Beginner's Questions

n.webber · Post by **n.webber** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 11:34 pm

Hi,

I downloaded the demo and started 'playing' and learning its capabilities.
I am considering using it for some regular plays and dance shows that I provide SR and lighting for.

So far it looks very nice and 'friendly' but I have encountered a few bugs (or maybe I am missing something…

)

First, When assigning sound tracks to be triggered by hot keys, and setting each queue to fade all previous tracks,
long as I play the tracks in the order of the queues they behave as programmed.
But if I go back and play an earlier queue/track that is from upper on the queue list, it doesn't fade the later track.

Second point, I tried assigning queues by MIDI to my lighting board and it works great.
Only problem, I can't find a way to play only a section of the track (say for rehearsal purpose)
and still have all the relevant MIDI queues active.

Thanks in advance for your reply.

N. Webber

Mike Daniell · Post by **Mike Daniell** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 2:37 pm

Hot keys are primarily designed for ad-hoc sound effects, which may be for effects you want many times (eg a door bell) or for randomly playing subtle effects to supplement a general background sound (eg distant bird calls played over a rain forest ambient sound). The 'fade all earlier cues' just operates on cues that are earlier in the cue list, so will not fade a playing cue that is further down the list.

What this really comes down to is 'what are you trying to achieve?' Could you give a bit more info about how you want to play cues? Are you basically wanting to run a show with hot keys, so that you can pick cues at random and on doing so fade out any currently playing cue?

Regarding the MIDI, which direction is the MIDI? Are you controlling SCS from the lighting board or vice versa? With any cue you can move the progress slider to the required start point before playing the cue - can't say I've tested this in conjuntion with MIDI control, but it should work if the cue is currently 'Ready'.

n.webber · Post by **n.webber** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 5:35 am

Thank you for your reply.

Mike Daniell wrote: ... Are you basically wanting to run a show with hot keys, so that you can pick cues at random and on doing so fade out any currently playing cue?

Yes, basically. I have one play for instance that uses 6 audio tracks.
Their sequence in the show is: 1-2-1-3-4-1-2-1-2-1-2-1-2-5-6.
I thought by assigning them to hot keys 1 to 6 this would be the most intuitive
and easy way for my director to switch from playing CD tracks as she does now.

Mike Daniell wrote: Regarding the MIDI, which direction is the MIDI? Are you controlling SCS from the lighting board or vice versa? With any cue you can move the progress slider to the required start point before playing the cue - can't say I've tested this in conjuntion with MIDI control, but it should work if the cue is currently 'Ready'.

I am running MIDI from SCS to my light board.
I now see what you mean regarding the progress slider,
I'll try it out next time I set up the system.

Thanks again,

N. Webber

n.webber · Post by **n.webber** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 8:49 pm

Mike,

I have tested the option of playing only part of a track while having related MIDI sub ques active
and it didn't work properly.

I programmed a few MIDI sub ques to come on at "After Start" times of the related track.
When playing the track from its beginning all is fine. All the sub ques run at their programmed times.
But if I drag the track's pointer 'manually' after the track has started (or also if setting the pointer
further into the track and then starting the playback from there) the sync is gone.

The MIDI ques still come on at their programmed times as if the track was played from its beginning.
But since the track has been advanced (or started playing from a point other then its beginning)
there is now total miss sync between the playing track and the MIDI sub ques.

So, I tried solving this by timing the MIDI sub ques to be activated 'Before End' of the related track.
I initially added one MIDI sub que and found it was indeed activated regardless of where the playback started.
Thus working properly and I could play only part of the track and have all (MIDI) sub ques active.

But I have encountered another issue.
As I added additional MIDI sub ques, whenever I edit the new que, giving a new timing,
this sets all the previous sub ques to the same (last) timing.

Is this some glitch here…?

I would want to add up to 30 or so discrete MIDI ques to an audio track. How would I do this?
(I'm asking generally, I am aware of the 25 ques limit of the demo)

I hope I've explained myself properly.

Best regards,

Nimrod Webber

Mike Daniell · Post by **Mike Daniell** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 9:39 am

n.webber wrote:I programmed a few MIDI sub ques to come on at "After Start" times of the related track.
When playing the track from its beginning all is fine. All the sub ques run at their programmed times.
But if I drag the track's pointer 'manually' after the track has started (or also if setting the pointer
further into the track and then starting the playback from there) the sync is gone.

The MIDI ques still come on at their programmed times as if the track was played from its beginning.
But since the track has been advanced (or started playing from a point other then its beginning)
there is now total miss sync between the playing track and the MIDI sub ques.

An 'after start' time is based on the clock time of the cue being started and is not adjusted by dragging the progress slider. I could make an allowance for dragging the progress slider but I'll need to think thru the implications of this. Also, if you have an auto-start time of, say, 5 seconds after the start of another cue, and you drag the progress slider of the controlling cue to 7 seconds, then presumably you would want the auto-start cue to start immediately, even though the new cue would be out of sync with the controlling cue?

n.webber wrote:But I have encountered another issue.
As I added additional MIDI sub ques, whenever I edit the new que, giving a new timing,
this sets all the previous sub ques to the same (last) timing.

Is this the 'Sub-Cue Relative Start Time' that gets reset? Can you email me your cue file (the .scs file) and tell me which cues or sub-cues get reset?

n.webber wrote:I would want to add up to 30 or so discrete MIDI ques to an audio track. How would I do this?

You can add as many discrete MIDI Sub Cues as you wish. You should be able to set discrete relative start times for all the sub-cues.

n.webber · Post by **n.webber** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 6:39 pm

Thanks,
I'll send you the file.

N. Webber

Boswell · Post by **Boswell** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 5:32 am

Quick question, I’ve set up the GUI as I want it with colours, text size, options etc on my laptop. How can I transfer the set up to the Theatre PC?

Also, is there an option to change the colour for the selected cue (Ie the cue in focus)
Thanks

Mike Daniell · Post by **Mike Daniell** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 3:52 pm

The color schemes are held in a file named scs_colors.scc which is stored in "My Documents" (or "Documents" if you are using Vista). Prior to version 9.5.0 this file was stored in the folder containing scs9.exe. Going back further, the file was named scscheme.scc, also then stored in the folder containing scs9.exe. I mention this history because some users who read this may not be on the latest version of SCS.

You can therefore copy the scs_colors.scc file from your laptop to the theatre PC, storing it in the appropriate folder. Note that this will totally replace all SCS color schemes that may have been set up on the theatre PC. You can then start SCS on the theatre PC and select the required color scheme.

There is no facility for transferring options such as text size. Many options may be PC-specific, so what you want set on your laptop may be different to what you want set on your theatre PC. But once you have set your required options on your theatre PC they will persist for all productions.

Also you cannot select a different color the selected cue.