QCart 1.1 Documentation

Drag and Drop

When you first open QCart, you have a blank workspace. The workspace consists of empty cells where you can put cues. Drag and drop any audio file from the Desktop or Finder into any of these cells to create a cue. You can rearrange the cues within the workspace at anytime by drag and drop. You can drag and drop multiple files at a time into QCart. It will fill any empty cells, filling in from left to right, and wrapping around.

When you save a file, any audio files used in the workspace are automatically saved into the document. You can easily transfer files between computers and be sure all the audio files you need will be there.

Cue

There are a few often used properties you can change directly on the cue for quick access. You can toggle the hold, loop, and solo properties, as well as exporting the underlying audio file. These properties are available by clicking the gear icon, or right-clicking the cue.

The normal playback mode for a cue is to play exactly once when you press the play button or one of the other triggers. If you trigger the same cue while it is playing, it will stop. There are three ways to adjust how a cue is played:

Looping

When looping is on, the cue will repeat indefinitely.

Hold

When hold is on, the cue will only play while the trigger is held down and will stop when the trigger is released.

Solo

Solo means that cue is played alone. All currently playing cues will be stopped when a cue with solo enabled is played.

Cue Inspector

Click any cue to select it, and it will get a blue glow. When a cue is selected, you can edit its properties in the inspector pane. In the cue inspector, you can update all the different properties of the cue. You can change its name, change the color, and customize hotkey or MIDI triggers.

Within the inspector, you can also adjust the volume of the cue, as well as the start and end times of the file with the the visual waveform editor. This allows you to quickly trim out the parts of the file you don't want to play on the fly.

On the far right side of the inspector, you can add effects to your cue using Audio Units.

Cells

All the cells that hold cues are laid out on a grid. The default is 4x4 which gives 16 possible cues. You can also change how many cells are displayed by choosing Cart -> Change Grid (⌘-G). That will show a selection of all 6 possible layouts, which range from 2x2 to 5x5.

The grid is anchored to the top left of the window, so changing the grid size will drop off cues from the bottom and right. Any cues outside of the new grid when changing sizes will be removed when the document is saved.

Lock mode

QCart has a feature called lock mode. Lock mode transforms the workspace into a interface simplified for playback. The cue inspector is hidden, as well as any empty cells. The cues themselves are larger and the cue itself becomes a playback button that has a much larger target. Nothing is editable when the workspace is locked, so you don't have to worry about accidentally changing some property when playing your cues.