As with many pro live performing bands who have come to rely heavily
on the simple option of 'press play' ... 'press stop' etc. ... in
other words the simple mini disc player, I am now in a quandry. [we
have all the added instruments on track playing with our band]
My charity 'The Grand Order of Water Rats' have eventually bitten the
bullet and accepted that we need backing track music for our Lodge
Meetings ... although we have as members Brian May, Rick Wakeman, Mike
Batt, John Lodge [Moody Blues], Niko Mc Brain [Iron Maiden] etc.
etc. ... and me!
I donated the cost of recording the whole deal ... pretty expensive
but awesome ... I got some pals to donate the playback equipment and I
got the main powered speakers at cost price ... now the problem.
The ideal 'idiot proof' playback system would be minidisc player ...
but none available have 'autopause' .... essential in this particular
situation. I bought the Sony MDS-JE480, only to find no 'auto-pause'.
The guys who have the time to go to Lodge do not have great computer/
musical knowledge. And we cannot spend charity money on a mega
expensive, complicated, solution.
What is the option?
What would give us a simple solution that anyone can operate? Is
there a chunky MP3 player with big display available with 'auto-
pause', maybe? CD player would be out of the question ... no name
display and finger marks would be a nightmare.
I would appreciate help here!
Dec [Cluskey] I have copied this to a couple of groups.
what is autopause?
Mark
what is autopause?
Mark
I believe that when a track ends it pauses at the start of the next track
til you are ready to press Play.
Gareth.
> The ideal 'idiot proof' playback system would be minidisc player ...
> but none available have 'autopause' .... essential in this particular
> situation. I bought the Sony MDS-JE480, only to find no 'auto-pause'.
I assume by this "autopause" that you mean the player stops at the end
of the track and doesn't go on to the next track. The radio station that
a friend of mine works at has CD players that do that. It drives her
buggy when she's playing a recording of a live concert on the air and
the player stops dead in the middle of applause because that's where the
track index mark on the disk is. So what you need is one of those CD
players. I believe that TASCAM and Marantz both have players with this
feature, though I think it's called "Auto Stop."
Or you could buy an old MiniDisk player. There must be hundreds of them
for sale now that everyone's using those flash memory recorders.
--
If you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring and reach
me here:
double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo -- I'm really Mike Rivers
(mriv...@d-and-d.com)
> The ideal 'idiot proof' playback system would be minidisc player ...
> but none available have 'autopause' .... essential in this particular
> situation. I bought the Sony MDS-JE480, only to find no 'auto-pause'.
>
That's odd. When I was doing theatre sound a while back, Minidisc was
the thing we used because they all had auto pause. Are you positive
yours doesn't? Sometimes the feature can only be activated using the
remote. Both Sony and Tascam decks had this feature (the full–sized
decks.)
Sony also had a 1RU CD player with an auto-pause function. Model #CDP-
D11. Not cheap though.
Albert
The Tascam players have it; turn on "Auto Rdy" (for Ready). You can also
turn it off, if you want to play through two cuts. Just make sure the
player's not set to "Single"" or "Auto Cue" or, in fact, any of the annoying
nifty features.
However, you should also know that the latest Tascams, the ones with slot
loading, are VERY picky about what discs they will accept. Two of the three
players at our radio station gag on Taiyo Yudens, for example, but are happy
to play Sony discs from Walgreen's. Go figure.
Peace,
Paul
Have you completely ruled out a computer based player? Because Winamp
has this feature (options-preferences-playlist-manual playlist advance).
Steve Maki
> The ideal 'idiot proof' playback system would be minidisc
> player ... but none available have 'autopause' ....
> essential in this particular situation. I bought the
> Sony MDS-JE480, only to find no 'auto-pause'.
>
> The guys who have the time to go to Lodge do not have
> great computer/ musical knowledge. And we cannot spend
> charity money on a mega expensive, complicated, solution.
>
> What is the option?
The editing trick Federico mentions is what I use, if Iuse anything. Only I
only add a total of 10 seconds of silence between tracks instead of several
minutes.
If memory serves, the origional CDP 101 had a slide switch on the back that
basically did auto pause. If you find one that is still working... FWIW I
have one, but its not for sale.
If you want a lot of flexibility while authoring a common consumer format
that can deliver high quality audio - think DVD.
Already done at the mastering stage ... 3 second safety gap. We still
have the problem of a totally non musical person with no knowledge of
playback gear being in charge of a machine where the music is scripted
with the talking from the top table [almost Masonic in nature].
