Sound f/x Sfx Playback Software
- Thread starterJLang76
- Start date
There is a version of Cue Player available for free. If you look around in this forum, there is a whole 'sticky' thread on popular sound player programs. As with most things, you will find you get more features as you move up in cost, so don't expect too much for free.
Last edited:
Jay Ashworth
Well-Known Member
I used Cue Player for a show, and it wasn't bad. I recently used ShowCueSystem for another play, and there are a bunch of things I didn't much like about the UI, but it worked ok.
I generally stick with Qlab, but I have a Macbook and a Mini.
Or, if you have an Android tablet, there are Custom Soundboard and a few others.
I generally stick with Qlab, but I have a Macbook and a Mini.
Or, if you have an Android tablet, there are Custom Soundboard and a few others.
JJBerman
Active Member
I prefer Qlab myself.
But if I'm stuck with a Windows PC I will use Multiplay,
http://www.da-share.com/software/multiplay/
or SFX
http://www.stageresearch.com/page/infosfx6-7
But if I'm stuck with a Windows PC I will use Multiplay,
http://www.da-share.com/software/multiplay/
or SFX
http://www.stageresearch.com/page/infosfx6-7
If you're doing strictly sequential playback of music tracks, you may want to try Foobar. Very lightweight application. May or may not solve your problem though. Once WMP initializes, if the tracks in a playlist load slowly that may have more to do with your PC (hard drive speed, available RAM, gak running in the background, etc.) than it does your playback software.
For actual sound effects cueing, routing, sequencing, and triggering, you could take a look at MultiPlay as linked above. I've only used it for one show and seem to recall it was a little user-hostile, but that was 5 years ago and I've blown out of the back of my head whatever memory of what I encountered for that show.
What a program like Qlab (for Mac, and not for free) does is it'll load upcoming content into RAM so the moment you hit GO, it's accessing memory instead of spinning up a hard disk. I'm not sure that MultiPlay does this, but if you have large files you're trying to play back, that is kind of feature you'll want. For this reason, if your PC hardware is the bottleneck, you may have better luck playing MP3's than WAV files because of the file size. If it's a slow hard drive or if it's the same hard drive your operating system is installed on, you may also have better luck playing back off of a USB flash drive (preferably USB 3.0).
For actual sound effects cueing, routing, sequencing, and triggering, you could take a look at MultiPlay as linked above. I've only used it for one show and seem to recall it was a little user-hostile, but that was 5 years ago and I've blown out of the back of my head whatever memory of what I encountered for that show.
What a program like Qlab (for Mac, and not for free) does is it'll load upcoming content into RAM so the moment you hit GO, it's accessing memory instead of spinning up a hard disk. I'm not sure that MultiPlay does this, but if you have large files you're trying to play back, that is kind of feature you'll want. For this reason, if your PC hardware is the bottleneck, you may have better luck playing MP3's than WAV files because of the file size. If it's a slow hard drive or if it's the same hard drive your operating system is installed on, you may also have better luck playing back off of a USB flash drive (preferably USB 3.0).
We use show cue systems here at the high school. There is a 30 day free trial you can use to try it out. If your just doing sound the license is pretty cheap, but I use it for projections as well with some mixed results.
