Welcome to QLab 3

[Christopher Ashworth]

Hi everyone,

We're so thrilled to say: Welcome to QLab 3. 

http://figure53.com

I wrote up some detailed release notes for you below.  We hope you like it. 

Best,

Chris and the whole team.

____________________________________________________

64-bit & Retina-ready

QLab can now use all your RAM.  If you're lucky enough to have a fancy new retina display, QLab will take full advantage of it.

Audio

Audio Units — You can now perform audio effects processing on all your cues. EQ, pitch shift, delay, etc.  Apply it per cue or set effects globally on all cue outputs or device outputs. You can even use fade cues to dynamically change audio effect parameters.

Live audio inputs — The new Mic Cue offers up to 24 channels of live audio inputs. All the routing, fading, and audio effects available on Audio Cues come along for the ride. (Please note: for clocking reasons, live audio inputs require using a device that is both the source and the destination of the audio. This can be a physical device with both inputs and outputs, or an aggregate device you create from different physical devices.)

Unlimited slices per file — Every file can now be chopped up into an unlimited number of slices, and each slice gets its own loop count. 

Up to 24 channels per file — Increased from 16 channels, by popular request.

Text-based level matrix — Setting precise volume levels is now easy at any input, output, or crosspoint.  Navigate from cell to cell with the arrow keys, and don't worry, you can still set volumes by clicking and dragging.

Sync just works — Start, stop, pause, and devamping are all sample-accurate synchronized. Unlike QLab 2, no frames are ever shaved.

Video

Surfaces, not screens — The new video engine in QLab is based around the concept of a video surface. This is a powerful concept. Video surfaces let you focus on your design instead of your hardware.

The first thing you'll do when you start working on video is set up the surfaces you'll use for the design. (By default you get one surface per attached screen, so you can use those right away if you don't need anything more.) Each surface is composed of one or more screens. You set up surfaces in your workspace settings.  Surfaces bring tremendous power, including:

Built-in edge blending — QLab will now automatically calculate edge blending for each overlapping projector in your surface.

Surface shutters — Pull in the sides of your surface to define a smaller addressable area, such as a window or a piece of a wall.

Keystone correction and corner-pinning — You can use corner-pinning to map each projector in your surface.

Support for multi-output video devices — Using surfaces, you can now address individual outputs on e.g. a Matrox DoubleHead or TripleHead device.

Unlimited slices per file — Just as with Audio Cues, you can now slice Video Cues into unlimited sliced sections.

Seamless video looping — No more stutter at video loop points. 

Adjustable playback rate — Adjust your video to run faster or slower.

Global masking — You can add a mask to any surface, and all cues sent to that surface will be appropriately masked. In the mask image, use white where you want video to show, and black where you want to mask it.  PRO TIP: QLab will watch your mask image file for changes, so you can edit it live in an external image editor and every time you save the file the mask will be automatically updated in QLab.

An extensive set of built-in video effects — Have fun.

Interface to manipulate published inputs in your custom quartz composer files — If you're a Quartz Composer expert, you can create your own effects, and QLab will allow you to manipulate the inputs you publish.

Syphon integration — both input and output.

Control

OSC Cue — Send any OSC message over the network.  Control other QLab machines this way.  (No more MIDI-over-ethernet!)

OSC remote control — QLab now has an extensive OSC-based API for controlling it over an IP network. 

If you're the nerdy type, check out this open-source command line interface to control a QLab machine over the network:

https://github.com/Figure53/qcmd

New logic gates on MIDI triggers — You can now use "greater than" and "less than" operators to specify when cues should trigger from incoming MIDI signals.  For example: "trigger this cue when any NOTE ON message is received with a velocity >10"

Workflow

Panic action — The new panic action on all cues allows you to more gracefully terminate an unwanted cue.  Press panic twice to hard stop the cue(s).

Text search — You can now easily do a full text search on your cue list.  QLab will search the cue numbers, names, filenames, and notes for your search query, and highlight all matching cues.

Audition cues locally with the audition window — Find it under "Window" -> "Audition". When the audition window is open, all newly triggered cues will play to the audition window. All newly triggered audio cues will play to the patch specified in the audition window.

Broken cues & warnings view — All broken cues are now listed here, to make it more obvious how to review and fix any problems in the workspace.  Each cue selected in this view will also be selected in the full cue list, making it easy to march through the list of each cue that needs attention, fixing as you go.

Flag your cues — Flagging a cue makes it easy to come back later for any necessary adjustments. Flagged cues also appear in the "Broken Cues & Warnings" view. The QLab Remote iPad app makes it easy to flag cues out in the house.

Edit Mode and Show Mode — QLab 3 now has two distinct modes: "Edit" and "Show".  Switching to show mode: locks the workspace so it cannot be changed, and removes extra UI.

Integrated support — Under the Help menu you'll find a new "Contact Support" feature.  This makes it easy to reach us, and to provide all the diagnostic information we might need to help.

Moving from version 2

QLab 3 can read QLab 2 workspace files. As with any automated conversion, a human should review the results and tweak as necessary.

No more auto-loading.  Loading is a fast operation in QLab 3, and in most circumstances (and because cues are synchronized) you won't need to worry about pre-loading your cues.  Of course, you can always use a Load Cue or the keyboard hotkey for those cases where it matters.  This also makes QLab 3 able to handle long auto-continued sequences that would lead to crashes in QLab 2.

No more pesky MP3 bug. Long MP3 files will now play in their entirety.

Goodbye "guaranteed sync". Sync just works.

If a video file has audio, unlike in QLab 2 video is now guaranteed to be synced to the audio.

[El Armstrong]

THANK YOU!

Christopher Ashworth wrote:

Hi everyone,

We're so thrilled to say: Welcome to QLab 3.�

http://figure53.com

I wrote up some detailed release notes for you below. �We hope you like it.�

Best,

Chris and�the whole team.

____________________________________________________

64-bit & Retina-ready

QLab can now use all your RAM. �If you're lucky enough to have a fancy new retina display, QLab will take full advantage of it.

Audio

Audio Units���You can now perform audio effects processing on all your cues. EQ, pitch shift, delay, etc. �Apply it per cue or set effects globally on all cue outputs or device outputs. You can even use fade cues to�dynamically�change audio effect parameters.

Live audio inputs���The new Mic Cue offers up to 24 channels of live audio inputs. All the routing, fading, and audio effects available on Audio Cues come along for the ride. (Please note: for clocking reasons, live audio inputs require using a device that is both the source and the destination of the audio. This can be a physical device with both inputs and outputs, or an aggregate device you create from different physical devices.)

Unlimited slices per file�� Every file can now be chopped up into an unlimited number of slices, and each slice gets its own loop count.�

Up to 24 channels per file���Increased from 16 channels, by popular request.

Text-based level matrix���Setting precise volume levels is now easy at any input, output, or crosspoint. �Navigate from cell to cell with the arrow keys, and don't worry, you can still set volumes by clicking and dragging.

Sync just works���Start, stop, pause, and devamping are all sample-accurate synchronized. Unlike QLab 2, no frames are ever shaved.

