How can I have a song play EQd like from phone then crossfade into normal EQ in house speakers?

[j...@teksavvy.com]

In this scene, an actor is listening to a song out of her cellphone. As she leaves stage, I want the song to go from sounding like out of her phone (for which I'll use a speaker on stage) and have a cue to crossfade that to a normally EQd version come out of the main house speakers.

I'm guessing I'll have the two versions of the song and somehow make a command to crossfade?

I'm pretty new to QLab. Can someone please help me set this up? 

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www.jengillmormusic.ca

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[MattM]

Hi -- just to be clear -- are you wanting to cross-fade from the speaker on stage to the main speakers?  Because unless you have a need for a separate speaker on stage, you could certainly apply an EQ effect to the main speakers so that it sounds like cell phone audio, then use a fade cue acting on the EQ's shelf frequency to cause it to "bloom" into full range audio on cue.  Is the speaker on stage a compromise to get that low-fi sound or do you otherwise need to have it?

Cheers,

Matt

[micpool]

Yes you’ve got it

Duplicate the cue. Insert your futz filter on one of the  cues e.g AU Bandpass filter and route it to your FX speaker

In the other cue set the level it will fade up to on the house PA then take the master out.

For the cue that brings it up on the PA create a fade cue targeting the non futz cue and set it’s master to level. You can fade out the futz version if neccesary.

Example workspace attached but just routed to stereo. Change the routing of the futzed cue so it comes out of your onstsge speaker

Mic

[Joshua Langman]

It's also now possible to do this with only one audio cue and one fade cue. Apply the EQ effect to the audio cue; then use the fade cue to adjust the EQ back to level (or however you want it) and also to fade into the house speakers.

My instinct though is still to do this with a copy of the audio cue because that's how I did it before audio effects in QLab. And some effects may only be available in external editors.

[Jennifer Gillmor]

Thanks, Matt!

There is a lot of digital device use mid stage. I have several sound Qs that are pretending to be coming out of these devices. So we want to locate the speaker close to the action rather than just put that sound in the mains. At the ends of the scenes, when the actor with the device walks out of the scene, we want the sound to blend out into the main speakers.

Wow, it never even occurred to me that QLab could program EQ changes. Cool!

[Jennifer Gillmor]

Micpool! Thank you so much for taking the time to help me out. We move into the theatre on Saturday. I'll let you know know how it goes. You rock.

[Jennifer Gillmor]

Sorry, micpool, this is a really basic question. But please describe how I set up both versions of the audio to play at the same time.

On Sunday, March 25, 2018 at 3:33:42 PM UTC-4, micpool wrote:

[Jennifer Gillmor]

Never mind my silly question. Group cues > play all children simultaneously!

On Sunday, March 25, 2018 at 3:33:42 PM UTC-4, micpool wrote:

[micpool]

Yes, this is the correct approach. You need the onstage speaker to localise the source of the sound to the prop you want the audience to think the sound is coming from. If you just had an EQ'd sound in the mains then someone sitting close to a main speaker would wonder why the sound of a cellphone speaker mid stage was coming from entirely the wrong direction.

There are scenarios in which you might want your futzed sound in the mains as well as the prop cover speaker onstage.e.g  If you wanted an exaggeratedly high level greater than the onstage speaker is capable of (particularly with battery powered speakers fed from IEM receivers).

You would create 2 copies of your futzed cue (with the bandpass effect) route 1 to to the onstage speaker and the copy to your mains.  On the cue routed to the mains after the futz effect you would insert a delay ,e.g AU delay with 0% feedback and either 0.02 or 0.03 secs delay (20 or 30ms). The idea is that, even if you were sitting in the seat next a main loudspeaker, the sound from the onstage speaker would arrive at your ears a few milliseconds before the sound from the main speaker, which  would retain the apparent  source of the sound as the onstage speaker.  AU delay only allows you to set delays in 0.01 (10ms) increments equivalent to around 10 feet of distance. If you want finer control you will have to use a different plug-in

It's even worth using this technique  (without the bandpass filter on the cue routed to the mains)  so that the full range copy of the sound is exactly in sync with the onstage sound when you fade it up, for instance you were doing a headphone bleed cue with a fast ttsss ttsss ttsss ttsss hi-hat pattern, with the clean track fading up on the mains. This would avoid  a doubling of beats for the first few seconds of the sound fading up on the mains.

Mic