Playing two sound cues simultaneously?

[38octillionlumens]

I use Pd (a.k.a. Pure Data) for sound and lighting cues, as well as almost any other aspect of show control. It's free, open, extremely flexible, and compatible with pretty much any platform.

However, you do open a bit of a can of worms by using it, because you sort of have to custom-build your interface from the ground up. It's like a graphical programming language, and it was originally created for computer music. But, if you're into that sort of thing (as I am) I highly recommend it.

 

[JohnHartman]

Another way to do it in Multiplay is to change "Cue Advance" to Action Start Play Target Next Cue (or specify the second cue track you want playing) I think that is a bit easier than building a control cue stack. sounds similar to how QLab handles it.

I have to say that seems a little complicated.

In QLab you would drop the first cue from the finder window or desktop into the cue list, do the same for the second and drop it below the first. Select Auto continue on the first cue. That's it. Load the cue and hit spacebar.

 

[wturner]

The blackbox space I work in frequently uses Show Cue System for both the triggering of sound cues....

I have to second the vote on SCS myself. Terrific program! While not free, the more basic versions are quite reasonable, and I've found it to be crazy flexible and extremely reliable. And you actually have a couple of choices for making two cues run together, which can be as simple as setting the second one to "autostart 0 seconds after the beginning" of the first one. Or there's a way called "sub-cues" where you can set the second one to have a "delay" of 0 seconds. Or if you need them to match with sample-accurate playback, there's a way--if they're exactly the same length--to "link" them and they are guaranteed to stay perfectly in sync. (I've used this by putting the music on the left track and the vocals on the right so we could practicing for a church play without the choir being present. When we got to final rehearsals and show time...I just disabled the vocals cues, and used the live choir.) I've had as many as four files playing together at times, with various combinations of cross-fades, loops, etc. If you have a light board, "splurge" (it's really not all that much) and get the Professional level where you can either control SCS from the light board (via MIDI), or use SCS to send MIDI commands out to control the light board. (I did our lighting on a second PC running MagicQ software with a USB/DMX dongle, and drove it's cue list via MIDI from SCS. Everything was always in sync...and all with only one operator!)

 

[Dreadpoet]

This is a good time to use dual CD player to simplify things. I have playback software....never used it because it put too much work on the designer and not enough emphasis on the op.

 

[danTt]

You say that, but then you get into a situation where your sequence is:

Set Mixer volume for MD1,MD2,CD1,CD2.
Go MiniDisc 1.
Go MiniDisc 2.
Fade out MD1.
Go CD1, Pause MD1, Advance to Next track. Reset Level for MD1
Go CD2, Pause MD2, Fade up Level on CD1.
ETC, ETC, ETC.

And then put in an operator who is running the playback for the first time. And a Director who refuses to stop for tech issues. See where QLab comes in handy?

 

[persovik]

I use CombiWave for the simple stuff, and it will play two files at once using hotkeys.

 

[ngricky]

Re: Guild to using Multiplay

I highly recommend multiplay. I've been using it a long time, and it works great. There's a lot you can do with the cues in there, including control cues that can stop or fade others, playing multiple at once, and it's totally free.
If you program your cue list right, you can just hit "go" for every cue, just like doing lights. That's convenient if you're handling sound cues while mixing the show at the same time.

Hi,
Since you have experience in Multiplay software, I need your advice on this software as I am trying out with sound to light cue in exact timing.
I am doing a show where I need to sync a gunshot effect to a light cue at the same time. I downloaded Multiplay but not sure how to get it done. My lighting console is ETC Element. My purpose is to trigger the light cue when I just press the play on the audio cue.
Can you tell me step by step how you setup everything from the beginning. I also not sure how the audio and MIDI patching is done.
What interface cable do I need to use for this to happen?
Really hope you can help with all my answers. Thank you

 

[NZM]

Re: Guild to using Multiplay

This may not help the OP, but may be of assistance/interest to some researching the topic. The shows I work (musical theatre in this case) do not use many pre-recorded sound effects, so I don't have any specific tools/applications for the tasks. For a recent product of Les Miserables, I needed two effects, sometimes to be played concurrently. One was for the battle scenes so needed to be a raging gun battle that lasted up to a minute or so and could be recalled quickly for playback at three points in the show, the other was a single rifle shot that needed to be carefully timed, played about 5 times in total and sometimes over the top of the battle effect.

So I edited the battle track and made it able to loop continuously so at any time I could add it to the mix and played from an iPad (yeah, well it was handy at the time). Using a Yamaha LS9 for the mix, I recorded the single rifle shot onto a USB stick and configured a User Defined Key to the single track playback. That way I had a rifle shot any time I needed by hitting the UDK. With the playback level set appropriately, the single gunshot came in over the raging battle very well, giving me the control to time the shot from the performers visual cues and they were then able to recoil or die in a timely manner. Having the effect playback from a UDK on the LS9 is very handy as I often have my hands full with 26 radio mics and an orchestra so fader realestate becomes an issue even with careful planning of the custom fader page.

I have used the media playback from USB on the LS9 quite a bit for single effects. But of course it can only play one track at a time, so this solution is obviously specific to the need I described and not a substitute for the recommendations earlier in the thread.

 

[TimmyP1955]

Re: Guild to using Multiplay

I've used a UDK, CDs, and Multiplay. I prefer Multiplay. Just do it.

 

[DarthFader]

I will start with the disclaimer that it's my program, but please don't ignore Cue Player Premium for your needs.

I'll start with the disclaimer that its not my program but it can do what you want in its sleep. Recently did a show that combined four different machine sound files added one at a time as actors "started" them on stage while simultaneously playing a music accompaniment for the live singing. At the end of the music all four FX were killed and one final FX played. Took about 5 min to build the whole thing.