Date: Sun, 01 Feb 2004 13:59:30 -0500
From: Joe <joe-AT-dunfee.com>
Subject: Re: PUPT: sound ideas


   I am helping someone to re-design a current show to make it more
portable, and revisited the sound issue.  We ended up falling back on an old
method... an old-fashoned casset tape player. This is the kind with manual
buttons that allow you to press play, then unplug/replug the power cord to
stop and start the sound.  Then we purchased an extension cord with a on-off
switch. Home depot is selling them for about $14.  The also sold some foot
switches, but since it is a push button, there is no way to know if it is
currently in the on off position.  So we didn't go for that version.

   However, I imagine it is going to get very hard to find such a tape
player in the near future. In fact, I suspect the cassette tape is fast
becoming history.

   I've read that there are CD players, that have "autopause" ability.  This
was a feature that was first on the CD players marketed to disk jockies.
The idea is that you press play, and then when it hits the end of the track,
it just stops.  But, I've not found a consumer version that has this, though
I have been told that some of them have this feature... but they didn't have
a model or even a brand for me to investigate.

   A trick I've considered, but not tried yet, is to use a computer to burn
a CD with your audio tracks, but first deliberate put about 5 minutes of
silence at the end of each track.  This way, you can just let the CD keep
playing for a while, then when you are ready for your next sound effect, you
press the button to fastforward to the next track.

   But, now we get to another problem... these tiny little buttons are not
designed to be easy to press when you are a puppeteer.  And even if you
press the button, how do you REALLY know you pressed it and the signal
successfully got to the CD player?

   Even the CD player may be hitting its twilight years with the MP3 type
players taking their place.  In these players, the entire player will be
smaller than what you really would want the remote control to be!

   You can now get MP3 players built into your Palm Pilot type devices.  It
may be viable to write some software which will play the sound cues that can
be triggered by one of the larger buttons on the Palm Pilot... but they are
still pretty small.  We would still really want some sort of external
switch.  Neither the software or the external switch exist right now that I
know of.

    Some mini-disk players have the auto-pause feature built in.  I also
know of a magician who has modified his Mini-disk player so that he uses a
garage-door remote control to actvate the play button.  But we are back
again to a tiny little button, nice for a magician who wants to keep it in
his pocket, but perhaps not so nice to find in the dark.
   
   I don't know of a solution that is as cheap and easy to implement as the
"power cord on the tape player" method.  There are methods, but they cost a
lot more money, are not as reliable, and are more complex to manage.


Joe Dunfee  joe-AT-dunfee.com
Gordonville, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.



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