Auto-pause [automatically cueing up the next piece of music] is ideal
but only seems to exist on elderly minidisc players.
It is quite amazing that the manufacturing industry has dropped this
feature from machines.
Dec [Cluskey]
Mike
That is the feature I require ... stop at end of track and have the
next track ready to start.
As I have said CD does not have the information/title display [unless
the latest ones have] and CDs are notorious for stuttering with the
slightest finger print on the back. This is a Lodge situation,
sometimes very serious, where the music content has got to be spot on
correct with the dialogue.
I have now sourced a number of minidisc players that I am told have
got auto-pause ... so I may be in luck.
Dec [Cluskey]
> That's odd. When I was doing theatre sound a while back, Minidisc was
> the thing we used because they all had auto pause. Are you positive
> yours doesn't? Sometimes the feature can only be activated using the
> remote. Both Sony and Tascam decks had this feature (the full–sized
> decks.)
That is what I thought ... but all the latest models have no auto-
pause function except the mega expensive ones [this is for a
charitable organisation and I have given them a limit I will spend]
You are correct, the easiest way to access the function was by the
remote. Sadly not on the latest models. I have, hopefully, sourced
old models with the function.
Thank you for the concern.
Dec [Cluskey]
>
> Have you completely ruled out a computer based player? Because Winamp
> has this feature (options-preferences-playlist-manual playlist advance).
>
> Steve Maki- Hide quoted text -
Completely!
Cost is over budget and the guys who will operate it at times can have
problems switching a light on, let alone a computer and the allied
music program [only in jest!]. I am sure you understand the problem.
If I could rely on the same guy doing the job each second Sunday then
a computer would be ideal ... but sadly the system has to be child-
like simple ... hence minidisc with auto-pause.
Thank you
Dec [Cluskey]
Arny
As you will have read above, I have built in safety three second
gaps. DVD would be way over budget for the Charity.
I may sound paranoid but this situation is like asking your
grandmother to stop start the musical content in an opera!
With luck I will have sourced a player with auto-pause function on
Ebay. Fingers crossed.
I find it amazing that the manufacturers have dropped such a useful
[and I would think inexpensive] feature.
Dec [Cluskey]
Yep
The high priced ones have the function ... but I have promised to keep
within a budget.
I figured on £120 for a Sony from Richer Sounds in the UK ... probably
$200 in USA.
But I thought that there may be a newer thought going round the
newsgroups [MP3?] for having the facility of auto-pause?
Thank you for the info.
Dec [Cluskey]
>As you will have read above, I have built in safety three second
>gaps. DVD would be way over budget for the Charity.
Well, what's stopping you extending that to several minutes? Or
whatever length is sufficient to cover the longest possible gap
between music in your ritual? If the operator can press "Start", he
can press "Next Track".
I don't quite see why you would want to use DVD. But budget is no
issue. I don't think you can buy a CD-only burner - they all do DVDs
as well. Likewise players.
Start/Stop buttons tend to be oversize, next track buttons tend to be weeny.
A good tip is to make a large arrowhead out of white tape and stick it on
the button, so it's impossible for even your grandmother to get confused.
Or you could even use some luminous stuff instead for those really dark
corners.
Gareth.
If the operator can press "Start", he
> > can press "Next Track".
>
> Start/Stop buttons tend to be oversize, next track buttons tend to be weeny.
>
> A good tip is to make a large arrowhead out of white tape and stick it on
> the button, so it's impossible for even your grandmother to get confused.
> Or you could even use some luminous stuff instead for those really dark
> corners.
>
> Gareth.
Yep -
I still have the small tins of red [for stop] and green [for play] we
used to coat the play and pause buttons on our DAT players. It was a
two coat system where you applied a coat of special white enamel
first ... then the colour paint was very visible [luminous]. Our
drummer used to operate the 'added instruments tracks' when we used
DAT. With our current set up the sound engineer operates the minidisc
players. And yes, he has the play buttons marked with white elec.
tape.
I am still adamant about finding a player with 'auto-pause' and have
sourced a few ... it would seem the obvious models are Sony MDS-JE330
and 530. Not available new but Ebay is good.
Sadly, I have already bought a new Sony MDS-JE480, as part of the
playback installation, only to find it does not have 'auto-pause' ...
oh b*gger!
Dec [Cluskey]