0005400: A possible workflow for playing sound sound segments in simple theatre productions (and similar performance contexts) - MantisBT

ID	Project	Category	View Status	Date Submitted	Last Update

0005400	ardour	features	public	2013-03-21 19:31	2013-03-21 19:31

Reporter	don3	Assigned To
Priority	normal	Severity	feature	Reproducibility	N/A
Status	new	Resolution	open

Summary	0005400: A possible workflow for playing sound sound segments in simple theatre productions (and similar performance contexts)
Description	Background: In a performance situation like a theatre production, one often needs to play certain pieces of sound -- a short sound effect or music for a song, for example -- on cue, quickly (without perceptible delay) and reliably. These requirements have implications for the hardware and software that is used, and for the attention and reaction time of the operator. For the operator, the user interface of the player is a key factor. In simpler situations, the person playing sound cues may have other duties -- such as operating a front-of-house mixer -- which require most of his/her attention, so a clear and straightforward UI (for playing) that minimizes distractions and manual "fiddling" is essential. In cases where a separate person is available to operate just the sound player, a slightly more complicated UI might be tolerable. On that criterion alone, a DAW such a Ardour is probably not the most appropriate tool for this task [Note 1]. However, it turns out that Ardour can be used successfully for performances whose sound needs meet certain constraints [Note 2]. I believe that it could be even more useful in this role with a couple minor modifications. Here is a possible general workflow: - Audio (or in a3, MIDI?) segments (sound effects, music, etc) would be created or imported into Ardour regions in the usual way -- that is, in one or more tracks, allowing the usual editing, plugin effects, automation, signal routings, etc. - Range markers would be added covering spans of time to form "sound cues". These would most often coincide with single regions, but could just as well span multiple regions on multiple tracks. Names could be assigned to the ranges that are meaningful for the content of the cues. Alternatively, loop ranges could be used instead, if there was a way to define how many times a loop should be played. (For this use case, the default should be 1, however the more generally useful default of infinite could be acceptable.) - Keyboard keys or other hardware (MIDI controller?) buttons could be bound to these functions: - move playhead to start of next range - move playhead to start of previous range - play current range (ie, the one the playhead is positioned on/in) once, OR play current loop range the defined number of times - stop/start (currently bound to space-bar) (Some thought should be given to how to handle a "move" command received while playing a range is in progress. It probably makes sense to immediately play the new range in that case, but that might be debatable.) - The operator would use the "next range" and/or "previous range" buttons to position to the beginning of a "cue". A quick visual check of the playhead location could verify that Ardour is ready to play the correct cue next. The operator would simply hit the "play current range" button to play the range at the desired time. Possible enhancements: - An option to automatically advance to the next range when the end of the current one is reached. In this case the operator would typically only need to use one button to launch each cue. - A simpler (less general) application of the same principles to regions, for situations where all sound cues were contained within a single region. The following additional functions could be available for binding: - move playhead to start of next region - move playhead to start of previous region - play current region This would be similar to what's provided with "audition mode", but using buttons instead of a pointing device. - Highlight the range (or possibly select regions) arrived at with "next range" or "previous range" functions. - It occurs to me that a tabular presentation of cues -- basically what appears to be at the core of software built for this purpose -- is not too different in concept from Ardour's Locations window. (I should say that I've only used Locations for making CD's in the past so maybe I'm stretching things a bit too much.) It could be helpful for users to be able to navigate and play ranges from the Locations window, as an alternative to using the main Editor window. (Or highlight the current range in the Locations window but still navigate and play from the Editor window.) - Allow moving markers, including range markers, and/or loop markers along with regions as they are slid in time. (a3 may already have this capability..?) It is not un-typical to have to insert or move cues pretty late in the game, so this would help a lot. (This need is not unique to this workflow -- I've needed it for editing recordings as well.) - Allow binding keys from an external device - mobile device app, for example. This could apply to any key binding, so it is also not specific to this use case.
Additional Information	[Note 1] Indeed, it's been pointed out[1] that commercial tools have been developed for this specific purpose, such as QLab (MacOS) and SFX (MS-Windows). I have no experience with either of these; from a quick skim of features on their web sites, I would say that there's no danger of Ardour competing with them head-to-head, with or without this proposal. It has also been suggested that a sampler and MIDI keyboard could provide a more suitable solution[2]. At the other end of the spectrum, there are numerous general-purpose sound and "media" players available that have been used successfully -- however, those that I've tried have all suffered from functional and/or UI issues that limit their usefulness to only the most simplistic of theatrical situations, at best. I think with a few (hopefully minor) tweaks, Ardour could fill a role that's way beyond what a simple player could do, especially for people that are already familiar with Ardour from other contexts. [Note 2] In its current form, Ardour 2 (and presumably Ardour 3) has an "audition mode" that allows playing a region with a single mouse click. This works, with a few caveats[2], if the sound cues can be loaded into separate regions (in my experience is fairly typical of small productions at least) and if the operator can afford some amount of fiddling with a pointing device -- possibly including zooming and scrolling, as well as clicking on a region to play. References: [1] https://community.ardour.org/node/4718 [2] https://community.ardour.org/node/6927
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Date Modified	Username	Field	Change
2013-03-21 19:31	don3	New Issue