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  • Sound Systems

    Hey everyone,

    this year we're finally moving towards centralized audio tracks between scenes. Since we're still new, we just did one ambient wash over the whole place.

    Essentially, I want to have 5 different soundtracks, one for each scene. However, I don't want to have a full system (power amp, mixer, player, etc) for each section 'cause that's way too expensive. So I wanted to see what some of you guys do to play your audio loops. I want everything in the same production closet hopefully running on one power amp. Something that has several inputs and several outputs...

    Hopefully this is making sense and I'm describing what I'm looking for correctly.
    Bryce Ring
    Co-owner/ Designer
    Twisted Realms Haunted House

  • #2
    Check out Sound Mill software: http://breakthrusoftware.com/html/pr...mgr/index.html

    It does take some technical savvy to set it up, but it allows you use one computer, with several audio cards (can be inexpensive, USB audio cards on an inexpensive USB hub) to control several zones of sound.

    The cool thing about that, is that you can interrupt all of the audio throughout the haunt, and play a single audio track for emergency messages.
    Fright In Falcon Haunted Maze
    http://frightinfalcon.com

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    • #3
      I am working on making up a couple plug and play kits to offer this year, these would just be unpacked, placed where you want and wired to a speaker and done! Both local sources (one in each room) and centralized ones (one room where all the audio lands.) What is your budget and how many zones (think different tracks, not rooms) are you looking at?

      I can probably whip up a quote and some information over the next day or so and get back quickly.

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      • #4
        Audio System

        I'm using these this year.
        http://www.amazon.com/Lepy-LP-V9S-st...ilpage_o03_s00

        Small, built-in amp, automatic looping...It was cheaper than getting a large multi-channel amp and some other sound cards or a computer with a bunch of low-level outputs.
        -Eric
        Chief Engineer/Co-Creative Director
        HUSH Haunted Attraction

        sigpic

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        • #5
          I second Eric, the small players at amazon are great for one to two rooms. You can even use any audio software (wavosaur works good) to put different tracks on the left and right channels and have one player put two different sound tracks in adjacent rooms.
          DCH

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          • #6
            The amazing part of the LEPAI amps is that if you use the same model and SD cards and power them on at the same time, they will stay synced the entire night.

            Therefore if you want the same track playing in a few rooms, just use the same brand and size SD cards in the same brand LEPAI amp and copy the tracks to each. Then just flip the power on at the same time and they will stay synced and looped for the whole night.

            Really works great.

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            • #7
              12931237_1207748379250278_1144748914559581069_n[1].jpg

              Don't know the name of the amps, but our guys added more sound systems for sound effects throughout the haunt. We had overhead systems, but these new amps added sound to individual scenes. Turned out really cool.

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              • #8
                What exactly are those? Do you have a model number and name? They look very compact.

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                • #9
                  Check my post above, I posted a link to them on Amazon.
                  -Eric
                  Chief Engineer/Co-Creative Director
                  HUSH Haunted Attraction

                  sigpic

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                  • #10
                    Centralized audio

                    Does anyone have a good solution for centralizing audio? I would like to hear what people have come up with.

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                    • #11
                      Depends on what you want it to do and what you mean by "centralized"...I looked at centralizing the entire haunt's audio into a single control room but then I looked at the cost of things like 12-channel amplifiers, thousands of feet of speaker cable, and considered issues like transmission loss over long cable runs and how much time it would take away from other things for me to run all that cable... and decided individual players per room (or using small "central" pockets, like one player servicing 3 close rooms). Then you also can save time in troubleshooting; if audio in a room does not work, then the problem is, without a doubt, in that very room! As opposed to having to possibly traverse 100s of feet of cable to find an issue.
                      -Eric
                      Chief Engineer/Co-Creative Director
                      HUSH Haunted Attraction

                      sigpic

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                      • #12
                        We run a software based audio system with 16 channels of audio with 24 zones ,there are some very nice multi channel systems on the market but they come with a heavy price.
                        We were required to have a central audio control as its tied into our fire alarm and part of fire code.

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                        • #13
                          Esbit- What software do you run? Do you happen to have pictures of you setup?

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                          • #14
                            Thanks for all the replies everyone! Based on what I've seen, it seems using several different independent systems is the way to go. I only need 5 different loops this year spanning about 4 rooms for each, which can be done on a pretty simple setup. Thanks again!
                            Bryce Ring
                            Co-owner/ Designer
                            Twisted Realms Haunted House

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                            • #15
                              With the lepai amps they run off 12 volts. So you can run 12 volt lines to the amps in different sections of the haunt and run them off a central 12v power supply if you are required by code to turn them all off if the alarm sounds.

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