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Stingers tab: music objects

The Stingers tab allows you to create and define Stingers, which are brief musical phrases that are superimposed and mixed over the currently playing music. In the game, Stingers are called by Triggers. In this tab, you can map a Music Segment to a Trigger, and then define playback options for the Music Segment when the Trigger is called.

General

Interface Element

Description

[name]

The name of the object.

(Object Color)

Displays the object's color. Clicking the icon opens the color selector.

Select a color to apply it to the object. When you choose a color for an object, a palette icon appears on the selected square, as well as a yellow triangle in the lower-right corner, as shown.

To inherit the parent object's color, select the square at the far left of the color selector.

(Mute and Solo)

Controls the Mute and Solo states for the object and shows the implicit mute and solo states for the object.

Muting an object silences this object for the current monitoring session. Soloing an object silences all the other objects in the project except this one.

A bold M or S indicates that the Mute or Solo state has been explicitly set for the object. A non-bold M or S with faded color indicates that the object's Mute or Solo state was implicitly set from another object's state.

Muting an object implicitly mutes the descendant objects.

Soloing an object implicitly mutes the sibling objects and implicitly solos the descendant and ancestor objects.

[Tip]Tip

Hold the Ctrl key while clicking a solo button to exclusively solo the object for which the solo button is associated.

[Note]Note

Mute and Solo are designed to be used for monitoring purposes only and are not persisted in the project or stored in the SoundBanks.

(Show references)

Indicates the number of elements in your project that contain direct references to the object. The icon is displayed in orange when references to the object exist, and in gray when no references exist.

Selecting the button opens the Reference View with the object's name in the References to: field.

Stingers

Interface Element

Description

Stinger Settings

Right-click the table header to open the Configure Columns dialog where you can specify which columns to display and their order. See Using tables.

Trigger

The name of the Trigger being used for the current Stinger.

Opens the selector menu where you can select the Trigger that will call the current Stinger.

Segment To Play

The name of the Music Segment that will play when the Trigger Event occurs.

Opens the Project Explorer - Browser where you can select the segment that will play when the Trigger calls the Stinger.

Play Segment At

Determines the point at which the Stinger will play. The following options are available:

  • Immediate: Play occurs immediately.

  • Next Grid: Play occurs at next pre-defined grid interval. The grid is an arbitrary method by which music objects can be virtually partitioned. By adding another level of granularity to the music object, you have a great deal of flexibility to define sync points for stingers.

  • Next Bar: Play occurs at next bar.

  • Next Beat: Play occurs at next beat.

  • Next Cue: Play occurs at next cue. The next cue could be Entry, Exit, or a custom cue.

  • Next Custom Cue: Play occurs at next custom cue.

  • Entry Cue: Play occurs at Entry cue.

  • Exit Cue: Play occurs at Exit cue.

Default value: Immediate

Custom cue match name

Determines which custom cues are eligible to be selected as the ‘Play At’ position. If no name is specified, any custom cue will match.

String comparison is not case-sensitive, but it must be exact (there is no wildcard).

This option can only be used when ‘Play At’ is set to ‘Next Cue’ or ‘Next Custom Cue’.

Name matching affects the selection of custom cues only; it has no effect on the eligibility of the entry or exit cues.

Adds a new row to the Stinger table where you can define the following:

the Trigger that will drive the Stinger.

the Music Segment that will play.

the point at which the Music Segment will play.

Removes the currently selected Stinger and its associated components from the Stinger list.

Stinger Options

Don’t play this Stinger again for x seconds.

The number of seconds that must elapse before the Stinger can be used again.

If the Trigger calls this Stinger within the specified number of seconds, the Trigger is ignored or dropped. A message saying that the Stinger could not be played will appear in the Capture Log. Note that the “don’t play Stinger again for” time is relative to the stinger’s synchronization point, that is, the moment in time where the stinger’s entry cue occurs.

For example, say you have a segment with 1 second-long beats, which defines a Stinger that has a 1.5 second long pre-entry, a “next beat” synchronization rule, and a “don’t play Stinger again” property of 3 seconds. Imagine now that this segment is playing and that the cursor is precisely over a beat boundary when the Trigger is posted. Because of its 1.5 second long pre-entry, the stinger’s entry cue cannot be synchronized to the next segment’s beat, so it is synchronized to the next beat instead (that is, in 2 seconds). Consequently, all Triggers that will be posted for the next 5 seconds (2 seconds before synchronization time, plus 3 seconds of “don’t play again time”) will be dropped.

Furthermore, this time value is inclusive. For example, with a “don’t play again” time of 0, all Triggers are dropped until the synchronization point is reached, inclusively. It is thus impossible to have two or more Stingers scheduled precisely at the same time.

Default value: 0

Range: 0 to 3600

Allow playing Stinger in next segment (if applicable)

Determines whether this Stinger can be played in the next segment in the playlist. If a Stinger is called by a Trigger and the next opportunity to play the Stinger occurs too late in the current segment, the Stinger is not played. When you select this option, however, the Stinger will play at the first defined opportunity of the next segment in the playlist. The Stinger entry points are defined in the Play At field.

Default value: Yes


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