Software Audio Playback - Reviews

[MattCasson]

Hi,

 

Ive been reading through some posts about PC sound, and its always someone asking "Which is the best" and then a frenzy of advertising from people related or not related to the suppliers saying what they use. I thought finally it might be useful if people gave some proper feed back / reviews which others can use without having to spend hours playing, when time is not always on their side, which often happens. Admitidly I personally have only playing with two vast array of piece of software out there, but I thought others may be able to add a review of what they have been using or add to others reviews.

 

To start with I should point out that I only do Amdram stuff mainly in a smallish hall on a shoe string budget, I know there will be people in here working as pro's and have alot more experience and maybe a larger budget.

 

Well the starting point I guess is that software may appear to be cheap but you have to think do you have the resources to use it, i.e. a laptop or pc you can take to site with you. My preference is laptop, much more compact and portable, and with an external sound card as a must have. If you have a PC then internal cards are a better soloution. You will need to make sure you can secure your laptop / pc if your going to leave it in situ. I advice against this as it only takes a few mins to take it home and then reboot the next night. To secure your laptop or pc you can get cable locks rather like bike locks, just secure them to something that cant move. The one down side I have found with laptops is that becuase of the transformer charging the battery you sometimes get a bit of crackly. Simple option is run the laptop off battery during the show!!

 

Ok so the first piece of software I have used is Sound Cue System (SCS http://www.soundcuesystem.com) This is one of the original pieces of pc sound software. It is packed with features more than you need almost. It comes in three editions which is nice Lite, Standard and Pro, all reasonably priced. Using SCS you can have all your cues shown in front of your easily, and assign them to a fader. The screen tells you everything you need to know. I like this but feel the layout could maybe a bit more user friendly. I just guess thats personal preference though. One feature I love is the hot keys where you can set a key up to active a sfx. This is great for panto or where you want comedy sfx really. No fiddling about just hit the appropriate button and your away. All channels can be panned left to right which is good and the kind of feature you would find on a traditional desk. Adding cues are relativly straight forward just enter the requested information, set the levels and your away. A great feature here is that you can have live track editing, i.e. set fade in and out points. Although I prefer to have my tracks pre-editing so I know exactly whats going to play. All in all a great piece of software with all the features you need and want. SCS seems to have a good user base and people are always talking about it and suggesting it.

 

The second piece of software I have played around with is something I took a bit of a leap of faith with. I saw it advertised on another site and took a look at the demo. The software is Computerised Sound Mixing Desk (CSMD http://www.csmd.co.uk) Its a similar idea to SCS but worked in a slightly different way. The first think I noticed was the screen was kinda funky, and looked like a mixing desk / cd player merged together. I quite liked this, not really sure why, its a bit gimiky I suppose. This software isnt quite as versitile, but allows you to setup playlists and then load these to different sides of the desk. I say desk but its a screen really. You then just use it like a 2 channel mixers. Very simple. Again all track data is shown on the screen, and again you can setup tracks quite easily, add cues and set levels. This software is not aimed at a pro group, but I think would work for smaller groups. At the moment from what I gather the user base is small, dont know if this is good or bad. Suppose people feel happier if they know lots of people are using it. One feature thats nice and simple is CSMD is the record, where you can record the output straight to hard disk. The downside is that you can only record to wav, this can be re-imported to the software but wav can take up more room than MP3 as its raw.

 

If your looking for something pro then I suggest SCS, but for messing on, smaller groups who want something a bit more than windows media player CSMD is an option. However both are worth a look and play yourselves so you can get a real feel as everyone has their own opinion.

 

One last thing to mention is that I realise alot of group still prefer their trusty mini-disk player. I know why they dont like the idea of their software failing during a show. This is a good point, and I think at the moment its just early adopters who are going down the comuterised route, its not for everyone, but its out there and can be used.

 

I hope some more reviews are added and I look forward to seeing other reccomendations, then I can go away and play with more sound systems. I still like having the touch and feel of a real desk though.

 

Cheers

 

Matt

[dbuckley]

You might like to have a read through this recentish thread which discusses several products, including those you mention.

