Buffer load delay when GoTo loops back - help appreceiated

[javeaefx]

I am required to have a sound spin / cycle around the theatre using speakers in the 4 corners of the room for about 15 secs. A A4 channel USB card gives outputs to two stereo amplifiers. I have 4 autostart cues which play the same sound file one after another. Panned L,R,L,R then a GoTo loop back to the first Cue. It works in isolation, and yes you can only stop it with STOP, but no matter. When incorporated in a production file where it is Q18a,b,c&d it is not so good as there is a ~1sec delay as the first que file loads again. The problem is, that having played each cue, it is marked as completed, and then the buffers have to be reloaded in the instant that the the GoTo arrives back at the first cue.

I have set the yes preload file option and have max 4 files permitted to fully preload. The file is 1.5 secs long .wav

Is it a daft implementation that could be done better in some other manner?

Hi accepting that I am using 10.9.5 but would it be different if I buy the latest?

javeafx

[Mike Daniell]

The delay is probably due to the time taken to load the file into memory, which SCS will do each time though the loop as the memory will be freed after Q18d has completed. Try this: add to the end of your cue list a hotkey cue that also plays this file, and also preloaded into memory. This hot key cue is really a dummy cue - it is not intended to be used during your production. As this is a hotkey cue and as you have set 'preload whole file', SCS will load the file into memory at the start of your run and leave it there for the whole run. As Q18a/b/c/d use the same file as this hotkey cue, and also preloaded into memory, SCS will just use the one memory area and will not free that memory when Q18d has completed. So Q18a should then start again much quicker.

I haven't tested this scenario, but I think it should minimize the delay on going back to Q18a.

Let me know how you get on. If the above doesn't help, then the delay may be due to SCS closing and re-opening cues further down the cue list.

[Mike Daniell]

Thanks for the files you emailed me. As mentioned in my email reply, this does appear to be an issue in SCS 10.9.5 but there is no delay at all when running the cues with the latest version of SCS 11. I recorded tests with Camtasia and the audio track below clearly shows the difference between SCS 10.9.5 and SCS 11.2.5:

RichardKing.jpg (20.63 KiB) Viewed 1554 times

The AVI file on the left is as played by SCS 10.9.5, and the AVI file on the right is as played by SCS 11.2.5. (Although 11.2.5 has not yet been released, I get the same results using 11.2.4.) With 10.9.5 there is a significant delay at the end of the loop of playing the 4th instance of the cue. With SCS 11.2.5 there is actually a slightly shorter delay at the end of the loop, and that's because your 2nd, 3rd and 4th cues are all set to start 200ms after the end of the previous cue, whereas your 'Go To' cue after the 4th cue is set to start immediately after the end of the previous cue.

In summary, yes, this does seem to be an issue with SCS 10.9.5 but there is no delay when using SCS 11.2.5.