I have been thinking about buying one of those small digital recorders that have been replacing microcassette recorders to see if I can use it to add sound effects to a close-up routine. Has anyone tried something like this? I am concerned about how to activate the various recorded sounds surreptitiously, and about where the sound will seem to emanate from. Any thoughts?

-bigwolf {*}

I have a Sony ICD-BP150 that I use all the time for regular stuff. I just used it to play the background music for one routine. This was a strictly amateur performance for a day-care group. I was able to record a snippet of Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer to use for a D'lite routine. Since it was so small it could sit unobtrusively on the table and I just reach over and squeeze the play button. I plugged it into a small amplifier- pc speaker- under the table.

This unit can also adapt wav files as well so I'm just starting to consider the applications. One appealing thing is that you can load up a bunch of different files (songs, sound bites) into one folder and it will play them in order as you press the play button each time.

It does not have any remote start control, which would be nice for more sophisticated shows. But it does store 2.5 hours of decent quality sound. The audio files can all be saved to pc, too. It also has an alarm clock that will play a recording at a specific time.

One fun thing, is that the audio quality is pretty good, so you can play back your own voice and it really sounds like you (ventriloquist applications?).

I looked at a few other models and chose this one, I'm happy with it for memo taking too.

Charles

Thanks Charles, the wave files are pretty much what I had in mind. Sound effects seem to be one of the crucial things missing from close-up to make it seem like the kind of magic everyone imagines as "real". This sounds like a good model, especially the feature to play the folder files in order. I would love to find a way to easily select a sound so you could play it over if you wanted or play them out of sequence if required, but that might be wanting too much with the current tech.

-bigwolf {*}