Video

Surfaces, not screens�� The new video�engine�in QLab is based around the concept of a�video surface. This is a powerful concept.�Video surfaces let you focus on your�design�instead of your�hardware.

The first thing you'll do when you start�working�on video is set up the surfaces you'll use for the design. (By default you get one surface per attached screen, so you can use those right away if you don't need anything more.)�Each surface is composed of one or more screens. You set up surfaces in your workspace settings. �Surfaces bring tremendous power, including:

Built-in edge blending�� QLab will now automatically calculate edge blending for each overlapping projector in your�surface.

Surface shutters���Pull in the sides of your surface to define a smaller addressable area, such as a window or a piece of a wall.

Keystone correction and corner-pinning�� You can use corner-pinning to map each projector in your surface.

Support for multi-output video devices���Using surfaces, you can now address individual outputs on e.g. a Matrox DoubleHead or TripleHead device.

Unlimited slices per file���Just as with Audio Cues, you can now slice Video Cues into unlimited sliced sections.

Seamless video looping�� No more stutter at video loop points.�

Adjustable playback rate�� Adjust your video to�run faster or slower.

Global masking�� You can add a mask to any surface, and all cues sent to that�surface�will be appropriately masked. In the mask image, use white where you want video to show, and black where you want to mask it. �PRO TIP: QLab will watch your mask image file for changes, so you can edit it live in an external image editor and every time you save the file the mask�will be�automatically�updated in QLab.

An extensive set of built-in video effects�� Have fun.

Interface to manipulate published inputs in your custom quartz composer files�� If you're a Quartz Composer expert, you can create your own effects, and QLab will allow you to manipulate the inputs you publish.

Syphon integration � both input and output.

Control

OSC Cue���Send any OSC message over the network. �Control other QLab machines this way. �(No more MIDI-over-ethernet!)

OSC remote control���QLab now has an extensive OSC-based API for controlling it over an IP network.�

If you're the nerdy type, check out this open-source command line interface to control a QLab machine over the network:

https://github.com/Figure53/qcmd

New logic gates on MIDI triggers�� You can now use "greater than" and "less than" operators to specify when cues should trigger from incoming MIDI signals. �For example: "trigger this cue when any NOTE ON message is received with a velocity >10"

Workflow

Panic action���The new panic action on all cues allows you to more gracefully terminate an unwanted cue. �Press panic twice to hard stop the cue(s).

Text search���You can now easily do a full text search on your cue list. �QLab will search the cue numbers, names, filenames, and notes for your search query, and highlight all matching cues.

Audition cues locally with the audition window���Find it under "Window" -> "Audition".�When the audition window is open, all newly triggered cues will play to the audition window. All newly triggered audio cues will play to the patch specified in the audition window.

Broken cues & warnings view���All broken cues are now listed here, to�make�it more obvious how to review and fix any problems in the workspace. �Each cue selected in this view will also be selected in the full cue list, making it easy to march�through�the list of each cue that needs attention, fixing as you go.

Flag your cues���Flagging a cue makes it easy to come back later for any necessary adjustments. Flagged cues also appear in the "Broken Cues & Warnings" view. The QLab Remote iPad app makes it easy to flag cues out in the house.

Edit Mode and Show Mode���QLab 3 now has two distinct modes: "Edit" and "Show". �Switching to show mode: locks the workspace so it cannot be changed, and removes extra UI.

Integrated support���Under the�Help menu you'll find a new "Contact Support" feature. �This makes it easy to reach us, and to provide all the diagnostic information we might need to help.

Moving from version 2

QLab 3 can read QLab 2 workspace files. As with any automated conversion, a human should review the results and tweak as necessary.

No more auto-loading. �Loading is a fast operation in QLab 3, and in most circumstances (and because cues are synchronized) you won't need to�worry�about pre-loading your cues. �Of course, you can always use a Load Cue or the keyboard hotkey for those cases�where�it matters. �This also makes QLab 3 able to�handle long auto-continued sequences that would lead to crashes in QLab 2.

No more pesky MP3 bug. Long MP3 files will now play in their entirety.

Goodbye "guaranteed sync". Sync just works.

If a video file has audio, unlike in QLab 2 video is now�guaranteed�to be synced to the audio.

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[Andy Dolph]

WOW!!!!

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[Chris Bakos]

Amazing work! I don't see minimum system requirements.

[Dave Wallingford]

Woohoo! I really love a lot of the new features! Effects! New look! Flags! Search! Integrated pitch! Piles of awesome new video features! SLICES!! OSC!!! OMG!!!!

Just a couple quick questions:

I see no mention of an upgrade path for QLab 2 owners - safe to assume that there isn't one?

What types of devices work for camera cues? 

Does hardware like MOTU's V4HD work for video output, or no changes there?

And one odd buggish behavior: I copied and pasted an audio cue with an edited start time and a few slices. The pasted version ignores the start time, ignores the looped slices, and the time counter stays at 00:00.00 while it's playing. Then if I adjust the start time or a slice, then it begins acting as it should. 

Thanks Figure 53!!!!! I do like it, I really do! 

- Dave Wallingford

[Christopher Ashworth]

10.8

[Patrik Wipp]

All thumbs up!
Downloading right now.
and BOOM the Ipad remote, me like!

Ha det bra!
Patrik Wipp

[Christopher Ashworth]

On May 8, 2013, at 3:09 PM, Dave Wallingford <wall...@mac.com> wrote:

> Woohoo! I really love a lot of the new features! Effects! New look! Flags! Search! Integrated pitch! Piles of awesome new video features! SLICES!! OSC!!! OMG!!!!
>
> Just a couple quick questions:
>
> I see no mention of an upgrade path for QLab 2 owners - safe to assume that there isn't one?

Sorry, we didn't make that super clear in the initial launch. Yes, there is an upgrade path. You can upload v2 licenses during checkout to get a discount.

More details here:

https://store.figure53.com/upgrade

> What types of devices work for camera cues?

Anything that worked with v2, plus many Blackmagic devices now work as well.

> Does hardware like MOTU's V4HD work for video output, or no changes there?

Only things visible as screens.

> And one odd buggish behavior: I copied and pasted an audio cue with an edited start time and a few slices. The pasted version ignores the start time, ignores the looped slices, and the time counter stays at 00:00.00 while it's playing. Then if I adjust the start time or a slice, then it begins acting as it should.
>

Thanks!

> Thanks Figure 53!!!!! I do like it, I really do!

Thanks!

-C

[El Armstrong]

Ok,� after looking over a few things (and finding the upgrade info on the purchase page), I have a few questions.

The biggest one for me - if we upgrade, will we still be able to use our v2 to design on as well?� I have a couple of theaters that I know won't upgrade (because they don't need the extra features right now, and would have to upgrade hardware as well), and some that will want to upgrade right away.� Can I work in both worlds with my license?

Also, I see that v3 requires 10.8+.� Can we assume that any computer configuration that is qualified for OSX 10.8 will work with QLab 3?


