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  • #16
    Bill

    How did you design your sound system? We used 1000w power inverters to power 550w 120v Behringer self powered, full range PA speakers. This route has just proved to be too unreliable for us to this point. I would like to go with a 12v surround system. Just curious to see what others use.
    Patrick Barberry
    www.legendsofthefog.com
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    • #17
      legend,
      Here is our set-up. It was my design so take it for what its worth. We have a train with two 40' long cars. I use 3 sets of speakers in each car evenly spaced. To power it i use a 600watt car stereo amp. The speakers are form best buy, indoor/outdoor, about 6x9 in size. I run the sysem on 4 channels, 2 for each car. It is wired in parrallel(this is for ohms). The amp can go down to 2 ohms(thant would be 4 speakers in parrallel). We use 2 deep cycle bateries wired together in parrallel. I think I have a 3000 watt inverter used on it. The amp is 12 volt, but i run sound off my lap-top computor(120vac). I also have 20 electronic fire crackers that are hooked up also(these are under the seats, nice effect. I run audacity for the background track, and the idle track. For this i spliced together some good background clips. our ride is between 16 and 19 minutes, so my track is 22 min long. Then I also use windows audio player for individule scare tracks. I ride in the car and run it. Hope this helps. I want to do the indiviules clips on powerpoint as slides so i can just push a button at each scare. I is not possible to set it as the speed varies .

      I came up with this 3 years ago, not a single problem(not counting operator), the customers thought this was the best improvement we made on the event.

      Rock River Thresheree "TRAIN OF TERROR"
      Last edited by scary bill; 03-04-2012, 05:05 PM. Reason: forgot something

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      • #18
        scary bill... quick recap, you have 2 heavy duty 12 volt car batteries connected together (doesn't that add up to 24v ?) or not sure what you mean by parallel and connected to you tractor's alternator, or, just recharge with chargers daily? Then these power your 600watt car stereo amp which your laptop audio out runs to...correct? Do you power your laptop from the inverter or just run off laptop battery? would think former

        Patrick.. are you having problems with sound going off (think fautly inverter?) or just inconsistancies with inverter performing the 12v to 110v? I've never used inverter yet, so unsure of the issues at hand. But, as mentioned, going to 12v all the way around might be the most reliable.

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        • #19
          spooky, I run the laptop off of the inverter. As far as the other, you could just hook the stereo and inverter to the tractor battery. You would only need a small inverter for the lap-top(400watt is fine). We use the batteries because we have a steam powered locomotive,( it doesnt have an alternator or battery). Hooking to the tractor would make it easy.

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          • #20
            So now that this is about sound I am SO in on the CONVO!

            Behringer= yuck! Mackie = yay!

            All this inverter talk and whatnot is overkill guys!

            Depending on your setup your sound situation will vary GREATLY.

            When at all possible send that sound from above, one speaker on each end should do you fine!

            For ease of use purposes, use PASSIVE speakers. That way you wont need to plug each speaker in, just run a 1/4" or XLR cable into the back of the speaker, and a poweactualr amp near ou to control the volume. Now as far as music goes, download Virtual DJ, unlike Sedative, you can run it without a controller, its a two channel mixer so you can easily and seamlessly play whatever you whenever you want and can even set hot cues! That's the best way to go in my opinion. You will only need to power the amp so there's only one thing to plug in other than your laptop and you can literally run those speaker cables anywhere invisibly! That and passive speaker's tend to be harder to break than.active speakers and are far less expensive!

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            • #21
              scream, we use 3 sets per car, it works good. we have scenes set up on both sides so i use individule sides for the scene sounds and stereo of the background track. pretty much what you say is how we are set up. running speaker wires and hiding them is easy

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              • #22
                Yeah I figured but I like talking about sound and lighting Haha. And it wwas more for Jim since he hasn't put his together yet lol.

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                • #23
                  Originally posted by screamforadream View Post
                  Behringer= yuck! Mackie = yay!
                  Agreed. It's only money.

                  We're going the 12v route on the ride this year. BTW it is much more expensive to properly outfit the wagons 12v than 110v w/ inverters. But... you get what you pay for. We've gotten 2 years out of this system, its time for a change.

                  Thanks for the info Bill and scream

                  Patrick
                  Patrick Barberry
                  www.legendsofthefog.com
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                  • #24
                    Yeah it is, and I'm not a big fan of inverters in the least bit, I'm a big friend of kiss, keep it simple stupid! Once you throw all that extra stuff in there it becomes a bigger hassle than you need.

                    http://www.virtualdj.com/download/free.html

                    Is the free version for anyone to try out, it eliminates the need for an external mixer and there's even an iPad app for anyone that has an iPad, it's one of the more user friendly DJ softwares out there. =)

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                    • #25
                      So here's the question I should have asked earlier, what about subwoofers on trailers... has anyone done so ? I'm actually very technical, but, smart enough to know that learning from others mistakes is better There's plenty a number of touch screen juke box software out there that would do the job, also, you can buy touch screen kits on ebay for reasonable to convert say a small 12" laptop that would likely work fine. I like the idea of pimping out the trailers and then you have this dash board on the tractor/train...where you control everything mostly, sounds like more fun that one should ever have, lol

                      Scarybill... dying to see some pictures of you train? I was wondering if you could pick up a old school bus and convert to a long trailer and pull with a tractor (lots of welding). Probably cheaper finding a long trailer... but the thought is interesting.

                      I still didn't understand hooking 2 batteries in parallel means as I would think this gives you 24volts, unless you place some resistors to lower to 12v and thus this would give you longer charge in the end.

                      How do fog machines run off inverters, if running sound has issues wondering if even worth effort of trying fog machines...etc

                      Jim

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