QLab: cues, fades, and sound automation

Programming the sound of a show with QLab

Borja Montón builds an example sequence using music, announcements, and videos from his show. The goal is to organize the cues launched by the performer or technician and automate actions that can follow one another without a new button press. The recording combines a tour of the interface with the programming of specific situations, especially regarding sound.

Cues, groups, and running order organization

The class begins by showing a pre-prepared show and then opens a blank project. You will see how to import audio files, organize them into groups, and assign names and colors to easily recognize them during a performance. It explains what a cue is, how it relates to other actions, and what its number, notes, and target are used for.

Borja differentiates between cues that require a manual Go and actions that happen automatically. He shows his criteria for numbering the cues that the operator must launch and relating them to show cues: a phrase, a gesture, or a moment that indicates when to act. This is a way to make reading the running order easier and improve communication with the technician.

Playback, levels, and audio outputs

You will learn to select the start of a track, adjust its playback, and use repetitions or loops. Volume levels, audio outputs, and patches linking the cues to the chosen output device are covered.

Controls for play, pause, stop, and panic are also shown to manage what is currently playing. The Audition window appears as a testing environment to check a sequence without using the main output in the same way as during a performance. The adjustments are illustrated using the instructor's equipment; a full multichannel audio setup is not developed.

Fades and transitions

Fades take center stage in the explanation. You will see how to associate a fade with the correct cue, modify its duration, and decide whether the track should stop when it finishes. The examples allow you to compare a gradual transition with too abrupt a change and adjust the music's fade-in or fade-out.

A distinction is made between lowering the volume of a track that continues playing and stopping it completely. That difference is later used to keep a musical bed playing while an announcement is heard and bring its level back up when it finishes. There is also a demonstration of an opacity fade on a video, applying the same type of control to imagery.

Auto-continue and auto-follow

Borja demonstrates the difference between continuing to the next action and waiting for a cue to finish before launching what comes next. He uses music and a short video to show the behavior of auto-continue and auto-follow, and how to combine these options with fades.

The explanation includes programming errors that cause multiple tracks to start at once. The focus is on understanding which actions are chained together, which ones need to wait, and where the operator needs to intervene, in order to rehearse the sequence and avoid unexpected launches.

A sequence of waiting, announcements, and start

The practical part builds an intermission music track and two pre-show announcements. When each announcement is launched, the music lowers, stays in the background, and recovers its level when the voiceover ends. It shows how to reuse a pre-made group and change the announcement file without redoing all its actions.

Next, an example of a show start with video and music is incorporated. Borja uses materials he has already edited and coordinated to explain how a single cue can set multiple successive actions in motion. The class teaches how to organize them in QLab; it does not include the creation or editing of those audiovisual materials.

Video, camera, and technical coordination

In addition to sound, a camera cue, a keyboard trigger, a test with an iPhone camera, and some video input, output, and geometry options are shown. These serve to understand how these sources are integrated into the project.

Multiple screens, mapping, lighting, MIDI, OSC, and stage management cues on separate channels are discussed as possibilities. They do not constitute full tutorials on those integrations. The conclusion emphasizes rehearsing, writing down cues, and accompanying the project with a technical script that allows another person to follow the Gos.

What you need and what is included

The demonstration is performed on a Mac. To practice, you need a Mac computer, access to a version of QLab compatible with your equipment and the features you want to use, and your own audio files. Headphones or speakers allow you to check the sequences; to play the video or camera examples, you will also need the corresponding media and devices.

It is helpful to handle files and applications fluently and have a clear sequence of a show's actions. No prior experience in QLab is required, although coordinating groups, fades, and automation takes practice.

QLab is external software: its license is not included in the lesson. Equipment is not included, nor are the shown show files offered as downloads. The interface, options, and license references correspond to the version used in the recording; its conditions and compatibility may change. The class lasts approximately 50 minutes and focuses on initial applied programming, without covering all the program's features.