What do I need to do this?

[Hook]

It's the Holidays and I always have tons of Christmas Show crap to do for the schools I visit regularly. I have one teacher that is doing this poem with her class and I think it would be cool to have some sound effects that I could trigger easily. In my mind I see one of those DJ pad things (Flash Harry got one recently) but I want to be able to either upload or record a sample to the pad and then trigger it when necessary. I have no midi knowledge and no time to screw around much so simple is what I need. I bet I could use my Roland Handsonic 10 but the manual is really lacking in my opinion.
Blooby don't you have something? Any suggestions, the cheaper & simpler the better!
Rock On!

[Blooby]

If this is for a one-off, I can just mail it to you. Having said that, I believe I know how your G.A.S. operates (much like my own).

We were doing a couple gigs with trivia and sound effects (Monty Python one night...  We might have done Blazing Saddles as well). We would trigger all the sound effects and song snippets via the Akai. These were the gigs where if we got the silent treatement after a song or medley, I would trigger a sample of crickets (priceless if I do say so myself). The trivia was usually a cover song, and folks would have to name the title or original artist. For instance, we would have the Ozzy Osbourne version of "Stayin' Alive" or The Isley Brothers doing "Hello, It's Me." The opening minute of the latter is still one of the funniest things I've ever heard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7VBUDL7PCk

Okay, back on topic... I have an AKAI MPX8, and I believe you can get them used for $60 or less now.  Load sounds (MP3 or wav I believe) onto a card, using some proprietary software (mostly painless).  What's nice about it is it's self-contained. While your Handsonic could trigger a sound, that sound would still have to be in your sampler, keyboard, laptop, whatever...

They came out with a 16 pad version for $199.99 new. In addition to the extra pads, I believe it has some effects on it. On mine, you adjust volume and simple reverb for individual samples. Thing works as advertised. I may have to break it out one of these days.

By the way, I've attached the cricket sounds. I'd like to start a trend. Solidarity, brothers & sisters! Unite, my underwear-optional, live music-playing brethren!

Blooby

[Hook]

Thanks brother, it looks like Guitar Center has one in stock new for $99. I checked out eBay but I don't really have time to wait on shipping, I need it on the 17th.  I think it will come in handy for my next cd of kids music if I ever get some motivation. I used a bunch of sound effects on my last one but triggers them off a CD player, not very smooth to say the least.

Like I need justification to by shit I might not use anyway.
Rock on!

[Blooby]

The load time is a bit long for live use. If you think you're going to use more than 8 samples over a set, I'd go for the 16.

It's cool,  though.

Blooby

[Hook]

Picked up the 8 yesterday and am downloading sounds now. I read the samples have to be mono wav files so I have to convert any stereo sounds in audacity? When you say load time is long, can't you load up multiple kits and then just switch kits?

[Blooby]

The switching of kits is hardly seamless.  The new sounds have to load. Can't beat it for the price, though. The potential for shenanigans are endless.

[64Guitars]

I read the samples have to be mono wav files so I have to convert any stereo sounds in audacity?

Only with the original firmware. If your firmware is version 1.1.01 (or newer, presumably), you can use stereo samples in the MPX8.

You can download the v1.1.01 update here:

http://www.akaipro.com/product/mpx8#downloads

Note: The link on the page says v1.0.01, as does the zip filename, but the instructions included in the zip file say it's v1.1.01.

I think that version has been available for quite a while, so if you bought it new, it probably already has that version (or newer). Not sure how you check which version is installed.


And you might want to read the MPX8 Knowledge Base topics here:

http://www.akaipro.com/kb/search/mpx8