"the croaking chorus of the frogs from Aristophanes"

Aristophanes is a Linux-based package for playing background noises or music and spot sound effects in live performances. It is designed to be very simple to use and robust in a live environment. An operator can learn to work the player side in under five minutes, and to program effect sequences inside an hour.

I am developing the package in collaboration with a local theatre. It is now at an "Alpha Release" state and I am looking for other drama and musical groups who would like to be involved in the testing.

NEWS: Aristophanes will be making its first appearence to a live audience on 20th November in "Inspector Drake and the Perfekt Crime" at the Shinfield Players Theatre. Visit http://www.shinfieldplayers.org.uk/ for details.

This is Aristophanes playing in performance mode. All the edit controls are locked and greyed out so it is impossible to change the programmed sequence by accident. The top part of the display shows the name of the currently playing act, and the timecodes of the foreground effects player and the background music.

In rehearsal mode all the controls are unlocked and the operator can edit the cue lists, import source audio from files, CDs or the web and set up effects. Cues can be set up to repeat a number of times, or to follow on automatically to the next cue. Cue lists can be cut and pasted, and source audio can be pasted in as cues. If an effect is needed in several places in a show it can be shared, so that changing it in one place changes it throughout the performance.

The effects panel lets the operator set up simple effects, such as fade in or out and reverberation, for each cue. For more complex effects the package is designed to work with the Audacity sound editor.