patgch, I patch it in from the audio out in the computer. The latency is so little it's not a problem and no possibility of getting them to talk over a good take. The other thiing is that I don't care how great an actor you are, if you are having to focus on engineering tasks such as muting or dialing down, you can't possibly be 100% engrossed on doing the voiceover and the performance will suffer, guaranteed.

[Paul Plack]

Glenn, I should have expanded a little on my precautions regarding headphone leakage.

As JS says, don't use open-back Sennheisers, but something that has a cushion that seals around your ear.

As Paul C. says, pot the client down...but I pot the client almost all the way down even when he is talking. Keep him just loud enough to hear, for two main reasons: (1) avoiding headphone leakage, and (2) avoiding hearing a filtered, distorted, and sometimes echoed version of your own voice in the client's audio. The JK patches don't have the greatest isolation.

Paul

[soundgun]

I set my clients up the same way Paul suggests. I love using the Alt 3/4 bus monitoring feature on the Mackie and Behringer mixers. We use it for the phone patch, ISDN, and computer return. Then you can pot up the AUx send on the computer channel of the mixer if the client needs playback. Keep the volume low for sure, no need to hear them more than a whisper, for your sanity. The Autohybrid doesn't have more than 20db of line separation, it's a totally passive unit. Their higher-end digital units do better, but just aren't worth the extra dough if you aren't recording both sides of the conversation.