Talkback Mic app adds AirPlay Support!

[RoadRanger]

Free: https://itunes.apple.com/tw/app/talkback-mic/id480263826

I actually asked him to add the AirPlay support so let's support a friendly developer by grabbing this app while it's still free !

[Kevin]

Thanks for the link - Not having a talkback mic was one of the things holding me back from pulling the trigger on the DL1608. I bought the DL1608 anyway and lack of talkback has not been as much of a PIA as I thought, but I'm really glad to see this option. I will be checking it out this weekend.

[Kevin]

The Talkback Mic app worked OK and cant beat the price!

It was a little confusing because you cant select the AirPlay device within the app. It does have an AirPlay icon, but if you push it, you just get a clumsy set of instructions for turning on AirPlay using the default Music Player app. All you really need to do is make sure the default iPad Music app is using AirPlay and select the router there.

The iPad's microphone does not sound great but gets the job done. Hardly any perceptible delay running over AirPlay

Both the TalkBack-mic app and Master Fader take several seconds to synch when you swipe back and forth between the two apps. This makes the setup a little awkward to use as a traditional talkback mic. Also, I dont like that every time I swipe back to the TalkBack app, it sets the volume to the max instead of leaving it where it was

So a few complaints, but its workable. Fortunately, in most cases I no longer need a regular talkback mic because its so easy to move around with the DL.  For someone who does the soundcheck from a booth or needs to communicate with the band once the show starts, this could be real handy.

[WhatsThatSound]

I tried to get this to work and had no luck, can you give me a little more specific info on how you got it to work?

[Kevin]

Make sure that AirPlay is working with the default music player. Once it is, then the talkback app should just work.

[dpdan]

I downloaded the app and had music streaming to the Apple Airport Express just fine and as soon as I went to the talkback-mic app the music stopped but the talkback app produced no audio,, yes I am pushing the big red talkback button and I too saw the "clumsy looking" instructions about turning on airplay.

So for me ,, it ain't workin'

This free app screwed up my 3rd generation iPad and had to reset it.
After trying to use this free talkback-mic app unsuccessfully the only options in the airplay button was changed from the two choices which have been iPad & Airplay, now it is Airplay and headphones. The music app still streams audio to the Airport Express fine but the iPad no longer is able to play music through the speaker. Only option was to reset the iPad. So much for free. Kevin, I understand it worked for you but not here.     

I emailed the developer Mark with the following email 

Hi Mark,
nice talkback app but I can not get it to work with my iPad 3rd gen.

I am using an Apple Airport Express to stream music during breaks with my Mackie DL1608.
Music is streaming and Mackie's Master Fader app is working great and I see audio level on the meters of the Talkback-Mic app but
I suspect it has something to do with "mirroring" what is mirroring?

As soon as I get this working I will cheerfully send you a PayPal offering.

Thanks,
Dan
 

[Kevin]

weird - I just checked it out, to prove you guys were crazy - and now I cant get it to work either  

the only thing I can think of that's changed since I checked it out a few weeks ago is that I updated IOS to 6.1.3

edit >> hmm. .the other thing is that I've tried out a bunch of 3rd party audio apps since then. After running the mic utility this afternoon, AirPlay went flakey on me also, but it just lost the router as an AirPlay device. I had to close and re-open the music player twice to get it back. I've seen this before when trying out other audio apps. Seems like 3rd party AirPlay support may be shaky.

[dpdan]

Well, wonderful!
I completely reset my iPad 3rd gen back to original and started over and the headphone jack and speaker no longer works.
Talkback-Mic ruined it and my iPad is no longer under warranty.

So much for trusting the App store 

DO NOT DOWNLOAD THAT APP.. APPLE's pathetic, broken iOS 6.1.3 broke it, I'm convinced

I am not a happy camper

[Kevin]

That sucks Dan.
I just double checked my iPad to make sure the speaker still works after running Talkback Mic again. It does.

I waited until yesterday to install 6.1.3 - I was kinda leary of updating IOS since everything had been working fine, but I hadnt seen any bug reports on it other than passcode security issues, and I was hoping that maybe there were some bug fixes that would allow some of these 3rd party audio apps to work better together (nope).

The only other odd thing I've seen since installing 6.1.3 is that up until today I've had no issues using a 6 foot CableJive extender cable. I've been using it 10 days with zero hiccups. Today (first time I've used it since update), it is no longer reliable and I have to drop back to 2 foot cable. So seems communication is more error prone. I would not expect an IOS upgrade to effect hardware, but it may effect audio handling software so that it is more susceptible to errors. I'm wondering if IOS has something like a registry for keeping track of audio settings and if 6.1.3 has made this registry more vulnerable to corruption by 3rd party apps.

Did you do the Settings reset or the full erase reset where you have to reload all your apps?

[dpdan]

Hi Kevin, I did a full reset and had to load everything again. 



so Apple lets me download an app from their site that renders the device broken... unbelievable
I am marching this thing into the Apple Store as soon as I can, I own a 2 year old Mac Pro with 20 gigs of ram
two iPads, iPhone, iMac and Mac Mini and a new laptop as of last week, all bought new with Apple Care.

They better not give me that "it's out of warranty" crap... 

[Kevin]

so Apple lets me download an app from their site that renders the device broken... unbelievable

Hmm, my guess is that when Apple releases a new version of IOS, they do not re-test existing apps that were released with previous versions of IOS. Or if they re-test some older apps, its not a wide enough sample. They apparantly did not retest the TalkBack mic app.

They better not give me that "it's out of warranty" crap...

It sure smells like an IOS update bug and not a hardware failure. Probably something to do with something in the guts of IOS's Audio Sessions API changing and/or not cleaning up up correctly when an application exits. Its disconcerting that a full reset did not solve the problem. That would imply that its not really a "full" reset if running a misbehaving app was able to permanently affect the audio handling. Assuming the app store is able to fix this, it would be interesting to know how. Maybe they have something like an undocumented (to the public) registry editor for fixing stuff like this. 

This is my first Apple device. One of the reasons I've been leery of Apple is that there is so little info about what is going on under the hood. They do have some killer apps though. In the future I will be much more careful before installing a new IOS version.

[dpdan]

I am taking my iPad to the Apple store tomorrow (Tuesday)
let's see what the genius bar does with it?
I'll keep you guys posted.

Dan

[dpdan]

Hi folks,
I went to the Apple store and they discovered that my 3rd generation iPad had a "hardware" issue that could not be fixed even with a full reset, it was under warrantee (lucky me) so they replaced it.

Now, I installed the Talkback-Mic app again but this time it didn't break anything, in fact now, I don't think it broke anything as I had thought.

Ironically, it refuses to communicate with the "Airplay" option because the instructions refer to choosing the "mirroring" option, and there is no mirroring option anywhere on my 3rd generation or 4th generation iPad.

I emailed the developer and am waiting to see what he recommends.

Dan   

[dpdan]

is this app working for anyone with an Apple Airport Express?

[WhatsThatSound]

I want to bring this back up to the top, would really like to get this to work, has anyone contacted the developer of the app to get their take?