Talkback (recording)

In sound recording, talkback refers to the intercom system used in recording studios to enable personnel in the control room to speak or give instructions to personnel in the recording area or booth. While the control room can hear the booth over the studio microphones, the booth hears the control room over a PA or monitor speaker, or in their headphones. Take numbers, reference data, and sometimes count-ins or remarks are also "stamped" onto recordings through talkback.

The audio quality of talkback systems is usually markedly lower than that of studio microphones and speakers, coming from a simple microphone (which may be omnidirectional or unidirectional) built or plugged into the mixer, and with its sound often compressed. Since talkback is usually edited out of master recordings, high fidelity isn't essential, and studios tend to cut budget corners when possible. Compression allows comments from around the control room to be audible.

Occasionally instructions and comments from talkback systems do appear in studio recordings, notably in records by the Beach Boys, the Beatles and Bob Dylan. They frequently turn up in bootleg or "sessions" records.