Christopher Ashworth wrote:

Hi everyone,

We're so thrilled to say: Welcome to QLab 3.�

http://figure53.com

I wrote up some detailed release notes for you below. �We hope you like it.�

Best,

Chris and�the whole team.

____________________________________________________

64-bit & Retina-ready

QLab can now use all your RAM. �If you're lucky enough to have a fancy new retina display, QLab will take full advantage of it.

Audio

Audio Units���You can now perform audio effects processing on all your cues. EQ, pitch shift, delay, etc. �Apply it per cue or set effects globally on all cue outputs or device outputs. You can even use fade cues to�dynamically�change audio effect parameters.

Live audio inputs���The new Mic Cue offers up to 24 channels of live audio inputs. All the routing, fading, and audio effects available on Audio Cues come along for the ride. (Please note: for clocking reasons, live audio inputs require using a device that is both the source and the destination of the audio. This can be a physical device with both inputs and outputs, or an aggregate device you create from different physical devices.)

Unlimited slices per file�� Every file can now be chopped up into an unlimited number of slices, and each slice gets its own loop count.�

Up to 24 channels per file���Increased from 16 channels, by popular request.

Text-based level matrix���Setting precise volume levels is now easy at any input, output, or crosspoint. �Navigate from cell to cell with the arrow keys, and don't worry, you can still set volumes by clicking and dragging.

Sync just works���Start, stop, pause, and devamping are all sample-accurate synchronized. Unlike QLab 2, no frames are ever shaved.

Video

Surfaces, not screens�� The new video�engine�in QLab is based around the concept of a�video surface. This is a powerful concept.�Video surfaces let you focus on your�design�instead of your�hardware.

The first thing you'll do when you start�working�on video is set up the surfaces you'll use for the design. (By default you get one surface per attached screen, so you can use those right away if you don't need anything more.)�Each surface is composed of one or more screens. You set up surfaces in your workspace settings. �Surfaces bring tremendous power, including:

Built-in edge blending�� QLab will now automatically calculate edge blending for each overlapping projector in your�surface.

Surface shutters���Pull in the sides of your surface to define a smaller addressable area, such as a window or a piece of a wall.

Keystone correction and corner-pinning�� You can use corner-pinning to map each projector in your surface.

Support for multi-output video devices���Using surfaces, you can now address individual outputs on e.g. a Matrox DoubleHead or TripleHead device.

Unlimited slices per file���Just as with Audio Cues, you can now slice Video Cues into unlimited sliced sections.

Seamless video looping�� No more stutter at video loop points.�

Adjustable playback rate�� Adjust your video to�run faster or slower.

Global masking�� You can add a mask to any surface, and all cues sent to that�surface�will be appropriately masked. In the mask image, use white where you want video to show, and black where you want to mask it. �PRO TIP: QLab will watch your mask image file for changes, so you can edit it live in an external image editor and every time you save the file the mask�will be�automatically�updated in QLab.

An extensive set of built-in video effects�� Have fun.

Interface to manipulate published inputs in your custom quartz composer files�� If you're a Quartz Composer expert, you can create your own effects, and QLab will allow you to manipulate the inputs you publish.

Syphon integration � both input and output.

Control

OSC Cue���Send any OSC message over the network. �Control other QLab machines this way. �(No more MIDI-over-ethernet!)

OSC remote control���QLab now has an extensive OSC-based API for controlling it over an IP network.�

If you're the nerdy type, check out this open-source command line interface to control a QLab machine over the network:

https://github.com/Figure53/qcmd

New logic gates on MIDI triggers�� You can now use "greater than" and "less than" operators to specify when cues should trigger from incoming MIDI signals. �For example: "trigger this cue when any NOTE ON message is received with a velocity >10"

Workflow

Panic action���The new panic action on all cues allows you to more gracefully terminate an unwanted cue. �Press panic twice to hard stop the cue(s).

Text search���You can now easily do a full text search on your cue list. �QLab will search the cue numbers, names, filenames, and notes for your search query, and highlight all matching cues.

Audition cues locally with the audition window���Find it under "Window" -> "Audition".�When the audition window is open, all newly triggered cues will play to the audition window. All newly triggered audio cues will play to the patch specified in the audition window.

Broken cues & warnings view���All broken cues are now listed here, to�make�it more obvious how to review and fix any problems in the workspace. �Each cue selected in this view will also be selected in the full cue list, making it easy to march�through�the list of each cue that needs attention, fixing as you go.

Flag your cues���Flagging a cue makes it easy to come back later for any necessary adjustments. Flagged cues also appear in the "Broken Cues & Warnings" view. The QLab Remote iPad app makes it easy to flag cues out in the house.

Edit Mode and Show Mode���QLab 3 now has two distinct modes: "Edit" and "Show". �Switching to show mode: locks the workspace so it cannot be changed, and removes extra UI.

Integrated support���Under the�Help menu you'll find a new "Contact Support" feature. �This makes it easy to reach us, and to provide all the diagnostic information we might need to help.

Moving from version 2

QLab 3 can read QLab 2 workspace files. As with any automated conversion, a human should review the results and tweak as necessary.

No more auto-loading. �Loading is a fast operation in QLab 3, and in most circumstances (and because cues are synchronized) you won't need to�worry�about pre-loading your cues. �Of course, you can always use a Load Cue or the keyboard hotkey for those cases�where�it matters. �This also makes QLab 3 able to�handle long auto-continued sequences that would lead to crashes in QLab 2.

No more pesky MP3 bug. Long MP3 files will now play in their entirety.

Goodbye "guaranteed sync". Sync just works.

If a video file has audio, unlike in QLab 2 video is now�guaranteed�to be synced to the audio.

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[Christopher Ashworth]

On May 8, 2013, at 3:15 PM, El Armstrong <news...@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> The biggest one for me - if we upgrade, will we still be able to use our v2 to design on as well?

Yes. In fact, v3 Pro licenses can be installed on v2, if you update to version 2.3.9. (Updated earlier today.)

> I have a couple of theaters that I know won't upgrade (because they don't need the extra features right now, and would have to upgrade hardware as well), and some that will want to upgrade right away. Can I work in both worlds with my license?

Yes.

> Also, I see that v3 requires 10.8+. Can we assume that any computer configuration that is qualified for OSX 10.8 will work with QLab 3?

More or less. As always, it depends a LOT on what exactly you're trying to do. :-)

-C

[Lucas Krech]

This email could also have been titled "Here is a good answer to more than half of the mailing list questions from the past few months"

-L

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[Mike Skinner]

Congrats guys! And Thanks! Can't wait to try it out.

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Mike Skinner

Sound Designer/Composer/Musician

(203)668-4772

skinnerdesign.podbean.com

[Sean Dougall]

To clarify one thing:

On May 8, 2013, at 12:19 PM, Christopher Ashworth <ch...@figure53.com> wrote:

>> I have a couple of theaters that I know won't upgrade (because they don't need the extra features right now, and would have to upgrade hardware as well), and some that will want to upgrade right away. Can I work in both worlds with my license?
>
> Yes.

