FX Live
Building Your First Show
Step-by-Step Tutorial
The best way of finding your way around FX Live is to try and build a show from
scratch. This tutorial walks you through building a typical show, which will give you a
good understanding of all the principles.
Creating the Show
Go to the SHOW SETUP tab, select New Show and give the show a name. You also
have the option to enter some Production Notes, if required.
NOTE: all your changes are automatically saved so you don't need to worry about
losing anything.
You can also save your show with a different name prior to making changes - this
allows you to go back to the previous version if needed.
It is also possible to lock a show against any changes, which can be useful once you
are happy with everything.
Adding Cues
Select the SHOW DESIGN tab - this is the primary screen you will be using when
designing the sound for a show. On the left hand side is the list of cues, in the middle a
list of one or more effects in the current cue and, on the right, the current effect’s
settings. The top right has the buttons used to define any spot effects.
To create your first cue, press the New Cue button and this will automatically create
the first effect within the cue and pop up the Audio Select dialog.
Importing Audio
The File Import dialog allows you to pick audio files from one of 2 lists:
• My Library
This is a list of the audio files you have imported into the
application. It also includes the files that have been pre-loaded to
support the demo show and to give you some example effects to
play with
• Current Show This lists just the audio clips you are using in the current show
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The left hand side of the screen allows you to import files from your iTunes library.
NOTE: only non-copy protected files can be imported.
The Import File from iTunes button will present a media browser to allow you to
select a track from your library and load it into the application. Unfortunately Apple only
provides this dialog in portrait format, so you will have to rotate your iPad to see what
you are selecting.
Go ahead and import a music track to use as the introduction to act 1 of our imaginary
show. You have the option to preview the file directly in this dialog using the
Play/Pause button. Note if you pick something that is copy protected, this will be
displayed as a text warning over the album artwork when you close the dialog.
Adjusting Effects
Close the File Select dialog with the Okay button and then you will have your first
effect ready to go. You can play the file now and set the level at which you want it to
play out. You also have the option to mark in and out points for the file, which can be
useful if you need to trim the beginning or end of the file. You can also name the effect
if the file name is something not very helpful, such as Track 1.
TIP: use the drag bar beneath the file name to jump about within the file when it's
playing.
Next you need to use the trim buttons (Fade Duration) bottom right to set the fade
time for this effect. In this case, as we want the music to start hard in, we just leave
this as zero.
At this stage it's a good idea to give the cue a more descriptive note by clicking on the
panel below the cue number in the middle section of the screen. You can type multiple
lines of text notes, but in this case just type something like Intro Music Act 1. If you
don't type any notes, the Cue List will use the first effect name so at least you have
something to help identify what that cue is.
Right - that's our first cue created, so now let's go ahead and create the next cue to
transition our opening music into our first scene, which takes place by the sea.
When the File dialog opens, select the My Library list
Close the dialog and set the level to about 20%. We
gradually as the lights come up, so adjust the Fade
seconds. That's got the Seawash fading in, but how
music?
and pick the Seawash effect.
want our Seawash to fade in
Duration to something like 3
do we fade out our opening
This illustrates a fundamental principle of FX Live: if a cue contains an effect with a file
that is already running then, instead of restarting it, FX Live just modifies its level to
that of the new effect.
In other words ….. to fade out our opening music we need to add a second effect to
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the current cue with the New Effect button. This time we select the same audio file
as we used in our first cue (i.e. the opening music), but set its level to zero. We also
want to adjust its Fade Duration to a nice big number such as 10 seconds so we get a
nice slow cross fade into the Seawash.
Don't forget to give the cue a descriptive note such as “Fade to seawash as lights
come up”.
Running the Show
Okay - before we go any further, let’s hear the results of our labours. Select the
PERFORMANCE tab and you are ready to go. It's a good idea to click on Re-cue
Show to make sure you are lined up with the first cue, ready to go from the top.
Press TAKE NEXT and your music will start. When you like hit TAKE NEXT again,
you should hear a nice cross fade through to the sound of the sea.
What you will notice is that when an effect is running, a player appears in the Effects
Rack on the right hand side of the PERFORMANCE screen. Think of this like a CD
player: as well as showing how long is left on the track, it also provides manual
controls and shows you the current level of the effect. During a transition the level
moves in real time and a small dark bar just above the slider shows you the level that it
is moving to.
Let's say that you’re not happy with the level of the sea. You could go back into the
SHOW DESIGN screen to adjust it, but you can also do it live while you are running a
show. Simply select Manual Override and adjust the level by dragging the slider. Once
you are happy, cancel Manual Override and the new level will be saved into that effect.
