VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[richvoice]

As I was working on my last theatrical sound design gig, I started thinking that it would be awfully convenient to be able to plug my laptop into the sound board.

The way that I'm used to working is to figure out all my sounds, burn the CDs, and then set levels on the sound board at the theater. But it would be much nicer to run a cable from the booth to my laptop in the theater, listen to the output with the board set at pre-set levels, and manage the output levels of the tracks so that the sound operator doesn't have to worry so much about levels during performances.

However, I have a pretty basic laptop with a pretty basic sound card: one headphone output jack and one microphone output jack. Now I'm sure that I could put together a cable with a 1/8" stereo mini-plug on one end and two RCA jacks on the other, so I'd be able to plug it into the board; but the signal will be passing through the laptop's volume control first, and it seems to me that that would make level-setting more variable than I'd like.

I'm guessing I could find a reasonable setting through trial and error: "if I have the laptop volume set HERE, the final CD will play at a comparable volume." But it seems to me that what I need is output from the laptop at a "line out" level.

Is there any way to get this without getting an additional external interface? If not, is there a simple, cheap USB device that can do this? I don't need any mic inputs, etc.

Thanks,
Rich

[David Swinehart]

[bobsouer]

Rich,

The M-Audio Fast Track USB might be just the ticket. We use it with my son's computer for some mighty fine results for editing and playback.
_________________
Be well,
Bob Souer (just think of lemons)
The second nicest guy in voiceover.
+1-724-613-2749
Source Connect, phone patch, pony express

[bransom]

I work a lot of live shows and usually have doodads like this:

http://customgizmos.ironicallyenough.com/gizmo.php?product=104

attached to my graphics machines for audio output. They work pretty well and the audio guys seem to like them.

Another live sound thing you might look at is Sports Sounds Pro (www.sportssoundspro.com). It's a $149 program that pretty much replaces an Instant Replay.

[richvoice]

Thanks, guys! I'll check 'em out.

Cheers,
Rich

[richvoice]

Thanks again for the suggestions. I ended up buying the Behringer UCA202. It seems to work, but it doesn't work as I expected.

I plugged it in to a USB port on the laptop, then I connected RCA cables from the UCA202's output jacks to some input jacks on my home stereo receiver. The sound came through, but it was pretty faint. So I did what I didn't think I'd have to do -- turned up the volume on the laptop -- and the sound out of my home stereo was louder.

I thought that the point of the UCA202 was that it would bypass the internal volume control of the laptop, sending what I thought would be a "line-out" level -- like the CD player in my home stereo setup (which doesn't have a volume control) sends to the receiver.

If the signal actually goes through the internal volume control circuitry, I'm wondering what the benefit of this device is over simply connecting a 1/8"-miniplug-to-two-RCA-plug splitter to the laptop's headphone output. I actually have something like that already hooked up to an aux. input in my home stereo, so I plugged it into the laptop and the volume seemed the same when compared to using the UCA202.

The UCA202 has a headphone jack with a separate volume control, so I can see how it might come in handy for recording purposes, allowing me to monitor the input through headphones. But since 98% of my reason for getting this thing has to do with playback of sound cues in a theater, that's not a big selling point.

Any insights would be appreciated.

Cheers,
Rich