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Expert Audio System Questions!

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  • Expert Audio System Questions!

    Hi Haunt Fiends :

    The owner of the park where we produce our haunted forest is looking to secure a used audio system. It contains a mixer and a number of amplifiers and other things. Here's the problem...

    ...I have ZERO understanding of the capabilities of this system. I know NOTHING about audio hardware. Looking at the list below, please tell me, if you know:

    1. Would this be something that could provide multiple tracks to different speakers (1 track or channel per speaker) that could be stretched to different scenes - or would this only allow me to mix channels into a single audio output?

    2. What are these items typically used for?

    3. Any idea how much this group of items might normally cost?

    4. Any other suggestions how such equipment might be used in a haunt?

    My thanks!

    Mephisto the Great
    www.DarkHollowHaunt.com

    Here's the list:

    Berringer UB1204, 8 channel mixer with SKB rack
    Two (2) QSC Audio Dual Monaural Amplifiers, MX 1500
    McMartin Industries 350W Power Amp, LT-3500D
    DBX Over Easy Compressor/Limiter, model 163X
    Audio Digital Industrial Digital Processor, model ADD-2, Voice effects processor
    Symetrix Voice Processor, model 528
    Electro Voice Tapco Graphic Equalizer, model EVT 2230
    Rane Graphic Equalizer, model GE 27
    Rane Active Crossover, model AC 22
    Two (2) 800 Watt 15", 4 ohm, Low frequency, Electro-Voice
    One (1) Single 15", 4 ohm, Low frequency, Electro-Voice
    Six (6) 6 ohm, High frequency, Electro-Voice
    Metal Case w/connections for system
    Misc. cables patch cords and adapters
    DARK HOLLOW HAUNTED FOREST
    www.DarkHollowHaunt.com

  • #2
    Frankly, it's a lot of stuff you don't need and the mixer only has four outs, so four zones of sound.

    Depending upon how cheap they're willing to sell it, you could have the start of a system that would do what you want.

    I put together a system for our haunt this year based around a Behringer MX3242 mixer, oldie but goodie Audio Matrix 16 zone switch and American Audio SDJ1 flash card players and Samson amps... we have sixteen sources and sixteen zones of sound in the house, I can play the radio over all sixteen zones when we are working on the house, one source to one zone, one source to four zones, etc. I can even do an announcement using a microphone across the whole house, or any zone I choose. We invested around $7000 and this system will do everything you could need.

    Brett Hays, Director
    Fear Fair
    www.fearfair.com

    Comment


    • #3
      Damn nice setup, Brett! You just got my mind racing. I just picked up a new car stereo for REAL cheap that plays SD and USB flash drives. It also has two sets of RCA outputs (I think one set might be filtered for a subwoofer though). One could easily mount 2 car headunits into 1 rack space and you could probably power quite a few of them from a single 12v DC power supply (like they do in the display panels).

      If you don't mind me asking, how much were the SD card players shown here?
      To look meant danger, to smile meant death!

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      • #4
        Brett:

        Thanks for the input. I think they're asking $1200, but I thought it might be a better investment for a ton of portable audio as those have served me well for 10 years. The biggest problem is distance -- being a haunted forest, I'm assuming I'd also have to invest in a mile of cables to stretch from one speaker to the next.

        Any additional thoughts?

        www.DarkHollowHaunt.com
        DARK HOLLOW HAUNTED FOREST
        www.DarkHollowHaunt.com

        Comment


        • #5
          Speakers

          If you run long speaker wire for your out door haunt you can blow your amps or more....depending on your wire gage or lenght of wire and power source.

