This demo is identical to CUE 3.0 except that all printing, saving, and MIDI features have been disabled. Also, after a random amount of time between five and ten minutes, it will do a "New" operation, and clear any work you have done from memory.
•GETTING STARTED
You can enter information such as titles, composers, orchestrators, etc. in the "Set Production Info" and "Set Cue Info" dialogs in the Operations Menu.
Next, you might set the time formats you will be using by going to "Set Time Formats" in the Formats sub-menu of the Operations Menu. CUE displays two columns of timing information in its Cue Sheet. Each one can be set up any way you want. The settings for each column are found in the two pop-up menus in the "Set Time Formats" dialog. There are two pieces of information you need to specify about each column.
1) Absolute or Relative Time.
Absolute Time is the time taken from the SMPTE window or
footage counter on a Moviola. Relative Time is the elapsed time
from the start of a cue.
2) Format.
CUE will deal with all forms of SMPTE, 16 and 35 millimeter
Feet/Frames, Hours:Minutes:Seconds.Hundredths, and some
variations of these formats that make it easier to deal with
the fact that color video runs at 29.97 frames per second in
the USA.
You can also choose to display only one ( or neither ) of the time columns.
All of the format information can be saved as a default in CUE 3.0.
The start time of the cue is entered in "Set Running Time" in the Operations Menu. Before you enter it, here is a note about entering timings in CUE:
CUE allows you to enter timings in any format, no matter what
settings you have chosen to display ( with "Set Time Formats" ).
Consequently, you must tell CUE what format you are using when
you enter a timing. This is done with a prefix or by the type of
punctuation used in the number. 24, 25, drop frame, 30 non-drop,
and 30 non-drop ( color ) SMPTE use the prefixes "f", "e", "d", "s",
and "c" respectively ( upper or lower case ). SMPTE numbers should
use only colons to separate hours, minutes, etc. The Real Time
format ( Hours:Minutes:Seconds.Hundredths ) has no prefix and uses
colons to separate the hours, minutes and seconds. If there is a
fraction, you should use a decimal point. The two film formats
separate the feet and frames with a "/". 35 mm uses no prefix and
16mm uses a "x" prefix. You can also enter measures and/or beats
which CUE will convert to a time ( taking into account all tempo and
meter changes ) by using the prefixes "m" and/or "b".
There are several shortcuts that make entering timings easier.
Leading zeros are unnecessary. You can use a semicolon ( a colon
without the SHIFT key ) in place of a colon. You can also program
the SPACE BAR to print a colon, slash, or decimal point ( in the "Set
Cue Sheet Formats" dialog in the Operations Menu ). It defaults to a
colon. Holding down the COMMAND key while you hit the TAB key will
select for editing the next field to the right, ie- if the cursor is in
the Seconds field of a SMPTE number, COMMAND TAB selects the
Frames field. Hitting it again will move to the Hours.
Here are some examples of valid times in the different formats:
2:3:4.56 ( 2 hours, 3 minutes, 4.56 seconds -- Real Time )
2:3 ( 2 minutes, 3 seconds -- Real Time )
.23 ( .23 seconds -- Real Time )
123/4 ( 123 feet, 4 frames -- 35 mm film )
/12 ( 12 frames -- 35 mm film )
x123/33 ( 123 feet, 33 frames -- 16 mm film )
x/12 ( 12 frames -- 16 mm film )
M7 ( measure 7 )
b3.5 ( beat 3 1/2 )
m6B2 ( measure 6, beat 2 )
Now back to "Set Running Time." The first box in this dialog is for
the SMPTE hour which usually doubles as the reel number. This
should be a number from 0-23. It will have no effect if the column
you have chosen for absolute time is not set to display one of the
SMPTE formats. The next box is for the start time of this cue
(without the hour if you are using SMPTE ). Now hit OK.
•ENTERING CUE POINTS
Now for the fun stuff. You use the Input Window to enter individual cue points. Type a time on the left side of the window, hit the TAB key and type a description of the action then click on OK or hit the ENTER key. NOTE: Once you have entered the SMPTE HOUR in the "Set Running Time" dialog, you never have to enter the hour again. ie- if you are using 30 non-drop SMPTE, and you set the SMPTE HOUR to 3 and the start of the cue to s1:2:3, then to enter a time of 3 hours, 7 minutes, 14 seconds and 3 frames, you would just type s7:14:3. When you hit OK the time s3:07:14:03 will show up in the Cue Sheet.
Now that you have entered a cue point or two, you are probably wondering why you only see one column of timings. The standard Mac screen isn't wide enough to display the whole cue sheet. To see the part you are missing, click on the Cue Sheet window to bring it in front, then use the scroll bar at the bottom to move the left side into view. As a shortcut you can use the TAB key when the Cue Sheet is in front to move left and right. If you have a larger screen, hit the "Zoom Box" in the upper right corner of the Cue Sheet window to expand it to its full size.
From left to right, the Cue Sheet shows the two timing columns, a "Key Hit" check mark if it applies, the word "Cut" or "Diss" if it applies, the description, and the beat and fraction of a beat where each cue point falls at the current tempo(s). Typing COMMAND Y will change the right hand column to Bar and Beat.
