Show Cue System

Hi.

I'm currently enjoying learning and using Sound Cue system. (I've found some instabilities with SCS 9.2.x, so for our production I'm going with 9.1.6a until things have been ironed out)

However, my question is:

After reading the help files and tutorials etc... I'm still at a bit of a loss to understand the difference between CUES and SUB-CUES.

Could someone explain the concept? I'm sorry for the newbie question.

Great work, on the software though, Mike!!

Hi Dave,

That's a good question - and the thing that takes the longest to explain to new users here (given the program is so easy to use!). It is also one of the most useful features of SCS.

Basically, a Cue is a triggerable (or Cueable) command or set of them. You can fire a cue at the appropriate time - from the keyboard, by MIDI command from some other device, or by a timed follow-on from a pervious cue.

A Subcue is one task or command within a Cue. You may require a cue to play an Audio Track, and also fade a track playing from a previous cue, and also send out a MIDI program change to your console - all when you fire that cue. Each of those tasks is a Subcue.

Every Cue (of whatever type you create) has one Subcue automatically. In fact, when you choose which Cue Type to create by clicking on the Icon for an Audio, MIDI, SFR (stop/fade/release), or playlist cue - you are simply telling SCS "create a new cue, and make the first subcue this type". You add subsequent Subcues using the other set of icon buttons (the ones with a little "s" in them) as required.

Because Subcues were only added in version 9 of SCS, Mike Daniell chose to 'hide' the first Subcue (or at least not describe it as a subcue) in order to keep the interface familiar to existing users.

The power of SCS is that while you can not trigger subcues individually (they are all triggered as part of their 'parent' Cue), you can have a subcue offset time (set in the box in the top right hand corner of the Subcue panel of the Editor) for each subcue. This time delays the triggering of that subcue (individually) from the time the Cue was fired.

What this means in practice, is that you could have a single cue that plays a sound effect, and then waits a bit, then performs a fade on that sound effect to drop the level a bit or pan it, then waits a bit, then fades it out altogether, then sends a MIDI command to your hardware Console to un-mute a mic or something. All in the one cue. Of course, you can do the same with a series of cues all triggering from the previous one, each doing one of these tasks - the choice is yours - but if you use a cue with multiple subcues, it only shows up as one line in the Cue List on the Play Screen, which is much less visually busy for the Operator. Also it is easier to drag the cue containing the whole sequence to another point in the show.

Cheers,
nick

NICK wrote:Hi Dave,

That's a good question - and the thing that takes the longest to explain to new users here (given the program is so easy to use!). It is also one of the most useful features of SCS.

That makes perfect sense! Thanks!

I was under the misunderstanding that a subcue was a cue that could be set to effect the parent cue later.

i.e. I set a song (or effect) to be played. And I tried to set the SUB-CUE as the cue to stop the sound effect when I wanted it stopped.

(And consequently wondering why it wasn't working)

Anyway, I'm clear now, and I thank you for your detailed post.

Now that's interesting
I tend to use it in the opposite way. I use sub cues to change levels, fade out, midi etc of previously running cues. I find that when I start a new cue I often want to adjust in some way the cues that are currenly running.

If I start a cue and want to adjust it's level etc. I would use a new cue.
One advantage is that I can reference that cue later if ness.

Just a different way of doing things.

Adair

Well, you HAVE to use a new cue to make a change to a previously running cue - IF that change needs to be triggered separately.

Sub Cues can really only be used as a group of events that are locked together in time - either starting together or starting a fixed amount of time from the trigger.

You can do the same thing with multiple cues and Auto Activation linking to another cue - like an "Auto Follow" on a light board. Sub Cues are just a cleaner way of grouping such linked cues when they logically belong together.

Anything that is to be triggered externally (by a human or by MIDI, for example) has to have a new cue.

Anne