Linked Audio Files

The same file may be used in all instances, or you may use different files provided they have the same length.

Linked cues or sub-cues are started, paused, and stopped simultaneously, and SCS also keeps the cue positions in sync if you manually reposition the cues.

Playing a music or vocal track thru one device and a click track thru a second device.

In this scenario we probably have a music or vocal track to be played thru FOH and a click track to played thru musos' in-ear monitors (IEM's) or similar. The click track would be a separate sound file created when the music track was created, and would be exactly the same length in terms of the number of samples and therefore duration. This arrangement can be setup as follows:

1. Setup an Audio File Cue to play the music/vocal track thru FOH. We will refer to this cue as the primary sub-cue.

2. Add an Audio File Sub-Cue to play the click track thru musos' headphones. We will refer to this sub-cue as the secondary sub-cue.

As the two sub-cues have the same duration (assuming you haven't provided different Start at or End at times) SCS will link the secondary sub-cue to the primary sub-cue.

You can also link audio files in different cues by setting the secondary cue(s) to auto-start 0.00 seconds after the start of the primary cue, but is it much easier just to use sub-cues of a single cue.

How to link audio files when they are not exactly the same length.

The reason SCS does not link audio files where the cues or sub-cues are of different lengths is the issue of how to treat the transport controls and positioning controls after one of the files has ended. For example, if the first file is 9 minutes long and the second file is 5 minutes long, then after 5 minutes playing the second file will be closed. So if you then drag the progress slider back to the 3 minute position, what is to happen to that second file? SCS could re-open the file and position it 3 minutes through the file but currently it does not do that.

However, you may have files you want to 'link' but they are not exactly the same length but they are very close to it. This may happen particularly with music tracks where one of the tracks has been slightly edited after the original mastering. For example, your main track may be 4 minutes 25.15 seconds long and your second (edited) track may be 4 minutes 23.50 seconds long. SCS will not link these because they are not the same length, but you can force the cues or sub-cues to be the same length by setting a common 'end at' time. In cases like this there will almost certainly be some silence at the end of the tracks, so by nominating an 'end at' position of 4 minutes 23.50 seconds or less for both tracks makes SCS regard them as being the same length, and so will link them if they are set to start together.

Where you have linked cues or sub-cues, each cue or sub-cue will displayed as for any other audio file cue or sub-cue. However, the transport controls are only displayed for the primary cue or sub-cue. For example:

In the display panels for Q1<1> and Q1<2>, Q1<1> (the primary sub-cue) shows the transport controls, but in place of those buttons Q1<2> (a secondary sub-cue) shows Linked to Q1<1>. Any transport control you click for a primary sub-cue is effectively reproduced in the corresponding secondary sub-cues. This also applies to any changes you make to the progress slider of the primary sub-cue - the same changes are made to the linked sub-cues. You will notice that the progress slider of the secondary sub-cue is disabled, ie you cannot manually move the slider.

What this all comes down to is that SCS tries to treat linked cues as a single cue.

Tip: The following information on click tracks and click track vocals has been provided by Nick Reich and is reproduced here with his permission:

We sometimes use click track vocals to 'double' or thicken live chorus vocals that can be strained due to the singers dancing at the same time, or on rare occasions replace a vocal that cannot be done live due to some legitimate staging reason.

Click tracks come in two flavours - either a mono or stereo track plus a click, or multitrack plus a click (where the chorus vocal parts, and maybe some instruments, are on separate tracks to be re-mixed live) - as used on many major musicals. I did a few tests with SCS (by ear only) and discovered that while two separate stereo files can be played locked together, they are not totally in sync, and the sync drifts a little bit. At a guess the second track lags by a millisecond or so, and this lag wavers or "flanges" a bit. Now I would think that is fine if you have a stereo track with the music on it, and another file with only the click - I doubt a conductor would notice the click was out - especially if the click file was in front. However if one used the spare track, or additional files, to get multi-track playback happening, which one intended to mix live to common outputs, one might get noticeable flanging on any material common to those tracks. This is not an issue where you are playing the same file through multiple speakers, as the speakers are different distances from you anyway - so not an issue for Sound Effects, I would think. I suppose one could create a 5.1 file and get six tracks of sample-accurate playback.

Using a stereo file that has a click track on the left channel and the music or vocal to be heard on the right channel may not be useable as both WAV files and sound cards do have a degree crosstalk between tracks that could make the click faintly audible in the house speakers - experimentation with the setup would be required.