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Seeking advice on integrating applause samples into a live stream broadcast


Dan Brockett

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Hi all

 

Not exactly a location sound question but in a way, it is. We recently landed a high end live stream corporate gig. Client has requested us to have dozens of potential applause sound sample

on-line and ready to go for one of the presenters. There will be a large audience viewing this live stream remotely, on Zoom (Yes, I know, terrible broadcasting platform).

We will have our Allen & Heath SQ5 on site, hooked up to our VMix live streaming system via Dante. I could use some recommendations on how you would implement and integrate 

these applause sound effects into our workflow. Is this an iPad app that allows for the sfx to be triggered? Dedicated hardware? There are ton of "sound effects boards" on Amazon but they all look like cheap

junk that sells for under $100.00. To be clear, we aren't going for Monty Pythonesque canned applause, the client has very specific needs as far as they want to instantly, in real time, audition 

all of these different applause samples. Of course, we will need various lengths, emotions, amount of people applauding and we don't think they should sound as if they were recorded in an 

auditorium since the audience who we will see visually clapping will be grids of participants on Zoom grid views. 

1. Any recommendations on a sound effects board or triggering device that would allow a secondary crew to trigger the effects? (We don't want our sound mixer charged with this. Possibly our A2 or even a PA?)

2. Any recommendations of quality sfx collections or sources that are high quality applause collections with lots of choices and variety? 

3. Any workflow, hookup or other suggestions for those of you who have had to implement applause in a live streaming environment (It's pretty much the same as live TV. We're shooting on a stage, 

high quality cinema camera, prompter, full crew, etc.) 

 

Many thanks for any advice or recommendations, this has thrown me a curveball, we've never had to implement an applause board into a live stream so I don't know where to start. It's not a normal sound mixer 

function but we have to figure out how to do this so I wanted to ask the experts.  

Dan Brockett

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I would put the applause sound fx files on a computer which feeds a console input. Most DAW and audio editing apps (like Sound Forge)  to start and stop PB with the space bar so they are easy to trigger with a tap of a finger.

As for the getting applause files, for low budget projects, freesound.org has tons of S/FX, It may be a little time consuming  to wade through the poorly recorded clips to find a good sounding  appropriate applause files, but there are some very well (pro) recorded S/FX on that site .

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https://360systems.com/products/instant-replay-2/,       

I used to see these on broadcast trucks for sports particularly.

 https://www.triggerplay.co.uk/

One of the few that will run on PC

QLAB on mac only, although this works best when you have a defined show order.

 

A personal fave:  Soundplant.  https://soundplant.org/

Any sound loaded to any keybd key, in any order, multiple trigger, some SFX, random access...

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Gentleman, thank you for all of the recommendations and links, lots of interesting choices. 

I will have our webcast engineer investigate these all to see which will fit our workflow best and

I'll report back on our testing with whichever we go with.

 

I knew you guys would have lots of great ideas about this!

 

Be well,

 

Dan

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  • 2 weeks later...

I would also recommend Soundplant on a PC. I have used it extensively for theater and choreography live performance and it never disappoints. Of course the choice of the sound interface will dictate the sound quality of the outputs and their quantity but some gig can be done with the minijack out of a laptop.

Also note that the creator Marcel Blum is quite responsive and if you need a specific feature for your company/set-up he might be able to customize the soft.

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7 hours ago, Fred Salles said:

I would also recommend Soundplant on a PC. I have used it extensively for theater and choreography live performance and it never disappoints. Of course the choice of the sound interface will dictate the sound quality of the outputs and their quantity but some gig can be done with the minijack out of a laptop.

Also note that the creator Marcel Blum is quite responsive and if you need a specific feature for your company/set-up he might be able to customize the soft.

Yes to all this.  Soundplant works equally well on PC or Mac--I have it on several of both.

 

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13 hours ago, Fred Salles said:

Also note that the creator Marcel Blum is quite responsive and if you need a specific feature for your company/set-up he might be able to customize the soft.

 

I know Marcel from a (coders) mailing list, he's indeed very helpful and a nice guy!

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