We will be shipping March 31st.

Gothike, you must have seen a competitor's product, we have yet to ship, but I will let everyone know when the are available.

Thanks for the interest and take care

Jason

Awesome posts gentlemen!
Thanks for all the links for laptop solutions.

IMO an IR remote is not really the least expensive way to go unless you know you will only be working childrens parties indoors. However, the nature of our business can throw many diverse situations your way. An RF remote can meet the challenges of outdoors and bright stage lighting where the IR remote cannot.
For this reason I would go with an RF remote from the start instead of buying an IR and having to later also buy an RF one.

Also, speaking as an expert in Rf and other electronics, Kelly is correct in his information with ASK vs FSK and his other advice. His knowledge of our specialized niche should not be ignored! We must have absolute quality and reliability because the show must go on...

Good point. As a performer, you must choose the correct routines, venue, and hardware that fits your needs.

The solutions provided by other manufactures that are targeted for performers appear to be extremely good, well thought out and dependable. If you are a working magician, these products could be the solution you need.

In my opinion, there are 3 performance scenarios

The professional performer:

If you are touring with a professional show, you also hire a lighting and sound guy that tours with you.

The working performer:

If you are making a living off of your performances, but can't afford to tour with a crew, I would suggest looking into a professional remote sound solution, like the ones offered on this forum. Though expensive, from what I can tell, they are reliable.

Everyone else:

Like the thread suggests, a performer that needs a lower cost solution that is reliable. I stand behind my products, and while I'm not trying to suggest that my $40 solution is equal to others costing thousands, I am sure that it is the perfect solution for a lot of performers.

Take care

Jason

I have fairly simple needs. I have about 10 songs or sound clips in my show. All I want to do is press the remote to play a song and when the song is complete I want the unit to stop automatically. I don't want to have to press the remote again to stop the player. Is that how your unit works with the iPOD Jason?

I have a Mini VSM and it doesn't work that way. It works well but I do have to press the remote twice to start and stop the player.

Thanks,

John

My system with a laptop is setup to do that. I've been using it since 2000 and it's been trouble-free. And I only have two commands set up: A. Play one track (and stop after playing it) and B. Stop and fade out.

I use the "Stop and fade out" command for when a person is coming up on stage; I use a cue that lasts about 30 seconds, and they usually make it up on stage in about 20 seconds, so I cut off the track when it seems appropriate.

For routines done to a specific music track, I just start the track and go through the routine, timing it to the track so they finish at the same time.

My website that explains how to set up your laptop, with an RF remote and
Winamp, has been online since 2000 when I figured everything out. It's located at:
http://members.tripod.com/remotelaptop/

I'm collecting info for a long-overdue update to the site (it's been over a year and there are a bunch of things to update) and one of the many things I'll be doing is evaluating the new AirClick RF remote when it ships.

But take a look at the site now, if you haven't been there. It's got a lot of info.

Jeff

Okay, here's my experience with the IR to RF remote converter.

It works well for me!

I've had it for a couple weeks, but used it at a show this past Saturday and it worked great. I set up my boom box behind my curtain for the first time. All I had was the little remote, which I kept on my suitcase table top. I was able to easily control the whole show from the remote. No one ever saw where the music was coming from. It's magic.

Details: when I first tried to use the thing, the remote didn't seem to be advancing my tracks or backing up (in case I needed to). To solve the problem, I switched the position of the battery and the battery-like transmitter in the remote. The instructions tell you to do this if this happens. That fixed the problem.

The unit comes with two pieces: a little flying saucer shapped reciever and a small IR broadcaster about a 1/4 inch at the end of a wire. To easily and reliably attach the IR broadcaster to my boom box, I taped some sticky backed velcro on the boom box, which now holds the IR broadcaster right on top of the IR receiver on the boom box.

One problem: during the show, I hit the wrong button on my remote. I hit the button that changes the boom box from a cd player to a radio! I had to then put the boom box back into cd mode and then cycle through all my cues to get back to where I had left off. Big mistake! I'm going to somehow cover that button on the remote so that doesn't happen again!

Thoughts: if I could put the boom box in some sort of covered box that would keep it out of the sun with the RF receiver, this outfit could work outdoors. I don't really need that so I have no plans to do that.

