Odd (but understandable) behaviour of playlist cues

Couch Potatoe · Post by **Couch Potatoe** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 7:05 pm

Hi Mike,

First off, thanks for a brilliant product - over two years use now without a hitch...

Well almost - but it's not serious, and it was an editing session not a show!

I'm currently in the process of building the soundtrack for a local fireworks display - this is really straightforward:

Play pre-show playlist (1.5 hrs)

Fade playlist and run show music
( Play Show music FOH and firing orders - "circuit 1 - GO" etc - through a second circuit hooked up to a Tecpro talkback)

Play post-show playlist (0.75 hrs)

The problem I hit was having a couple of dozen tracks playing random-repeat in the "pre-show" playlist cue with 10s crossfades and "pre-show" fade time of 45s.

If the pre-show fade is started at (say) 15-20s before the end of a track in the pre-show list (i.e. just before the cross-fade starts) then the playing track fades as expected to the point of the cross-fade and I'm left with 25-30s silence before the start of the main show track.

As I said - this is only a niggle, and it certainly won't happen again - I'll keep an eye on the track times before I kick the cue off - and I can understand what is happening, but is this the "correct" behaviour?

Thanks again for a brilliant product - especially the timed starts...

Andy B.

Mike Daniell · Post by **Mike Daniell** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 7:34 am

Hmmm. That's a design feature. Once you start fading out the playlist it is regarded as 'terminating', and while it is terminating it will not start a new file in the playlist. This was designed with much shorter fade out times in mind, and my approach was that if you're fading out pre-show music for the start of the show then you wouldn't want to start hearing a few seconds of a new track only to have it fade out straight away. With longer playlist fade out times I see you may want to start the next track. I'll have a think about it!

Couch Potatoe · Post by **Couch Potatoe** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 7:21 pm

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the quick reply - as I said its no big deal - now I know it happens I can work around it...

Just a thought, how about adding a tick box to the playlist cue editor window that gives the option of "Allow cross-fades under fade-out" or something similar, that way we have a choice depending on the application...

TTFN

Andy B.