Navigating Cues
What you may find, however, is the Seawash effect has now finished and the player
has disappeared, but you want to run that cue again. You could hit Re-cue Show and
start from the beginning, but you can also just jump to any point in the show simply by
clicking on it in the Cue List. This won’t affect what's currently running but will make the
next cue the one you selected. If you need to check it’s the correct one, you can press
the Next Cue button underneath the Effects Rack and this will show you what effects
are in the next cue.
But what if you want to sound of the sea to continue right through the first scene, which
may be many minutes long? Normally this would mean having to edit special versions
of the effects that are repeated to the correct length. This requires audio editing
software and takes time, so we have built a powerful solution directly into FX Live.
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Looping Effects
FX Live has the ability to loop effects indefinitely and not only this, but it does a Soft
Loop to make the transition as seamless as possible. This means it will mix from the
end of the loop back to the beginning.
Let's give this a try with our Seawash effect. Go back to the SHOW DESIGN screen
and make sure you select the correct cue by clicking on it in the list. Then click on the
Seawash effect to load it into the Effects Details panel.
For looping to work well it's important to start the loop a few seconds into the clip in
case the original recording starts quietly, and we also mark an out point that is a good
5 seconds before the end of the clip. This is to allow for the transition to occur and also
to get rid of any fade out that may be on the original recording.
Press Play/Pause to listen to the effect, wait until you are happy it is well established
and press Mark In. Then use the drag bar to jump to near the end and hit Mark Out.
Then all you need to do is press the Loop button and you are done.
Go back and re-run the show and you should find the Seawash effect runs
continuously without you being able to spot the join. If you can, it probably means you
picked bad in and out points, so a little experimentation might be needed.
Right - let's make our scene a little more dramatic. We are going to have a gun fight on
the beach, followed by the police turning up for a mass arrest as the lights go down at
the end of the first act.
Before we do anything though, we need to press ALL STOP to get rid of that Seawash
effect that's driving us crazy.
Spot Effects
So for our gunshots we could just create more cue to trigger these but, as those pesky
actors have a habit of improvising, we are going to use a Spot Effect to give ourselves
maximum flexibility.
Go back to the SHOW DESIGN screen and select Cue-2 with the Seawash effect. At
the top right of the screen are the 4 Spot Effect buttons. Go ahead and select the first
one and then press the Create button just below. This will give you the File Select
dialog; select the My Library list and pick the pistol shot.
You could repeat this process if you had a few different types of gunshot and assign
them to different buttons.
Set the level you want the pistol shot to be, but don't worry about Fade Duration as
that's not used for Spot Effects.
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Now we need to add a new cue for the police siren, so select that from the My Library
list and set its level to, say, 50%. Perhaps it would also be good to give it a nice long
Fade Duration so that it sounds like it’s approaching from the distance.
Finally, we need to add another cue to bring in our scene change music to end this
scene. Pick something suitably dramatic from your library and import it into the show.
We must also remember that we need to get rid of the seawash and the police siren as
part of this cue, so add 2 more effects to the cue and pick the seawash and the siren
as the audio files. This is where the Current Show audio list is useful as it saves you
having to find the correct effects in the full list.
Make sure to set these 2 effects’ levels to zero and select a slow Fade Duration so we
get a nice cross fade into the music. These fade durations could even be different so
the siren could fade out more slowly than the seawash for dramatic effect.
Putting It All Together
Okay let's see what it all sounds like. Go back to the PERFORMANCE screen and recue the show. Step through the cues and when you get to the Seawash cue, you will
see your gunshot Spot Effect appear on one of the buttons in the middle of the screen.
You can now press this as many times and as fast as you like to fire the gun.
Once you feel you’ve done enough damage, cue the police siren. Notice that because
Spot Effects stay there until changed by another cue, you can still fire the gun even as
we are transitioning into the next cue.
Give the siren a few seconds to build and then hit TAKE NEXT again and everything
should fade out nicely into our scene change music.
Phew - well done!! I hope you think that sounded pretty slick. You can now go back
and adjust levels or fade durations to get these exactly as you wish. Perhaps add
some seagulls into the beach scene. You are really only limited by your imagination.
Deleting and Re-arranging
If you make a mistake or you want to change something you have done, you can
delete effects and cues simply by swiping your finger left on the item you want to
delete in the list.
If you wish to rearrange cues or insert a cue in the middle of the list, select Edit List
and you can then change the order of cues by holding down on the far right of the item
in the list and dragging into the new position.
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Final Thoughts
You now should have all the basics you need to build complex and professional sound
designs.
For further hints and tips, please visit the web site and join the FX Live User Page on
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/fxlive.users
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