Hi davbeisner
Nice to hear from another user of this method, just wondering what scope there is for individual audio level adjustment of each mic via the helicopter talkback, as I believe that the system I will be using is voice activated?
Don't honestly know... that would depend on the talkback system in the aircraft I imagine.
The system we use is not voice activated-we have to press a button to transmit. I'm thinking you may be able to work out a way to put a gain control inline somewhere between the headset and the plugin for the talkback? Most talkback systems use standard TRS 1/4" to plug in to the aircraft, with one part being the send and one part being the return. If you could figure out whether the tip or ring was send, make your own cable to go between them, taking the return and delivering it straight to the aircraft but taking the send and running it through a gain control, you just might be able to get what you need. In theory you could actually run all your sends to a mobile mixer and get the whole thing that way.
Otherwise (and this would certainly be easier) I'd just record it to a separate track from your ambient noise mics and mess with your levels in post.
Actually, you wouldn't need to make your own cable--just get a TRS-2TR Y cable at any Radio Shack/Guitar Center/etc. and then use that. You'd need a TRS female to 2 TR male adapter and a 2 TR female to TRS male adapter for each setup. Take your return (what he hears) and just plug it straight across adapters. Then take your send (what he says) and run it through either a gain control or into a board, then take the output of that channel and pop it back into the second adapter, plug that second adapter back into the aircraft and you're good to go.
All that assumes that it uses the TRS plugs, but if it doesn't, I'm sure you could figure out something with whatever standard it uses (unless of course its all digital, which might be significantly harder).
