# Talking Skull - Help with Audacity



## JeffHaas (Sep 7, 2010)

I'm playing with a Cowlacious Talking Skull for the first time. Everything works great with the beep track when I play it from Audacity - the skull's jaw moves perfectly in time to the silent beeps on the audio.

However, save the file out and try to play it with Windows Media Player or on an mp3 player, and the file doesn't work. It's like the silent beeps don't come through correctly.

Is there some setting in Audacity that I'm missing?


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## JeffHaas (Sep 7, 2010)

I think I've figured it out...this setup is used, although it's pretty recent (the board is copyright 2010). It seems to have fallen and gotten damaged - the skull has a crack in it and the Cowlacious board has at least one of the trimpots that when touched by a small screwdriver can cause a hum in the speaker.

I think there's a bad connection somewhere on the board that's keeping it from performing properly; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it responds to Audacity and others not. 

I may try building one of the op-amp boards to see how that goes.


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## DarkLore (Jan 25, 2009)

sounds more like the pot settings aren't correctly set.


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## fritz42_male (May 5, 2009)

I agree with Darklore - it's more likely that you need to adjust the pots. The Cowlacious board has 3 adjustments which need to be made from your specific source for the prop. If you get it working under audacity and then transfer to an mp3 player, the same pot settings might not work (threshold setting).

All Cowlacious Scary Terry boards work this way although later ones have more features. If you email Carl at Cowlacious I'm sure he'll be happy to email a manual which will tell you how to adjust the board.

Oh and you'll get a hum from touching any sensitive audio circuitry - that's the natural electric field all of us put out.


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## Otaku (Dec 3, 2004)

Agreed, you don't know how the Cow board will behave until you're using the actual player. Heck, I sometimes need to adjust my Cow boards if change a battery in the player.
If the beep track still behaves erractically, try boosting it's volume (within Audacity) to a higher level.


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## JeffHaas (Sep 7, 2010)

I've got the manual, so I have an explanation for the pots.

Thanks for the tips on how the board will work differently! Good insight, I wouldn't have thought that the same file would play back differently. I even downloaded a sample file from this board, I think it was Otaku's, which had some kind of chanting with beep synchronized to it. It worked in Audacity but not in any other player! Frustrating.

I guess I've got to make the volume on the beep track much "louder".


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## fritz42_male (May 5, 2009)

Otaku, have you ever played with dtmf? I have the axe murderer dvd and they use dtmf tones to set off solenoids. I have a little dtmf board and about to play with driving car doorlock solenoids.

Just wondering about using dtmf to get a picaxe to control multiple servos e.g you could get several jaw movement setups going.


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## Otaku (Dec 3, 2004)

I use the function generator in Goldwave to make the beeps. It's actually a DTMF tone. I plan to play with the beeps a bit more and see if I can run the frequency up/down far enough to make it inaudible yet still able to drive the Cow board.


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## DarkLore (Jan 25, 2009)

Jeff, I don't have a talking skull so much as a singing skull. Msg me your email address...I'll send you a few files.


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## fritz42_male (May 5, 2009)

Otaku said:


> I use the function generator in Goldwave to make the beeps. It's actually a DTMF tone. I plan to play with the beeps a bit more and see if I can run the frequency up/down far enough to make it inaudible yet still able to drive the Cow board.


Cool - I was wondering about that as well. Somewhat similar to using IR light in breakbeam triggers etc.

I'll have to have a play with the tone generation as soon as I breadboard the dtmf side up - it looks pretty easy.


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