# Qlab "go" delay



## Lindsey (Sep 9, 2014)

Has anyone else ever had the problem of Qlab functioning just fine most of the time, but then occasionally failing to trigger a cue immediately when one hits "Go"?
I've experienced this in several different theatres by now, as a sound board op and as a designer. I've more or less never used Qlab to trigger anything but audio, because the jobs I tend to do are so low-budget that there is not a need for especially complicated tech. But it is often the case that audio cues-- such as door slams-- must happen (ideally) at the precise instant there is an onstage action-- such as an actor slams a door. And in my experience with Qlab, there are always a few shows when there is a very small delay after pressing "go" before the cue is fired, or worse, one presses "go" and the cue doesn't fire at all; you have to hit go again. And it ruins the effect onstage. 
Usually I use hotkeys to trigger cues, e.g. the keyboard spacebar is "go". But I have also tried clicking the Go button in the Qlab window, and I have tried assigning different hotkeys on the keyboard. It's the sort of thing that my board ops will complain of, but when I go to try and fix it, everything works fine. But I believe them, because I've had it happen to me too.
Is this an issue of the hard drive going to sleep during long breaks between cues? Is it a Qlab bug? Is it that all the computers I've ever used just so happen to be a bit old and this is therefore to be expected? Or am I the only one this has happened to?


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## themuzicman (Sep 9, 2014)

If this was a wide issue then they wouldn't be using QLab on 99% of Broadway shows 

As to your problem, it may be a variety of things -- first and foremost, don't be using .mp3 files, longer files, at least in some releases of v2, tended to be a little buggy. Second, make sure you are loading your next q into Ram for ease of access. QLab should automatically do that for the next q on deck, but if your programming is different from expected it doesn't hurt to toss a Load q into the group prior to the one you are about to fire just to ensure that the q goes to RAM. If you have a particular moment when you fire a bunch of q's simultaneously, then load them all in a separate group before that entire sequence comes to bat. Additionally go into System Preferences > Energy Saver > DISABLE Put Hard Disks to Sleep whenever Possible. Additionally use your computer for ONLY QLab. Typically in a redundant system I'll have QLab Main have nothing but QLab on it, and the backup system will have the DSP/Control controlling software, but if you are only running a single computer than do a fresh system wipe and only have QLab on the thing. Be sure to restart every day and don't keep the computer running for weeks at a time. 

Additionally, don't discount the idea of just a gunked up keyboard. I like to use a dedicated MIDI remote with high quality buttons - easy to make with the right tutorials on the internet. If that's not an option, go to Monoprice and grab a new $7 keyboard. As an added tip - I like to program in a 2 second post-wait into all of my q's just to prevent a double-go when I am forced into using a keyboard. 

Additionally, dummy check your media in the editor to make sure there isn't either a pre-wait or a silent tail at the top of your media preventing sound from happening immediately. A pre-wait edited in accidentally will physically not play your media right away and a silent tail on the media will play but just...be silent.


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## Mutton (Sep 9, 2014)

What type of machine are you running QLab on; Macbok Pro?

MBP keyboards will actually go to sleep without any sort of indication, with no way to disable it, causing a delay upon a new keypress.

Was it delays on a cue that came after a long period of nothingness?

Figure53 also has a very useful tutorial on setting up a computer for QLab.
http://figure53.com/notes/2013-10-29-prepare-execute-troubleshoot/


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## Joshualangman (Sep 12, 2014)

"I like to program in a 2 second post-wait into all of my q's just to prevent a double-go when I am forced into using a keyboard."

That's what the Double-GO Protection in Workspace Settings is for. Adding a post-wait with no follow would do nothing.

Also, here's my checklist, attached. If you haven't done everything on this list on your show computers, you're asking for trouble and further troubleshooting is pointless.


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## Chris Chapman (Sep 15, 2014)

Check into preloading the cues. That delay (especially in older versions of Qlab) could be noticed if it was a big file.


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## Joshualangman (Sep 15, 2014)

Also, by all means write to support (at) figure 53 (dot) com. They will respond very quickly. If possible, do it from the Help menu in QLab because they'll automatically get all the details of your system that way.


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## Oliver B (Apr 29, 2016)

I know this is an old topic, but I'm experiencing the same issues. The first 15 cues or so will trigger immediately, but as the show continues, the triggering gets slower and slower. I'm using wav files, and I'm preloading all the cues. What I've noticed is there is a delay from hitting the space bar or clicking go to seeing the actual go button triggered on the screen. If I hit the escape key to clear things out, and then continue the show, the delay is gone and the show runs fine again for a while...then it starts getting slow again!

I will say that I'm using Qlab because that's what the theatre wants to use, and I'm relatively inexperienced with it since I don't use it on a regular basis.


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## SteveMcQueen (May 1, 2016)

If you fade out a cue, make sure you click the Stop target when fade is done box. By default qlab keeps playing the file in the background until it is stopped, even if the level is set at -inf


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## Oliver B (May 11, 2016)

Thanks! I figured that out after I posted, but that didn't solve the problem. Of course as I write this reply I'm not at the theatre anymore (show is open, I'm on to the next gig!) but there was some "preview" setting that I unclicked that seemed to solve the problem.


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