To edit an existing cue point, bring the Cue Sheet window to the front, then click on the point you want to edit. This opens a pop-up menu. The default choice is "Edit", so just release the mouse button. The Input Window will now move in front and will contain the cue point you just clicked on. Make your changes and hit OK.
There are several ways to delete cue points:
1) Click on the cue point to bring it into the Input Window then type
COMMAND D.
2) Enter the cue point's time with no description in the Input Window
and hit OK.
3) Hold down the SHIFT key while you click on a cue point (or several
cue points). This selects that point or range of points. Hit the
BACKSPACE or DELETE key.
4) Choose "Delete Range" in the Edit Menu, type in the starting and
ending times of the range, and hit OK.
Other useful features of the Input Window:
The Key Hit checkbox lets you mark which cue points you want to
include in a tempo search. It also marks which cue points get
streamers and punches when you play back the cue. Any cue that is
a Key Hit will get a check mark in the Cue Sheet. Key hits can also
be added and removed with the pop-up menu you get when you click
on a cue point.
The CAM(era) pop-up menu. This will let you add the words "CUT" or
"DISS" ( disolve ) in the margin next to a cue point.
The Size and Style pop-up menus. These let you change the size and
style of selected text in the cue point description.
The Stop Watch. Click on it once to activate it. Click again to start
timing, and again to stop. The time will show up in the Time field
of the Input Window. In CUE 3.0, this also works locked to MIDI Time
Code.
To see an example of a completed cue, choose "Open Cue" in the "Open" sub-menu of the File Menu, and select Zark/1m2 from the Zark/Cues folder.
•TEMPO
CUE can handle several tempo formats, which can be set in "Tempo Formats" of all things
( "Set Formats" sub-menu in the Operations Menu ). You can have Frames per Beat in all known frame rates, or Beats per Minute. In frames per beat at 25, 29.97 and 30 frames per second, the frame is divided into 1/80ths. A typical tempo would be 14-16 ( 14 and 16/80 frames per beat ). In frames per beat at 24 frames per second, you can have frames and 1/8ths per beat ( the traditional film music format ) or frames and 1/80ths ( Fractional Tempos ). You can have your Beats per Minute with 1/10ths, 1/100ths, or plain vanilla.
If you know what tempo you want, go to "Set Tempo" in the Operations Menu and enter the tempo, the starting beat and optionally, the ending beat.
If you don't know what tempo you want, you can go to "Search Tempos" in the Operations Menu. Search tempos will count the number of "Key Hits" ( see a few paragraphs earlier ), that each tempo in a range of tempos catches in a musically appropriate manner. Part way down the right is the number of "Key Hits" you want to catch. At the top, you enter a range of tempos, below that, the musical subdivision of a beat you want to come close to. Then you can define both the early and late sides of what you call a hit ("Margin" ) in 100ths of a second.
You can also specify a range of offsets from the original start time, that will be tested for each tempo. If you enter the offset in measures and/or beats, ie- m3b2, you can start a search from that point in the cue.
After you enter this information, hit "Search", and you will get a list of each tempo in the range, followed by three numbers. The first is the number of "Key Hits" that were caught by that tempo. The second is the number of "Near Misses", where it's up to you to make an artistic decision whether or not to call them hits, and the third is the number of flat out misses. If the Mac beeps at you when you hit "Search", you are probably asking CUE to display more information than it can fit on the screen at once. Reduce the size of the end tempo of the range and hit search again.
If you click on a tempo in this list, you will "Zoom In" on a list of all the "Key Hits". The Hits will be in bold ( green in ColorCue ), the Near Misses will be in normal text ( amber ) and the Misses will be in dimmed text ( red ). On the left will be the cue point's Relative Time, followed by the an abreviation of its description and the beat and fraction of a beat where it falls at this tempo.
After you have found a tempo/offset you like, "Zoom In" on it then click on Exit. If you go to "Set Tempo" or "Set Offset" ( Operations Menu ) now you will get a second dialog box reminding you which tempo and offset you liked. In the "Set Tempo" dialog there is a button labeled "Search Results." Clicking on it will place that tempo into the "Set Tempo" dialog. Clicking on OK will enter it into your Cue Sheet. Click on Exit when you are through.
Another way to come up with useful tempos is to use the Accel/Ritard feature. The easiest way is to find a cue point that isn't landing right on the beat and click on it. This will open a pop-up menu. One of the choices is Accel/Rit. Choosing it will open a dialog box which will be filled in with information about that cue point. If all you are trying to do is move that point to the closest beat, just hit OK. If you want to override the computer's choices, you can change anything you want before you hit OK.
•METER CHANGES
Use "Set Meter" in the Operations Menu to insert meter changes. But you probably figured that out on your own.
•PRODUCTION SUMMARIES
One other thing to try- Go to the Windows Menu, and choose either "Master Cue List", "Performing Rights Cue Sheet", or "Spotting Notes." Type "Zark" in the production code box and hit OK. Click on the "Search" button in any dialog boxes that come up. You should now have one of these production summaries showing.
•HAVE FUN
This should be enough to get you started. While you are experimenting, try all of the menu items ( except those that are disabled, of course ), and see what happens when you click in different windows, especially the Cue Sheet and Clicks windows.
