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Leave it to my Dad to ask me an audio question I couldn’t answer…
Let’s see if any of you have a good idea.
My Dad is a creative director and designs alot of themed entertainment installations in restaurants, theme parks, stores etc. He is currently doing a design for a store that needs 4 discreet mono audio beds at different locales in the store but are all synchronous (running off the same player I imagine would be cheaper than 2 individual TC capable cd players strapped together).
He asked me what he could use to achieve this, and I was kinda baffled. At first I thought of one of those little Zoom/Boss digital 4 track recorders, but then I realized that most of those little ones don’t have four discreet outs.
So to recap:
-I need something that will play 4 discreet mono tracks (in sync) on a loop for at least 10 minutes.
-It needs to be durable…a tape wont cut it.
-User friendly (i.e trying to stay away from things with TC)…a non audio person will be starting and stopping this thing everyday.
-Somewhat durable…will be playing 12 hrs a day, everyday.
-Oh yeah…the audio need not be PRISTINE..these are fx beds in a massive and busy store..
-TRYING to keep the price under 1200.(Also, I’m fully aware of AMX and Anitech show control and playback devices and am aware there is a whole industry devoted to providing solutions to my problem…I’m just trying to come up with a very D.I.Y. version)
Any ideas??
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7 Replies
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If you can find a way of encoding different tracks to 5.1 surround channels…i.e. Track 1 to Front left, Track 2 to Front Right, Track 3 to Center, etc…then you could simply make a dvd with 5.1 and put the separate surround speakers from an AV receiver where you want. So all you’d need was the software, a DVD player, and a 5.1 surround receiver with speakers. Each speaker will get a mono signal of whatever track is designated to it. I’m sure there are a plenty of 5.1 discreet encoding software packages out there.
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This might seem like overkill but it should work and it’s only $500. It has a stereo out and 2 aux outs. You could pan track 1 to main stereo L, track 2 to stereo R, track 3 to aux out1 and track 4 to aux out 2.
https://www.samedaymusic.com/product–FOSMR16HD
System Info – G5/Dual 2 – 10.4.8 – QT v7.1.3 – 8GB ram – Radeon 9800Pro – External SATA Raid – Decklink Extreme – Wacom 6×8
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I vote for the DVD player option (it is possible to find a dvd player with a 5.1 decoder built in) It is more idiot proof, easy to loop, and you can make back-ups easily. Also if something breaks you just replace a component. With a recorder if it breaks it has to be replaced with the same model (which can be a problem if it is no longer made.
Drew
Chaos is the beginning of everything.
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Thanks guys…all of you..great ideas.
Will…your idea is plan B. I never thought of using the Aux outs on one of those.
Chaos…yeah man, I think the DVD is the most idiot proof, cheap and sturdy.
I’m not to familiar with burning surround material to a DVD though..
Should I create a 4 track surround mix in PT (5.1 essentially with 2 empty channels) and export it as a single file….then burn a dolby digital dvd in toast 8?
How would you go about creating that DVD?
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Try looking at something like this:
https://maven3d-professional.emersys.qarchive.org/
or any other app that lets you import audio, assign them to a channel/speaker, then output a discreetly encoded AC-3 to be included on an DVD. You could make a looping DVD with no picture or what have you in DVD studio pro. You’ll have to turn your audio tracks into strict mono, assign them to their own speaker channel, then make sure the output will be true discreet 5.1, with no crosstalk or between channels. It’ll probably take some trial and error, but it’s all for the sake of having a simple and reliable playback system when it gets to crunch time.
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Create 4 separate tracks that are in sync and export them out individualy as mono tracks. From there you can take them to someone or if you have a mac and DVD studio pro I can talk you through it.
Drew
Chaos is the beginning of everything.
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Check out Alcorn-McBride. Their players are used in many large theme parks and entertainment venues. They are rock-solid, reliable playback units. Some can be updated and controlled via a network connection.
John
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