Play List Question

kharney · Post by **kharney** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 11:45 am

I am having troubles with a playlist. I am using all 8 channels of my Firewire and routing them to eight different speakers in the theatre. I would like the preshow music to come out of all 8 speakers however on the playlist function it appears that I can only assign 4 (2sets). Can I start 2 playlist simultaniously to get the other 4 channels and if I do that will I have to remove the random play because the lists will be different ? or is there some way to assign all 8 channels to the cue I already have ...

Kevin

Mike Daniell · Post by **Mike Daniell** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 6:38 pm

Hmmm - I didn't expect users to want to play preshow or intermission music thru all speakers. Running two play lists simultaneously will probably not work too well as the audio files used by the two play lists will not be 'linked', so there could be a small but noticable delay between audio file start times in the two play lists.

kharney · Post by **kharney** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 9:56 pm

Perhaps if I further explain the problem you can come up with another idea. I have it set up so that each speaker has its own channel because there is a surround sound effect for the preshow announcement. Plus in this show we actually have the audience coming up on stage before the show starts. So I have FOH L&R, Center Cluster, BOH L & R,and subwoofers in the house which is our 5.1 surround and then I have 2 speakers on stage. This makes the audience part of the show. I assigned all 8 channels in SCS no problem and all works great but when I went to add all of the speakers to the playlist I could not. Another strange thing is that there are 2 spaces on the playlist feature for audio devices but only 1 works so I can only get 1 pair of speakers. So to get 4 pairs I would have to start 4 cues simultaneously just like in vers 8 right? I am concerned with you saying that they might not be exactly in sync as well. Looking forward to your suggestions.....

Thanks Kevin

Mike Daniell · Post by **Mike Daniell** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 7:59 am

... there are 2 spaces on the playlist feature for audio devices but only 1 works ...

This has been fixed - try the latest version (9.3.5). I don't recall when it was fixed and it seems to have slipped thru the cracks regarding being recorded in the Recent Changes.

So to get 4 pairs I would have to start 4 cues simultaneously just like in vers 8 right?

Allowing for the fact that with 9.3.5 you now only have to start 2 cues simultaneously, you are right in the comparison with vers 8. The synchronization between the two cues would be the same as for vers 8 which was pretty good. But one of the changes that came in with vers 9 is that if you have two or more audio file cues playing the same file simultaneously (start at 0.00 seconds after start of the first of these cues) then the playback of those cues is linked in the audio library. So internally, SCS issues a single 'play' or 'stop' and the audio library applies it to all of the linked file playbacks. This is tighter than the vers 8 approach where SCS starts each playback separately. Currently, SCS does not link files across playlist cues, only across audio file cues.

Is your preshow announcement part of a playlist?

How long is your preshow music? One option is to create one long file from the individual files so you can play it using a normal audio file cue instead of a playlist cue, thereby having access to all four outputs.

kharney · Post by **kharney** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 8:37 am

Mike,

Thanks for the quick response. One of the things that makes SCS so GREAT is you ...

So I have have to make 2 playlist cues to use all 8 speakers will I not be able to use the random play feature? If so no big deal but that is another reason for a fix on this.

Also, if I start 2 playlists when I fade then to make an announcement will I then have to make 2 fade cues - 1 for each playlist and 2 restore cues etc.... Too bad I have like 5 announcements during the preshow music

Lots of extra cues ....

Also, I started looking at MIDI controls last night and I must spend more time on it today. But I have a couple questions on that too. Can I run an unlimited number of devises controlled by Midi? In this case we have a huge light and robotics show that is perfectly timed to the music. So I need to control the sound board, the light board and a laptop for the robotics. I was going in to set up the Midi devices in properties and it looked like I could only set up one. Do I tell it which Midi device I am triggering in the cue itself? I have used midi before when I was just running the light board and it worked flawlessly. Perhaps I have bitten off more than I was ready to chew but this show has very little cues in it except this special two minutes and that all needs to be timed perfectly. I will be studying it more tonight but any helpful suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Kevin

kharney · Post by **kharney** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 8:58 am

Can you also send instructions on upgrading from 9.3 to 9.3.5. Thanks

kharney · Post by **kharney** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 9:01 am

Actually 9.3.3 to 9.3.5. Thanks

Mike Daniell · Post by **Mike Daniell** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 9:57 am

So I have have to make 2 playlist cues to use all 8 speakers will I not be able to use the random play feature?

Correct. The randomization will not be synced!

Can I run an unlimited number of devises controlled by Midi? ... I was going in to set up the Midi devices in properties and it looked like I could only set up one. Do I tell it which Midi device I am triggering in the cue itself?

In the MIDI Options you specify the MIDI Output Port but you can have many devices daisy-chained to that port. Each device must have its own device id or channel number that it listens to, and there should be some configuration setting for that in the respective devices. Then in your SCS MIDI Send cues you nominate the device id or channel number for the device you want to send the message to. Whether it is 'device id' or 'channel' depends on the type of MIDI message.

Instructions for upgrading sent by email.