Okay. I am asking for a friend. ;-)

Say I am doing a talk show and have a Skype guest. We take a break and I'm playing a video advertisement during the break.

Is there a way for me to chat with my Guest where our conversation does not become part of the audio that is being broadcast and/or recorded?

Ideas?

- Tom

Would this work?

Let's assume you have three audio channels/inputs:-

1) The video content you'll play in the ad break.
This is routed to the Master o/p

2) The caller's voice (from Skype)
Also routed to the Master o/p

3) Your voice (from your mic)
Routed to Master and also the A (or B) sub-group as return audio for Skype

You might also want Ch1 routed to A as Skype return too, but not if you want to chat with the caller without distractions.

OK, so you start the show and are chatting with the caller, and then you want to play the ad-break reel and have a private conversation about what's coming up after the break.

Rather than use the Mute (speaker ) button or take the fader down on Ch 2 & 3, use the M button for each channel to disable it on the Master output, but still allow Ch3 to be routed to Skype, and Ch2 to appear in the headphone mix - which I assume is what you are listening to. So everything carries on as normal in terms of what you and the caller both hear, but neither of your voices appear in the Master output. With macros/MIDI/SDK it should be possible to simplify activating/disabling the two M buttons simultaneously with one key-press.

You might also want to reduce the headphone volume for Ch1 to make it easier to hear the Skype caller while the video is playing. And if there's a video segment that you do want the Skype caller to hear, you'll need to enable the Ch1 A button to add the sound to the Skype return feed.