# new to forum, help amplifying sounds from animated prop



## mrog (Jun 25, 2015)

Hello everyone!

I'm new here and this is my first post. Halloween is my fave and I decorate at graveyard scene every year at my sisters house.

I have a few animatronic props that I bought from Spirit, and they work great, but the audio is always so low. I usually have theme music running in the yard and it would be nice to be able to amplify the volume of these props somehow. 

I'm sort of a novice when it comes to this, so hopefully someone can explain in laymen's terms, if there is anything I can do. Is there any easy fix, or a not too complicated rigging I can do with the volume of these props?

I appreciate any help from the community!


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## Pumpkin5 (Aug 8, 2010)

:jol:Welcome to the forum mrog! I'm sure someone will pipe up with some suggestions.


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## deadSusan (Jun 26, 2013)

Welcome!


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## SPOOKY J (Nov 20, 2009)

Hello and Welcome!


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## BillyVanpire (Apr 22, 2015)

Hi, welcome aboard..

which props do you have/want to modify?


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## Hairazor (Mar 13, 2012)




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## mrog (Jun 25, 2015)

They don't carry the exact prop on Spirit anymore, but here is a youtube clip of the same prop, it's the life size animated grave digger 




Thanks!


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

mrog, since you posted this in the Welcome forum, you're going to get mostly welcome posts back since people don't necessarily look at all forums and might therefore miss your technical question. You might try posting the same question over in the Light and Sound forum.

And welcome to the forum


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## BillyVanpire (Apr 22, 2015)

a microphone on the dummy would be best if you don't want to modify the prop in any way at all, or you could open it up and see whats inside...


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## Mav9709 (Oct 18, 2013)

If you are comfortable opening it up I have a couple options, one you could purchase a 3.5mm female jack cable such as this http://www.ebay.com/itm/12ft-3-5mm-...411?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35bac28aeb remove the male end, disconnect the wires from the speakers in the prop, wire it to the cable, and use computer speakers. I have a couple Spirit props and mine are mono or use only one speaker meaning it will only have 2 wires and the cable will have 4 so you would wire the 2 positives from the cable to the positive from the prop and the same with the grounds. This would then use the amplifier from the computer speakers or a much larger sound system to make it louder. The video is a how-to on this type of cable. 



The second option is to purchase a small amplifier like this http://www.ebay.com/itm/Adjustable-LM386-Audio-Amplifier-Module-200-Times-5V-12V-Input-10K-Resistance-/261529443685?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3ce45e9d65
This would allow it to be concealed in the prop but the cons are in my opinion they are not the greatest amp and it requires a few more steps to hack the prop vs the one I listed above.
Hope this helps.


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