License-wise, yes. QLab 3 Pro licenses (but not Basic licenses) will unlock v2.3.9 as well.

Workspace-wise, QLab 3 will open v2 workspaces, but not vice-versa, so if the performance will be run in v2, you'll need to design in v2.

Cheers,
Sean

[Patrik Wipp]

it seems that the ability to change font size and color in notes has disappeared, bug or choice? 

[Christopher Ashworth]

(Please forgive brevity, swamped with email at the moment)

On May 8, 2013, at 4:37 PM, Patrik Wipp <pat...@wipp.se> wrote:

> it seems that the ability to change font size and color in notes has disappeared, bug or choice?

Choice

[Stephen Swift]

On Wed, May 8, 2013 at 10:48 AM, Christopher Ashworth
<ch...@figure53.com> wrote:
>
> OSC remote control — QLab now has an extensive OSC-based API for controlling it over an IP network.
>
> If you're the nerdy type, check out this open-source command line interface to control a QLab machine over the network:
>
> https://github.com/Figure53/qcmd

I'm really intrigued by this and the iPad app... kind of solves my
client/server feature wish. I think I'd be much more comfortable
editing the show using the iPad remote if the op were running a
sequence. No matter how hard I try not to, it always seems to disrupt
the op's flow when I take away control.

If I ever find some free time, I want to see if I can make a mac
remote app with this api.

Best,
Stephen

[Dave "luckydave" Memory]

On Wednesday, May 8, 2013 at 4:50 PM, Stephen Swift wrote:

If I ever find some free time, I want to see if I can make a mac

remote app with this api.

Not for nothing, but you already have a Mac remote. It's called "QLab 3". Use the OSC cues to control another QLab computer. OK, so it's not exactly what you mean, but it's definitely the client/server model you mentioned. And it does allow lots of control of one QLab machine from another.

-- 

luck...@figure53.com

[Christopher Ashworth]

We open-sourced the Objective-C library we wrote to do OSC in QLab 3:

https://github.com/Figure53/F53OSC

If you're writing an Objective-C app, this should help.

Cheers,
Chris

[Thomas Vecchione]

Ok one question because I haven't had a chance to play with it...  Is it possible to place and format text on screen easily (Without pre-rendering to an image) in QLab3?  You would have me nearly jumping on it for several church licenses if it was by that alone, nevermind the rest of the awesomeness!

         Thomas

[Dave "luckydave" Memory]

http://figure53.com

-- 

luck...@figure53.com

[Christopher Ashworth]

On May 8, 2013, at 5:05 PM, Thomas Vecchione <seab...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Ok one question because I haven't had a chance to play with it... Is it possible to place and format text on screen easily (Without pre-rendering to an image) in QLab3? You would have me nearly jumping on it for several church licenses if it was by that alone, nevermind the rest of the awesomeness!

Yes. :-)

Check out "Text overlay" in the video effects. You can see this in action on our landing page:

http://figure53.com

[Christopher Ashworth]

On May 8, 2013, at 5:06 PM, Christopher Ashworth <ch...@figure53.com> wrote:

>
> Check out "Text overlay" in the video effects.

Sorry, "titles"

[Thomas Vecchione]

And on that note, I know what I am going to be spending a lot of time demo'ing in the next week and a half!

         Thomas Vecchione

[Thomas Vecchione]

On Wed, May 8, 2013 at 3:11 PM, Christopher Ashworth <ch...@figure53.com> wrote:

> What types of devices work for camera cues?

Anything that worked with v2, plus many Blackmagic devices now work as well.

Can we output over SDI as well?  And what is a typical latency coming in through a camera cue and back out through QLab?

Any chance of generating alpha masks? (Yes I am reaching for the sky here:)

         Thomas Vecchione

[Winston Chow]

Congrats!  I am VERY excited about this new update.  Let me just say, I'm ready to pay the $20 for the iPad app.  Thank you for the awesome work!  I look forward to playing around with this new stuff.

[Christopher Ashworth]

On May 8, 2013, at 5:17 PM, Thomas Vecchione <seab...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Can we output over SDI as well?

Still only devices that appear as screens to OS X.

> And what is a typical latency coming in through a camera cue and back out through QLab?

Don't have data for you on this yet.

> Any chance of generating alpha masks? (Yes I am reaching for the sky here:)

Yep. You can drop mask images on to surfaces to mask all outgoing video assigned to that surface. Example of this in action can be found on the landing page:

http://figure53.com/

See the "Surfaces, not Screens" video.

You can also of course use alpha channels in individual cues, like in QLab 2.

-C

[gtwi...@yahoo.com]

So, of course I have to ask, what's the ETA in V4?

😄

Sent from my iPhone

[Christopher Ashworth]

On May 8, 2013, at 5:30 PM, gtwi...@yahoo.com wrote:

> So, of course I have to ask, what's the ETA in V4?
>
> 😄

ARRRRGGGGGGG

{drops dead}

[Christopher Ashworth]

On May 8, 2013, at 5:43 PM, GW Rodriguez <gwsou...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Did you guys get rid of Application Preferences? I liked not having to make the same configurations for every new workspace.

At the moment, yes, they're gone.

The goal is to replace them with a new template system, but didn't quite have time to add that before release.

-C

[GW Rodriguez]

Sounds perfect.  Great work guys!

GW

[Rob Larsen]

Thank you so much for your work! Thrilling news to wake up to. Congratulations.

[Mark Valenzuela]

Kudos, Fig 53! There's a lot of giddy sound geeks out there right now......

Couple quickies - has the 'zoom to the middle of a cue sequence' slider been taken away? I've come to rely on it so much during tech that I don't think I could live without it. And on a related note, I've notice too I can't zoom through an audio cue in the 'active cues' window. Are these features available in the licensed versions, or if not, will they come back? 

So excited guys. Thanks!!

MV

Mark Valenzuela

Sound Designer

(c) 502.727.7049

markval...@fastmail.fm

m.z...@gmail.com

[Sean Dougall]

> has the 'zoom to the middle of a cue sequence' slider been taken away?

It's still there, it's just not always visible by default (to save screen real estate). Tools -> Load to Time, or command-T, will bring it up.

> And on a related note, I've notice too I can't zoom through an audio cue in the 'active cues' window.

That one is gone, in favor of the normal Load to Time slider.

Sean

[raymond soly]

Thanks to the gang at figure53 for Qlab 3…..

really like the new look and the streamlined but impressive feature sets….….

some things I noticed in early testing…...

Qlab hangs when playing back timecode along with audio (wav or mp3) or trying to display waveform at same time ….

Something really buggy with the whole timecode thing,  the large timecode window gets sluggish just displaying,  it also hangs Qlab when attempting to quit it…..also why can't I select less than 1:00"00"00.timecode start??

In the time-loops ...waveform display does not scroll to next page at end of displayed waveform …..

Really missing the scroll thru cuetime  in the active cues …. the load to time still comes in handy for this..but I can't select just the one cue as in ver. 2. …please bring this back...

Adjusting a fade curve in the waveform does not take effect until the audio cue is paused/stopped and restarted…..I know this is also the case in V2 but would have hoped to have a realtime effect in V3...

