Specifying new Audio Equipment for new Haunt

[gadget-evilusions]

I need to specify and price two ambinet audio set ups. Each would be covering a 5000sf haunt. I dont need individual sound in each room, I just need to do an overall ambient audio track for each haunt. I would need to specify speakers, amp(s), and an audio source. I would prefer to have the audio played from an output on a computer into the amp and then out to the speakers. Any help would be appreciated.

[beardedbil]

Brian have you ever looked at Alcorn Mcbride's digital audio repeaters, they have an AMPtraXX that has 8 separate amps in one piece of equipment... along with the 8traXX digital player you can have 8 audio files playing at one time... Or if you need something simpler a single digital repeater would be better than a computer.

I am a dealer of Alcorn and would be happy to spec out some equipment for you including speakers.

[gadget-evilusions]

I don't belive I need anything as high end as Alcorn McBride equipment. This is a start up brand new haunt this year and I don't know how much of a budget I will have for the audio equipment yet. I may be able to upgrade them next year as long as things go well.

I only said computer because a few of my customers have that kind of set up. I am not oppsed to another option however.

My main concern is how powerful of speakers/amp would I need, and where to get them.

[beardedbil]

I would then suggest gilderfluke repeaters... they wont break a budget and will never crash...at least in my experience with them, I have seen them run for years without problems. We also deal gilderfluke as well. I think for your situation I would go with powered speakers, makes it a very simple install with only routing audio. Just my opinion. I have just installed Behringer Truth speakers in an attraction, you might want to check those out.

If you want more power I have also used JBL EON speakers, they pack a punch and are also powered...

[geckofx]

A CD player (20$) a small mixer (50$) an 800 watt power amp (200$) or a 1500W if you want more umph (350$) and 4 PR15 speakers (100$). You'll floor yourself with this. And if all that is to much bling bling take that idea and head to the pawn shop.

[Moxley Manor]

Good information. Thanks for posting!

[imax]

One tip:

Be careful in speaker placement. To cover a space that size won't require a *lot* of gear, but it may be VERY loud when in close proximity to one of the speakers, which may reduce the effect of whatever scene your guests may be in. Getting a couple cheap 5.1 home theater amps and 10 smaller speakers that you can drive at lower volume to cover the area may be more effective than 2 or 4 speakers driven at high volume.

And don't be fooled, it's easy to split a line level signal to all sorts of places, with negligible side effects... so you don't really need fancy equipment before the amplifier.

-- I

[LookSolutionsMatt]

Gilderfluke SD25, output to Crown XLS 400 - JBL Control 29's

Also, if you wanted to have the sound change abit during the haunt. I have always been a fan of the Boo Box. It has a standby ambient noise mode, then when triggered, it goes in the "scare" mode. I'd choose a prop, use the Boo Boxx as the control, wire my amps to the output. Kill two birds with one stone.

http://www.frightprops.com/FrightPro...ooBox/Pico.asp

[Brandon_K]

Bill,

Now that some time has passed since AMB originally introduced the 8Traxx, have you had the opportunity to try high sample rate encodes on all 8 channels?

I looked into buying 3 of them years ago, but they said (as does the manual) that if I was using 8 channels, I was limited to 112kbps or less encodes. I wasn't thrilled with that idea, so we went a different route. I now have a PC DAW setup, 1 machine, 1 firewire cable, 1 RU for the Firestudio, 32 channels of audio. I'm pleased with this as it lets me reroute a soundtrack easily without swapping cables (for the most part) and I can have 32 channels of FLAC lossless encoded audio.

I'm not knocking the AMB gear, it's extremely high quality. It's extremely spendy though too for what it is. If the encode rates are no longer an issue, I will say though that I think the 8Traxx is one of the best centralized solutions for triggered (prop) audio playback. I used to use SD 25's and 10's ganged onto Augat snap track, which worked though it wasn't really elegant, lots of wires and I'm partial to rackable equipment.

[beardedbil]

Hey Brandon,
We should get together one day, It sounds like we would hit it off talking tech about haunted houses and such...

Anyways on to the 8TraXX. Unfortunately, the bit rate has nothing to do with the size or increased speed of the CF cards that have come to market lately. The processor inside of the equipment has a limited bandwidth, and since it is playing all 8 tracks from one CF card encoding at 320Kbs would be overkill. However 112Kbs was written more as a safety net than a guideline. I would suggest you could get at least 128-160Kbs when playing 8. The other thing to keep in mind is when encoding music all tracks should be encoded at the same bit otherwise your quality will suffer. I hope this helps out. Obviously the bigger players like Disney and Universal use the Digital Binloop for high quality playback.

I like your setup as well, I assume your using the Lightpipe? What are you using on your ADAT line to get the 32 channels outputted to your speakers? Hope this finds you well!
Best,
Bill Rod.