 

I can almost hear the thread merging robot thundering down the corridor :)

 

Of course, there was a time before computers, this is what my missus had to put up with, this is the dining room table...

 

http://www.davidbuckley.name/pix/oldsoundprep.jpg

 

Now its just a 'puter and the job's a goodun.

[paulears]

Not exactly a rush of posts - but rather than merging posts with the older threads - and there are quite a few general posts, I'll leave this thread intact, and I'll edit the title a little to maybe attract posters. Let's see what happens and review the reviews later on.

Paul

Mod

[northernaudioman]

Hi,

 

I use both SCS and a super little programme called Soundplant ( www.soundplant.org ), both seem really reliable, SCS is better if you're running a theatre show - you know that everytime you hit the cue button it'll be there and it'll be right and it'll play and you don't need to keep checking the screen to see whats happening. Soundplant is much better for busking shows - you can hit any kit and the appropraite sound file will play ( great for shows with no production or rehearsal! ) - Soundplant also works on a MAC.

 

I was recently recomended to a programme called SpotOn ( www.serialtech.co.uk ), BBC apparently use it to playout cues - don't know the cost though.

 

Regards

 

Oli.

[paulears]

Soundplant when registered also plays mp3s - the free version doesn't. It is great for sfx playback, and also ok for use as a radio style jingle playback machine.

[dbuckley]

Well, for the record, still using PCStage, keep looking (but less frequently) at other stuff, but nothing gets anywhere near it. Its not as simple or possibily intuitive as some stuff out there, but then again Word is "harder" than notepad, because it does more.

[Bobbsy]

Soundplant is a brilliant solution if you're doing a show that may involve random cues. I tend to use it each year for Panto where I'm adding "bonks bangs and bongs" not always in the same order as the actors ad lib. When playing with Soundplant, make sure you checkout and understand the "channel priority" "Loop" and "Key Mode" sections as these are what make the system powerful.

 

For the more normal (i.e. organised) production I generally use SFX from Stage Research. It seems to work well and I have no horror stories. It's very much a professional tool...but NOT cheap.

 

Bob

[dbuckley]

Soundplant is a brilliant solution if you're doing a show that may involve random cues. I tend to use it each year for Panto where I'm adding "bonks bangs and bongs" not always in the same order as the actors ad lib.

 

Thats the one trick effect missing from PCStage out-of-the-box, but its easy enough to simulate using triggers and a dummy cuelist, it just rags me that I need to do it. Must have another grizzle to the author about it. But, for every swing there is a roundabout, and I can make the buttons only do silly things when appropriate and/or reuse them, so opportunities for embaressment are more limited.

 

Being in NZ I'm now panto deprived (oh yes I am) :D so its just gunshots and other silly effects needed on the buttons...

 

Of course, if you need to spend SFX money for silly noises then you can always get a 360 systems replay box :) Or a sampler and either a keyboard (musical style) or some other MIDI generating boxy thing like a PC1600, or even something you can use with your feet... Oh yes, I remember now, sampler reloading after power spike needing several floppy disks mid-show, yes, I "enjoyed" that moment

[d_korman]

Soundplant is much better for busking shows - you can hit any kit and the appropraite sound file will play ( great for shows with no production or rehearsal! ) -

 

 

you can do that with SCS too - hot keys (as Matt mentions in his post)

[MattCasson]

Soundplant is much better for busking shows - you can hit any kit and the appropraite sound file will play ( great for shows with no production or rehearsal! ) -

 

 

you can do that with SCS too - hot keys (as Matt mentions in his post)

 

Yeah SCS hot keys are really nice features, it makes life really easy for little sfx.

 

Matt

[Robfl20]

I work for SeaWorld in Orlando Florida (I am born and bread English though used to live in Cambridge :) )

 

We use a system named 'NextGen Digital' for audio playback in the Nautilus Theatre (our largest indoor theatre in the park) it is produced by Prophet Systems http://www.prophetsys.com/

the software is actually for radio broadcasting, but it has been implemented very well into the theatre, and we have very few problems with it.

It is capable of running SMPTE time code functions and runs our lighting and rigging systems too.

