Leave it to my Dad to ask me an audio question I couldn't answer...

Let's see if any of you have a good idea.

My Dad is a creative director and designs alot of themed entertainment installations in restaurants, theme parks, stores etc. He is currently doing a design for a store that needs 4 discreet mono audio beds at different locales in the store but are all synchronous (running off the same player I imagine would be cheaper than 2 individual TC capable cd players strapped together).

He asked me what he could use to achieve this, and I was kinda baffled. At first I thought of one of those little Zoom/Boss digital 4 track recorders, but then I realized that most of those little ones don't have four discreet outs.

So to recap:

-I need something that will play 4 discreet mono tracks (in sync) on a loop for at least 10 minutes.
-It needs to be durable...a tape wont cut it.
-User friendly (i.e trying to stay away from things with TC)...a non audio person will be starting and stopping this thing everyday.
-Somewhat durable...will be playing 12 hrs a day, everyday.
-Oh yeah...the audio need not be PRISTINE..these are fx beds in a massive and busy store..
-TRYING to keep the price under 1200.

(Also, I'm fully aware of AMX and Anitech show control and playback devices and am aware there is a whole industry devoted to providing solutions to my problem...I'm just trying to come up with a very D.I.Y. version)

Any ideas??

This might seem like overkill but it should work and it's only $500. It has a stereo out and 2 aux outs. You could pan track 1 to main stereo L, track 2 to stereo R, track 3 to aux out1 and track 4 to aux out 2.

http://www.samedaymusic.com/product--FOSMR16HD

System Info - G5/Dual 2 - 10.4.8 - QT v7.1.3 - 8GB ram - Radeon 9800Pro - External SATA Raid - Decklink Extreme - Wacom 6x8

Thanks guys...all of you..great ideas.

Will...your idea is plan B. I never thought of using the Aux outs on one of those.

Chaos...yeah man, I think the DVD is the most idiot proof, cheap and sturdy.

I'm not to familiar with burning surround material to a DVD though..

Should I create a 4 track surround mix in PT (5.1 essentially with 2 empty channels) and export it as a single file....then burn a dolby digital dvd in toast 8?

How would you go about creating that DVD?

Create 4 separate tracks that are in sync and export them out individualy as mono tracks. From there you can take them to someone or if you have a mac and DVD studio pro I can talk you through it.

Drew

drewski9@mac.com

Chaos is the beginning of everything.