Are there any CD players with a trigger input?

[Kruse]

Okay, this might be a long post, but please bare with me.
Our church as a Maas-Rowe carrilon. To anybody who doesn't know what
this is, basically, it's a jukebox on a timer that plays music through
an outdoor loudspeaker at programmed times. You can program this
machine to play one or as many songs as you want and when it is done,
will shut itself off and wait for the next time the timer tells the
program to operate. It counts the songs played by listening to an
almost inaudible buzz after each song. When it hears this buzz,
(probably about 5K hertz) it counts that as one song. THE BUZZ IS
IMPORTANT FOR THIS MACHINE TO COUNT, and without it, will not work.
This instrument is about 20 years old and the music is stored on 8-
track tapes and is played with a rack mounted 8 track player. While
it originally came with about 12-15 tapes, they are now all dragging
and are wore out. (Yes, the head has been cleaned and it has a good
belt) Maas-Rowe does not make any more 8 tracks because they want you
to upgrade your machine to CDs, at a cost of $8K to $15K.
With that info being stated, can anybody here point me to a rack
mounted (not a necessity) CD player that has some sort of triggering
device to play? I plan on recording the 5K buzz after each song on the
recordable CDs so that the machine can still function as it does now.
And if need be, I'll make a 555 timer circuit to start the player each
time, but I'm just curious if there is a CD player already on the
market that is a little more plug-and-playish that I can use.
All advice is welcome. TIA.

[Mr.T]

"Kruse" > wrote in message
...
> Okay, this might be a long post, but please bare with me.
> Our church as a Maas-Rowe carrilon. To anybody who doesn't know what
> this is, basically, it's a jukebox on a timer that plays music through
> an outdoor loudspeaker at programmed times. You can program this
> machine to play one or as many songs as you want and when it is done,
> will shut itself off and wait for the next time the timer tells the
> program to operate. It counts the songs played by listening to an
> almost inaudible buzz after each song. When it hears this buzz,
> (probably about 5K hertz) it counts that as one song. THE BUZZ IS
> IMPORTANT FOR THIS MACHINE TO COUNT, and without it, will not work.
> This instrument is about 20 years old and the music is stored on 8-
> track tapes and is played with a rack mounted 8 track player. While
> it originally came with about 12-15 tapes, they are now all dragging
> and are wore out. (Yes, the head has been cleaned and it has a good
> belt) Maas-Rowe does not make any more 8 tracks because they want you
> to upgrade your machine to CDs, at a cost of $8K to $15K.
> With that info being stated, can anybody here point me to a rack
> mounted (not a necessity) CD player that has some sort of triggering
> device to play? I plan on recording the 5K buzz after each song on the
> recordable CDs so that the machine can still function as it does now.
> And if need be, I'll make a 555 timer circuit to start the player each
> time, but I'm just curious if there is a CD player already on the
> market that is a little more plug-and-playish that I can use.
> All advice is welcome. TIA.


Why not use a cheap computer/sound card solution, and simply feed the output
into the Carrilons amplifier, and forget the rest.
It would be simple to program the computer to play what you want and when.

MrT.

[Richard Crowley]

"Mr.T" wrote ...
> Why not use a cheap computer/sound card solution, and simply feed the
> output
> into the Carrilons amplifier, and forget the rest.
> It would be simple to program the computer to play what you want and when.

Indeed. The oldest, slowest, most decrepit PC you can find would
be far more capable than what you are using now. Or you could
use a triggered MP3 player like this one..
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9356

[Kruse]

On Dec 7, 2:55*am, "Richard Crowley" > wrote:
> "Mr.T" *wrote ...
>
> > Why not use a cheap computer/sound card solution, and simply feed the
> > output
> > into the Carrilons amplifier, and forget the rest.
> > It would be simple to program the computer to play what you want and when.
>
> Indeed. The oldest, slowest, most decrepit PC you can find would
> be far more capable than what you are using now. *Or you could
> use a triggered MP3 player like this one..http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9356

Thanks guys. That's exactly what I want. In my head, I guess I was
stuck in CD-land because I had already burned a few CDs with the
"buzz" behind it just to prove that it would work. This is the the way
to go.

[Arny Krueger]

"Kruse" > wrote in message

> Okay, this might be a long post, but please bare with me.
> Our church as a Maas-Rowe carrilon. To anybody who
> doesn't know what this is, basically, it's a jukebox on a
> timer that plays music through an outdoor loudspeaker at
> programmed times. You can program this machine to play
> one or as many songs as you want and when it is done,
> will shut itself off and wait for the next time the timer
> tells the program to operate. It counts the songs played
> by listening to an almost inaudible buzz after each song.
> When it hears this buzz, (probably about 5K hertz) it
> counts that as one song. THE BUZZ IS IMPORTANT FOR THIS
> MACHINE TO COUNT, and without it, will not work. This
> instrument is about 20 years old and the music is stored
> on 8- track tapes and is played with a rack mounted 8
> track player. While it originally came with about 12-15
> tapes, they are now all dragging and are wore out. (Yes,
> the head has been cleaned and it has a good belt)
> Maas-Rowe does not make any more 8 tracks because they
> want you to upgrade your machine to CDs, at a cost of $8K
> to $15K.

As was already pointed out, a comptuter can replace the specialized hardware
of a carrilon.

Here is an example of software that was written for the purpose:

http://www.topshareware.com/ChurchBells-download-3125.htm

We've got a Carrilon that was implemented as specialized hardware, too. The
basic bell sounds are stored in the dedicated logic unit.

Interestingly enough, the least reliable part of the system has been the SR
equipment. The logic unit's analog output is mic level, and the system came
with a small PA amp. A Bogen or a Toa or something like that. The PA amp
fried its power amp section, which was replaced with a mono amp. Later on
that fried, and that function is now replaced by one channel a Behringer
A500. The preamp section of the PA amp fried later on, and that is now a
little Behringer mixer.

We're thinking of replacing it, not because it is broken but because we have
to keep it set for correct time.

If we replace it with a PC that is on the web, the PC will automatically set
its time to the web, and that will solve our (less pressing) problem. I've
been working to wire the outlying parts of our church for networking, which
will enable this change.