It has many, many available outputs configurable to your needs.

And you can have multiple user accounts, so everyone can have there own setup and layout everything how they want it!

However; it does not offer hot key functions (although we use touch screen features instead), I have personally not found it very user friendly it is hard to program and VERY easy to accidentaly delete or copy over a cue during a show! and it is definately not a system for those on a low budget!

 

But for our new dolphin and water ski shows we have been slowly switching to a new system named 'SFX' which is made by a company named Stage Research http://www.stageresearch.com/

This software is Much more affordable running in at around $500 (not sure what that converts to in English!)

I find this much more user friendly and alot easier to customize to your needs than the NextGen system.

It also has an optional hot key feature, it comes with a key pad that looks not unlike a cash register keypad which is very easy to use and program with the use of macros.

 

For playing VO's and other random SFX as needed we use a machine called 'Instant Replay' it is made by 360 systems, we use these in all 8 venues around the park and back up the show audio on them too - just in case!

http://www.360systems.com/

 

Just thought someone might be interested..... maybe!

 

Rob

[dbuckley]

I work for SeaWorld in Orlando Florida

 

One of my favorite places in the known universe, so you know what that makes you, dont you :)

 

:) First post I note - welcome aboard!

 

It is I think true to say that Orlando has more than it share of the magic.

 

Now we can all wonder why the smilies collection doesnt have the "green with envy" model...

[Hambone]

Ableton Live.

 

Hugely configurable and versatile, and able to sequence and control audio, video and lighting via MIDI or ASCII keyboard without expensive dedicated hardware and/or software.

 

Assign FX, lighting patterns, video cues... just about anything you can think of.

 

Available for Mac and PC, and the demo is free.

[charlier]

I work for SeaWorld in Orlando Florida (I am born and bread English though used to live in Cambridge :) )

SeaWorld (and many other theme parks around the world) use our AudioBox in many locations for live shows (playback and programmable matrix for live mic mixes) and other music applications but again, this does not fall into a very low cost category! The software that comes with that also has hotkeys as well as a built in show controller with multiple cue lists which can slave to time code as well as be triggered by the stage manager and/or actor triggers.....

[Robfl20]

I work for SeaWorld in Orlando Florida (I am born and bread English though used to live in Cambridge :) )

SeaWorld (and many other theme parks around the world) use our AudioBox in many locations for live shows (playback and programmable matrix for live mic mixes) and other music applications but again, this does not fall into a very low cost category! The software that comes with that also has hotkeys as well as a built in show controller with multiple cue lists which can slave to time code as well as be triggered by the stage manager and/or actor triggers.....

 

I am pretty sure I have seen these in a few racks around the park, but I must admit I have never used one for live playback during a show - Maybe this is just one of those many pieces of equipment our Electronic Systems Engineers will not let us Audio Engineers touch!?

Although thinking about it maybe they use these for automated playback in some of the rides?

 

I forgot to mention in my earlier post a great little application I use for personal projects away from work, It is called Sports Sounds Pro

Although primarily for use at baseball games and the like it actually is GREAT for audio playback of music beds SFX or whatever during a theatrical performance too, and very cost effective running in at about $150.

This application has tons of features including playlists for pre-show music, cue lists for sfx in show, auto X fade & fade in/out, Instant play and those ever popular (programmable) hot keys! There are hundreds more features but way to many to mention!

If you go to the website you can download a free demo, and tinker with it yourself, for $150 this is a great piece of software!

 

Oh, thanks and ** laughs out loud ** dbuckley always happy to share some of that Florida magic! :)

 

Rob

 

I am pretty sure I have seen these in a few racks around the park, but I must admit I have never used one for live playback during a show

Actully, strike that my brain is not good in the mornings!

Audiobox is used in the master control room, it is used to playback audio/Vo's to the entire park (or just certain areas)

We use it to playback audio for the hourly water fountain shows and we used to use it for the night time firework shows, However last year we started a new "Night time spectacular" for which audio and video is played on DVD with SMPTE and played back on a machine from 360 systems (although the name eludes me)

 

Rob