Show Cue System

Hello!

We were working on a show using Soundman Server for the first time, and noticed some very strange behaviours which led to us having to switch back to using BASS instead.

Our show was very simple and just had two stereo outputs configured. One output was for main house right and left, and the other was for SFX coming from backstage left and right.

Once we had the show configured, it would run fine if we ran all the cues in order and didn't stop or go back to a previous cue. If we did any of these things SCS ignored the routing information and would play the cues back on all of the output channels at one time. It would also not fade the output on the SFX output, sound would stay at that output until the fade time was expired and then the sound would just cut out.

There were other bugs that cropped up that we have never seen (or heard!) as well. In most cases we were not able to reproduce what was happening, but several times while trying to run cues, the sound file would seem to hang and electronic noise would be output at a very loud level). As I said, this would happen on a random basis, and we were unable to pin down what was happening.

We are running SCS 11.2.4 with Soundman Server 1.0.80.1. Our output sound card is actually a Cakewalk UA-101 (I do recall reading somewhere that Soundman might not play nice with external USB sound cards.)

Charles R. Kaiser - Technical Director, Newmarket Theatre
Newmarket, ON CANADA

Charles,

I've tried to reproduce this problem but going back to an earlier cue doesn't cause me any issues. I'll email you details of a tracing version that I'd like to you run with your SM-S device map selected.

"Electronic noise" is usually the result of the system stalling and the ASIO buffer containing rubbish. Although this used to occasionally happen with BASS ASIO I haven't heard of it occurring with SM-S. What ASIO buffer size do you have set in your UA-101 Driver Settings on the UA-101 Control Panel? I also have a UA-101 which I use for most of my testing, and I don't have any problems using this with SM-S (or BASS). I have the ASIO buffer size set to 432 samples. Whatever buffer size you have, try increasing the size as that will increase the "Stability" rating.

Something else you could try is in SCS to set the SM-S option "Force audio processing onto a single processor". See Options and Settings - Audio Driver - ASIO (Using SM-S) for more info.

Another link you may find useful is this FAQ on the Richmond Sound Design web site: Recommended PC Hardware for SoundMan-Server - although the UA-101 and this brand of equipment are not mentioned.

ckaiserca wrote:Our show was very simple and just had two stereo outputs configured. One output was for main house right and left, and the other was for SFX coming from backstage left and right.

Once we had the show configured, it would run fine if we ran all the cues in order and didn't stop or go back to a previous cue. If we did any of these things SCS ignored the routing information and would play the cues back on all of the output channels at one time. It would also not fade the output on the SFX output, sound would stay at that output until the fade time was expired and then the sound would just cut out.

Fix ready for the next release. I've emailed you details of a pre-release to try.