Assign my audio clips for playback on a PA system

Factual Questions
1

I do public address for little league games and in the past, I would use my laptop to play music and a sound effect or two at the right moment. Is there a component that I can use to move all my songs and audio clips onto so they’re ready at the press of a button? I’d love to be able to leave the computer home, and just press a button for “Yea Baby” or the National Anthem. Keep in mind, I’m just doing a simple little league game, I’m not a DJ for hire. I did find the Schedulon™ MP3 Player-Recorder with Scheduling but its $2000, way too much for what I need. And please don’t reply with “you need a mixer”, I’m looking for links here! I don’t know one from another.

Thanks

2

A piece of hardware like you’re describing is intended for the radio market, and expensive by default.

I’d look at two approaches:

Continue on a computer. You could easily do this on a netbook, which is going to be very cheap.

Use a sampling musical keyboard. This is actually the standard in mixing movie soundtracks - many of them continue using the Synclavier, made by a company that went out of business in 1993. That is obviously overkill, but I’m sure there are cheap sampling keyboard that would have enough memory to hold a custom sound file with each sound assigned to a different key. You’d have to create the custom file on a computer, but then you’ll have a small device that will be very easy to use.

I’m sure the more musically knowledgeable folks here would be able to recommend a specific system.

3

easiest way would be with a small midi controller, such as the Korg NanoPad or Nanokey…about $25 if I remember correctly…WIth the keys or touch pads mapped to a software sampler, such as the Logic exs (which I believe also is included in garageband, if you have a Mac.

I’m sure there’s a similar virtual instrument for Audacity, which is what most folks usually recommend. I think its a.piece of shit myself. its clunky and unnecessarily opaque (and I’m a trained audio engineer, certified.expert with Pro Tools (the industry standard for opaque) and a trainer for Logic as well.

I’d recommend either Reaper ($~50) and free to try/no nag or limitations/trial period…or Sonar. ($75)

both are full fledged DAWs (digital audio workstations) and can easily handle all aspects of what you are trying to do.

I would simply create a custom sampler instrument, and trigger loops or patches.as needed. considering that most modern samplers have plenty of space for patch…no problem.

you could also trigger various elements sequentially or as needed via a live performance controller such as Main Stage or ableton, or simply use.midi PC and CC messages in any DAW. But that’s more trouble than its worth in.your.case.

4

also, with any of the methods I discussed you also gain the ability to record your announcing.

5

So will Reaper or Sonar make a custom sampler instrument? And is there a cheap keyboard that will load and store that custom instrument so the OP doesn’t have to carry a laptop? It would be nice to have a small keyboard where C# is “Yea Baby”, etc.

6

Yes. All software samplers (and all samplers in general) are programmable, except for older and boutique models of the classics. Learning to chop and map samples is an art form in and of itself.

Reaper has the ReaSamplOmatic 5000. some info.

Also has a drum sampler, which is probably what I would use.
Reaper website

Sonar has Dropzone, a full fledged sampler VSTi. Info on Dropzone video tut on Dropzone

Sonar Essential (the bare bones version). A little more than I thought, but compared to most comparable DAWs, still a bargain.

You are not going to be able to go standalone without additional hardware. If that’s the route you want to take, I’d probably just look at a hardware sampler. A little pricier, but standalone, minus whatever cabling to interface with the PA (probably a mono 1/4" or XLR per side, or a cable with 2 male TS to 1 male TRS (1/4") if the PA can take stereo input at line level.

this looks ok

so does this

Probably a shorter learning curve, but you’ll definitely have to RTFM regardless. Samplers can be tricky to learn, but usually easy to use once you get the basics/understand the concepts of sampler instruments.

Tweakheadz talks a bit about the differences between hardware and software samplers.

If you only want to deal with the sampler and just loads audio and push a button, use a hardware sampler. If you ever want to go further, or record what you’re doing, get a DAW and learn to use a software sampler.
There are lots of CONTROLLERS, but they don’t store data, just translate to/from MIDI with a DAW or other piece of kit. A keyboard based SAMPLER is going to be pricey, with lots of extra bells and whistles (mostly awesome ones, but you won’t need em, unless you want Vocode your playcalls or synthesize weird tones for the mascot.

But to answer your question, Gaffa, yes, a keyboard attached via MIDI (usb or standard midi) will map to different samples, and can be triggered by pressing a key or tapping a trigger pad.

Don’t by older stuff on Ebay, unless you really want to dig into learning MIDI and such. MIDI isn’t hard, but it’s finicky, especially with older gear that might or might not have a manual. Every manufacturer works to the same standard, but there’s a million implementations and ways to assign/route/trigger/change (basically send the data) depending on the era, manufacturer and gear. Lots of very dense and non user friendly menus and means of working with them. Until a few years ago, MIDI was the domain of hardcore music and techno geeks.

Last, there are a number of smartphone/tablet sampler apps available. Ive only used a few, and none have particularly impressed me (given that I have a studio of gear and software available at all times) but it’s entirely possible one will handle your needs here quite nicely. The challenge with those is twofold - no tactile response and limited sample size per patch. Neither might be a consideration for you. Also, they are a little more opaque as to the process of loading samples. But hey, $4-10 is a great price, and might work well. The keys you are looking for are : ability to load custom samples, ability to save sample sets and minimal latency.

7

I poked around a bit looking for sound effects or cue players, and found a free one called HarvestSounds that says you can assign sounds to hotkeys, so that should propel it to the top of the OP’s list.

The magic term that you’ll want to search for is “hotkey”

8

From what I’ve seen about most sampling keyboards is that they map a single sample across a portion of the keyboard. Are there any that will load a custom sampler instrument with a different sample for each note?

9

All samplers can do this… In fact, most of what you think of as a single instrument is actually individual pitches mapped to particular keys, and lower end samplers have fewer Individual samples and more stretched or pitch shifted variations in between actual samples

Now certain samplers are designed to work more easily as an instrument than as a bank of sounds… Meaning its a more convulated process to map each key… But it can be done…

That usually shows up in DAWs like logic where there is a dedicated drum synth… Most of them (like logic’s. ULTRABEAT actually have a synth side and a sample mapping side.

Regardless, a sampler is a sampler…

10

The OP is specifically asking for something that would not require him to have his computer with him.