          For long distance its best to use powered speakers, p a speakers
          with built in amps...

          that way you can daisy chain them together


          O.......................................O......... ..............O........................O


          Dont use a power amp and powered speakers together!!

          your system should be all active or all passive , or at least seprated

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by actiondeath View Post
            Damn nice setup, Brett! You just got my mind racing. I just picked up a new car stereo for REAL cheap that plays SD and USB flash drives. It also has two sets of RCA outputs (I think one set might be filtered for a subwoofer though). One could easily mount 2 car headunits into 1 rack space and you could probably power quite a few of them from a single 12v DC power supply (like they do in the display panels).

            If you don't mind me asking, how much were the SD card players shown here?
            $299 everyday price
            http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com...LAID=147227656
            Brett Hays, Director
            Fear Fair
            www.fearfair.com

            Comment


            • #7
              Mephisto....PM sent
              Jay (pro audio dude)
              Las Vegas, NV

              Comment


              • #8
                In our haunted forest, we have wal mart radios with detachable speakers at each scene.. running speaker wires to 20 scenes would be a migrane and real expensive especially cause you already have to deal with 120 volt and 12v for the minispotlites (if you run them)

                We buy big tupperwares and mount the cd player in them, then run the speakers wherever you like ( I like to put them at the tops on the left and right to create a "stereo" effect. We screw our tupperwares to the buldings (it helps them become waterproof) and lengthen the speakers by splicing them and run speakerwire to your speakers inside the buildings/walkthroughs.. and for the just outside places we use just regular cd player stereos hidden inside of tupperwares (that are hidden as well). its effective and saves alot of headache. I would eventually like to have a hardwired sound sysytem, but with over a quarter mile haunt that we have, it just seems impossible.
                Last edited by WickedWoodsHaunt; 10-13-2008, 10:33 AM.
                Virginia's premier outdoor haunted attraction-
                www.wicked-woods.com

                Comment


                • #9
                  Mephisto, don't bother with that system, it won't do what you want it to do. It's best suited for a live sound reinforcement system (although, not very well suited for that either, in my opinion).

                  Basically, if you've got a great distance between your control room and your scenes/speakers, you've got only a few options, and they all depend on your budget.

                  If you want to keep with a centralized audio system you could run a 70 volt distributed system to your speakers. This is intended for longer runs and for low wattage speakers. This will of course depend heavily on just how loud you want it, and just how far you're going. This would probably not be the best way to go if money is an issue. You'd need special transformers both on the power amp and the speaker, and you still need to invest in miles of cabling.

                  Another option is the already mentioned idea of using powered speakers. This would be the best and easiest way to go, and I absolutely love powered speakers. They really take most of the guess work out of setting up an audio system, and it allows you to do something like this. You'll still need long cable runs, but it will be signal cable and not speaker cable. Make sure your connections between the mixer/source and the speakers are balanced. That means using XLR cable, or TRS 1/4" connectors...although I would go with all XLR for this. XLR is a standard mic cable connection. If you go unbalanced, you'll likely get some terrible sounding results. As long as you buy professional grade products, you should be ok.

                  The last option is not having a centralized audio system and just putting the source near the speakers. This is cheapest, but probably a pain in the ass to control.

                  Of course you could also try wireless, but that gets even more expensive and in the end you still need a powered speaker.


                  Hey Brett just out of curiosity how are you setting up that Behringer mixer to get 16 zones? I didn't think that one had enough auxs for that.
                  -Rob

                  Audio Guru
                  Lighting Designer

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Brett, why the mixer?

                    I'm just curious. I've never found a need or use for a mixer in a multi zone system. My current system consists of the cd decks and a few old (but sweet) Marantz tape decks, fed into my matrix switchers, then straight to the amps.

                    How are the SDJ's working for you? The entire audio system, short of cabling is getting redone this winter for next season. I haven't decided if I want to go with the SDJ's, as they are freaking sweet, or with a 100% PC based solution. The PC based solution is quite a bit cheaper, gives me more room for expansion and to add DSP and is fully EQ adjustable, but I'm concerned should the machine go down, I just lost 24 channels of audio.
                    -Brandon Kelm
                    Operations Manager & Technical Director

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