Show Cue System

Hi

I've got a very complicated sound heavy show approaching and I'm trying to think of ways to make the life of my operator simpler. After looking at the specs of this programme I'm very optimisic it will help sanity levels within my sound crew. I'm a little confused about the multi-channels capabilities. Basically, if the programme can do the following, it will be great. Can anyone help....

Basically during a scene change a piece of music plays though the FOH system. Once the change is complete I want the music to crossfade (mid-song - which may be at different points of the music each show) to a speaker placed inside a radio onstage. This is by no means the complicated bit of the show, but if the programme can do this it can do anything else I need it to do.

Any replies would be great

Thanks in advance

You can do this with 2 cues - an audio file cue and a level change cue.

Firstly, go to Production Properties in the Editor and select/define your output devices for FOH and the onstage radio speaker.

Then set up an audio file cue assigned to both FOH and the onstage radio speaker, but set the output level of the onstage radio speaker to minimum (-96dB).

After this set up a level change cue for the cross fade. In this cue you select the audio file cue as being the one whose levels you want to change. For the FOH speaker specify a new level of -96dB, and for the onstage radio speaker specify the desired level for this speaker. The duration of the level change for both outputs should be the same for the cross-fade.

For the scene change you will start the audio file cue, but it will only be audible through FOH as the radio speaker is 'playing' at minimum level. When the scene change is complete start the level change cue. This will fade out FOH and fade in the onstage radio speaker.

If required you can also have a third cue to fade-out or stop the audio file cue.

Thanks for your quick reply. If it's that simple I'll definatly buy the programme. Shame I didn't know about it sooner! Could have made my life much simpler!

Thanks again

Danny

Dannyboy

I just implemented such a cue for a production of Steele Magnolias. Actuall I did this for both fade out of various scenes and fade in to various scenes. My implementation was slightly different than what Mike talks about in that I created and started two linked cues for each fade in or fade out. One of the cues drove a speaker hidden behind the radio prop and one cue for the FOH speakers.

The reason that I did this is because this allowed me to pre-process the audio for the radio speaker. I started with one .WAV file (in this case a song) and created a copy of the file. I then processed the copy by removing some of the highs and some of the lows (simulating a cheap 3" radio speaker) and then I added some crackling noise (simulating actual RF radio reception.

Linking the two cues allowed me to start both at the same time and then use fade commands to go from the radio speaker to FOH or vise versa.

I can send details if you are interested. This created a very nice effect for the audience

*Scott*