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Is there a way to feed stuff from my laptop into the mic feed?

M

mattthetalker

I'm hoping to easily input audio clips from my laptop on-air live, and thought that the easiest way would be to find a way to just merge the computer audio out into the mic line.

I'm looking for ways to do this because a)I am only on-air a few hours a week, and b)the software at my station is archaic and a royal pain to work with--

Is this possible, or am I thinking about it the wrong way?
 
I'm assuming you want to use the mic line since it's there and available to you. You'd be better off using a high-level input to the console.

Is this something you could ask the station engineer about? Maybe he/she can provide you with an available input for your laptop to feed into.

You can use the mic input, but you'd need a small mixer with a mic level output, or an attenuator, and then feed both the mic and the laptop into the mixer. But if you were working at my station and I found you doing that, I'd probably be looking for another employee.
 
Bill Wolfenbarger said:
...But if you were working at my station and I found you doing that, I'd probably be looking for another employee.
Click to expand...
Same here...dope-slaps would be given freely!

Station management can provide a nice, professional way to connect outside audio sources if they choose to. They may not, preferring to keep control over content, which is their right. I've been in more than one studio where there was nothing other than automation...no CD players, cassette decks, etc., and no way to directly get Internet streams on the air.
 
thanks guys-- I'm not trying to sneak around-- I work at a small station, and there's never anyone there on the weekends when I am. I don't have the luxury of a helpful tech to help me do anything. If it's complex, i can't do it. That's why I was hoping there might be a simple way for me to tee-in on the mic cable-- so I wouldn't be touching anything other than the mic cord.

I just want to be able to use the material I have on my laptop during the show with minimal hassle.

Based on what I'm reading here, it sounds like that's impossible.
 
If there is a patch panel in the room, maybe the engineer would just give you a patch cable and let you patch in to an unused source on the board. As long as you always pull it when you are done, he doesn't need to be there.
 
I did an installation for a station where I mounted two RCA jacks on a blank panel, then wired them to a match box mounted in the rack, then brought that to an input on the console. This allows for anyone to plug in their laptop, iPod, or other device. This is also quite a unique station that has a different format for whoever is on the air at the time and bringing in one's own music is encouraged.
 
I'm in line with the rest of the folks here, just ask the engineer for a board input. Its not a hard thing to put together assuming the management is okay with it.
 
mattthetalker said:
...Based on what I'm reading here, it sounds like that's impossible.
Click to expand...

Not impossible at all, it's just trying to rig up something through the mic input is not an ideal way. Plus, your studio speakers will be muted the whole time you would be playing the laptop through the mic input.

Your engineer should be able to provide a connection point for your laptop without tying up a lot of dough.
 
3 items:

http://www.sandecell.com/?item=T42593&VID=1

http://www.sandecell.com/default.asp?Item=T50129&VID=1

http://www.sandecell.com/default.asp?Item=T47585&VID=1

This will give you mono out of your portable whatever (left channel) to an XLR input. You can adjust the audio on the device and try the different switch settings. Start with the 40 setting and adjust your portable equipment for about 3/4 of the way up. Then if you don't have enough level, start switching the switch down to 30 then to 20. I think you'll have what you're looking for with this stuff instead of having to call our contract engineer at 50-75 an hr. It's not as good as directly into a line input, but I doubt you're looking for ultra perfection anyway. :)
 
As a station engineer, I shudder to think of anyone patching anything into my expensive board, especially a laptop output that may easily exceed 0 DB when the mic input is designed for - 60 DB, a difference of 1 million times the level !!!!!!!. To help the people that want to do something like this, I provide a little 50$ Behringer mixer connected to a line level input on the board, then let the people plug what they want into the Behringer. It won't pass enough signal to damage my Board and they can adjust levels with the trim and gain pots on the Behringer for the meter on the little mixer before they hit my board to hard. Ask the engineer at the station if he can make up a cable to go from the output of the mixer to the mic input (will probably require a pad) and then you can do what you want and keep everyone happy. You can plug the mic and your computer into different inputs on the Behringer and do what you want cleanly with no damage to anthing. If I caught someone plugging a computer output directly into a mic input, that person may be out of work that day.
 
I concur with the Bills (Croghan & Wolfenbarger) - if someone on my airstaff starts messing with the studio gear without talking to engineering first - they're gone.
 
There is a song about that... Don't mess with Bill(s)
 
Good call. Also, as an added step to protect the mic preamp if you choose to try feeding that input, be darn sure to turn the audio on your laptop all the way down and then ease it up carefully, with the attenuators in and set all the way up to -40.
 
A mini sterio plug out to a 4 RCA female jacks. That way you can always have the spare c.d or cassette (or mini disc) player hooked up & your 2 jacks hanging there waiting for you to plug in. I'm surprised your prod room has no internet access since so many spots are emailed.
 
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