DMX MP3 player

[smudge1977]

It's panto time and I am doing tech for a local theatre! I am doing lighting & sound... Lighting been my normal thing.

There are a number of ques which will be lighting and sound clips so I was looking at this:

http://www.bpesolutions.com/bpemanuals/DMX...musicManual.pdf

The MP3 Vmusic 2 player as a cheap and easy way to trigger my sound and light ques at the same time....

For less than $250 even by the time I buy a PSU and a box to put it in this seems like a great solution....

 

Does anybody have any bad stories or good times with this device to share please??

 

Thanks

[Wol]

An extra device to go wrong in the chain, involves extra faffing with USB sticks to move files around, and the sound "card" on it isn't usually of a comparable quality to a proper sound card. Unless its significantly less than $250, I'd say your easier option is to just press two GO buttons at once, or count down from three if theres someone else to press a button.

 

Many other people do it that way with no problems, and most of the time it doesnt have to be exactly at the same time anyway. For things like lightning/thunder, counting down is more than good enough (lightning and thunder usually never occur at the same time anyway!). For something like a local panto, I wouldn't say you need any particularly fancy solution, when you can just press two buttons at once.

 

e2a: You're talking about a mp3 player with a serial interface. You might get more luck in the sound forum than the lighting forum with answers!

[smudge1977]

Fair point - also just found this uk based company that do a £200 device:

http://www.milinst.co.uk/

 

I hear what your saying just it means the laptop with the sound files qued and stuff, plus there are some fairly quick ques from one sound to another. There are various bits where one character freezes and the other talks to the audiance and I want a black out on the frozen chacter with a proifile on the one talking, just think I may have too many desks and computers to be working as I'm the only tech doing s&l!

 

Thanks for the input though wol

[Wol]

Have used some of milinsts stuff before on projects and its not too bad in terms of quality. Not sure about the actual sound quality/bitrate out of the thing though.

 

Other people may have differing opinions, but if it was just me operating both sound and light, I'd want to have something as simple as possible. If one laptop breaks before a show, you can usually get another one in fairly quickly. If the DMX>mp3 player breaks before the show....... you'd probably end up compiling a manual playlist on a laptop anyway. If its just you running it, can you afford the time of having to faff around if it does go wrong?

[rossmck]

What about a software solution like Qlab with a cheap MIDI interface and use MIDI Show Control from your lighting console ?

[David Duffy]

The vmusic2 modules can be a bit of a pain. They don't start playback as quick you might want.

[smudge1977]

Is the delay preditable? I guess this is the time to load from the memory card....

 

I like the concept of one go button on the show night!

 

Thanks

[jonhole]

Some playback units, and some Lighting desks, have simple external triggers which just involve connecting two pins together. Usually depending which pins you connect depends on what command the unit is given (alternatively there might be an option on the unit).

 

If this is the case, you could wire a simple PTM (push to make) switch with two wires, one going to LX and one going to Sound, with whatever connectors each needs on the end of it.

 

Sound wise - ensure you use 'pause' to un-pause the track instead of playing it, as this will help reduce any delay in sound. If there is always a delay which is the same each time, just put a delay of that time on each L cue.

[David Duffy]

Is the delay predictable? I guess this is the time to load from the memory card....

I don't have first had experience, but a friend who was going to use that module abandoned it due to delay issues.

[VisualMash]

Chamsys MaqicQ are developing a solution for this.

MagicQ will trigger Winamp va its Media Centre.

MagicQ can also be triggered by DMX in.

I'm not sure if you would need a MagicQ interface connected for it to work.

 

Wol is developing this so sure he can give you more info ;o)

[paulears]

If the show is geared around a budget that only allows a single op, then it does suggest that the chances of the show running to clockwork with perfect performance from the cast every show might be a bit rare?

 

My own experience of one-man-band operation is that any attempt to automate it, in theme park/cruise ship style might be rather risky. With a band on cans, click tracks and a scary director, it can be made to work fine, of course - but unless your cast are automation minded - I'd rather like the idea of being able to cue manually to cope with cue-bending cast!