CSC show control

[dan slv-tech]

good afternoon

 

Wonder if anyone can help, a local theatre ive been working at has bought CSC show control (orbital sound) and is running the sound FX from it- Now there appear to be problems with the program, though were led to believe that some big tours are using it-

It seems it cant remember fades, pan settings- everything else is cool- these glitches are totally random, a copy of the show file was sent to CSC but they cannot find a problem- now my question is has anyone else got this software running if so any problems with it?

Its very frustrating as the whole idea was that the operator could hit play and it will all happen, as it stands it very much all happens in that a fade down may indeed be full up!! not pleasant

 

any help would be appreciated

 

dan

[Bobbsy]

Sorry, can't help you myself but if you don't get the answers you're looking for here, you might try joining the "Show Control Mailing List". There's a lot of knowledgeable and helpful people there.

 

You should be able to join from THIS PAGE.

 

Bob

[lifeisacabaret]

Im currently using CSC for a production of 'Bat Boy' (currently programming the show to go on in June) (to trigger desk scene changes on a Venue Profile via midi and to play back Sound Effects) and have found it to be an exemplary piece of software- so incredibly easy to use and yet so powerful. Never had any problems with it yet, and it does have a good theatre pedigree already- Dirty Dancing is using it in town, Rocky Horror is using it on tour, several other shows are as well I think- its really gaining ground previously held by g-type or sfx it would seem, and I can see why- the user interface is so much more logical and its just a joy to use.

Rich Carter at Orbital is also very helpful and accepting of suggestions etc- its his software and as far as I can tell he's always working on revisions for it.

 

Fantastic piece of software.

[sheridan]

Hi Dan,

 

Whilst CSC is indeed very easy to use software, it still takes a small session to familiarise yourself with the program. Thats to say, when you adjust a fader level or pan setting, make sure you are changing the "correct cue". During tech rehearsals when links are running in the cuelist it can be difficult to remember which cue you are actually changing, and may make some changes to a player which is on the wrong cue. The Live mixer was developed for just that reason, but unless it is set to "link" mode, will not update the cuelist, just the output players. The turn around on bug fixes is very quick with the program, and Im sure that in its 4 years of life more people would have reported it forgetting levels and pan settings!! Ive certainly never seen any "random" behaviour, if a show runs correctly once, it has always continued to do so.

Are you using the latest version? And are you using soundcards recomended by the manufacturer? Some cards have poor drivers which can affect the way the program reads the levels back from the audio engine.

Have you played with the software yourself, not in the show situation?

[rich_ctr]

Dan,

Sorry to hear youve had some problems with the product. I think I know which show you are talking about, and as you are probably aware we are currently in discussion with yourselves as to trying to find the cause of these glitches.

 

Initial checks of the show file sent across didnt show any abnormalities, but reassessing this we have been able to reproduce a fault similar to the one you describe wrt Pan settings. We have managed to find a small bug in the live Mixer Module which would have causes pan settings to be reset during certain combinations of cues and player views and this will almost certainly have been causing the errors you described.

 

This has been fixed and will be in the next software update. In the mean time, I would suggest running the show with the live mixer window closed or take it out of link mode, and you shouldnt see any abnormalities during the run.

 

As with anyone who finds bugs with the software, please email us if you find anything else, as testing every scenario is always difficult!

 

Rich

CTR Design Team.