Hotkey to random fire audio from two different "groups"

[Smellyglove]

Hi. I don't have much time to program this show, so I'm tossing this out here. I will also read the documentation to see if I can find what I'm looking for, but If I get an answer here which points me in the right direction from the get go, that would be golden

I need to create two "groups" of cues. I'll be using my streamdeck so I'd want to assign one button to "Fire random audio from group 1" and another to fire "random audio from group 2". Also I'll be assigning a "fade all" button. I'm wondering what's the easiest way to accomplish the "fire random from group 1/2". Is it possible to have it not fire the same track twice in a row, even though I'd want it to be "random"?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Smellyglove]

I just can't find a function where a playlist is starting a random audio file within that playlist. That's my problem.

[Nino]

You can set your playlist cues to random and repeat and 'pause and hibernate' after cue file loaded. This sets the playlist cue(s) up to be activated.

Then using a hotkey to resume the playlist at next track.

Your fade all hotkey should 'pause and hibernate' (or 'fade and hibernate') the playlist cue leaving it ready to be activated again.

The downside is that if you do not fade the playlist cue during the current playing track it will move on to the next track automatically - perhaps adding a silence to the end of each playlist item would solve this. (The 'wait' function does this but the cue will not fade while it is in the countdown period of wait)

I can supply a sample cue file if this would help.

[Smellyglove]

What I've done so far is creating a playlist, where the first song is always started when I trigger that playlist, which I don't want. My fade is "fade and hibernate", and my resume is to start that song which was last playing from hibernation.

I did not understand what you said. Can you upload a sample here?

Why can't there be a "start with random track within the playlist when triggered" checkbox? I bet there's something which is over my head, but to me this would seem to be an easy solution, with my knowledge I must add.

Let's say you're doing a theatre. "Door opening", is it that much hassle to be able to trigger three different "door opening" sounds at random when you want to? Guy opens door, press hotkey, door opens again, press hotkey, and yet another time, press hotkey. It would be boring to hear the same sound repeat every time the door opens. So a playlist where the different sounds of the "door opening" could be randomly fired upon playlist trigger?

[Nino]

I attach a sample cue file.

The random-ness of the playlist cue is set when the cue file loads. Each time you open the cue file it will re-order the playlist.

Q1 - Loads and auto starts playlist 1
Q4 - Loads and auto starts playlist 2
Q6 - Pauses and hibernates both playlists
Q2 - Hotkey 8 - fade out and hibernate both playlists (Fade all hotkey)
Q3 - Hotkey 1 - play Random 1 - Resume playlist 1 at start of next track (and pauses and hibernates playlist 2)
Q5 - Hotkey 3 - play Random 2 - Resume playlist 2 at start of next track (and pauses and hibernates playlist 1)

In your suggested senario of a door creaking then you might have 3 different creaks as a playlist all with silence added to the end (say 5 seconds) of each track. Then you could use a hot key to trigger resume at next track followed by a hibernate of the same cue after, say, 4 seconds to automatically stop the cue.

[Nino]

Hi,
Little more playing around and I've attached a little archive that can play a random creak (from 3 different ones) as a standard cue or as a Hotkey cue. Hope this helps!

[Smellyglove]

Thanks!

But, it seems like every time i press 1 (the hotkey) it plays them in the same order..

It's not random..

And why can't I chance the audio files within the playlist? I have yet so much to learn in this software..

[Nino]

The order is only randomised when the playlist is loaded. You would need more cues to choose from to make it appear more random.

When you go into the editor, the playlist is hibernated and therefore cannot be edited. You need to press the stop button at the bottom before youcan change the cue.

[Smellyglove]

Sorry for the retarded questions. I tried to add my files into the show-file, since you said I needed more files to randomize it, but now it will not play anything.

[Smellyglove]

Okey, suddenly it started playing, but only for about 2 seconds of each song, before going into hibernation. But it's not randomized. It's playing in the order the playlist is set up.

[Nino]

If you look at sub cue 3 of q3, it is set to automatically pause and hibernate the playing cue after 3 seconds to avoid the next cue in the playlist automatically starting following the current one.

Also if you look at Q1, I think 'Save Playback Position' may be checked which keeps the order as set up. If you make sure this is cleared and Random and Repeat are checked, then save and close the file. When you re-open it the order should have changed...

[Smellyglove]

Thanks for all your help. I figured out another way around this. I just used a random action button in streamdeck, which contains several different hotkey-actions, each one mapped to a key which is set as hotkey for the individual audio tracks in SCS.

[Smellyglove]

But TBH. If Nino's solution to this is the way to go, it seems extremely non-hassle-free. I set it up in about two minutes using a streamdeck, which is an external controller. Couldn't this be done with a checkbox in the playlist saying "when triggered, start random cue within the playlist"?