On-The-Fly Looping

[BobCar]

A feature, I would have found very useful this past weekend, is the be able to switch looping 'On' for a clip that is already running.
We held an Old Time Radio shows convention and during several of the comedies the performers started ad libbing. It was great for evryone BUT me, since I had sound effects clips that were running out (I ended up sliding the progress bar back to the beginning during loud laughter).
What would have been easier, is to have had the ability to:
1. Drag/highlight the section, underneath the moving Progress Bar, that I want to repeat, and then
2. Click/activate the "Loop" button.
It would work better if the area, underneath the Progress Bar, were not just hask mark, but a .jpg of the audio clip (like you have in the Editor window). That way you could see exactly where you wanted the loop to 'Start' and 'End'.
The new Progress Bar would end up looking something like this (although the .wav form box would be much thinner)...

New Progress Bar.png (65.69 KiB) Viewed 1278 times

The clip would then just keep looping until you hit the spacebar to re-establish the next command you had previous set up. In other words - if the next command was to be an auto start of the next clip, when this clip ends - it wouldn't start until:
1. you hit the space bar and
2. the clip reached the end. If you need the next action to start immediately, you could hit the space bar twice (or hit a Hot Key).

Thanks for a GREAT product!

Bob

[Boswell]

If you set the cue1 up for looping in the first place, then you make the next cue2 contain an SFR cue to stop/fade cue1.
Make cue3 to autostart after end of Cue1
Job done!

[BobCar]

My situation is probably different than your - I'm running recorded sound effects for old radio show recreations - using many of the actual actors from those shows &/or era.
They're used to reacting to the audience (laughing, applauding, etc.), and will "hold" for that to die down before continuing; so the suggestion was posed as an emergency fall back in case the currently running clip is about to run out and wasn't originally set up as a loop.
This particular clip was the sound of a car: Starting; Idling; then burning rubber followed by a large, sustained crash with a tinkle sting at the end (like Fibber McGee's closet) - so you need to be able to hear the opening & closing at some point, not just the looped "car idling" sound in the middle.
In rehearsal there was more than enough "car idle" for them to play with, but during the actual performance (when the the car was heard starting up) the audience started roaring with laughter in anticipation. The actors didn't expect this, but being the hams they are, they started ad libbing - AND THEN waited for the laughter to subside before going on to the next line.
This is not uncommon (read as "...old dog; new tricks..."), so I was hoping there could be an easier way of extending the audio without having to drag the cursor back to the beginning of the clip or preparing each-and-every clip as a loop - just in case there's a flub, ad lib or whatever.

ThanX!

Bob

[jkowtko]

I guess the simple "feature" that could be added here is on the individual track play buttons, allow the "release loop" button to be toggled on as well as off. Currently if looping is enabled for the cue, the "release loop" button is set on, but once you click on it, the track is released from the loop and the button becomes inactive and inoperable. If the button remained operable then the user could click it again to reactivate the loop, and assuming the playpoint hasn't passed loop end, the loop could be executed. Would that do it?

Otherwise, just starting the track in the loop and using a loop release cue seems pretty much the easiest way to deal with it. Sure, it's as second manual cue, but it you're using the track play buttons as mentioned above, you're effectively operating extra manual cues anyway ...

[BobCar]

Good idea!
Seems simpler to do that, than the re-design I mentioned - especially since this would be an out-of-the-ordinary feature for 99% of the users.

Bob

[paul3263]

I am not real fond of Loop-Release it tends to loop a extra time. My suggestion is have Q1 start, Loop the Idle. Q2 SFR STOP NO FADE, with a subcue that starts the sound effect again but at the end. This way you get all the idle you want and skid crash, sting on command.

[jkowtko]

I did something similar to Paul3263's last suggestion in a production last fall --

* created a drum vamp of "infinite" length (actually just made it 3 min long, much longer than we would ever need) with a .25 sec fade out time.

* created a followon cue which picks up the drum vamp and leads into the song. This cue also has a sub-cue to issue a stop-fade on the vamp.

I've found that very short cross-fades are fairly invisible to the human ear, but hard stops can be heard as a bit of a "jerk" in the track.

I also didn't use a loop on the vamp ... can't remember if I had an issue with the looping or just wanted to be able to use the dual CD player as a backup to the PC (this was before I got the backup PC).

-- John

[Mike Daniell]

I am not real fond of Loop-Release it tends to loop a extra time.

This is fixed in SCS 10 - coming soon.