Running the Demo

You can run the SCS demo as follows:

·         Start the program scs10.exe (or scs10demo.exe), which under Windows can be done by clicking:
Start / All Programs / Sound Cue System 10 / SCS 10. (Note: Prior to version 10.6.0, SCS was known as Sound Cue System, so that name has been retained in the setup files to simplify the updating procedures for existing SCS users.)

·         The demo show cue file should be automatically loaded, but if it is not then click Open / Open SCS Cue File and open demo.scs from the folder scs_demo which will be in My Documents (or Documents if you are using Vista).

To keep down the size of the SCS demo download, most of the audio files in the demo are MP3 files. However, for quality sound effects it is recommended that you use WAV files or some other lossless format.

·         Make sure the speakers connected to your primary sound device are turned on.

·         The first sound cue can be played by clicking the button labelled Q1 - Go!. Details on how to play all the cues in the demo are given below:

Q1 (Fanfare): To play sound cue Q1, click the button labelled Q1 - Go! This cue is an MP3 file of a fanfare such as you might use for a Shakespearian play. As soon as you click the Q1 Go! button you will notice the highlighted line on the grid moves down to the next cue (Q2) and the label of the button changes to Q2 - Go!

Q2 (Helicopter): To play sound cue Q2, click the button now labelled Q2 - Go! This cue is an MP3 file of a helicopter flying from slightly left of center to slightly right of center. For playing Q2 you can either wait until Q1 has finished, or you can play Q2 while Q1 is still playing. In the display panel for this cue you will notice that it states Fade in 2.50 and Fade out 5.00. This means that the cue has been set up with a 2.5-second fade in time and a 5-second fade out time. When you start the cue (by clicking the Q2 - Go! button) the cue will fade in over 2.5 seconds and you will see the Level fader move from the minimum setting up to the setting that has been specified for this cue. The cue will begin to fade out 5 seconds before the end of the cue, ie after 20.57 seconds as the cue has a duration of 25.57 seconds.

Q3, Q4 and Q5 (Car / Police): Sound cues Q3, Q4 and Q5 are linked. The cues are set up as follows: Q3 (Car starting and running) is started manually and contains a loop of the 'running' part, which loops continuously until you click the button now labelled Q4 - Go! When you click this button, Q4 (Skid & crash) starts and this cue also automatically stops Q3. When Q4 ends, you will see on the display panels that Q5 (Police) is counting down. This cue has been set up to start 2.5 seconds after the end of Q4.

Q50 and Q50.1: Q50 is a playlist cue such as you might build for intermission or pre-show music. This demo only contains short extracts from three music files* - in practice you would use full length music files with as many files as you need to adequately cover the time required, plus plenty of spare music included to allow for late starts. Q50.1 fades out the 'Intermission' music, ie Q50. This can be activated at any time during the playing of Q50, regardless of how far thru the playlist you are.

Q6 thru Q9 (Rain forest and Bird calls): These sound cues are also linked. To run this part of the demo, you will manually start Q6 (Rain forest ambience), then manually start Q7 (Bird call) when you are ready to do so. Cues Q7.1, Q7.2, Q7.3 and Q7.4 start automatically at set times (explained shortly), and when you want to terminate this sequence of cues you will activate Q9 (Stop forest and birds). Now let's look at what is happening with these cues:

Q6 (Rain forest ambience) is a Wave file of duration 9.08 seconds set to loop continuously. It is also set up with a fade-in time of 2 seconds and a fade-out time of 5 seconds. The fade-out will not occur until you 'stop' the cue using Q8. Start Q6 by clicking the Q6 - Go! button.

Q7 (Bird call) is an MP3 file of a bird call and is positioned towards the left. When you want this cue to play, click the Q7 - Go! button.

Q7.1 (Bird call 2) is exactly the same MP3 file as Q7. Q7.1 has been set up to start automatically 3.5 seconds after the end of Q7, so you do not need to start it manually. The Pan and Level (Volume) of Q7.1 are dynamically adjusted by the next cue, Q7.2.

