[Qlab] [QLab] [QLab] Triggering QLab from RS232 or Game Port?

[John Leonard]

on 27/7/07 22:31, Matt Otto at mottosfx at gmail.com wrote:

> It seems to me that they are being curmudgeons on that front. Computerized
> Playback has been around for year and years and years now. And have
> been reliable for almost as long. You just need to know what you are doing. It
> seems to me they don't want to learn something new. MIDI is the easiest
> solution in this case.

Curmudgeon alert!

There's another reason why some of us have been slow to transfer away from
samplers, and in fact I have a show running at the moment using SFX and an
Akai S6000. (SFX is not my choice, obviously, but it's quite difficult to
persuade large organisations to switch systems just to suit one designer.)

What I miss in all the computer-based playback systems is the immense
flexibility that a hardware-based sampler offers to someone who designs the
way that I do. In particular, I miss dynamically variable filters, pitch
transposition, crossfade looping and envelope shapers. Currently, only
Charlie's Soundman Designer approaches this kind of flexibility.

Previous to QLab, the only real options were SFX, which presented all the
frustrations that we know and love (and, on the first occasion that I used
it in anger, crashed repeatedly, despite being supplied by the UK's main SFX
system distributor - not good when your director is Harold Pinter, who's not
known for his tolerance) and Cricket, which is an interesting program, but
operationally based on a concept that's somewhat alien to the way that I
work. Of course, the Audiobox was a major exception and did all sorts of
wonderful things that are still hard to replicate in other program. In fact
for many years, my ideal playback system consisted of an Akai S6000, RSD's
Audiobox and Showman.

SCS and the other Windows-based systems are relative newcomers and one
time-line based system from a company here in the UK crashed in a
spectacular way during the previews of a major west-end show and played all
its effects at once and at full volume. Not exactly confidence-inducing.

I have every hope that Chris will continue to develop QLab so that it can
compete with the highest of the high end systems, but I shall also continue
to choose my playback systems based on the requirements of the show and my
design.

-- 
John Leonard
Sound & Show Control
10 Belsize Park
Hampstead
London
NW3 4ES
United Kingdom


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