Getting skipping of audio…... console reports quite a few of these : QLab[2156]: Warning: audioDeviceDidOverload: Built-in Output, always happen when spinning wheel of death rolls in, for ex...adding an audio cue while a previous one is playing…actually getting a fair amount of the spinning wheel in V3…...

Playing with the controls in the active cue list hangs the application momentarily (while audio cues are playing) …...also the lack of the individual controls in the active cue lists is much less practical than it was in previous version..for tech reh. it's a must to have stop play and pause as well as scroll to time in that window for each individual cues that are playing….

Long (wav) audio files redraw in the time-loops momentarily stop/hang all time displays .

Qlab crashes when using "add slice" and renumbering either id #s (in the add slice)……

Macbook pro 2.4Gb  4gb ram  os 10.8.3..

hope this helps..

Thanks

Ray

 

OSC remote control — QLab now has an extensive OSC-based API for controlling it over an IP network. 

If you're the nerdy type, check out this open-source command line interface to control a QLab machine over the network:

https://github.com/Figure53/qcmd

New logic gates on MIDI triggers — You can now use "greater than" and "less than" operators to specify when cues should trigger from incoming MIDI signals.  For example: "trigger this cue when any NOTE ON message is received with a velocity >10"

Workflow

Panic action — The new panic action on all cues allows you to more gracefully terminate an unwanted cue.  Press panic twice to hard stop the cue(s).

Text search — You can now easily do a full text search on your cue list.  QLab will search the cue numbers, names, filenames, and notes for your search query, and highlight all matching cues.

Audition cues locally with the audition window — Find it under "Window" -> "Audition". When the audition window is open, all newly triggered cues will play to the audition window. All newly triggered audio cues will play to the patch specified in the audition window.

Broken cues & warnings view — All broken cues are now listed here, to make it more obvious how to review and fix any problems in the workspace.  Each cue selected in this view will also be selected in the full cue list, making it easy to march through the list of each cue that needs attention, fixing as you go.

Flag your cues — Flagging a cue makes it easy to come back later for any necessary adjustments. Flagged cues also appear in the "Broken Cues & Warnings" view. The QLab Remote iPad app makes it easy to flag cues out in the house.

Edit Mode and Show Mode — QLab 3 now has two distinct modes: "Edit" and "Show".  Switching to show mode: locks the workspace so it cannot be changed, and removes extra UI.

Integrated support — Under the Help menu you'll find a new "Contact Support" feature.  This makes it easy to reach us, and to provide all the diagnostic information we might need to help.

Moving from version 2

QLab 3 can read QLab 2 workspace files. As with any automated conversion, a human should review the results and tweak as necessary.

No more auto-loading.  Loading is a fast operation in QLab 3, and in most circumstances (and because cues are synchronized) you won't need to worry about pre-loading your cues.  Of course, you can always use a Load Cue or the keyboard hotkey for those cases where it matters.  This also makes QLab 3 able to handle long auto-continued sequences that would lead to crashes in QLab 2.

No more pesky MP3 bug. Long MP3 files will now play in their entirety.

Goodbye "guaranteed sync". Sync just works.

If a video file has audio, unlike in QLab 2 video is now guaranteed to be synced to the audio.

[Lucas Krech]

Macbook pro 2.4Gb  4gb ram  os 10.8.3..

FWIW, you have access to all the RAM on your machine, so it could be a limitation on the hardware side rather than software side.

-L

[Ben Chaisson]

Hi

It looks great!
I use it Q lab for Both sound and video. My company owns a few licenses of Qlab but also of another PC based media server.
I love many of your added Video effects but 2 that seem to be missing in my mind are Keying and Blending modes!
I layer video all the time in my shows. Blending and keying are my bread and butter for most of my work. Am I not seeing them or are they called something else in the Video effects list?
Time re mapping though now makes a huge difference.
lastly what kind of inputs are available in the camera cues? if its still just firewire well firewire is nearly dead.
If on the other hand it can handle installed cards like a black magic SDI card then we are off to the races!
Ben Chaisson
Sound and Video Designer
Playground Studios

---

From: Christopher Ashworth <ch...@figure53.com>
To: "ql...@figure53.com" <ql...@figure53.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 8, 2013 1:48:26 PM
Subject: [QLab] Welcome to QLab 3

[Christopher Ashworth]

On May 8, 2013, at 8:30 PM, raymond soly <ray...@sympatico.ca> wrote:

> In the time-loops ...waveform display does not scroll to next page at end of displayed waveform …..

This is intentional, as it is otherwise easy to lose your place in the waveform when you are trying to zoom in on a specific spot to slice.

> Really missing the scroll thru cuetime in the active cues …. the load to time still comes in handy for this..but I can't select just the one cue as in ver. 2. …please bring this back…

We were never really happy with this interface, as it was relatively clumsy an inaccurate. I think there's room for improved tools here, but the old slider wasn't doing it well.

> Getting skipping of audio…... console reports quite a few of these : QLab[2156]: Warning: audioDeviceDidOverload: Built-in Output, always happen when spinning wheel of death rolls in, for ex...adding an audio cue while a previous one is playing…actually getting a fair amount of the spinning wheel in V3……

Overload means the program wasn't able to provide frames in time. Any number of system optimization issues might be at play here; depends on the state of the computer you're running, what other software might be running, etc.

> it's a must to have stop play and pause as well as scroll to time in that window for each individual cues that are playing….

Note you can still select a cue and press the pause or stop hotkeys to perform that action on the individual cue. You can also panic stop the cue with the mouse using the X button there.

> Long (wav) audio files redraw in the time-loops momentarily stop/hang all time displays .
>
> Qlab crashes when using "add slice" and renumbering either id #s (in the add slice)……
>
> Macbook pro 2.4Gb 4gb ram os 10.8.3..

What is the speed of your hard disk? That could be an issue.

-C

[Christopher Ashworth]

On May 8, 2013, at 9:04 PM, Ben Chaisson <ben_ch...@yahoo.ca> wrote:

Hi

It looks great!

Thanks!

I use it Q lab for Both sound and video. My company owns a few licenses of Qlab but also of another PC based media server.
I love many of your added Video effects but 2 that seem to be missing in my mind are Keying and Blending modes!
I layer video all the time in my shows. Blending and keying are my bread and butter for most of my work. Am I not seeing them or are they called something else in the Video effects list?

They're not currently present. We took a look at adding them but making the necessary changes to the OpenGL pipeline were non-trivial and we wanted to go ahead and ship what we have. Open to attempting to add those in the future, though. 

Time re mapping though now makes a huge difference.
lastly what kind of inputs are available in the camera cues? if its still just firewire well firewire is nearly dead.
If on the other hand it can handle installed cards like a black magic SDI card then we are off to the races!

We've added support for the Blackmagic DeckLink SDK, so whatever hardware uses that SDK is now supported. That includes Decklink, Intensity, possibly others.

