David Duffy Posted December 21, 2006 Posted December 21, 2006 I'm in the process of updating my Multiplay software to add in some new features. Multiplay is a freeware Windows application that I wrote a year of so ago when I needed to playback multiple sound cues for school musicals, etc. It can play multiple files simultaneously (the most I've tried at once is 23!) and features a cue list as well as adjustable fade-in, volume, pan and loop settings for each sound cue. If anyone is interested in using it please contact me via email (david@audiovisualdevices.com.au) and I'll sent it to you. All I ask for in return is some user feedback and any ideas you have to make it even better! A lot of people took me up on this offer on another forum a while back but since I'm new here I thought I'd offer it again.David...
johnhuson Posted December 21, 2006 Posted December 21, 2006 Hi David, Would probably be interested in it, does it allow hot key starts i.e. hit the A key to play back one sound, B key to play back another etc. Currently using MultiWave for this sort of work but would happily try something new.
Bobbsy Posted December 21, 2006 Posted December 21, 2006 I've PM'd separately and might suggest that's the best way to handle requests for the software since (chances are) you'll likely be giving personal details. Discussion of the software itself and its features is, of course, fine in here! Bob
broadcast_techie Posted December 21, 2006 Posted December 21, 2006 I'm on a mac, (attempting parallels..) but there's this: http://www.soundplant.org/ which I've used for laying out clips on a live OB... Kris
David Duffy Posted December 21, 2006 Author Posted December 21, 2006 Hi David, Would probably be interested in it, does it allow hot key starts i.e. hit the A key to play back one sound, B key to play back another etc. Currently using MultiWave for this sort of work but would happily try something new. The hot keys are planned for but not implemented at the moment. I'm still working on the changes to the GIU.David...
Oddball Posted December 21, 2006 Posted December 21, 2006 I'm on a mac, (attempting parallels..) but there's this: http://www.soundplant.org/ which I've used for laying out clips on a live OB... another vote for soundplant - used it for a show in edinburgh and it worked a treat
Bobbsy Posted December 22, 2006 Posted December 22, 2006 Moderator Note: Just to remind people that there are already a number of threads about alternative computer sound playback systems (including Soundplant) such as THIS ONE plus several others. Let's leave this thread for discussion of the new software offered by David_AVD. Bob
broadcast_techie Posted December 22, 2006 Posted December 22, 2006 apologies, I was meant to be showing soundplant as a brief example of hotkey playout as a reference for Dave. I can't currently experiment with Dave's software as I'm mac only :huh: but will hopefully have something more constructive to say in the future. Kris
David Duffy Posted December 23, 2006 Author Posted December 23, 2006 I've sent version 1.3.0.0 of the Multiplay software out to everyone who asked. If I missed you or you don't receive it shortly, contact me via email and I'll get it out to you. The hot keys have been added and the GUI is pretty much complete. Please let me know if you find any bugs or if there's some feature that needs adding or an existing feature that would be better implemented in a different way. Have fun! :-) To those that are using a PM to ask for the software, please include your email address. Some of you are not including it and if it's not in your profile I have to spend time chasing you for it instead of improving the software! I would prefer people to email (david@audiovisualdevices.com.au) their requests to me so I can keep track and send the updated versions out in response to the feedback. Thanks.David...
johnhuson Posted December 23, 2006 Posted December 23, 2006 Hi David, Got the software, thank you. Had a quick play before I go out and finish my Christmas shopping (yawn) and your definitely on the right tracks, simple interface and intuitive to use. Couple of things I will say, firstly I've assigned hot keys to cues but when hitting the relevant key the cue is not being fired. I might be missing something, but had a good look and can't see any way of disabling/enabling hot keys (though this would be a useful feature also). One feature which I think would be useful, it would be nice if you could set when in a track a cue starts and finishes. Reason being, most of the time I and my colleagues use software like this is at awards shows for 'stings'. It would be good if you could load a whole track as a cue and then say start from 30 secs. in and automatically fade out at x point. Not sure how easy this would be to implement though! If this were possible it would save having to edit files in an external editor before hand, for which there often isn't time when the client hands you a pile of CD's 30mins before the show and says I want to use x,y & z tracks for the awards. I like the Spacebar as a GO button, but think it might be useful if you could assign your own key for the GO button, maybe a small choice of Space, Enter, Tab etc. Reason being that the space bar is quite easy to accidentally catch if you were using hot keys to fire cues. Other than that I like the features, loop is good and being able to jump round the cue stack is also handy. The page/line box I can see is also a useful feature for theatrical type shows. Finally I like the bar which shows how much is played but think some people might find a time remaining box useful as well, but now I'm just being picky! Keep up the good work! EDIT: Also noticed that although you have a Pan control in the Cue Control window, you can't use it to edit the pan on the fly for the next cue, you can only use it to change the cue thats playing. I know you can go into cue properties and change the pan but it might be useful to be able to click on the next cue and adjust in the cue control window rather than having to go into the cue properties. One last thing I've noticed, if you click fade out in the cue control window, it might be useful if once the fade out is complete that it automatically jumps to the next cue in the stack.