Q7.2 (Fly right) is a Level Change cue that acts on Q7.1. Q7.2 is set up to start 0.5 second after the start of Q7.1, and moves the Pan position from mid-left to mid-right over a period of 3 seconds. The Level of the cue is also slightly increased, indicating that the bird is slightly closer.

Q7.3 (Bird call 3) is the same MP3 file again, but this time it is set to loop continuously. However, the Pan and Level of this cue are also dynamically adjusted by a Level Change cue, Q7.4.

Q7.4 (Fly away) is a Level Change cue that acts on Q7.3. Q7.4 has been set up to start automatically as soon as Q7.3 starts, and moves the Pan position from mid-right to extreme-left, and the Level from where it currently is to very low (but not completely out). This Level Change is set up to take 8 seconds, which represents two iterations of Q7.3.

Q8 (Release bird call 3) will release the loop on Q7.3 2.5 seconds after the end of Q7.4. This means that the next time Q7.3 reaches it's end loop point then the cue will stop (since the loop end point is the end of the file).

Q9 (Stop forest and birds) is an SFR Cue set up to fade out and stop all earlier running cues. When you get to this point in the demo you should just have have Q6 (Rain forest ambience) still playing. To terminate this cue click the button now labelled Q9 - Go!. A Fade Out Cue will stop the nominated cue immediately if it does not have a Fade-out time specified, but where they have a Fade-out time then the Stop Cue starts the Fade-out. Therefore, activating Q8 will cause Q6 (Rain forest ambience) to fade out and stop over 5 seconds.

Q10 (Tiger Island): This MP3 file is an extract from the Tiger Island Preshow music* used at Tiger Island, Dreamworld, Gold Coast, Australia. The cue is set up with a fade out time of 3 seconds. Start the cue by clicking the button labelled Q10 - Go!

Q10.1 (Fade out music): This is an SFR Cue which will cause Q10 fade out to start. Note that if Q10 runs all the way to completion then Q10.1 is still identified as the next cue to run even though Q10 has already stopped. This is to provide a consistent sequence of operations which is not affected by minor variations in production timings. Basically, you will manually start every cue marked for manual start, even manual start 'SFR Cues' that have nothing to do.

Q90 (Ship siren), Q91 (Boat whistle) and Q92 (Goose horn): These three cues are set up as ‘hot keys’, which means they can be played whenever they are required and as many times as you wish, just by pressing a key on the keyboard. If you press the S key then Q90 (Ship siren) will play. If you press the B key then Q91 (Boat whistle) will play. If you press the G key then Q92 (Goose horn) will play. Hot keys can be used at any time, even while other cues are playing.

·         As an alternative to clicking the Qx - Go! button, you can click the right mouse button with the mouse pointer positioned anywhere within the limits of the SCS program window, although there are a few places in the window that will not recognise a right mouse click. These places are identified later in this help document.

·         You can select any cue by clicking on that cue in the list in the upper part of the screen. This will reposition the script to that cue.

·         You can dynamically change the level or pan of an individual cue simply by dragging the Level or Pan slider in the cue's display panel. (The original level and pan requirements for each cue are specified when the cues are set up.) To dynamically adjust the overall level and pan, it is recommended that you use the faders on the sound desk (mixing console) as adjustments can be achieved much more sensitively this way.

·         The slider below the multimedia controls in each cue's display panel shows the progress of the cue. You can also use this to reposition a cue at any point, which is primarily intended for tech rehearsals, when you may wish to quickly go to a position near the end of a cue.

·         Setting up and editing cues is described later in the Help, including details of Control Send cues and directing sound output to different sound devices. (Control Send cues and multiple sound devices are not included in the demo, but the functionality is available for you to try.)

·         Controlling cues by MIDI input messages is described later in the Help.

·         When you have finished playing the cues, close the program by clicking the close window control in the top right corner of the window, or by selecting the menu option File / Exit.

* See Credits for copyright info regarding music used in the demo.