Sampler Hardware for SFX

[themuzicman]

My current playback setup includes QLab for prerecorded, and already q'd things, and either a Korg NanoPad or a midi keyboard for live q's - you can program either to play custom sound fx through Logic/Garageband, or whatever control software you normally use. Off of the computer, I usually have a firewire sound card, so I can connect to multiple outputs.

- plus, with the nanopad, you have the touch pad that you can do custom fx filtering through, among other things.

[gafftaper]

Anybody know what sort of old Mac Qlab will run on. Seems to me the schools' got to have an old mac hanging around that you could run an older version of Qlab on. That would be an outstanding and cheep solution.

[Clifford]

Originally Posted by avkid

360 Systems Instant Replay

I know several high level professionals who swear by it.

I'll third the Instant Replay. We got one two year ago and we've never had a problem with it. Mapable hotkeys and easy recording make it really easy to use in production and during shows. Our first semester assistant sound tech can run it, which means anyone can.

Spring for it if you can.

-Clifford

[JoeGriffin]

I've done several shows at a local high school using SFX as the playback system, with a student operator, and it works really well. For live, quick Qs we mapped a second playlist in SFX to a MIDI keyboard and triggered them manually. Again, worked great.

If I was equipping the theatre now I might go with QLab, but the school had an extra PC on hand we could use, so it made sense.

[2mojo2]

Maybe some future year I will have $2500 or so available to buy Instant Replay.

For now, I am looking for basic functionality.
I want to offer the student running effects finer control than what he currently gets from the CD player.

[spiwak2005]

There is a used Instant Replay on ebay currently at $500. Still a little expensive for your needs.

What about minidisc?

[themuzicman]

Originally Posted by gafftaper

Anybody know what sort of old Mac Qlab will run on. Seems to me the schools' got to have an old mac hanging around that you could run an older version of Qlab on. That would be an outstanding and cheep solution.

That's what we did in high school, got a few of the original iMacs (talking 10 year old machines) and threw qlab on there. - in fact, I am doing that right now for another project of mine.

You can run qlab 1.0 on any Mac OS X computer, though I do recommend 10.2+
You can run qlab 2.0 only on Mac OS X.5+

[seanandkate]

If you have an old PC lurking about (and who doesn't?), try this:

HarvestSounds - sound effects player

It's free, and looks pretty capable, but I can't personally vouch for it. A buddy gave me the name.

[avkid]

Originally Posted by 2mojo2

I want to offer the student running effects finer control than what he currently gets from the CD player.

What CD player do they have?

There is a huge difference between a basic playback deck and a proper DJ CD player.

[jkowtko]

Like I said before, if you really want a sampler, the SP-303 may be the cheapest thing you can find out there ($200 or less used) that has eight big buttons that can easily be pressed. Setup is a pain, but once it's set up, it's a no-brainer.

However, at the level of quality you are handling sound effects and for a school where the kids are generally going to be PC-savvy, I strongly recommend finding an old P3/P4 Windows PC with a 1024 monitor and 512mb RAM, using the internal sound card even, and getting the cheapest copy of SCS (or equivalent) which will run you about 50 bucks. I'm sure someone at the school has an old machine to donate, the keyboard control of these sound cueing programs is light years better than a CD player and still gives you much, much more playback control than a sampler, and you'll introduce the students to a newer technology that is very expandable.