Audio Setup

Introduction

Audio setup in Cue Pro differs depending on the operational mode.

Pro Tools Integrated Mode

In Pro Tools Integrated Mode, all audio is played back by Pro Tools®. Cue Pro's role is limited to starting Pro Tools playback, controlling which Pro Tools track is scrubbed, and playing cue beeps through the Cue Pro Connect plug-in running in Pro Tools.

Audio Output (Beeps)

The only audio Cue Pro generates is beeps, which are routed through the Cue Pro Connect plug-in. Beep audio is heard on the track where Cue Pro Connect is instantiated, making it easy to mute or adjust beep volume directly in the Pro Tools® session.

Audio Guide Track

Scrubbing from Cue Pro in Integrated Mode is routed through a single Pro Tools track, chosen from the Audio Guide Track pull-down menu on the Controller Bar. The selector offers a Dynamic option (the default) which follows the track currently selected in Pro Tools - when multiple tracks are selected, the highest-numbered track is used. A specific Pro Tools track can also be chosen manually from the same pull-down to lock scrubbing to that track regardless of the Pro Tools selection - useful when a dedicated guide track exists in the session (for example a printed dialogue stem or a Dx stem) and scrubbing should always fall on it.

{width=90%}

Note: For scrubbing from Cue Pro to work reliably, Link Track and Edit Selection must be enabled in Pro Tools (on the Edit window toolbar). Without it, when the Audio Guide track changes - either by picking a different track from the pull-down or, in Dynamic mode, by selecting a different track in Pro Tools - Pro Tools only moves its edit selection to the new track after the first scrub, so the previously selected track is scrubbed instead of the intended one. This is a Pro Tools-side behaviour and applies to both manual and Dynamic track selection.

Media Mode

The remainder of this chapter covers Media Mode audio configuration.

Cue Pro has sophisticated audio features that aid in everyday workflow.

Audio files can be imported directly onto timeline audio tracks. Most common modern audio file types are supported.

Each audio track can be routed to any output destination on the hardware device.

When a video file is dropped onto the timeline, Cue Pro additionally creates audio tracks and regions for every audio track the movie contains.

The Audio Settings Window

The Audio Settings window contains most audio related settings and the audio hardware output routing matrix. It can be displayed by going to the Window menu and selecting Audio Settings or by using the shortcut Shift & A.

The window is separated into two sections: the Settings section at the top, and the routing section at the bottom.

{width=50%}

Note: The settings chosen here are applied globally to Cue Pro and are independent of specific Project or Timeline settings. This allows for an integrated generic audio output routing setup in the studio, for example to a mixing console - that is consistent across every project. This way, the beeps can always be on one channel on the mixing console, & the same for Guide Mix, the Dx, Fx, & Mx Stems.

Settings Section

Output device - Cue Pro will scan the system for all available audio devices when it starts. These devices will be listed here. Select the one to be used by default for audio output. Cue Pro will store and restore all the individual output busses and their routing using the matrix below on a per-device basis.

Sample Rate - Selects the sample rate for Cue Pro to use. If a DAW is running on the same computer, make sure that this is set to the same sample rate as the DAW. If the computer is only running Cue Pro, it may be better to match the audio sample rate of the video file, typically 48kHz is the best starting setting to use.

Beep Out - Selects the output for the beeps during streamer and ADR Cue events.

Beep Level - Selects the output level of the audio beeps. A Beep On/Off toggle switch is found in the application's preferences in Overlays → Streamer → Play Audio Beeps and Overlays → ADR Cue → Play Audio Beeps during Preroll.

Beep Pitch - Selects the preferred pitch of the audio beeps.

Center remaining channel if one stereo channel is muted - If one channel of a stereo file is muted by right-clicking the mute button, Cue Pro will center the remaining channel if this checkbox is ticked.

Routing Section

At the bottom of the window, Cue Pro displays a routing matrix which allows output busses to be defined and their individual output channels routed to physical output channels of the audio interface.

The greater the number of audio outputs available on the hardware device, the bigger this matrix window will appear.

To create a new channel, click the Add Bus button at the bottom. Use the popup menu next to the button to select which kind of bus to create. Options range from Mono up to 7.1.

If stereo output pairs are sufficient, Cue Pro can create those by clicking the Create Default Stereo Busses button on the bottom right.

When a new bus is created, its name can be edited by double-clicking the row header in the list.

To delete an output bus, select the row by clicking the row header on the left and hit backspace.

Routing of the individual channels to physical outputs of the device is done by simply dragging the channel icon around.

Every output bus created in the routing matrix will be selectable as an output destination for audio tracks in the track view of the main window.

Note: If the audio track's channel count doesn't match the output bus' channel count, Cue Pro will up-mix or down-mix the audio content automatically.

5.1 Playback with Stereo Monitoring

When working with 5.1 audio content but monitoring through stereo outputs, Cue Pro will automatically down-mix the 5.1 channels to stereo during playback.

For 5.1 audio playback, Cue Pro assumes SMPTE channel order (Left, Right, Center, LFE, Left Surround, Right Surround). This order is only relevant when using the automatic up-mix or down-mix functionality.

Cue Pro will always display audio channels in the order they are stored in the file. However, if the playback doesn't sound correct after automatic down-mixing, the speaker output order can be adjusted in the Audio Settings routing matrix by moving the speaker channels around until the playback is correct.