Big Ben

[sandall]

Thinking ahead to Remembrance Sunday, I was wondering how others get the 11 o'clock chimes to the people. I used to do a London square, with a battery amp in the back of the car (parked in the nearest bit of taxi-rank) & a portable CD player. A bit fiddly, but totally reliable, & it didn't matter if the timing wasn't exact (though I did once decline to go 40" early when the service had under-run).

 

These days I do a much bigger one, & as there might be several hundred spectators looking at their mobile phones just before 11.00, timing is a bit more critical. Even before DAB with its variable delay, I've always resisted taking a radio feed, just in case the commentator crashes the chimes; also I use the 2-minute gun to cue the bugler. I abandoned the portable CD, as it doesn't have a timer, & moved to a tablet. The first problem was hunting for an app which not only always plays the track you want, but doesn't repeat it or go on to the next. Maple will stop at the end of the track if you remember to tell it, but there is still the worry as to whether you've actually got the right version cued up (no problem with CD if you only have 1 track on the disc). The 2nd problem, while also mixing the band & choir, & keeping eye-contact with the bugler, is preventing the display going to sleep at the wrong moment.

 

Last year I went back to CD, but using a portable DVD player that has never let me down, so there was a display to keep an eye on. Come the moment it wouldn't play !!! Eject, reload, wait for all the deep thought processes that DVD players go through when you're in a hurry, & finally, only 15" late, success !!

 

Nobody complained, so I may have got away with it, but it's not an experience I wish to repeat.

 

I could always use a mains-powered CD or MD, but most years the power has come from a 13A socket in a building 50 metres away, via a small gap in a long wall, so I also have a couple of horns & a battery-powered amp on hot standby just in case, which rules out anything main-powered.

[MarkPAman]

What sort of tablet do you have?

 

Go Button on iPad is solid and you can have one playlist on the free version.

[J Pearce]

Qlab, and other playback solutions, can do real-time triggers so that a cue can run at a specific time.

 

We used this for the new year bongs at Symphony Hall this year (though we had a CD cue-paused on backup too, not a cue to miss!).

[nikkicallaghan]

Fx live 2 on ipad does a good job. The free version is limited to a certain amount of cues though. I like go button but its an expensive app

[themadhippy]

atomic clock with a custom alarm sound?

[sandall]

What sort of tablet do you have?

Android (4 point something). It's about the only time I wish I'd bought an iPad, but it's a considerable investment for 2-1/2 minutes a year :(

[Shez]

How about creating a track with 5 minutes of silence at the start before the bongs- you can hit play at 1055 and forget about it?

[IRW]

Sony Walkman* http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/cool.gif. It'll definitely start from where you stop it!

 

*or other brand of personal cassette player

[Jivemaster]

There is a DJ market recording of the chime for NYE available with the Westminster chime before the hour strikes. This conveniently has the full hour Westminster chime that you can cut into to fill in for a short service, but you'd have to trim one chime off with reverb to let the eleven chime fade nicely.

 

I just use Virtual DJ free edition to play odd tracks or VLC

[sunray]

I still get cassettes presented to me occasionally for performances and I always run cassette in addition to any digital format when recording an event.

 

I'm on my 3rd Remembrance venue,

First was mains powered from van with cassette for big ben, gun & bugle.

Second was battery powered from van with radio relay of BB & gun but live bugle.

Current venue has no vehicle access so system has to be lightweight and I only provide mic, local church bell is used and live bugle closes silence but I carry bugle on phone in case...

 

Most successful/easiest has definitely been the radio, as I faded up when the vicar announced we were joining the London service and it didn't matter what time he finished, I had to monitor the radio to make sure he didn't overrun and BB wasn't missed.

[Tim McCulloch]

VLC, Video LAN Connection - can be optioned to play only 1 track in a play list and then stop. I don't recall if it will highlight the next track to ready it for play, but at least it does stop at the end of each track. Available for Windows, Mac OS, Android, and *maybe* iOS devices (I don't own any so had no need to look).

 

GO Button for iOS is very popular.

I have also used a Windows laptop and SportsSounds Pro, setting the laptop in presentation mode (it won't sleep) and transferring the audio content to a USB flash drive (it won't spin down or need to spin up at playback time). Spendy if you're starting from scratch (SSP is about AU$150)

 

[Shez]

but you'd have to trim one chime off with reverb to let the eleven chime fade nicely.

Or you can chop out chime #11 so that 12 becomes 11 with it's natural final reverb ;)

(Been there, done that!)

[Jivemaster]

Be very careful of MP3 with bells, sometimes the harmonics just don't recover from low bit rate recordings.

[sandall]

Or you can chop out chime #11 so that 12 becomes 11 with it's natural final reverb ;)

(Been there, done that!)

Likewise, though these days it's always an off-air recording, complete with protesting seagulls after the 2' gun.

 

Thanks Tim for suggesting VLC. I use it on Windows, but didn't know about the Android version. Unfortunately, although the spec says Android 2.3 upwards (& it installs ok on my Android 6 phone) Google says my Android 4.2 tablet is "ineligible" .