The way I work is, I burn custom CDs. I mix each track on my computer. Usually, the tracks are mixed so that there are 1 to 3 minutes of silence after the sound cue. Many of the cues have built in fades. After the sound cue is into the silence, I then hit pause and then hit advance. This advances to the next track while keeping you paused, so the next track is cued up and ready to play as soon as you hit play. On my remote, play and pause are the same button; it toggles back and forth.

Summing up: I am very very happy with this solution. For 50 bucks, I have an radio frequency music system.

Jim

Jim,

I might've mentioned that I have the same device and set-up (took me a while to notice the base station is also the recharger for the 2/3-AAA battery). My remote goes into my change-pocket, which keeps it upright in my pocket.

To prevent hitting the wrong button, I simply trimmed them all off. The holes are still there in case I want to shuffle tunes or switch to radio manually, but it's pretty much impossible to hit them by accident.

This also makes it VERY easy to find the right buttons in my pocket, given that the only three that protrude are play/pause, volume up and volume down. I even cut off the power and stop buttons.

As for sun problems, doesn't this thing come with an "IR-extender." You know, a little IR emitter on a wire. If you stick it onto the IR receiver with duck tape, the set-up will work in any lighting with no ambient light interference. Easier than a covered box, anyway.

Thanks, Avocat, for the tips. I may cut off the buttons. However, I constantly use my forward and back buttons. They have to stay. How is this set up working for you?
Thanks for everyone's help in suggesting this and getting me to try it. I figured, even if it didn't work, I could always use it for my 2nd tv at home.

Jim

G0thike:

Thanks for a wonderful thread. The laptop setup is great. I spent the weekend setting up my laptop with windows 95 and getting the portable CD Drive working on the laptop. Then I loaded all the ThinkPad drivers and Winamp and Drivers and music. Thanks for the Zip file full of wonderful add-ons.

I purchased IBM ThinkPad 365X's from ebay in late 2003. Windows 95 in 3.5 disk format. A portable CD Drive from I/O Magic at 24X and Creative Labs IF Remote. Cost for one system is under $100 and will perform all the functions of those $800 and $2400 systems and really easy to work with. All of it from ebay of course. As to why it took so long to set up. I couldn't figure out how to get the CD Driver to work with the Laptop. This weekend I pulled out my Laptop and sat down and decided I wasn't quitting till I got it to work. I had got fed up in the past with trying to chop up big files into many 3.5 floppy disks and then unchopping them. Apparently I got all the correct drivers installed this time as the computer recognized that the CD was there all on its own. Apparently I got Windows 95 Version 2 and it was able to find it on its own. The rest was easy.

Now that I have it up and running and know it will work I am looking at Keith Rubow's RF remote as I will be working from the stage and in outdoor situations. I can't believe how good the sound is when I run it through my Peavey XR600 powered Mixer and 358S 3-Way speakers. I wouldn't have believed it was a pc audio card that the sound was coming from. When I played ragtime Midi files it was as if there was someone in the room playing a real piano. If it hadn't been for this thread and the previous thread I would never have thought about doing this. Would have considered it way too expensive.

I do have one question for WinAmp though. How do you make the playlist editor window bigger. I can increase the size of the main window, but not the playlist window. Is that a function of the WPT program. If it is I'll just wait till my Windows 98SE Upgrade CD comes and try it then.

Thanks

Martin

My mistake. Forward & backwards buttons still protrude. But all the digit keys are gone. There was just no reliable way to find them through the fabric of my pants.

It's worked great for one performance and a number of test runs. In one Dave&Buster's venue we've got here, I went ahead and bought a replacement remote for their Denon 5-changer, because that model allows you to control volume with the CD remote. Haven't tried that one yet, but there are range problems that might be fixed with the battery-switch you posted. So thanks for that!

Pirate,

To change the size of the Playlist menu just click on the bottom right corner and drag, it is like changing the size of most windows.

To change the size of the playlist go to File, then Options, then select Preferences from the drop down menu. That will pop up the “Winamp Preferences” menu system.

Under the General Preferences part select PLAYLIST. That will bring up the part you need called Playlist Font Size. The default is set to 11 pixels.

Good luck on the remote control, e-mail Keith if you got more questions. Also make sure you order the correct one, he sells a parallel port version and a USB one. Last time I sent him an email he told me he was designing a New remote that is more sensitive and that it will be available soon.

Jason's company Griffin Technology is going to be selling a Laptop USB remote soon, I don't think it is programmable. But I mainly use the PLAY, STOP, FWD, REW in mine. He has more info on his remote than I do.