Best,

Chris

[Christopher Ashworth]

On May 8, 2013, at 9:45 PM, Jason Knox <knox....@gmail.com> wrote:

> Very cool! Looks like there are a lot of great new features. The slicing / devamp feature is something I've wanted for years.

I remember!

> Finally a way to guarantee a rhythmically consistent transition between music cues. Maybe QLab 3 already does this, but if not - a cool feature would be the ability to auto detect and add slice markers based upon transients in the waveform (with a variable threshold setting). It would be a big time saver.

:-) I wondered how long it would take for someone to request that….

I can say that at the very least, QLab does now import audio markers, so if you have software that can automatically find these and mark them now, you can then import them into QLab.

Thanks Jason, great to hear from you.

-C

[Lucas Krech]

I layer video all the time in my shows. Blending and keying are my bread and butter for most of my work. Am I not seeing them or are they called something else in the Video effects list?

Remember full Syphon support. So some of this can be done in another program and piped over to QLab. Also, you could easily build a syphon client as a Quartz Composer video effect in order to make specific blending modes available to the incoming Syphon signal.. 

In theory Q1 could send to a syphon screen that is read back into Q2 which has a Syphon client video effect set to composite in a particular way taht you like. I did not test this but it is theoretically possible. Worth looking into.

HTH.

-L

[Charles Coes]

It looks awesome!

Can't wait to put it through it's paces.

A few quick questions:

Are you planning on any way to authorize AU plugins via ILok or something like that?  I can already hear the clangor for for Waves in Qlab...

Is there any way to create a stereo AU path? Something like an aux send to an AU that can produce 2 channels in the matrix.  I'm think of stereo reverbs here (or multi-channel beyond that....) 

It seems like the way to make this happen is create cue output paths dedicated to an effect, but they are mono into the matrix and can't be ganged through the same plugin.

Any chance of modifying the 'Fire random child' group so that it will only fire children that aren't already playing? 

Congratulations!

Charles Coes
cco...@gmail.com
www.charlescoes.com
"Forms and rhythms in music are never changed without producing changes in the most important political forms and ways" - Plato

[Thomas Vecchione]

On Wed, May 8, 2013 at 5:23 PM, Christopher Ashworth <ch...@figure53.com> wrote:

> Any chance of generating alpha masks? (Yes I am reaching for the sky here:)

Yep.  You can drop mask images on to surfaces to mask all outgoing video assigned to that surface.  Example of this in action can be found on the landing page:

Sorry wasn't clear, I was referring for use in downstream keys.  So it would automatically generate an alpha mask to send to a down stream keyer that would tell the keyer what parts of the image would be transparent, for overlaying images/text on top of video etc. in a downstream video mixer.

Still excited though:)

        Thomas

[Chris Ashworth]

Heh. "As soon as I can do it." :-)

(mobile)

On May 9, 2013, at 1:16 AM, Tyler <tgot...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Any ETA on when documentation will be finished?

[Christopher Ashworth]

On May 8, 2013, at 11:11 PM, Charles Coes <ccoes...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Are you planning on any way to authorize AU plugins via ILok or something like that? I can already hear the clangor for for Waves in Qlab…

No current plans, as I'm not a fan of iLok in general. That said, the world of iLok-licensed audio units is completely foreign to me, so open to the possibility that this is important.

> Is there any way to create a stereo AU path?

Currently stereo AUs can only be applied to an individual stereo cue.

Early betas used a different signal routing path that did support this, but it had other larger limitations. The new signal routing path is much more friendly, and overall more powerful because it allows you to insert plugins more places. The main detraction at this point is that we lost the ability to insert stereo effects at cue outputs.

I'll be working on adding a way to do this in a future update, for both cue outputs and device outputs.

>
> Any chance of modifying the 'Fire random child' group so that it will only fire children that aren't already playing?

I'll file a ticket for it.

Cheers,
Chris

[Andy Leviss]

On Thu, May 9, 2013 at 1:47 PM, Christopher Ashworth <ch...@figure53.com> wrote:
> On May 8, 2013, at 11:11 PM, Charles Coes <ccoes...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Are you planning on any way to authorize AU plugins via ILok or something like that? I can already hear the clangor for for Waves in Qlab…
>
> No current plans, as I'm not a fan of iLok in general. That said, the world of iLok-licensed audio units is completely foreign to me, so open to the possibility that this is important.

Some thoughts from a rental shop point of view...

I fully expect clients to want this, as most of the plugins I see
requested on shows are either iLok or Waves (remember, too, that Waves
is no longer via iLok, but via their proprietary system).

That said, for any show with the budget to afford even asking for
that, clients are going to want redundant systems. Which means
requiring two iLoks, with two licenses for every plugin. Which isn't,
of course, a problem for Figure 53 (who do, in fact, understand and
support the concept of live backups for redundancy, without requiring
separate licenses, something other playback software has never managed
to accept/accomodate). But it's something to keep in mind; if you're
going to be trying to rent these plugins, your cost is going to
skyrocket, since you're doubling on all of those licenses.

So...it's a big can of worms, only half of which is in QLab's court.

Food for thought, anyway.

-Andy (very much writing his own opinion, and not that of his day job,
for those who know his day job :-)

[Sean Dougall]

Ah, interesting. I don't think that's something we'd end up doing natively, but you could probably do it by duplicating the cue and sending the duplicate through a QC plugin that outputs keyer-friendly values based on the alpha channel of the image. I haven't tested that, but it should work in theory.

[Jeremy Lee]

While I don't use this slider, it is very popular with stage managers.

Jeremy Lee
- A thumb is a terrible speller. Please forgive my trespasses.

[Jeremy Lee]

FYI, Waves plugs are indeed iLok capable. You have the option of disk based authorization if you subscribe to their WUP program. When that lapses, you are bound to iLok.

The authorization of iLok plugs, as I understand it, is totally transparent to the host software. The host asks for it, if the plug isn't authorized then the iLok dialog comes up.

Be aware that the Apple-provided AU plugs are available to all AU hosts, but the cool ones that come with Logic are only available in that environment...

Jeremy Lee
- A thumb is a terrible speller. Please forgive my trespasses.

[Andy Leviss]

On Thu, May 9, 2013 at 5:31 PM, Jeremy Lee <jerem...@jjlee.com> wrote:
> FYI, Waves plugs are indeed iLok capable. You have the option of disk based authorization if you subscribe to their WUP program. When that lapses, you are bound to iLok.

No, they're not. Waves ditched iLok about a year ago. Waves 9 does not
support iLok at all. You can use local computer authorization, or
authorize to a USB key that acts similarly to how an iLok did. But
they no longer support iLoks for current versions. Period. Waves
decided to bring it all in-house.

-Andy

[Dave Wallingford]

FWIW, I am able to use my one Waves plugin in QLab 3. It's just the Durrough Meter plugin that I use for broadcast gigs, and I'm generally not a fan Waves, so I try to avoid them… Not a pluggin you would normally use in QLab, but it works - kinda. QLab crashes occasionally when trying the Waves plugin, but I haven't been able to recreate it consistently, except that it happens when first trying to open the plugin. I'll send in a report once I think I'm closer to getting a consistent response.

