# Decent Qlab alternative?



## XENGS (May 4, 2017)

Greetings everyone! 
A couple of weeks ago I discovered my macbook air had been destroyed by swollen up batteries, after having been sitting on my desk unplugged & unused for well over two weeks (trackpad popped out, bent unibody, etc) - Apple refuses to provide support via e-mail, and there are no local apple stores. Since I don't want to deal with this over the phone, I'm stuck with a broken macbook...
Thankfully I do have a Windows laptop that I normally use to control lighting with. But the thing is, I can't for the life of me find a proper piece of software for some simple audio playback. What I need is:
> Audio arranged in a list/cue form. I want to hit space and have it play back.
> Fade & stop functions.
> The ability to stop one track and start playing the next one without any audible hiccup (Qlab would sometimes be sliiiightly out of sync, no more than a couple of samples, causing a bit of a "tick" of some sort. I need this for airplane SFX playback)
That's about it. It'd be a plus if it had somewhat modern graphics (Doesn't have to look awesome like Qlab, but if it looks like it was developed before I was even born it won't inspire much confidence, lol) - but obviously it doesn't matter as long as it works properly.
It would also be great if I could control it via MA2 onPC, but again not a necessity, I could just use the venue's Palette instead.
Thanks a lot. Cheers!


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## DaveySimps (May 4, 2017)

Check out Show Cue Systems. I have been using it for years, and love it. Many others here have as well. With a cheap ENTTEC USB device it can be linked via DMX512. 

~Dave


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## dbaxter (May 4, 2017)

Since you asked directly, I believe I'm allowed to point out the Cue Player family of software for theater control.


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## Amiers (May 4, 2017)

I'm an advocate of Venue Magic. It can do everything you describe. I'm not sure how to control it as I use it to control everything else but I'm sure it can do it.


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## flowalex999 (May 4, 2017)

A free one is multiplay, I prefer Show Cue System, but for the price I think it is good
http://www.da-share.com/software/multiplay/


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## XENGS (May 5, 2017)

Great suggestions everybody, thanks!
I'm gonna start with Multiplay since it's free, if it doesn't work out I'll check out the rest as well.
Cheers!


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## NickVon (May 5, 2017)

Before I moved to a Mac based Qlab setup I used "Multiplay" for many years. It is a great powerful free program with most of the features you have in the free version of Qlab. I don't think it is actively being developed anymore.


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## XENGS (May 5, 2017)

I tried out Multiplay on my desktop; Just as soon as I pressed go hell broke loose - White noise & screeching sounds, couldn't get it sorted. So yeeaaah, not actively developed 
Also tried out Show Cue Systems (demo), it crashed within 10 mins or so. 
Then I tried out the free version of Cue Player (I know it's nothing like the Pro or Platinum) but it wouldn't recognize any sort of I/O...
Bad luck? Dunno.
I didn't try the rest as I'd become pretty frustrated at that point.
I always take proper care of my computers, latest drivers & updates, regular formats to clean up all of the crap that builds up in the registry, yet not a single piece of software worked...
Maybe there's something wrong with my PC, but I find it difficult to believe Smaart, ProTools and various other pro audio applications work perfectly yet these don't.
I guess I'll keep trying, check out the rest as well, but atm I'm looking into creating a dual-boot Windows/Hackintosh setup running Sierra... Just for Qlab... Gonna be "fun"


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## dbaxter (May 5, 2017)

Well, that will teach me not to ignore the free version for a couple years. I'll bring it up, but Premium is the recommended version for any serious theater work. Sorry you had that stumble. The free version is little more than a front end to Media Player. Premium has all the features you were looking for in your first post.


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## jonliles (May 5, 2017)

I have used Show Cue on Win XP, Win 7 and Win 10 without issue. Also, I have the Pro license.


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## XENGS (May 6, 2017)

dbaxter said:


> Well, that will teach me not to ignore the free version for a couple years. I'll bring it up, but Premium is the recommended version for any serious theater work. Sorry you had that stumble. The free version is little more than a front end to Media Player. Premium has all the features you were looking for in your first post.


I understand - Don't worry, I'm still going to be checking out the demo for the Premium sometime later along with everything else 


jonliles said:


> I have used Show Cue on Win XP, Win 7 and Win 10 without issue. Also, I have the Pro license.


Also Windows 10, but the demo. I don't know, maybe it doesn't like my M-Audio C600 or something??


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## jonliles (May 8, 2017)

XENGS said:


> ...
> Also Windows 10, but the demo. I don't know, maybe it doesn't like my M-Audio C600 or something??


Never used the M-Audio C600. It worked well with my M-Audio FireWire 410 (which is why I keep a couple of XP machines humming along). I often had it map to 4 or 5 discrete outputs depending on the show.

Maybe something in the settings on your local machine conflicting?


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