Utility to Quickly Program SCS with X32 Messages

[SkylightSound]

Hi all,
I've just started using SCS to completely control radio mics on my X32 (mute and unmuting as required).
For the last show we had 18 mics and over 200 Control Send cues.
The only negative was the amount of time to program SCS. As I plan to use this for most shows, I decided to write a program to give a graphical way to view and update each of the Control Send Cues. It is created as a database which then writes it's own SCS11 file in the correct XML format. This file can then be imported via the "Import Cues from another SCS Cue file" within the Cue menu of the editor window. It also deals with the limit of 16 Control Send messages per cue, by automatically creating Sub Cues. In fact you can decide how many of the channels you want in each Sub Cue. That's quite handy because you have to scroll down the list of control messages within the sub cue which only currently shows around 9 messages by default in SCS.

Once you've got the majority of Control Send cues into SCS you can then play around with SFX cues (I've allowed [Place Holders] just for audio for now) or other requirements directly in SCS.

I wonder if anyone else is interested in the concept and might benefit from this system? I've only quickly written this in MSAccess but might look to write in VB.net if there is any interest? I'm happy for anyone to have it in the MSAccess version at the moment. You can grab a runtime version of the software free from Microsoft and I can upload the file to dropbox or similar.

I've still got some code tidying to do and might add in more functionality (although you can duplicate cues at the moment and it does check for duplicate cue numbers etc...)

I've attached a couple of screen shots just to give a flavour of the system - It's working great and I'm about to give it a run next week.

Regards

Mark

[SkylightSound]

....... and the Control Sends showing correctly in SCS.

[sjwicks]

I would be interested in this database.

[Mike Daniell]

Looks very interesting. I'd be happy to promote that through the SCS web site.

[SkylightSound]

Cheers Mike, I'll let you know when I've fully tested.
A friend of mine asked if I can only get it to message changes rather than sending each channel. For example if you had 12 channels in use and only wanted 1,2 3 Unmuted and 6,8 Muted off that it only send 5 messages rather than the 12.
So I have quickly altered the system to be able to do both. Basically using the triple state of the check box. Tick is Unmute, blank is mute and shaded is ignore (no change).
He also mentioned that he uses the cue description box to note the changes of the channel numbers. I am going to get the program to (optionally) automatically populate the description box, so in the case above the description would say "Unmute: 01 02 03 / Mute: 06 08" - I could do the names but the text would be long (again I will put that as an option).

Looks like I need to get this as a stand alone app, but for now it can be in MSAccess to see if the concept is worth the time.
I'm glad to give something back as SCS had been fantastic for me for a number of years!

Should be finished later this evening (UK time!)

Mark

[sjwicks]

Mark.

The amendments you have described are spot on and mimic the workflow I use for my shows. If you would like further testing, I'm happy to help. I have MSAccess.

Simon

[SkylightSound]

I've released a Beta Version of the program which is still in MSAccess at the moment - Anyone interested, let me know. Really thrown together pdf guide attached in the zip (as I can't upload PDF direct).

NB: Version update (Beta 0.4) - Functionality extra to attached PDF
It will now 'auto number' cues rather than having to type in each cue number. It only does this once cues have been created, but I will look to improve.
Also you can auto populate the description with the actual channel name rather than just the channel number. Might be of use.

NB: Version update (Beta 0.6) - Additional functionality and Bug fixes
Swapped around duplicate and delete buttons for ease of use.
Updated tab stops to make it really easy to use keyboard TAB and SPACEBAR to move through channels and new cues
Fixed problem causing additional empty sub cue which then caused SCS to ask for a message after importing
Fixed issue with very long files not being created (due to temporary fields used during testing which are now removed)

Mark