misterbassman Posted December 23, 2006 Posted December 23, 2006 Just a quick note, only just started playing with it, the hot keys appear to currently only work for capital letters, e.g if you set the hot key to A you have to press shift a for it to work, caps lock doesn't seem to work though.
johnhuson Posted December 23, 2006 Posted December 23, 2006 Ah that'll be where I'm going wrong! Tried Caps Lock and as you say it doesn't work. Can see why this might of been done as a safety feature but a hot keys enable tick box in setup might be more appropriate. In addition to this I think it would be good if there was an option so that when you hit the same hot key again it fades out the track for you at the pre-determined time, just like the fade out button in the cue control window. Sorry I know I might be asking a lot, but you asked for feedback!
misterbassman Posted December 23, 2006 Posted December 23, 2006 I would echo most of John's comments, particularly the being able to start from a predefined point, making it very useful for stings.The countdown to track finish would also be nice.Personally I would also like shortcuts for GO, STOP ALL, and fade out. Its looking very good though. Just noticed a few other things, I have inserted 4 cues set to end play, the last cue is set to loop back to cue 1. The idea being this could be used for fill music and is just a rolling loop. The loop works when run from the cue button, but if I set cue 1 to have a shortcut key trigger only this first track is played, it would be nice to at least have the option for it to continue its loop. Edit:I have found the shortcuts for Go, stop and fade out now, haven't spotted a stop all shortcut though. Also if a track is set to advance and weight once its trigger using go the focus is moved to the next track immediately, meaning you can't use the shortcuts any longer, personally I think the focus should only change once the track has finished playing.
johnhuson Posted December 23, 2006 Posted December 23, 2006 The countdown to track finish would also be nice. Though I have noticed since my first posting that the progress bar does turn red a few seconds before the end, which is a nice feature, but still think a time countdown would be useful. Anyway can't put Christmas shopping off any longer! Look forward to hearing others comments on my return. EDIT: Just found a small bug, if you change the name of the cue from the default which is the filename. Then go back into cue properties the name reverts back to default. Can't always get it to repeat, but it does happen a few times.
David Duffy Posted December 24, 2006 Author Posted December 24, 2006 I would echo most of John's comments, particularly the being able to start from a predefined point, making it very useful for stings.I'll be looking into settable start and loop points later so stay tuned.Just noticed a few other things, I have inserted 4 cues set to end play, the last cue is set to loop back to cue 1. The idea being this could be used for fill music and is just a rolling loop. The loop works when run from the cue button, but if I set cue 1 to have a shortcut key trigger only this first track is played, it would be nice to at least have the option for it to continue its loop.OK, you can now loop from the end to the start of a list by setting a jump value of 1 on the last End Play cue.I have found the shortcuts for Go, stop and fade out now, haven't spotted a stop all shortcut though.The shortcut for Stop All is now the Escape key. (seemed like the obvious choice)Also if a track is set to advance and weight once its trigger using go the focus is moved to the next track immediately, meaning you can't use the shortcuts any longer, personally I think the focus should only change once the track has finished playing.If you use End Wait instead of Advance Wait it will do what you need.Couple of things I will say, firstly I've assigned hot keys to cues but when hitting the relevant key the cue is not being fired. I might be missing something, but had a good look and can't see any way of disabling/enabling hot keys (though this would be a useful feature also).Sorry the hot keys are all "SHIFT + X" to avoid triggering them too easily. The new version mentions that. There is now a Hot Key enable checkbox too.I like the Spacebar as a GO button, but think it might be useful if you could assign your own key for the GO button, maybe a small choice of Space, Enter, Tab etc. Reason being that the space bar is quite easy to accidentally catch if you were using hot keys to fire cues.Done. You now have a choice between Space, Enter and Tab for the GO shortcut.Other than that I like the features, loop is good and being able to jump round the cue stack is also handy. The page/line box I can see is also a useful feature for theatrical type shows. Finally I like the bar which shows how much is played but think some people might find a time remaining box useful as well, but now I'm just being picky!The time remaining for the selected cue is now shown in the Cue Controls window.Also noticed that although you have a Pan control in the Cue Control window, you can't use it to edit the pan on the fly for the next cue, you can only use it to change the cue thats playing.That's intentional to stop people mangling the cue properties too easily but to still allow for the pan to be moved manually as a dynamic effect.One last thing I've noticed, if you click fade out in the cue control window, it might be useful if once the fade out is complete that it automatically jumps to the next cue in the stack.That's fixed in version 1.3.1.0 (someone else pointed that one out too!)Just found a small bug, if you change the name of the cue from the default which is the filename. Then go back into cue properties the name reverts back to default. Can't always get it to repeat, but it does happen a few times.OK, I have tracked that bug down and squashed it. Thanks.In addition to this I think it would be good if there was an option so that when you hit the same hot key again it fades out the track for you at the pre-determined time, just like the fade out button in the cue control window.There's now a choice of Ignore, Stop, Fade Out when you press the hot key for a cue that's already playing. Hi everyone,The latest version of the Multiplay audio cue software has been sent out to everyone that asked for it. Please email me if I missed you. Almost all of the suggestions that have come in so far have been implemented and a couple of bugs squashed. Please note that cues lists saved with the earlier versions can't be opened in this new version. As usual, let me know of any suggestions or bugs.David...
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