Thread: DMX and sound

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Can anyone give me a quick tutorial on integrating DMX and sound? As I understand it DMX doesnt pass sound signals so how are you guys integrating the two??

Hi, I am using Venuemagic 2.0 DMX software. There are audio channels in the timeline. The sound is amplified, and I am using a 5.1 speaker set up.
Pete

Ok I get that if you are running a single sound effect (you just run sound out to the prop to speakers via your PC's sound card). What I dont get is how do you send out multiple sound routines to multiple props doing different things with just one PC?

Windy,

Most of the people here use VSA animation software for controlling the animation. DMX itself won't carry audio (way too slow of an interface for that), but VSA running on the computer will be able to send the sound out your sound card, which can then be sent out to speakers in your scene. These speakers could either be self-powered (computer) speakers, or you could use an old receiver/amplifier and normal speakers.

VSA also supports using multiple sound devices, so you can add a USB sound output device like this, and play one stereo track through your main sound card, and another stereo track through the USB device. This gives you 4 channels of audio that you can split up however you please.

Also, since you're using a Medusa board, if you get in a pinch and need more local sound effects, you could use the switch outputs to trigger a local MP3 player (hack the MP3 players 'Play' switch, and connect to a switch output on the Medusa, or put a relay between the two)

- Hook

Thats answers my question exactly! I get running sound to a set of PC speakers via my computer and I figured the sound was triggered by VSA, through your computer, but I never understood how people control multiple props each with different sound.

So bottom line is (assuming you have a stereo sound effect using both channels on a prop) you are limited to one talking/sound prop per PC unless you use some type of external sound card setup.....

Got it....

I think....

Originally Posted by Hooked_on_Scares

Windy,

Most of the people here use VSA animation software for controlling the animation. DMX itself won't carry audio (way too slow of an interface for that), but VSA running on the computer will be able to send the sound out your sound card, which can then be sent out to speakers in your scene. These speakers could either be self-powered (computer) speakers, or you could use an old receiver/amplifier and normal speakers.

VSA also supports using multiple sound devices, so you can add a USB sound output device like this, and play one stereo track through your main sound card, and another stereo track through the USB device. This gives you 4 channels of audio that you can split up however you please.

Also, since you're using a Medusa board, if you get in a pinch and need more local sound effects, you could use the switch outputs to trigger a local MP3 player (hack the MP3 players 'Play' switch, and connect to a switch output on the Medusa, or put a relay between the two)

- Hook

Yup, that's it.

However, keep in mind that if you don't *really* need stereo, you can use Audition or Audacity to split up the tracks for different props or sound effects. For example: a coffin creaking/skeleton cackling from one channel (in front of the ToTs, at the prop), and canned screaming from the other (behind the ToTs).

- Hook

You can have more than two props with their own sound. I did that a couple of years ago with our pirate graveyard. I used a program that Phoenix made that allows you to create 7.1 audio files. Actually the 7.1 doesn't give you the additional two channels like you would think so really you wind up with center, left front, left rear, right front and right rear. I was able to put a separate speaker in each of the 5 skelly pirates we had so that their voice came from them. The interesting thing though was, absolutely nobody noticed! So last year when we changed the theme of our graveyard, I didn't bother to do the 5 channel sound. I noticed though that people watching the show often didn't seem to notice who the main speaking skeleton was. In a stage production, the speaker is identified by a spotlight. This year, we went to DMX so we could turn lights on the speaking props when they speak and dim them when they are not speaking.

Here is a little video I did to kind of prove the concept of using light to show who is speaking. In our graveyard, everybody is spread out a lot more but you can see what we plan to do.

Makes sense. I am still struggling with the DMX concept so splitting audio files into channels is over my limit of understanding. I am gonna start small and see where I go next year.

Thanks for the help. Gotta get VSA and start playing around with it...

Originally Posted by buckaneerdude

You can have more than two props with their own sound. I did that a couple of years ago with our pirate graveyard. I used a program that Phoenix made that allows you to create 7.1 audio files. Actually the 7.1 doesn't give you the additional two channels like you would think so really you wind up with center, left front, left rear, right front and right rear. I was able to put a separate speaker in each of the 5 skelly pirates we had so that their voice came from them. The interesting thing though was, absolutely nobody noticed! So last year when we changed the theme of our graveyard, I didn't bother to do the 5 channel sound. I noticed though that people watching the show often didn't seem to notice who the main speaking skeleton was. In a stage production, the speaker is identified by a spotlight. This year, we went to DMX so we could turn lights on the speaking props when they speak and dim them when they are not speaking.

Here is a little video I did to kind of prove the concept of using light to show who is speaking. In our graveyard, everybody is spread out a lot more but you can see what we plan to do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By38A1Z-kfA

Originally Posted by WindyCityCouple

Makes sense. I am still struggling with the DMX concept so splitting audio files into channels is over my limit of understanding. I am gonna start small and see where I go next year.

Thanks for the help. Gotta get VSA and start playing around with it...

I didn't mention the technical difficulty because what might be hard for me might be easy for others. There were a lot of steps involved in creating that track. Basically I took the voice tracks and combined them into one sound file using a program like Audacity. Then I took that sound file and for each character, lowered the volume to zero for all other characters. What I wound up with was 5 sound files, all exactly the same length (because they all came from the same original file) each one with just that character's sounds. Next is where I used Phoenix's program. Things got a little more difficult here. What his program does is allow you to mix the 5 sound files into a single 7.1 sound file. I did have some problems getting it to work, but it wasn't the program it was me. It's not super easy to figure out, at least for me but eventually I got the single 7.1 sound file. THEN, there's another step. You have to encode it for 7.1/5.1 playback devices. This also involved multiple steps but it works fine if you follow the directions to the letter.

When it was all done, it was just really cool. What took me probably 6 hours of futzing the first time through took me maybe an hour the second time.

Originally Posted by buckaneerdude

I didn't mention the technical difficulty because what might be hard for me might be easy for others. There were a lot of steps involved in creating that track. Basically I took the voice tracks and combined them into one sound file using a program like Audacity. Then I took that sound file and for each character, lowered the volume to zero for all other characters. What I wound up with was 5 sound files, all exactly the same length (because they all came from the same original file) each one with just that character's sounds. Next is where I used Phoenix's program. Things got a little more difficult here. What his program does is allow you to mix the 5 sound files into a single 7.1 sound file. I did have some problems getting it to work, but it wasn't the program it was me. It's not super easy to figure out, at least for me but eventually I got the single 7.1 sound file. THEN, there's another step. You have to encode it for 7.1/5.1 playback devices. This also involved multiple steps but it works fine if you follow the directions to the letter.

When it was all done, it was just really cool. What took me probably 6 hours of futzing the first time through took me maybe an hour the second time.

Exactly ditto what I do for mine as well. It's chock full of 'Gotcha's' but once you navigate those seas it's much easier the next time.