The WPT plugin does not like Windows 95, if I remember it only works with 2000 and above. That plug changes the color of the background and the color of the text in the Playlist.

I’m glad that you figured out how to make the CD work, I am assuming you went to the Device Manager and fixed the drivers.

Read this whole thread again, you might have missed some other advice that can help.

G0THIKE

Johncesta

You might want to consider a Laptop system, read this whole thread, I have discussed CUE behavior in one of these pages.

G0THIKE

Avocat,
Guess I'm lucky because my remote has the volume controls as two control buttons: softer, louder.
BTW, I plan on using this set up in July during my first gig at the Magic Castle in the Parlor.

Jim

I work with computers all day. I appreciate the work you've done with the laptop but the last thing I would want to bring to a show is a laptop setup.

I have very minimal needs. I use the minivsm. It works great. I would like to be able to hit one button and have it start the song and when the track is finished to pause ready for the next track. A laptop setup would really be a bit of overkill for me.

Thanks,

JC

JC
The StageCue stops at the end of a song (either iPod or Minidisc) and waits for your next press from the remote, and ankle switch or a foot pad.

Back to the other subject


That implies it can be programmed for the laptop.

There are now a bunch of laptop remotes that are programmable with the driver. The RemotePoint 100 by Interlink http://www.interlinkelectronics.com/indexf.html is the one I use with the laptop. It isn't a tiny remote (like the upcoming Airclick) but is smaller than a tv remote so I velcro it on the top of my table. The black rectangular one is best (4 button function) with dip switch rf codes. NOT the silver one (it is not as good and has a weird way for me to program by aiming the laser at the receiver each time to set the RF code).

Thanks g0thike:

That stretched it just the way I wanted. I guess it depends on which version of Windows 95 you have. I have Windows 95 version 2, the one that supported Plug 'n' Play. WPT works just fine with my Windows 95. Text is 30 point and changed the colors for easier viewing.

Martin

Martin,

I didn't know WPT works with Windows 95 version 2, please post a review when you have the system up and running and you used it in a live show.

G0THIKE

The iPod has no preference to play only one song, and stop. But I can offer a workaround, and it would probably work with your Mini VSM too.

Record a long track of silence, say, 20 minutes, and insert it between each song. After track 1 plays, the iPod will advance to track 2 (silence). All you would need to do to play your next track with music would be hit the "next track" button.

Longer tracks take a bit longer to load, but it wouldn't matter, as the long tracks are silence, but if I'm not mistaken, advancing from a long track to a short track doesn't lag.

I think this would work for most performance situations, if you really, really need that particular feature, it's gonna cost you a few extra hundred bucks.

Hope this helps

Jason

Thanks for the tip, Jason. After reading it, I went ahead and created a 20-minute MP3 of silence and promptly loaded it between every track on my show-soundtrack playlist. Haven't tried it in a show yet (it's only been 12 hours), but played with it a LOT and I'm convinced it'll work great.

Something Jason didn't mention, because maybe it goes without saying, but this arrangement will prevent the iPod from going to sleep between tracks (because it never pauses).

The only downside is there's no auto-fade (which shouldn't be THAT important, since you can simply advance to silence during applause).

Oh, and range still blows. I'm still using the RemoteRemote 2. Based on my prior experience with Griffin, though, I've no doubt that AirClick will be a superior product.

None of this solves the problem with occasional iPod errors, though. I'd still go with a CD-player and RF extender as a backup.

If anyone wants my 20-minute MP3 of total silence, drop me an E-mail at jkawashima@aol.com. It's only 600K or so, so it'll upload and download quickly.

Thanks again, Jason!

I too have been using a silence track for years on my minidisc and now on the iPod.

Sometimes I will use a Playlist with a very quiet mesmerizing music track as an alternative to silence in between tracks. I like Low-Volume carnival music, music box music, or spooky repeating sounds (for our spooky show).
It tends to enrich the show to have a constant VERY Low volume background. The music should be repetitious and not a "song" with a predictable end so it will not be a jolt when you advance to the next full volume song in your playlist.

I have a showtech, but love my Ipod and the possibility of using different playlists.

I've been using the remote remote with the ipod, and have been doing the "silent track" thing for quite some time.

However, I still think I want to buy either the stagecue or the Icue. Not sure which one to get.

Glod seems pretty informed...I haven't read all the past posts...so I'm not sure which way I'll go.

Any advice for me?

My wants: auto fade/advance, autopause, etc.