I'm also able to use my iLok enabled plugs. Hmm.. running Izotope Ozone live on playback gigs with ballet companies, who always bring tracks that sound like old cassettes… :)

- Dave Wallingford

[Andrew Nagy]

Dave

That is an amazing idea (re ozone plug). Since Ozone is typically resource heavy have you seen any lag or slowdown while actively using the plugin in qlab? I wonder how many instances of ozone running on cues would it take to crash qlab

Andrew Nagy
http://www.andrewsnagy.com
(951) 259 4723

[Mark Valenzuela]

And on a related note, I've notice too I can't zoom through an audio cue in the 'active cues' window.

That one is gone, in favor of the normal Load to Time slider.

Any chance some form of that will return? Being able to zoom through a cue in a cues sequence that's actively running (which the load to time slider won't do) is quite helpful to my workflow. But perhaps I'm the only one?

[Chris Ashworth]

On May 9, 2013, at 7:50 PM, Mark Valenzuela <markval...@fastmail.fm> wrote:

>>> And on a related note, I've notice too I can't zoom through an audio cue in the 'active cues' window.
>>
>> That one is gone, in favor of the normal Load to Time slider.
>
>
> Any chance some form of that will return?

I do think there's a chance, yes. It was one of those things that we weren't happy with the design of it while we were working on it, so decided to go simple with the option to solve the problem better when we had more time. So it's something I'm open to finding a good solution for, although I'm not currently convinced the old sliders were the best solution. They were not very accurate and were fairly clumsy in a lot of ways.

C

[Mark Valenzuela]

Sweet! I do agree with their clumsiness, but some form of that eventually making it back in I think is useful.

Another question - something that I think was discussed a LONG time ago. Any chance of getting a 2 finger sideways scroll in the waveform view, to go along with the 2 finger up/down zoom gesture? Amadeus Pro does this very well, and it's super efficient in terms of workflow. I find that 9 times out of 10, if I'm zooming in on a waveform, I'm also wanting to sideways scroll, and having to jump down to the slider to do that is quite clunky. 

Keep up the good work guys. You must be tired =)

Mark Valenzuela

Sound Designer

(c) 502.727.7049

markval...@fastmail.fm

m.z...@gmail.com

[Joshua Langman]

One possible solution — if the Load to Time slider was also a progress indicator for the current cue sequence, so that after you hit GO it moves forward with the progress of the sequence and you can grab it at any time to scrub forward or backward in the sequence.

[Jeremy Lee]

How would that work when I've got 20 sequences running?

Jeremy Lee

- A thumb is a terrible speller. Please forgive my trespasses.

On May 9, 2013, at 9:50 PM, Joshua Langman <jlangma...@gmail.com> wrote:

One possible solution — if the Load to Time slider was also a progress indicator for the current cue sequence, so that after you hit GO it moves forward with the progress of the sequence and you can grab it at any time to scrub forward or backward in the sequence.

--

[Joshua Langman]

Good point. I suppose it would show the progress of the last sequence fired, but this still isn't ideal …

[M. Florian Staab]

I second the vote for the return of the active cues sliders, clumsy or not. Often I'll need to cue into the middle of a music cue, but I have a bunch of volume fades that are called and not auto-followed, so the sliders allow me to quickly step through those volume fades. Very helpful in getting to specific levels, and cueing from the middle of sequences. I love the "load to time" feature, but it only works if all cue steps are connected.

Looking forward to checking out v.3 when I get the time!

Cheers,

-Staab

[Christopher Ashworth]

On May 9, 2013, at 8:21 PM, Mark Valenzuela <markval...@fastmail.fm> wrote:
>
> Another question - something that I think was discussed a LONG time ago. Any chance of getting a 2 finger sideways scroll in the waveform view, to go along with the 2 finger up/down zoom gesture?

Add it to the list.

> Keep up the good work guys. You must be tired =)

Haven't slept much in the last week, it's true. :-)

-C

[Willo]

Something else I really miss in the Active Cues window is the dual countdown timers - showing time elapsed & time remaining for a cue. It was much easier to view the currently playing cue there than to look for it in the main workspace window - particularly because once a cue sequence is triggered, you are then looking in the main window at the next lot of cue groups to come. The Active Cue window was great to see where you were at in the currently playing sequence. (I know you can now toggle between time elapsed and time remaining, but it was much more elegant before when you could see both).

Something that doesn't happen now that I used to use a lot is to have an empty group play, and it would show the elapsed time, to use as a timer. In QLab 2 I could trigger an empty group (giving it a post wait of say an hour) at the top of the act, and it would tick away to show me where we were up to in the performance. Pausing it at the end of the final cue would give me an exact timing of the Act's running time.

I know this is something that can be achieved with a stopwatch, but you can't imagine how useful it's been to have it automated so it records the time in the system, and gives an indication of whether the show is running fast or slow each night. I also had subroutines that counted down the elapsed interval time, and that give half hour calls, that showed by colour codes if we were delayed, etc. All of this was achieved with empty group cues that had the ability to count down in the Active Cues window.

Can this please be re-introduced?

Thanks,

Craig

[Andy Dolph]

Craig,

Can you explain how you do the half hour calls, etc?

How do you delay them?

Thanks

Andy

Sent from my iPhone

[Paul]

Agreed on the helpfulness on having both time elapsed and time remaining displayed in the active cues window. At least in the rehearsal process I refer to that often.

[Christopher Ashworth]

On May 10, 2013, at 2:27 PM, Willo <crgw...@bigpond.com> wrote:

> Something else I really miss in the Active Cues window is the dual countdown timers - showing time elapsed & time remaining for a cue.

Thanks for the feedback, I've created a ticket in our tracker for this.

> I know this is something that can be achieved with a stopwatch, but you can't imagine how useful it's been to have it automated so it records the time in the system, and gives an indication of whether the show is running fast or slow each night.

Fascinating! That's a new one on me, but I can see how it would be really neat to track the show duration each night… I'll create a ticket for that too.

> I also had subroutines that counted down the elapsed interval time, and that give half hour calls, that showed by colour codes if we were delayed, etc. All of this was achieved with empty group cues that had the ability to count down in the Active Cues window.
>
> Can this please be re-introduced?

I just tried it in v2 to see how it works, and I wasn't able to get it to work, so I'm not sure I understand how you were doing it.

Maybe you were using pre-waits or post-waits on the cue?

Either way, now that you bring up the idea it makes me think there might be better ways to design this in to the program directly, rather than use a side-effect of how one cue happens to run…

Cheers,
Chris

[Andy Dolph]

Chris,

Yes - I love the idea of being able to time things and such...  could be very helpful - I often forget to start the stopwatch...  (and most of what I do I'm the SM the TD the lighting and sound designer and the operator...  just the nature of the beast...)

It just occurred to me to use an intermission timer cue that triggers some sort of script that sends an iMessage to my phone that it's time to start flashing the lights...

Thanks,

Andy

[Rich Walsh]

Wait Cues still display their elapsed times in the Active Cues pane, even if Group Cues with Post Waits don't – so all is not lost. Also, why not use MSC to flash the lights directly?

