Haystakk Posted November 25, 2013 Share Posted November 25, 2013 In my 15 years of live sound production, I have never come across a director wanting a baby cry to appear as it is coming directly from on stage (and in fact; the dummy baby that's on stage). Now of course, I can wire up a speaker to be somewhat hidden on stage in some scenery - but has anyone got any other clever ideas about else this could be achieved? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shez Posted November 25, 2013 Share Posted November 25, 2013 IEM system with battery powered speaker? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haystakk Posted November 25, 2013 Author Share Posted November 25, 2013 Yes- I had thought of that. Sadly that kind of system is not readily available, unless I get the production to hire it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted November 25, 2013 Share Posted November 25, 2013 or ipod with speakers in the baby's cot, if it could be started by an actor? or even a little portable CD player or something. Localised fx speakers are quite a common thing to do. People often run multi-channel playback systems if there are lots of sound effects coming from different places. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkPAman Posted November 25, 2013 Share Posted November 25, 2013 Get something like this and perform a transplant. I've no idea if you can select sounds, how realistic or loud the sound is from this particular doll, so I'd suggest a trip to your local toy shop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owain Posted November 25, 2013 Share Posted November 25, 2013 Real baby and squeeze its ear with pointy fingernails. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
indyld Posted November 25, 2013 Share Posted November 25, 2013 One thing that might be useful to consider is bouncing the sound off a nearby thing if ever you can't get the speaker where you want it for logistical reasons. One of my students did such a thing to direct a crying baby sound seemingly from out of a Moses basket on stage when the only speaker position was off. Basically, pinged it off a nearby bit of set. Depending on the blocking it might work for you... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the kid Posted November 25, 2013 Share Posted November 25, 2013 Did a show with sound from a suit case that was run through a group send (I think aux to group) to a monitor on stage. Depending on the size of space the Logitec Mobile Boom Boxes are AMAZING, Someone had one a few weeks ago and that was filling a 200 seat space EASILY. (bluetooth or via 3.5mm jack connection). About £50 on amazon or less on ebay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ynot Posted November 25, 2013 Share Posted November 25, 2013 Localised fx speakers are quite a common thing to do. People often run multi-channel playback systems if there are lots of sound effects coming from different places.Indeed - have organised localised spakers for various shows/plays over the years... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard P-W Posted November 25, 2013 Share Posted November 25, 2013 Fly a speaker pointing straight down above where the baby will be. I do this a lot when sound needs to emanate from something in the middle of stage. Works really well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GridGirl Posted November 26, 2013 Share Posted November 26, 2013 I did a show where the director requested this. We got a device which had a small hard drive with built-in speakers and four (good-sized) buttons - each button triggered a different sound so we loaded four different crying sounds onto it, then hid the whole thing inside the doll's shawl carefully so the buttons were relatively easy to hit without looking. I'm not sure of the exact details of the thing, unfortunately - it was a while ago and I wasn't directly involved. It worked well with the only drama being when the sound operator hooked the battery charger up to it after the show one night under blue light and got the +ve and -ve round the wrong way...the shawl was only a little bit scorched.... E2A: I guess, on thinking about it, it was more like a big digital dictaphone, just with multiple playback buttons and the ability to load digital files straight onto it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DickyT Posted November 26, 2013 Share Posted November 26, 2013 I've seen people hide entire laptops before. You just need some cue software (I'm pretty sure there are free programs out there) and a pair of USB speakers. Just need the actor to hit the space bar!Bobs your uncle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cedd Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 I've had really good success with these. I reckon with the right mp3 file, it'd produce a decent cry of a useable volume. You've got 30 seconds of audio to play with, and it just loops at the end of the file. Just need a power supply and switch once it's programmed. I've currently got a set of them doing crackling fireplaces, a crackling frying pan and a tweeting bird in The Narnia Experience - all still going A-ok after 2 weeks solid use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james141 Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 A few tours that pass by use an iem system with a 12 battery/amp/speaker setup. Ive seen it inside desks and chairs but theres no reason you couldn't put it in anything really. The sounds then come from qlab on their own output straight to the iem transmitter. James. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 Perhaps ironically, the need for location accuracy increases as the size of the venue (and thus, generally, the funding available to do the work) decreases. In a 2,000 seater, to the punter in the middle of the circle, the actual source location being bang on doesn't really matter, as long as it somewhere roughly in the right direction. In the front row of a 50 seater, the difference between "on stage", and speakers "nearby" can be a long way out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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