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Anyone know of an inexpensive profanity delay technique?

D

DaveBayArea

Yes, I see the fancy ones for $3,000. But it seems like there ought to be a way to do it on a PC for not much money. Our application is for live music, and we don't really care if it has a build-up time feature, etc. I'd like something where you can put audio into a jack and get it out 5 seconds later. The likelihood of it actually being used is almost zero. But it's that "almost" that bothers me. There's a couple of things in the Linux open-source community that are built for delaying live radio to match TV broadcasts for sporting events. But I don't see a lot of anything else. Has anyone out there done something like this?

Dave B.
 
DaveBayArea said:
There's a couple of things in the Linux open-source community that are built for delaying live radio to match TV broadcasts for sporting events.
Click to expand...

I was about to suggest Linux. Since it's free and it doesn't really take any special hardware to make Linux run, it might not hurt to try it out. Maybe install Ubuntu in a dual-boot format alongside Windows on one of your studio PCs.
 
This software will probably work okay but you'll need to build a circuit which will "dump" the audio and replace it with some "fill" audio. An old cart machine would work as the "fill" source. You'll need to make sure that the "fill" audio is equal to the length of the delay. The entire dump, fill and return should be automatic and initiated by pressing a switch.
 
Two rack mounted magnecords. Record on one,playback on another. Old school.
 
We had a modified cart recorder at WAPE that was a delay unit. Never saw another one like it.
 
HadYourPhil said:
We had a modified cart recorder at WAPE that was a delay unit. Never saw another one like it.
Click to expand...

We had a couple of full rack width ITC cart recorders with a switch on the front for normal recording or delay. I would think it was fairly common as the switch bezel looked like it was manufacturer-labeled and not a kludge from a previous station engineer.
 
Those cart machines were pretty common. I worked at one station that had a Tapecaster that was set up to be a delay. The main difference between it and a regular cart machine was the head configuration. The playback head was before the record head and it had an erase head in between. They also had a stack of 7 1/2 second carts. I bet that sounded great...

t123
 
We had a modified cart recorder at WAPE that was a delay unit. Never saw another one like it.
Click to expand...

I made up a delay with a cart in OKC back in the late 70's. As I recall it was a 40 second cart, so the delay was awful, but it keep the occasional f word from hitting the air.
 
The APE had the Tapecaster. The gut who did the talk show (Carson Rennie) was quick on the dump button IIRC.
And it did have a switch for normal or delay.
 
The problem with tape delay was the whole dirty tape head issue where the audio would muddy up through the program.

Along those lines, WLS finally added tape delay to "Boogie Check" after those crazy kids kept dropping "F Bombs". The fill was created by their production director emulating a "God Voice". An example of this is included in this aircheck along with the first call going through without the delay, yes an "F Bomb" is included so listener discretion is advised. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gjwy4DZZgFA
 
Luckily the goverment (FCC) wasn't totally insane even back then when overall they were more restrictive. WLS didn't get a 100000 fine for this "terrible" word getting out over the public airways. Imagine how unuseful radio would have been if the FCC was NUTS like they currently are and scared stations from even putting calls on the air due to over-regulation? Would WLS amounted to anything in today's FCC regulated world?
 
After trying a couple of different things I came up with the utmost in technique for a simple delay. In case anyone else out there needs one:

1. Find an old throw-away PC
2. Do the CentOS Net install described here:
http://www.chrisgountanis.com/technical/34-technical/45-centos-netinstall.html
Take all the defualts and choose the standard install with gnome desktop
3. Download the sports radio delay program:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/delayradio/
4. Extract the file and put delayradio into /usr/local/bin on your newly-built machine
5. Add the following line to /etc/rc.local:
sudo /usr/bin/amixer cset name="Capture Source" 4,4
5. To run it, type delayradio <space> followed by the number of seconds you want delayed.

That's it!! Total cost - the price of two 1/8" mini patch cords (assuming you have a junky old PC you want to discard). Plus, you need to figure out a way to match unbalanced to balanced levels. You plug the audio input into the blue jack and get the audio output from the green jack. It's only CD quality (16-bit, 44.1 KHz) but at least it's uncompressed.

I find it weird that I'm typing "only CD quality" after the talk about cart machines in this thread. But that's a totally different discussion.

Dave B.
 
DaveBayArea said:
After trying a couple of different things I came up with the utmost in technique for a simple delay. In case anyone else out there needs one:

1. Find an old throw-away PC
2. Do the CentOS Net install described here:
http://www.chrisgountanis.com/technical/34-technical/45-centos-netinstall.html
Take all the defualts and choose the standard install with gnome desktop
3. Download the sports radio delay program:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/delayradio/
4. Extract the file and put delayradio into /usr/local/bin on your newly-built machine
5. Add the following line to /etc/rc.local:
sudo /usr/bin/amixer cset name="Capture Source" 4,4
5. To run it, type delayradio <space> followed by the number of seconds you want delayed.

That's it!! Total cost - the price of two 1/8" mini patch cords (assuming you have a junky old PC you want to discard). Plus, you need to figure out a way to match unbalanced to balanced levels. You plug the audio input into the blue jack and get the audio output from the green jack. It's only CD quality (16-bit, 44.1 KHz) but at least it's uncompressed.

I find it weird that I'm typing "only CD quality" after the talk about cart machines in this thread. But that's a totally different discussion.

Dave B.
Click to expand...

Have you decided how you are going to 'dump' the audio to prevent something from going on-air?
 
frankberry said:
Have you decided how you are going to 'dump' the audio to prevent something from going on-air?
Click to expand...

That part was pretty easy. A button with a relay and an r/c circuit. Yes, it'll be dead air. But the likelihood of it actually being used is fairly small.

Dave B.
 
Yeah but how much more would it cost to just buy something hardware used or B-stock instead at that price? What should be a 200 dollar program is over a grand. Good luck Arse guys. I won't be buying.
 
I agree, it is a tad over-priced. It's made by the same guys who produce AudioTX. There is also the "computer" aspect of it all and having to rely on a Windows machine to keep you onair when most engineers would prefer a blackbox solution.
 
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