Thread: picoBoo sound quality??

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Just got 3 picoBoo105 models I ordered and I hate to say that I am pretty disappointed in the sound quality. I have tried varying output levels, jostling cables, different playback programs... the playback is definitely not capturing the emotion, emphasis, and atmosphere my intended sound clips were to provide, which are all crystal-clear direct WAV rips. I've found the ideal input level, about 30% from a computer, and I understand playback won't emulate the WAVs exactly, but the amount of compression is ridiculous! I guess I should have taken the "AM quality" warning a bit more seriously...

Granted, everything else is top notch and excellent. Customer service is great, Travis is a true gentleman there. Recording is simple and queuing the AC is even easier. Fright Ideas boasts 30 frames/sec response time on the AC, which allows you to be amazingly precise on the outlets, the actual build of the unit is fairly solid, everything is extremely high quality in concept and design, but there's no excuse for this kind of audio in today's age and standards, total letdown. The YouTube videos posted by Fright Ideas are without-a-doubt edited to cover up "actual" playback and do not represent what the units actually do. The clarity/quality of sound playback in those videos is extremely higher than what I'm hearing my units do.

For a $110 unit, I am very disappointed in one of its main features. I mean, from what I'm hearing, these sound chips and their storage probably cost absolutely next to nothing, literally! How much would it cost Fright Props to upgrade this to a reasonable compression for playback quality, probably a buck or a few bucks per unit? Exactly how much of my $110 in each unit is going towards the sound capabilities?

Anyone want to chime in on this observation, recommend units that have higher sound quality, or concepts on building your own controllers?

I agree the sound it's that great. I think you would have to up to the BooBox4/8 because of the on board memory so there is no compression. I do own 3 of them but they all sound different to me. I also tried other settings in program, on main sound of computer and can't hit that mark. I did change some of the audio with a program to make it sharper and it worked to some extent. I only have it running for one day so I really don't think people care about the sound. I have so many thing going on that I'm sure some of it gets lost anyway. If you want true non compressed sound you could also use DMX but that's another story.

I'm not sure just what kind of sound you are looking for but I have never heard anyone complain while going thru my haunt that the sounds sounded like crap. I have just about every product that Fright Ideas makes and I'm very satisfied with them. Now if you want very loud and blarring sounds then run the sounds thru a 3,000 watt amp and blow their ears off. Thats what one of our club members did with his Picboo. Everyone has their own personnal opinions on what their haunts should look and sound like and its a matter of how much you want to spend for just a few nights a year. For me its to have as much action for my buck then to have a lot of background sounds. But then again, this is only my 2 cents worth. And yes I have bought and tried other mid range price controllers and their sounds aint no better.

I just got my Pico Boo last week. I played around with the audio on it for a couple of hours. Funny thing is, my ambient track sounds awesome and is crystal clear, but I am having trouble getting a good scream loaded for my scare track. Part of that has to do with the files not being what they should be though. For the money, I still think it is a cool little product. I don't think it is any better or worse than the cowlacious boards I have. I do agree though, that I would be willing to pay a bit more per unit for a better sound option.

i use a 104 for my slayer prop, with a computer speaker and sub woofer set up.
I found the frequency response of the recording unit to be far from flat. I used the same speaker setup to monitor my playback while recording my sounds and noticed the playback was very lifeless with a lot less bass coming from the sub than the original track. Fortunately I have cool edit pro and was able to re mix the tracks and EQ them to sound good after being recorded on the 104.
i think the sound chip is just not that great quality but for such an inexpensive controller I don't expect better. My point is you can get around it by EQing your sounds with more bass and less mid frequencies if your so inclined.

Partly because I'm an audiophile, and a sound engineer, for myself it just sounds unacceptable. I'm also a film enthusiast and honestly, sound is everything to capturing a mood. It sounds like the aural equivalent to the $10-$15 black box "voice recorders" you find at any store. All tracks lose significant highs and lows, their personality altogether. But yeah, you're right Spook, the average Joe isn't going to be paying attention to the qualities, but the ability to manipulate an atmosphere & scene and get "the jump" on an average Joe ToT is severely hindered when you have compression like this. Like anything, if you're not looking for it, you won't find/see it, so most people don't care about their sound quality.
But for example, what if the queue response on the picoBoo was slow and only a couple frames/sec? Well, people would be pissed off, it would be hard to operate and get the scene you want, but nobody is because the queue response is phenomenal and precise. Yet, the sound is quite the opposite, low quality and an inaccurate reproduction of the actual sound FX/music/etc going into it. By the way, amplifying speakers through the picoBoo will only increase sound by volume, it will not affect its quality.

I'm just pissed about those edited YouTube videos that are being promoted. It's false advertising and it's ******** frankly. The sound replication they present is nowhere NEAR actual replication. It's showing something the product does not do... I mean idk, I thought for the price, these units could at least provide a measly 2 minutes of decent quality audio... I've got them to where I'm mildly comfortable but nowhere near satisfied with the audio. Other than that, they are truly awesome little boxes with all the options for the outputs and programming.

Originally Posted by robzilla69

i use a 104 for my slayer prop, with a computer speaker and sub woofer set up.
I found the frequency response of the recording unit to be far from flat. I used the same speaker setup to monitor my playback while recording my sounds and noticed the playback was very lifeless with a lot less bass coming from the sub than the original track. Fortunately I have cool edit pro and was able to re mix the tracks and EQ them to sound good after being recorded on the 104.
i think the sound chip is just not that great quality but for such an inexpensive controller I don't expect better. My point is you can get around it by EQing your sounds with more bass and less mid frequencies if your so inclined.

I just saw your slayer prop, which is awesome btw, great job on that! The tracks I am providing are lossless WAVs and already have extremely large bass frequencies. EQing is definitely a quick fix for some people but yeah, there's no getting around that compression.

thanks loogs. More of a band aid than a fix really. I re analyzed the track after recording it before EQ and wow the sound module is only good form 80hz- to about 8khz with a huge spike around the 1.5khz range. For you non audio people out there that =crap! my boosting the 80-100hz range and cutting the 1.5khz only made the track usable and ok defiantly no happy. Maybe some constructive communication with fright props might get somewhere but for a sub $100 controller i doubt it.

I guess everyone has different opinions regarding props and prop controllers and I do fall into the "non audio people" group but I have no issues at all with the sound quality produced from the Picoboo 105s. I read someplace, and I dont recall where it was, that the lower end Picoboo models have sound that is closer to AM/FM radio and the higher end models are CD quality sound. I was actually impressed with the sound from my 105s. Hope you find a solution that will make your ears happy1

I was just fiddling with it and here are my results. Set the volume to around 30% on the source you are recording from. This gives you pretty near CD quality but there is a catch. On cheap speakers even turned up you won't hear a thing. You need something pretty decent with a volume knob. It's not so much the compression it's more the amplification of the sound because it amplifies to the point of distrotion which sounds like static or AM/FM when the main volume is very high. Try another decent speaker set after trying this.