Music

QLab 4.4 – Create media sequences for live shows.

December 5, 2018

QLab is a streamlined and intuitive Mac OS X application that provides the required tools and features to create complex designs that can bring your audio and video content to life.

Versatile and user-oriented show control

QLab’s user-oriented interface helps you design and handle your multimedia content from within a smooth-running and personalizeable workspace that allows you to manage audio, video, MIDI, OCS and more.

QLab comes with numerous building blocks, also known as “cues”, that can help you design your stunning multimedia performance with just a few mouse clicks. Once you dragged and dropped your files you can start adding commands to fade in and fade out the volume, animate videoclips and apply various video and audio effects.

User-definable scripts and numerous video and audio effects

After getting familiar with the basics, you can step up your game and become a power user by using complex features like scripting, multi-projector edge blending, video corner pinning and audio localization. What is more, you can build multi-computer designs and send commands to multiple QLab systems connected to the same local network.

When you are happy with your Cue List, you can give it a try and hit the “Go” button to preview your show. Thanks to the Warnings panel you can check your list and view all encountered issues.

Support for Blackmagic device input, as well as various types of video surfaces and a host of other similarly powerful tools

QLab comes with support for 48 output and 24 input audio channels, intuitive audio waveform editing, customizable playback rate with pitch adjustment, video and audio faders, animation tools, Matrix mixer, audio and video effects, Syphon integration, keystone correction and corner pinning.

You can also overlay titles, use live video input from various devices, including Blackmagic devices, handle multiple video surfaces, apply fade curves, slice files, use markers and use external video effects.

What’s New

Version 4.4:

Workflow Changes

Added:

Multiple inspectors. You can now have multiple inspector windows open for a single workspace. Secondary inspectors are accessible via the View menu. The primary inspector, whether or not it’s popped out, shows the selected cue in the main workspace window as before. Secondary inspectors show a specific cue, selectable via a drop-down menu in the window footer. Multiple inspectors can inspect the same cue at once.
Auto-target new cues. Newly created cues will automatically target the selected cues when applicable.
When creating a new cue that targets another cue, the new cue will automatically target the currently selected cue. If multiple cues are selected, a new dialog offers the choice of creating multiple new cues inserted after each target cue, multiple new cues after the last selected cue, or only a single new cue. When creating Fade cues, selected cues will only be targeted if they are Group, Audio, Mic, Video, Camera, or Text cues.
Pin cues in the timeline. In the Timeline tab of the inspector, cues can now be "pinned" to the top of the timeline. Pinned cues remain visible at the top of the timeline at all times, making it easy to compare pinned cues with cues lower down in the timeline.
Cue lists opened in secondary windows now support limited editing when the workspace is in edit mode. You can edit cues’ cue number, cue name, pre-wait, action (if applicable), post-wait, and continue mode.
In the Timeline tab of the inspector, when the option (⌥) key is held down, the left and right arrow keys "nudge" the pre-wait of the selected cue by 0.1 second. When the option (⌥) and shift (⇧) keys are both held down, the arrow keys nudge the pre-wait of the selected cue by 0.01 second.
In the Timeline tab of the inspector, snapping behavior now includes snapping to the current playback time of cues in the same Timeline group.
Cue colors are now shown in the Active Cues tab of the sidebar.
The specific version of QLab you are running is now displayed in the "About QLab" menu item.
The workspace window can now be much narrower when the inspector is either not visible or popped out as a separate window.
The waveform view in the Time & Loops tab of the inspector now remembers your zoom and scroll positions for each cue.
The waveform view in the Time & Loops tab of the inspector now shows the time at your mouse cursor even when the integrated fade is turned off.
The waveform view in the Time & Loops tab of the inspector now supports hotkeys to set the start or end time of the cue to the current playback time. You can click anywhere in the waveform view and use ⇧I to set the start time, or ⇧O to set the end time.
The Find search bar now allows you to "Select Found Cues".
Fancy Paste / Paste Cue Properties now supports a default preset, which will select properties automatically when opening the Fancy Paste window.
Fancy Paste / Paste Cue Properties has improved support for Network and MIDI cues. Support for pasting Timecode cue destinations has been removed temporarily while we improve support for Timecode cues.
The Tools menu has two new options when the selected cues have file targets: "Open target file in external editor" and "Reveal target file in Finder".
The hotkeys for Move Playhead to Next Sequence (+/=) and Move Playhead to Previous Sequence (-) now have matching menu items in the View menu.
When a workspace is in show mode, QLab will ask for confirmation before closing the workspace or quitting.
Support for importing Go Button shows created by version 3.2 and later.

Changed:

In the Timeline tab of the inspector, cues that have no duration (like Start and Memo cues, or MIDI and Network cues depending on settings) have a smaller minimum vertical height.

Fixed:

Improved undo for cue properties that adjust cue duration.
A bug that could cause a cue to erroneously auto-continue if you previewed the cue and then clicked in the waveform.

Lighting Changes

Fixed:

Significant performance improvements when working with large light patches and many light cues.
Individual Light cues can now include multiple commands that apply to the same instrument or group, if those commands make distinct changes to the instrument or group (such as when pulling values from other Light cues.)

Changed:

In the Light Dashboard, you can now easily click and drag up and down on a parameter’s text field to adjust that parameter. Dragging in this way shows decimal places to allow precise level setting, and the number of decimal places shown is greater for 16-bit parameters than for 8-bit parameters. Holding the shift key (⇧) while dragging allows even greater precision.
The light definition editor has been redesigned for friendlier instrument editing.
Light commands shown in the Light cue inspector are now automatically pruned when viewed or after certain editing operations. Thus, the "prune" button has been removed from the inspector.

Added:

OSC and AppleScript API for a new function "replaceLightCommand" which replaces the older "updateLightCommand" command.
Instrument definitions for the Altman PHX series.
Instrument definitions for the Chauvet 4Bar Tri, COLORado Panel Q40, COLORband PiX, EZpar T6 USB, FXpar 3, FXpar 9, Maverick Storm 1 Wash, Ovation F-415FC, Ovation P-56WW, Strike P38, and Strike Saber.
Instrument definitions for the Elation Platinum Spot 15r.
Instrument definitions for the K9 Pup, Bulldog, Bulldog Pro, and Labrador.
Instrument definitions for the Panasonic PT-RZ570 projector.
Instrument definitions for the Robe ParFect S1.
Instrument definitions for the following SGM fixtures: i-2, i-5, P-1, P-2, P-5, P-6, P-10, Q-2, Q-7, Q-10, and S-4.
Instrument definitions for the following Showline fixtures: SL Bar 620, SL Bar 640, SL Bar 660, SL Bar 720ZT, SL eStrip 10 RGBW, SL Hydrus 350, SL LEDSpot 300, SL Nitro 510C, SL PAR 155 Zoom RGBW, SL Punchlite 220, and SL Strip 10 IP.
Instrument definitions for the following Vari*Lite fixtures: VL10 BeamWash, VL800 BeamLine, VL2600 Profile, VL2600 Spot, VL2600 Wash, VLZ Profile, VLZ Spot, and VLZ Wash.