Hi, I'm probably going use a motu ultralite soundcard with a mini pc with stripped down windows or linux - I've already written my own software that plays interleaved files so I don't need to buy any 3rd party software - I was just curious to see what standalone devices were out there. The whole system costs around £850 for 8 channels (without speakers) so is pretty economical and as some one mentioned I can program not jsut the player but the whole computer so that switches itself on off automatically at morning and night so hopefully even the cleaner will never need to touch it. I think Ill avoid the mini mac and osx though. I think this is a good solution because the motu are very nice soundcards , so I am getting the same amount of channels as some of the players that cost nearly 4000 euros for less than half the price and better D/A conversion. The Allen and Heath does look promising - but I just dont quite trust that it would loop properly or that it would be simple enough for the staff to operate (ie is there a loop function , if so do staff have to do anything to activate it again once the units switched off and on again) . Until someone on the list says "yep Ive used it - it works fine" I wouldnt want to buy it over a system I know will work well. However otherwise I would probably prefer a dedicated standalone device to using a computer.
On 11 February 2013 12:17, John Leonard <j...@johnleonard.co.uk> wrote: > Just for historical interest, I designed and installed a system for > Tussauds New York which initially used eight of Richmond Sound Design's > AudioBox system to cover the entire exhibition, with many multiple, > synchronised tracks. The entire system, including video playback and > lighting was turned on early in the morning by the cleaners and turned off > at night by the duty technician, using a fairly basic show-control system > linked to a simple switch panel. Audio playback was from SCSI hard-drives > and ran without fault for over ten years, fourteen hours a day, three > hundred and sixty four days a year. A couple of years ago, as hard-drives > and power-supplies began to fail, we replaced the eight units with four of > RSD's AudioBox 2 units (essentially a rack-mount Windows PC with a > solid-state drive) and a bunch of MOTU interfaces. As far as I'm aware, the > system is still running happily today. Richmond Sound Design's web-site is > here: http://www.richmondsounddesign.com/ > > If that system's a bit too complex and expensive for you, you could look > at Figure 53's QLab MacOS-based playback system as a lower-cost > alternative: it'll play multi-channel interleaved .WAV files, which makes > sure that your files are sample accurate, and can easily be set up to start > up and run on turn-on. It's used extensively in theatre sound playback > systems and is extremely robust. A new version is on the way which is > currently in private beta, but which has some very interesting additions. > There's a free demo version, limited to to two outputs, available on the > Figure 53 web-site which is here: http://figure53.com/ The only caveat I > would mention is that MOTU drivers for the current versions of MacOS do not > appear to be particularly stable, so if you're considering this, it may be > wiser to look at interfaces from Metric Halo or RME, both of which have > proved themselves to be extremely reliable in the long-term. > > Both systems feature an output matrix, full in, out and crosspoint level > control, timed fade commands MSC and MTC options and can run multiple > cue-lists. I have used both for many years now and find both developers > offer exceptional support. > > Please feel free to contact me if you've got an questions about either > system. > > Regards, > > John > > > > > I've got a couple of installations that require a standalone device that > > will play 8 or more channels (octophonic mixes so all tracks need to be > > played simultaneously) can anyone think of an affordable standalone > player > > ? The museum staff will not know anything about audio technology so > > preferably it will work just by pressing "on". I found one but it was > > ridiculously priced (nearly 4000 euros !!). Ive just found this : > > > > http://www.waveplayer.de/ > > > > > > which seems quite affordable - has anyone used them ? > > > > cheers,, > > Gus > > -------------- next part -------------- > > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > > URL: < > https://mail.music.vt.edu/mailman/private/sursound/attachments/20130209/a7a74d9e/attachment.html > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Sursound mailing list > > Sursound@music.vt.edu > > https://mail.music.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/sursound > > _______________________________________________ > Sursound mailing list > Sursound@music.vt.edu > https://mail.music.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/sursound > -- 07580951119 augustine.leudar.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <https://mail.music.vt.edu/mailman/private/sursound/attachments/20130211/876fd28d/attachment.html> _______________________________________________ Sursound mailing list Sursound@music.vt.edu https://mail.music.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/sursound