There is still no way I can see to query a cue for its elapsed time – other than the fancy dance with Devamp Cues (which will need to be retested in v3) – so I wonder how the original poster had it "automated so it records the time in the system"…

Rich

[Andy Dolph]

I don't use MSC to flash the lights because they are in the ceiling of the hallway and not controlled by my dimmers ;)  I have to go to the switch with a key to flash them...

[Christopher Ashworth]

On May 11, 2013, at 1:50 PM, Rich Walsh <rich...@mac.com> wrote:

> Wait Cues still display their elapsed times in the Active Cues pane, even if Group Cues with Post Waits don't – so all is not lost. Also, why not use MSC to flash the lights directly?
>
> There is still no way I can see to query a cue for its elapsed time

OSC does have the following:

/cue/{number}/preWaitElapsed

/cue/{number}/actionElapsed

/cue/{number}/postWaitElapsed

/cue/{number}/percentPreWaitElapsed

/cue/{number}/percentActionElapsed

/cue/{number}/percentPostWaitElapsed

But I should add it to AppleScript so they are available there as well… I've just added a ticket for this.

-C

[Willo]

I long ago hit upon using empty Group cues with post-waits to act as timers. It's probably not an elegant solution, but I've found it very useful.

I usually have a sub-routine group at the bottom of my workspace called "Timers". This keeps them out of the way of the main workspace. Then I use various play or pause cues on them from within my workspace. (I guess I could have used a separate Cuelist, but I've only just discovered these!)

Here's the simple version:

 

1. Create an empty group. Call it "Act 1 Timer". Give it a long enough post-wait that it will outlast the act. (For ease of observing the time remaining, make it a multiple of 60min so it counts down to the next nearest hour.)  I also usually give this cue a distinctive colour.

2. At the top of the show (typically, incorporated in the GO that makes house music fade), I include a START cue to play the Act 1 Timer group. It will tick away in the active cues list, showing me how much time has elapsed, and how long the timer has to go.

3. When the Act is over (typically incorporated in the cue that makes house music for interval come on), I include a PAUSE cue for the Act 1 Timer. This will freeze the cue in my Active Cue Window, showing me the precise running time.

4. That's it for the basic version. Another Timer would time the Interval, and a third one Act 2. At the end of the night when all the show cues have played out, at the top of my list I still have my three paused Timer cues showing me the running times of each act, and the interval length. (Note: this would all be lost if I'd had to press Esc for any reason, so it's good to have a backup option - but generally it's been very handy for quick calculation of show reports.)

My more complex version involves splitting my timers, so that instead of a generic 1 hour post wait, I allocate the estimated running time of the act. (i.e., a countdown of 48min if that's what I expect the average running time to be). But if the act runs longer, that first timer will quit and the next timer will will follow on, one that I have called "Act 1 overtime". (Again with a long post wait, say 30min, to ensure it won't expire and trigger the next timer in the cue). This Overtime timer is also paused when the actual Act is completed.

The effect of this is I can always see a fairly accurate indication of 'How long the act has got to go' in the first timer at the top of my Active Cues list, and then if it swaps to the Overtime Timer I simply need to add the original estimate (ie 48min) to the overtime showing, to get the true act running time.

Half hour calls:

I use real time triggers to activate a subgroup of Timers, that all follow on from each other. For a show starting at 20:00, my 'Half Hour call' timer would automatically start at 19:25, and run for 15 minutes. Then the "15 min call" timer would follow on, lasting 5 minutes until the "10 min call"...etc through the 5min and Beginners call. I also have a final timer to say "Late Start!" so I can see how long we've been delayed past the advertised start time.

 

By colour coding these cues, (green through to red) I can also get a visual of what state we are in, just by glancing at the Active cues list. The timer will almost always be at the top, or just under the currently playing house music cue.

On occasion I have also put announcements or other cues INSIDE these otherwise empty timer cues, so for instance a pre-recorded "15min call" announcement to the cast backstage could be played at the correct time, regardless of whether I am in the booth or not. (The house music coming on at a set time in the auditorium is a great indicator for when we need to clear the cast from the stage and go into pre-show state to open the house....An audience reminder to switch off mobile phones could be played at the Beginners' call..., a bell can be played in the foyer to indicate the end of interval...etc.)

Note: using real time triggers for this sort of thing can bite you in the bum if your showtimes are irregular! You don't want a house announcement to play at 19:55 on an odd night when the show started at 19:00..!  It's a good idea to have a safety cue that disables all your real-time cue starts, and make a decision before each show whether to enable them or not.

Delaying timers:

If for whatever reason I became aware that the show was going to be delayed by a definite time (eg a busload of school kids arriving late means we'll hold the show for 10min), I would need to pause or stop the currently playing timer and restart either it or the previous timer at the new correct time, so that all calls from then became adjusted to the new start time. (Assuming you are starting timers manually and not with real-time triggers). 

As this has no effect on the actual show cues, and are simply a pre-show guide for my own reference as Stage Manager, I start/stop these as I see fit.

Cheers,

Craig 

[Willo]

Hi Rich

By 'automated' I simply meant 'pausing it' on cue as I had described...!   By not releasing the pause it remains an active cue, and the elapsed time remains held indefinitely as a record until I decide to stop the cue.

I see the Wait Cues (which I'd not yet found a use for) are a suitable substitute - pausing and not releasing a Wait Cue will also record the time elapsed...!

Thanks!

Craig

[Willo]

I've found it quite useful in programming QLab2  to be able to set a cue sequence playing, and then use the individual active cue sliders to "fast forward" or "rewind" a specific cue, in order to juxtapose it with currently playing cues in the same sequence. It allows me to better and more quickly choose the correct pre-wait intervals, volume levels, and to trouble-shoot what happens when a particular cue finishes and triggers something else.  (In doing this with a large cue sequence, the "global pause" keys are also invaluable.)

You don't quite get this level of fine-tuning with the overall cue "load to time" function.

There you go. I won't keep rabbiting on about it! I'm sure some new solution will present itself. Looking forward to getting a projector connected and exploring all the new QL3 functions!

Cheers,

Craig

On Friday, May 10, 2013 1:43:17 PM UTC+8, M. Florian Staab wrote:

I second the vote for the return of the active cues sliders, clumsy or not. Often I'll need to cue into the middle of a music cue, but I have a bunch of volume fades that are called and not auto-followed, so the sliders allow me to quickly step through those volume fades. Very helpful in getting to specific levels, and cueing from the middle of sequences. I love the "load to time" feature, but it only works if all cue steps are connected.

Cheers,

-Staab

[Willo]

As Rich has pointed out, you can substitute a "Wait" cue for my use of an empty "Group" cue....and the same idea will work in QL3 as well as QL2!  The only difference is you can't put other cues inside a Wait cue, but that's easy to work around and it doesn't alter the basic premise.

Craig

[Joey Buddenberg]

Wow, Craig!

What a simple but very nice solution for timing performances. I'm going to use this from now on.

Thanks!

Joey