Our company (3 stages plus tours) has used both PC and
Mac software. So here is my run-down for you...
SFX for PC is great. Yes, as mentioned before, not free. But definitely a good program that plays many cues out of multiple outputs. Our systems were all 12
channel sound cards and we were also able to use the show control features to run lighting or video trigger cues during complex sequences or shows (like "It's A Wonderful Life").
2 years ago, we produced a production that was massively video-heavy. Up to this
point, we had been burning DVDs and letting SFX trigger the DVD player (Tascam with auto-pause) to
play back the video files. But all fading in and out and any effects had to be within the DVD already. There was no way to instantly edit this information from SFX or on the DVD. So, we did a lot of research and determined that the easiest way to accomplish what we wanted was to go with the
Mac based program
Qlab. It not only does all the things that SFX did (wav,
mp3, m4a,
etc playback) but would also take video files (avi,
mov,
etc etc etc) and allow us to
play them back,
fade them in and out, change the
fade times, manipulate the video itself (change its size, location on the screens, add effects like rotation
etc) all within the program without reburning discs every time a change was needed.
We have, since that show, outfitted all our theatres with Macs to do all of our playback (audio and video) as well as show control on larger shows.
The other major bonus for you going with one of these two programs instead of combining them together using an audio editing program is that you can manipulate the audio files separately during the show as well. For instance, we have wind, rain, thunder
etc as separate files that then allow us to
play each one when we need it,
fade them in and out as needed and loop as needed without having extra effects on top that we cannot alter once created as a full layered
effect.
Hope this helps.
..::Stage Research::.. (for SFX)
Figure 53 | Creators of QLab, QCart, Streamers, Lockstep, and Tixato (for
Qlab)
Cheers,
Darren