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For example, you might want to see all cue which are routed to Output 12.

1. •Run Show Me The Cues
   

2. •Choose “route to audio output....”
   

3. •Choose Output “12”
   

4. •Type in the Minimum Volume Limit set in your QLab Workspace Prefernces in the Audio section, this might say -60dB or -100dB for example. (This defines what QLab classifies as -INFinity dB)
   

Show Me The Cues will now run through every cue in the cue list and stop when it reaches a cue that is routed to audio output 12, i.e. the fader is up and it is routed on the crosspoints.

For example, you might want to modify all the Q numbers in QLab so that rather than saying “1”, “2”, “3”, etc. they say “SQ 1”, “SQ 2”, “SQ 3” etc.

1. •Run QLab Text Wizard
   

2. •Choose “Prepend with text”
   

3. •Choose “Q Number”
   

4. •Choose the Cuelist you wish to change
   

5. •Choose “No”, you don’t wish to include cues within Groups (up to 4 layers)
   

6. •Choose “Yes”, you want to ignore Q Number’s that are blank, i.e. don’t have a Q Number
   

7. •Type “SQ “ as the text you would like to prepend to each Q Number.
   

Or to remove “SQ “ from “SQ 1” etc you would:

1. •Run QLab Text Wizard
   

2. •Choose “Remove characters”
   

3. •Choose “Q Number”
   

4. •Choose the Cuelist you wish to change
   

5. •Choose “No”, you don’t wish to include cues within Groups (up to 4 layers)
   

6. •Type “3” as the number of charaters you want to remove, i.e. “SQ “
   

7. •Type “0” as the position in the existing text that you want to remove characters from.
   

An alternative method would be to:

1. •Run QLab Text Wizard
   

2. •Choose “Find and Replace”
   

3. •Choose “Q Number”
   

4. •Choose the Cuelist you wish to change
   

5. •Choose “No”, you don’t wish to include cues within Groups (up to 4 layers)
   

6. •Choose “Yes”, you want to ignore Q Number’s that are blank, i.e. don’t have a Q Number
   

7. •Type “SQ ” as the text you wish to Find
   

8. •Leave the next box blank, i.e. you wish to Replace “SQ “ with nothing

Extras

There are a few extra utilities I wrote to ease the conversion of shows. Your download of SQC will include these.

QLab Text Wizard

QLab Text Wizard allows you to make bulk modifications to Cue Names, Numbers and Notes in QLab.

What you’ll need:

1. • A Mac running SQC, Figure 53‘s QLab v2.3 and Mac OS X v10.6
   

2. • A PC running Stage Research SFX v5.6
   

    See the manual for more information if you don’t have a SFX dongle or a PC handy.

How does it do it?

SQC parses the text files created when you print your cuelists from SFX. It uses that data to create equivalent cues in QLab using AppleScript. It will re-target all the Audio files, Fades, Play Effects, etc where possible.

What doesn’t it do?

There are some limitations to the process due to the differences in the two applications. A table of how each type of cue is translated can be found in the appendix of the manual here. Depending on the nature of your show you may need to do some preperatory work in SFX before conversion.

SQC can’t do a complete automatic conversion but it can save you many many hours of tedious work.

SQC

SQC helps convert your SFX show to a QLab show

Optimised for multiple cue lists

A lot of SFX users use multiple cue lists as a way to keep their main cuelist tidy and relatively short. QLab uses Groups to achieve the same effect. Once SQC has finished creating your show in QLab it will ask you if you want to consolidate your cuelists into one cuelist. This will move all cues targetted by your main cuelist into groups in your main cuelist.

Make your show a bit more QLab’y

SQC will also offer you the option to tidy up all your cues that have follow-on’s or auto-follows into Groups for neatness. The group cues inherit the notes, q numbers and triggers of the first cue within them (with the exception of Hot Keys).

Buy me

SQC is available as

1. -a Single User licence for individual use for £15 plus VAT where applicable
   

2. -a Multi-User Site licence for organisations to buy and install on multiple computers for £60 plus VAT where applicable
   

Please read the manual before you buy it so you are fully aware of what SQC does.

Purchases are handled by E-Junkie.com which will convert the purchase price to your local currency and handle all applicable taxes. Upon completion you will receive a link to download the software.

You can tinker around in QLab until you are content, then click OK to move to the next cue, or Cancel to stop.

Or, you might want to find all cues that have MIDI, Timecode or Wall Clock Triggers.

1. •Run Show Me The Cues
   

2. •Choose “have MIDI, Timecode or Wall Clock Triggers.”
   

Show Me The Cues will now run through every cue in the cue list and stop when it reaches a cue that has an active MIDI, Timecode or Wall Clock Trigger. Unfortunately due to a limitation in QLab it is not posible to detect Hot Key Triggers.

Support, Feedback and Acknowledgements

For questions, support and feedback please visit the forum here. Every post is emailed to me so I will answer all queries as soon as possible. I have tested SQC with many different shows but everyone programs shows in different ways, which may cause unforseen problems. In a worst case scenario I’ll ask you to send me your SFX cue lists so I can rewrite SQC so it will successfully convert your show.

SQC could not have been produced without the help of the community of people writing AppleScript for QLab, and the support of Figure53 and Stage Research.

All screenshots are used with permission from Figure 53 and Stage Research

Read the manual here

Access the SQC forum here

Show Me The Cues

Show Me The Cues will show you certain cues within a cuelist that match certain criteria that you define.

For example, you might want to copy the levels for “Church room tone” to every time it’s used.

1. •Set the levels for “Church room tone” in QLab.
   

2. •Run Level Copier
   

3. •Choose the Cue list you wish to change
   

4. •Select “Audio Cues with the same name”
   

5. •Select “Yes” to also change cues within Groups (up to 4 layers)
   

6. •Choose the cue list that your cue is in
   

7. •You will be asked if you want to confirm each change, one by one, or just to change everything.
   

Level Copier will now run through every cue in the cue list and if you selected to confirm eachg change, it will stop when it reaches a matching cue.

You can click on Preview current levels and Level Copier will play only that audio file. It will panic the cue list first, so you only hear the relevant cue playing. You can then choose to leave the volume levels as they are, or you can choose to change them to your new levels. Then Level Copier will move onto the next set of cues.

Level Copier

Level Copier lets you set the level for one cue, then copy those levels (including input cross-points and ganging) to cues with a matching name, or to all cues.

(c) Gareth Fry 2011

A quick look at SQC

SQC converting a multiple cue list show

Single User licence for individual use

Multi-User Site licence for organisations

All screenshots are used with permission from Figure 53 and Stage Research