Show Cue System

Hi,

I'm advising an amateur theatre company in NYC on the redesign of their sound system. They currently use a minidisc player and a mixer (Mackie 1604 VLZ), but they've had problems with miscues lately, so I'm trying to persuade them to migrate to SCS.

The only hitch is, they sometimes need to use live mics. I proposed that they run the PC audio outputs into the Mackie. The trims/faders for SCS could be calibrated once and left alone, so the only interaction with the mixer would to be bring the mic faders up and down.

However, they would prefer to get rid of the Mackie altogether, and run the PC directly to the power amps. Which brings me to my question:

Is it possible to use the audio inputs of the sound card(s) while running SCS? And is this a good idea, or is there a reason to avoid it? Does SCS include level controls for the sound card inputs, or would these have to be controlled via the sound card's control panel, the Windows mixer, or via external hardware?

I'm assuming that we would use mic preamps (converting from balanced to unbalanced line level), so that the signals going into the PC would be as noise-resistant as possible, but I worry about picking up hum somewhere.

Thank you for your response!

-chris

As far as I'm aware, Sound Cue wouldn't allow you to do this. If you are already thinking of including mic pre-amps, then I would recommend the following instead.

I use a digital mixer with sound cue which has a MIDI input. The mic levels/mutes are pre-programmed into the sound desk using snapshots. Then in sound cue, I programme a MIDI send which will recall the snapshot for the mics needed for that song or whatever. ONce the mic levels have been recalled, they can then still be 'tweaked' on the fly depending how loud the performer is on that performance! This system also has the advantage that you can use a sound card with a digital output into a digital input on the mixer, making your sound effects and backing tracks noise free.

I would never recommend the use of mics without some manual control over level. Singers never perform twice at the same level, and it is also very useful for dealing with feedback quickly - this second issue would be much more difficult to cope with using any kind of direct input system.

I hope this helps. I'll be happy to answer any further questions.

Jack
...thankyou for listening...