In the meantime, check out the new stuff!

Streamers is for folks working on film scoring, ADR, or foley.

Lockstep is a handy utility that does one thing: convert incoming linear timecode to outgoing MIDI timecode.

Chroma Tickets is our new project to re-invent online ticketing. It’s just getting started, and we hope you’ll join us in the fun as we make it.

Finally, we round out the updates with a great new QLab tutorial from Jason Knox covering signal flow in QLab.

Not a bad way to start out a new year! Hell, a new decade! And damn, what a decade it’s going to be. So much to make! So much to do! So many ideas to channel into code!

From all of us on the Figure 53 team: happy new decade. The ride is just starting. I think it’s safe to say: this is gonna be fun.

New GUI. QLab 2 offers a single integrated layout with streamlined controls to help you work faster.

48 channel output. Each Audio Cue now supports up to 48 independent channels of output and can read up to 16 channels of a multi-channel file.

Sample-accurate audio synchronization. QLab 2 provides guaranteed sample-accurate sync across all Audio Cues assigned to the same output device. You can pause and play the entire workspace, and it will all remain sample-accurate synced.

Video is also synced.

Audio waveform display. Visually trim the head and tail of your audio files. Visually set a looping section of the file. Add a fade envelope directly to the waveform.

Dead-simple vamping. Define a looping section in an audio cue and then pop out of it with a Devamp Cue. Chain multiple cues together to create arbitrary numbers of looped sections in a music track. (You can “stitch” multiple cues together because of the guarantee of sample accurate sync.)

Draw your own fade curves. Completely customizable.

Animate your videos. The new Animation Cue allows you to animate opacity, translation, scale, and rotation.

Camera Cues. Add a live video feed to your workspace. Animate it just like videos from a file.

Custom video rendering with Quartz Composer. You can render your videos and camera feeds through your own Quartz Compositions. Apply image filters, warping–anything you can do in Quartz Composer you can now do in QLab.

Trigger cue lists from timecode. QLab 2 can follow either MIDI Timecode or Linear Timecode–or both at the same time. Each cue list can follow a different timecode source.

Generate MIDI Timecode with the MTC Cue.

Full application scripting. Thorough scripting hooks let you control QLab 2 with AppleScript, Python, or Ruby.

Arm / Disarm your cues. When a cue is disarmed the pre and post waits will still run, but the action will not be fired. Can be set from the inspector or with the handy Arm Cue and Disarm Cue.

New auto-follow mode in addition to auto-continue. Preshow music creators rejoice.

New “Fire random child” mode for the Group Cue.

QLab 2 honors incoming MSC parameters, so you can fire specific cues in the workspace with MSC commands.

Default volume levels for Audio Cues. Default Group Mode for Group Cues. Added more MIDI patches (you can now patch up to 12 MIDI devices in the workspace).

Editing audio devices is now done with a full matrix mixer, rather than just on/off check boxes.

Preferences are now saved with the Workspace, not with the computer–so your device patching and device routing stay with the workspace.

Overhead does not accrue. Have you ever tried to chain together a whole whole bunch of short cues, and by the end of it the timing was slightly off? This is because in QLab 1 the small overhead of firing each cue adds up. In QLab 2, however, the overhead does not add up. If you build a thousand 1 second waits and chain them all together, the last wait will finish almost exactly one thousand seconds later. (Within a millisecond.)

The playback position of the cue list is no longer required to be the same as the selected cue. You may turn off that association, so that you can edit cues without changing the playback position. Helpful for editing during tech without disturbing your operator.

No more working directory. Files are found via an alias mechanism, so while you’re on the same computer you don’t have to think about the directory structure. The bundle feature will still allow you to easily transfer to another computer.

No more plugins. No more trying to figure out which version of many different pieces you’ve got. It’s all a single package, with a single build number.

I could go on, but you get the point. Go ahead. Knock yourself out.

• at least one scenario in which an initial white frame could be displayed instead of the first video frame
• a bug that could lead to a crash when a Video Cue is first run

It is a small change and I recommend that you update. The new version of the cue is available from the update manager at “Cues” → “Install/Update Cues…”

• Added a “Send MIDI Message” button to each kind of MIDI cue. Handy for previewing the message you’re building.
• Better error reporting if a bundle operation fails. Also gives the option to proceed with the bundle and skip the file(s) that had an error.
• Fixed a bug on 10.5 where clicking the up arrow in the target column would sometimes cause the target string to be selected, which then prevented the file chooser dialog from working correctly.

You can find it under “File” → “Bundle Workspace…”

To bundle you first choose a location and provide a name. QLab will then create a new directory of that name and copy all your media files in to it. That directory becomes the new working directory, and all the target strings are updated to point to the media files in that location.

If you wish to then move the show to a new computer, just copy that directory to the new machine, and select that directory as the working directory.

NOTE: All the plugins need to be updated with this release. Go to “Cues” → “Install / Update Cues…” to do this.

This has been a much-requested feature, so I hope it helps some folks out!

A new cue, the MIDI String Cue, is also included in this release (available from the update manager). This new cue allows you to send raw MIDI SysEx messages. This plugin is a free upgrade for all current Pro MIDI license holders.

Note: Apple has not yet fixed the QuickTime bug introduced in QuickTime 7.2.x that prevents QLab from properly playing video on multiple graphics cards, e.g. on a Mac Pro with multiple cards. If you require driving multiple displays/projectors from multiple graphics cards, you must stay at Quicktime 7.1.3 or 7.1.6 on OS 10.4. (Actually, some video formats do work. I’ve tested some AVI and Animation codec videos that do display on multiple cards successfully. But not everything does. This bug is acknowledged by Apple and we’re still waiting on a fix or a workaround.)

• Fixed a problem where an inefficient use of graphics memory could cause workspaces with very many Video Cues to crash or behave erratically. This adjustment also shortens load times for video workspaces.
• Fixed a problem where some video files could be truncated by a small but noticeable number of frames during playback (i.e. the videos would not quite reach the end).
• Fixed an issue where an initial white frame could appear the first time a cue was fired.

The update is available from the integrated update manager, at “Cues” → “Install / Update Cues…”

I thought I’d thank you for such a rock-solid app. I’ve used QLab on several shows now, from comedy revues to experimental cross-media performance to community television but I have been waiting to try it out on a big musical show. My university’s production of ‘Into The Woods’ called for not only on-demand bird calls and baby cries but several pages of dialogue with a pre-recorded giant and her booming footsteps. QLab never missed a beat, although my itchy trigger finger may have once or twice during tech! All I know is that the show wouldn’t have been half as exciting without QLab. Thanks!

And some photos of the production by the Burwood Student Theatre Company at Deakin University in Victoria:

Thanks Cail!

Several users have reported this version of the cue has caused serious problems on their systems. Therefore, we are rolling back to version 1.1.4, available from the Update Manager.

Apologies for any trouble this may have caused.