Dirt Cheap High School Theater Sound? 15
Mainframe asks: "I am a student at a small (550 student) private school in Connecticut. I'm trying to bring theater here to a more professional level on a budget that is for all intents and purposes $0. I'm the sound tech, and at the moment we have a reluctantly two channel system with an amplifier and an 8 channel mixer. No CD player, no effects boxes, although everything is rack-mounted. Is there any software package that would make it simpler for me to run a show off of a computer? I need something that would allow me to play sound effects, mix in ambient sound, and perhaps even act as an effects processor for reverb, delay, etc through sound in/out. Right now I have an iBook running OSX doing effects, but it's hacked together using iTunes and a spectacular piece of software called Playthrough FX. OS is not an issue, since we have a robust IT department, so getting a PC with Windows, Linux, Unix, or a Mac with OS9 or X is not a problem."
Re:Start a collection... (Score:1)
A lot of monies given to these schools is for general upkeep and to offset tuition and for financial aid.
--Mike
Re:Start a collection... (Score:1)
beg borrow steal (Score:2)
Realtime Mixing (Score:1)
Re:Realtime Mixing (Score:2)
In my experience, it is almost always worth it to find some cash.
Yes, I forget what it's called (Score:3, Informative)
Your solution (Score:4, Informative)
Congratulations, you just got some potentially expensive consulting for free.
Re:Your solution (Score:1)
If you want the extra tracks, or want to use it with dedicated hardware, you're going to have to buy it.
I haven't priced the ProTools hardware, but you might be able to get a decent soundboard for less than the protools system, and then just get a system to do playback and maybe effects in the computer. I'd rather have a real console under my fingers anyway.
My experience. (Score:3, Informative)
The theater company I worked with had a pretty basic setup (a tape deck, a microphone, a small radio shack mixer). We used to copy show music to cassette tapes, cue them up in the headset, and then play them over the PA. Some times we would lose a tape or it would get mangled. Othertimes we would screw up a cue because the tape wasn't rewound or it was miscued.
Last spring, I TD'ed a show where I also designed the sound. I ripped all the preshow music and sound cues to MP3s (at a pretty good bitrate -- I had plenty of space on the harddrive and the sound system was pretty lo-fi).
Then I renamed the tracks to match the Cue sheet and arranged them into a couple of playlists (preshow, first act, intermission, second act). I ran the whole thing over my laptop using -ick- Real Jukebox.
The nice thing about playlists is if you need to delay the start, or extend intermission, you can add a song in the middle, rather than at the end.
The sound out went into the mixing board, so I was able to control the fades with a slider, rather than mousing around. This was absolutely necessary, IMHO.
It went so well, that I donated my old PowerMac 7100 to the theater company. Since all you need is a decent MP3 player, most schools can get by with a low-end solution (late-90s desktop with good audio-out).
Ableton live (Score:1, Informative)
It's designed for playing sample based music live, but it could have many other applications.
For your sound effects, you can load as many one shot (or looping) samples as you like. You could mix a gun shot with a 60min recording of ambience(ableton doesn't mind length).
You can also run a live input from your soundcard into ableton, which leads me to the best thing about this program- *realtime* effects processing with VST plugins, many of which are available entirely free.
every sample is loaded into a track, to which you can apply effects in realtime. You can apply effects at any stage of the mixing, from tracks to sends to the master out. The only problem with the realtime effects is that on the soundcard in (possibly the output from your mixer..) there is a 10-30ms delay to_prevent_feedback. I'd imagine this wouldn't be a huge problem for you, but just to let you know...
So, with an EQ plugin and some free VST's, ableton could become your real time effects processor and your final stage of mixing,,, all for about 250$$....
also available in windows or Mac flavors.
good luck.
These might fit the bill... (Score:1, Informative)
Traktor [traktor-dj.com]
PCDJ [visiosonic.com]
Maybe not the best.. (Score:2, Informative)
The best that I could think of is to use the mixer for running audio to the speakers, have the mic's as inputs split, so you can run it strait to the mixer (then to the speakers), or into the comp to realtime add your effects.
Depending on the number of channels/mic's used you might need another 4 channel mixer.
If you ran 3 mic's & the computer, that would fill the mixer, I'm assuming 1 wireless, & 2 taped stage mics (it's what we had @ my HS), and then one channel for the computer.
You'll need A/B Selector switches available @ radio shack if you'd like to run the mic's strait to the PA, or run them to the Computer input for effects & such.
If you have a computer with a cd_rom you can play your audio off of that, however my choice would be off of winamp, and playlists @ 128kbps or somewhere close rate (hey.. it's not surround, just PA speakers).
However, if you could score an old Cart Recorder (look on ebay) these record what are essentially 8-track cassetes, that have 1/4 magnetic tape in an endless loop. We have about a dozen @ the station where I work, and they are impressively easy to use & reliable. However a Cart Recorder might cost upwards of 200 or 300 dollars. And most of the functions it can do, can again be replaced by a computer.
Another item you might find useful, is a Reel-to-Reel deck, a recorder obviously. But this again can be replaced with a dependable computer just as the Cart Recorder can.
So basically, some A/B switches, a fast computer with a Zip drive or Burner, and your 4 Channel mixer, leave you in pretty good standing.
My only suggestion is that if you have sound clips, bumps, & liners that you like, and use often, burn the off to CD to ensure that they won't get misplaced, or accidentally deleted. Hard copies are absolutely indispensible.
Oh yeah, I like tinkering around with audio files on Goldwave (http://www.goldwave.com) At the station we use SAW 32+, Studio Audio Works (http://www.sawstudio.com/) and it's pretty slick, I've used it for about 12 months, and still haven't figured out everything it can do. I think it costs though.
If you like building kits . . . (Score:1)
They have small mixers and others audio components in kit form. Most is for low-power broadcasters, but there might be something there you can use.