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[Andrew Broughton]

I've used a ducking system and it's not really conducive to an outdoor endurance sport environment.  Read "Not really conducive" as it's very annoying for both me and the crowd.

Duckers make me the slave to how they work and but when i'm involved in being engaging and interactive with the crowd, I need to set the rules and I may decide to break them at will or necessity.

Care to elaborate specifically?

[Steve Moland]

Care to elaborate specifically?

Except for opening ceremonies, the start and the post race award ceremonies, there is always music at a comfortable level. Since my voice projects well, I don't need the music lowered a good portion of the time when I'm conveying progress to the start time lines, sponsor shout outs, so I don't touch the music. When I'm dealing with telling course logistics or safety type info I want to briefly lower the music. I also use a heavy dose of "shut up" so as to not have everyone's ears glaze over.

When I am doing the obligatory reminders of basic stuff every 10 to 20 minutes because runners arrive over a 90 minute window, I talk for variable lengths of time, pause and jump back in X number seconds later. The last thing I need to think of is how long is the ducker going to take to stop the music, or how soon will it kick back in so that I can't add an "and lastly blah blah."  But that's only before the race.

Later after the runners start to finish for 45 minutes to 3 - 5 hours the music is at a higher level and I'm calling out information about runners and doing so in a comfortable flow that does NOT sound like a metronome. That means I have to speak, pause, think, repeat and the silence can't be long but mostly is long enough for the ducker to bring back the music just as start to speak.

A ducker is often like working with a co-announcer who doesn't quickly learn how to not step on his/her lead announcing partner over the mic. Whenever I have to stay out of the way of a co-announcer I don't enjoy my day because the audience can tell one of us has terrible timing. 

[Mike Caldwell]

You may be correct in what you say, but I'm dealing with a totally amateur cast of script writers and time line choreographers at road races who change up things on the fly because they have to. A "preset" that works during those "I'll know what to do ONLY when presented with the situation" is by definition not something I could live with.

When the present works I almost don't need it. I'm sure this sounds strange but you'd have to be there with me.

For presets I was thinking you needed some quick way to turn mics on and off, dim the playback music levels to muting playback music all together. To be able to quickly adapt to various audio needs as they happen by yourself and remotely you will end up with various control devices on you or a phone/tablet app control of some sort.

You could always go with something like the rig in this picture, battery powered mixer,  battery powered wireless receivers, audio playback, going wireless back to home base. All the controls would right at your finger tips, yes you would get hot wearing that in the middle of summer!

[Steve Moland]

You could always go with something like the rig in this picture, battery powered mixer,  battery powered wireless receivers, audio playback, going wireless back to home base. All the controls would right at your finger tips, yes you would get hot wearing that in the middle of summer!

Oh Mike, your post is a hoot. I guess given the progression of my request and reasons for it I had it coming. The solution to the "hot" issue in the summer is merely just the addition of an insulted pouch for 2 cans of beer. Cover it all with an oversize Hawaiian shirt no one would be the wiser.
 

[Mike Caldwell]

Oh Mike, your post is a hoot. I guess given the progression of my request and reasons for it I had it coming. The solution to the "hot" issue in the summer is merely just the addition of an insulted pouch for 2 cans of beer. Cover it all with an oversize Hawaiian shirt no one would be the wiser.

To be honest I was only about half joking, guy and gals wear a rig like that everyday working with TV and movie productions around the world. You can get versions with more storage space, perfect for a cool beverage.

[Andrew Broughton]

If you used a computer for your music playback, you could use an RF presenter mouse to control the volume on the computer. easy-peasy.
http://www.dinofire.com/product-detail/dinofire-d05-wireless-presenter-with-red-laser-pointer/

[Dave Scarlett]

How about this:

https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/x-air-fmp-remote/id1112931654?mt=8

Tiny and strait forward for the X-Air series

[Andrew Henderson]

You are correct, most often I am a one man show. Quite often that's a good thing because I have to go with the flow of a changing timeline and script.

I currently have 2 SLX wireless setups with belt packs so that when I do interviews or work with a co-announcer we both have a mic. I have adapters for belt packs to receive 1/4 TRS, 1/8th inch ipod/phone feeds and even an XLR feed. I have used ipods through my 2nd unit but I prefer to be feeding my music from a laptop running off the same power source as the amps.

You mention carrying my own music source so as to control the volume. I tried that but to utilize it means I have to mess with an extremely unfriendly music device that I don't want to have to hold and seldom it has battery life long enough.

I'm often out there for many hours for half marathon and full marathons. My Shure stuff works for 4 to 5 hours and then a battery change takes 30 seconds. Once the phones and ipods run out of juice charging them becomes a logistical problem of use. Playing music on them sucks the batter down very fast.

Another vote here for just using a mobile music device on your person, attached to a wireless pack. I think a phone on airplane mode with a long enough playlist would be perfect. Put it in a belt clip and use the volume buttons on the side of the phone to control the volume. If using your phone's volume buttons is too cumbersome, just use an inline volume control like this Koss VC20 on the way to the wireless pack: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00001P4XH/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_dKHozb5QQQ1XZ. That's a cheap one. There may be better options.

As for your phone dying, you can bring a couple of portable USB device chargers if you're worried about your device dying. You can buy them at any corner store now.

[craig russ]

We had a magician at my church's fair last Friday.
He had a wireless device to control his audio tracks.
The transmitter stayed in his pocket.
The receiver controlled a playback device which fed
a DI which fed our snake.  It worked perfectly.

Looking online, I think it was one of these:
   http://audioaperemote.com/

Disclaimers:
 - I don't know range.  The magician was no more than 30 feet from the receiver.
 - I don't know if 433 MHz is an appropriate frequency for this use.

Here's a place where magicians discuss wireless control of playback:
   http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewtopic.php?topic=608922

[Mark Rombouts]

I think Yamaha MTX mixers can do these things. You can control al kinds off parameters via GPI in/outputs.

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