Sometimes at church the young people host quiz evenings or we have a drama spot and there is the need to provide sounds effects or ‘theme music’ at various points.
There are a couple of ways to do this – via different tracks on a CD or iPod or using a WAV or MP3 player on a PC. I have found an alternative which seems to be a perfect fit and is simple to use.
I came across an Android app called Custom Soundboard which presents an interface which is simply 28 large buttons, each of which may be configured to contain a sound of your choice.
By long-pressing a button, you can assign a sound file to it, a button title and choose whether the sound is a continuous loop (plays until you press the button a second time – shown as blue above).
Connect your tablet/phone to the sound desk (turn off all notification sounds and key-press sounds before you start) and now providing sound effects and music is a simple one-press affair. Custom Soundboard will let you play one-press (grey) sounds while a loop (blue) sound is still playing. If a one-press sound is, for example, 20 seconds long it can be interrupted by pressing another one-press sound or will be silenced if you press an unallocated button (one with no sound assigned).
It makes adding sound effects and music a much less stressful affair and lets you concentrate on getting the sound on cue.
You can create multiple sound boards and swipe between them – so there’s practically no limit to what you can set up. My only gripe with this app is that it doesn’t rotate into landscape mode. However, the benefits far exceed this minor issue. A free app with ads which don’t really get in the way. Much recommended.
What about you? How could you use an app like this? Can you think of anything I may have missed? Make a comment below.