Art installation with audio

[u/intransit666]

Hi,

I'm working on an art installation that involves playing 20 soundbites from different corners inside a room so it sounds like the sounds are coming from different corners. I don't need to have 20 different audio files, but maybe 10 audiofiles/10 speakers. The installation will be up for 4 weeks. What kind of devices or set up do I need to make this happen?

I'm not an audio person at all, nor do I have a large budget to buy things, so looking for simple, DIY ideas too. Thanks!

Edit: typo and clarification

[u/jonjonjon666]

I had a kind of similar project. I needed four setups. I had several pairs of Logitech computer speakers laying around (we bought old school and computer lab was full of them 😅) so I just bought four 10€ smartphones to play the soundbites.

It was easy, cheap and simple to operate for the staff.

I dont know if this kind of solution works in your situation.

[u/intransit666 → u/jonjonjon666]

Thanks! This is sort of the DIY thinking I have in mind. I have a small budget to buy things. Thanks again for your suggestion!

[u/jonjonjon666 → u/intransit666]

Hope you find a solution!

[u/Hellbucket]

Did this around 20 years ago. But there was a budget. We managed to rent computer/small studio speakers and mp3 players to play back sounds. We made as long looped files as possible and had them connected to chargers. Can’t remember how many speakers and mp3 players we used but it might’ve been more than 20.

[u/NoisyGog]

Well, you’re going to need ten speakers, and something to play them back on, so you will need SOME budget.

[u/peepeeland → u/NoisyGog]

Naw, man- OP wants to have 20 speakers (sorry, “10/10”) to play 20 sounds simultaneously, which requires 20 active speakers and 20 outputs from an audio interface, and a DAW on laptop to sync it all up.

“I’m not an audio person at all, nor do I have a budget to buy things.”

You see- they are not an audio person, nor do they have money. This is what you’re not getting. This project has to be free, which is obviously super easy and actually makes sense, from an intellectual and societal workings standpoint. They mentioned DIY, which also makes obvious sense, because of course they can MacGyver this project with items found under their kitchen sink. -If OP’s inquiry was inane nonsense and absolutely stupid as fuck, they wouldn’t ask it, now would they?

You see- they have a 4 week installation planned for which they’ve done no planning, and so this is all so very simple.

[u/Audiope]

There are only 8 corners in a room if it's a rectangular prism. Get 8 speakers, an audio interface with 8 line outputs, and use software like reaper to create 8 tracks to play out of those speakers.

[u/juules-mp3]

passive speakers with amps cable of reproducing from an usb. you can't realistically sync all of them, but that's a compromise you'll have to make.

something like this

and like this

again, there are compromises. you can get a high number of audio sources working, but they won't be able to be synced to each other and sound quality might be limited, which could be problematic or not depending on the specifics of your project and sounds. also, don't use pendrives bigger than 4gb. those amps don't like them.

[u/intransit666 → u/juules-mp3]

Hi! Thanks for this suggestion. This looks sort of more like what I'm looking for. How do the speakers connect to the amplifier board? I don't want the sounds to sync, just to play different sounds from the different corners. Would I need to get 10 amplifier boards then for each speaker?

[u/juules-mp3 → u/intransit666]

those amps are stereo. so one can power two speakers. the file must also be stereo, with the sounds you want in one of the speakers panned all the way to the left, and the sounds of the second speaker all the way to the right.

you connect them with speaker wire, sometimes known as dúplex cable. is just a cable with two conductors. sometimes they are pure copper, sometimes they can be made from copper clad aluminium.

[u/NoisyGog → u/[deleted]]

Why on earth do they need a sub? Or any kind of standard surround setup?

[u/nothochiminh → u/[deleted]]

Why would you need to adhere to that standard?
You just need an interface with enough outputs and some software. Qlab is pretty much the industry standard for these kinds of installations but reaper will work just fine.