The PCStage production is based on the concepts of presets and cues .

A preset is simply a snapshot of the state of all lighting channels.

A cue refers to a preset and adds fade timing, audio activation and other information about its behaviour within the production.

Cues

Cues are the elements which make up the sequence of a production.



A Cue Number : This is provided for your convenience, and is not tied to any particular cue; if cues are moved or deleted the cue numbers remain the same. Cue numbers have no effect on the production

A Cue Name: Again, this is for your convenience, and doesn't affect the production in any way. It does not need to be unique, and can be any text you please.

A Preset Name: This is the name of the preset which is loaded or faded to when the cue is loaded.

Flags: Contains any single-letter flags which apply to the cue, and designate cue sequence activation.

Fade parameters, which control the timing of Crossfades.

Pre Fade and Post Fade to control the activation of Audio Events (wave, mp3 and MIDI files, plus CD-Rom control).

MIDI support, allowing triggering by MIDI and triggering of MIDI equipment.



The cue editor allows you to set or change any of the cue elements described above. Some elements (Activation, Audio and MIDI Out) have separate pre-fade and post-fade entries, which define events which occur when a fade to the cue begins and ends respectively. More detailed descriptions of the various areas in the cue editor can be found in sections relating to those facilities.

At any point in a production PCStage can perform a smooth crossfade between the current channel state and the next or previous cue in the cue list. This is accomplished using the five large "tape transport" style buttons in the control area. The left-pointing buttons are termed Jump Back and Fade Back (toward the start of the fade), while the right-pointing buttons are Jump Forward and Fade Forward (toward the end of the fade). The central Pause button freezes fading until one of the other buttons is clicked.

Next page - Crossfades