rdour@techminds
New Member
In radio, 25 and 35 Hz tones are used for triggering different events. Sometimes they are in pairs, or in blocks of 4 if binary signaling is necessary. This is partially why network broadcasts filter anything under 50 Hz to keep from having a nice little accident. In some cases, out of band (not part of the audio channel) signaling is used. However, this means that the opportunity for sync issues is introduced. WHen you deal with digital sound, timing is really important. I'm going to guess that they do use some tones, because they can be transmitted within the soundtrack.
This brings up a great question. DOes anyone have access to a production track of ROE? If so, I'd love to bring it into an audio editor and see if we can find those tones if they exist. It would tell me a lot about the show, even if I don't know which tone is for what device. Remember, they won't be in the places you would expect, since a delay has to be accomidated for in the firing.
When I worked in radio, we did the synced fireworks thing. Tones were used, because my master of the tracks had em'.
On the backstage tour at the American Adventure, they indicated that time code is not the used protocol. They use a linear time code system that has the program running through very specific instructions. They wrote it similarly to some basic embedded processes. This allows them to slow down or speed up the program almost like an analog tape. However, that doesn't mean the elements themselves would change, like film speed or audio pitch. If they have the FPS of the film in a changable device, that is great for them. However, digital or analog sound can also be pitched up or down to slow or speed up. Now, time compression and expansion through the manipulation of dropped samples or doubled samples with dithering can make the efect of sound not changing pitch, but changing speed. I would tend to believe things like the American Adventure would be analog, because why change something if it works. They didn't do digital sound nearly as much back then as they do now.
I've always wondered, did the Mainstreet Electrical Parade use a reel-to-reel with just a bunch of tracks, like a 24 channel tape? I know the patterns on the floats were not timed to the music, but the music itself stayed in sync. I'm willing to bet that today they just use a multichannel audio file and a nice 24 or 48 channel output.
At the new Finding Nemo musical, we noticed Macs being used for audio playback. Anyone know what apps they are using? That seems really interesting. Why not just use a Winblows machine? The Mac is nicer, and I would use one in that situation, but I don't know of any software that can pull off the crazy scheduling and timing they need. I use MegaSeg DJ for automation, and it does a lot, but even I wouldn't rely on ot for such a huge production.
Ryan
This brings up a great question. DOes anyone have access to a production track of ROE? If so, I'd love to bring it into an audio editor and see if we can find those tones if they exist. It would tell me a lot about the show, even if I don't know which tone is for what device. Remember, they won't be in the places you would expect, since a delay has to be accomidated for in the firing.
When I worked in radio, we did the synced fireworks thing. Tones were used, because my master of the tracks had em'.
On the backstage tour at the American Adventure, they indicated that time code is not the used protocol. They use a linear time code system that has the program running through very specific instructions. They wrote it similarly to some basic embedded processes. This allows them to slow down or speed up the program almost like an analog tape. However, that doesn't mean the elements themselves would change, like film speed or audio pitch. If they have the FPS of the film in a changable device, that is great for them. However, digital or analog sound can also be pitched up or down to slow or speed up. Now, time compression and expansion through the manipulation of dropped samples or doubled samples with dithering can make the efect of sound not changing pitch, but changing speed. I would tend to believe things like the American Adventure would be analog, because why change something if it works. They didn't do digital sound nearly as much back then as they do now.
I've always wondered, did the Mainstreet Electrical Parade use a reel-to-reel with just a bunch of tracks, like a 24 channel tape? I know the patterns on the floats were not timed to the music, but the music itself stayed in sync. I'm willing to bet that today they just use a multichannel audio file and a nice 24 or 48 channel output.
At the new Finding Nemo musical, we noticed Macs being used for audio playback. Anyone know what apps they are using? That seems really interesting. Why not just use a Winblows machine? The Mac is nicer, and I would use one in that situation, but I don't know of any software that can pull off the crazy scheduling and timing they need. I use MegaSeg DJ for automation, and it does a lot, but even I wouldn't rely on ot for such a huge production.
Ryan
