[linux-audio-user] Theatrical sound effects cue player?

[Spencer Russell]

Hi Steve,
I just finished runs of 2 theatre productions that I ran off my laptop
controlled only from my BCF2000. I'm not sure how much time you want
to spend on it, but I used PureData to construct the interface. It
took me about a full evening to get it together, but I already knew
PD. It didn't have any automation as far as a cue list, but it did
offer a way to play and loop samples and control their volume. Because
 PD tends to have audio dropouts when it's loading samples (AFAIK), I
had to load all the samples into RAM before the show, which can be
problematic if you have lots of long samples. It's still very much a
work in progress, but It worked great for 2 shows so far. When I get
back to my computer with the patch on it I can share it if you're
interested.

-spencer

On 3/16/06, Steve Wahl <steve at pro-ns.net> wrote:
> Is there a good linux program for playing sound effects cues, in my
> case to accompany a theater style performance?
>
> The "ideal" solution would be able to do something like this:
>
> * play samples almost instantaneously when I push the right button
>  (some sort of pre-reading the begining?)
>
> * sample length allowed to be arbitrarily long (e.g. music, background
>  sounds.)
>
> * multiple samples playable at one time, so you can have background
>  sound(s) continue playing while playing another sound --
>  e.g. surf/waves sounding in the background, and a ships bell or
>  whistle plays over it.
>
> * Probably some different modes for sample playing:
>   * On key down, sample plays through to end
>   * On key down, sample plays until key up
>   * On key down, sample plays until next key down (toggle play/stop)
>   * probably something else I haven't thought of.
>
> * Each sample would have individually adjustable volume -- maybe while
>  you're playing that background sound, you want to adjust it's level
>  w/o affecting any other samples you might play.
>
> * Controlable from the computer keyboard, or an external midi device
>  (e.g. my Behringer BCR2000)
>
> * Move through a list of cues, with notes about when each sound should
>  happen (e.g. I would type in the line that preceeds the sound...)
>
> The more I write this, the more a midi sampler or drum machine sort of
> program seems like it'd be a start, except maybe for the individual
> control of sample volume and cue notes.
>
> Anyway, does anyone have any suggestions?
>
> Thanks!
>
> --
> Steve Wahl    steve at pro-ns.net
>
>