Music and cues for a magic act

Timing is the trick

An effect that lands half a second after the music said it would is an effect that did not land. Everything below comes back to the same requirement: the next cue already loaded, one press away, and the press and the sound being the same moment. Pads under a minute are decoded into memory when the show loads for exactly that reason — the first press is sample-accurate rather than merely quick.

The sting over the music, without stopping the music

Most acts are a music bed with moments on top of it. The build runs, the reveal lands, the build carries on carrying the room. That needs the bed to duck — drop in volume under the sting and come back up on its own — which is the movement a sound engineer would be making for you all night if you had one. Set the pad to overlay and it happens on every cue, at the instant the cue starts. Set it to interrupt instead and it stops the music and takes over, for the moment that deserves the room to change.

Two kinds of ending, both to hand

Stop fades over as long as you like, between half a second and fifteen. Press it a second time during the fade and it cuts immediately. If you would rather have a dedicated hard out, bind Stop now to its own button: it kills the music on the first press whatever the fade is set to, and leaves any sounding sting ringing over the top of the silence — which is the blackout, exactly as written.

A slow reset never costs you

Set tracks to stop when they finish rather than rolling on. The cursor stays where you left it, so a long reset, a heckle, a borrowed watch that will not come off or an unplanned bit of business simply delays the next cue instead of running you over. Press when you are ready and not before. Nothing in the application ever advances on its own unless you have asked it to.

A silent act is the hardest case, and the one it is built for

A manipulation or dove act has no words to cover a mistake with: the music is the spine of the whole routine, and if it starts late, stops early or plays the wrong file the act has nowhere to go. Star the act as a favorite and the running order and every pad come back together in one click, identically, every time. Collect the whole thing into one folder and it opens on another machine — Mac or Windows — with nothing missing.

Competition, and the clock

If you compete, the time limit is not advisory. The playing track counts down rather than up, so you can see what is left at a glance from where you are standing, and the printed running order carries every cue with its length and a total — which is how you find out at home that the act is eight minutes and twenty, not in front of the judges.

Six times a day at a trade show

A repeating set is where fiddly setups fall apart. One click on a favorite puts the whole thing back exactly as it was, so the sixth performance is the same as the first, and nothing has drifted because somebody dragged a track while you were on a break.

Can a sting play over the music without stopping it?

Yes — that is what overlay pads do. The music ducks underneath the sting and comes back up when it finishes, so a reveal lands clearly over a build that keeps running. Every pad remembers which mode it is, so one wall can mix stings that duck the music with tracks that replace it.

Can I cut the music dead rather than fading it?

Yes, three ways: turn the fade off entirely, press Stop twice during a fade, or bind the dedicated “Stop now” action to a button so the first press always cuts. That one leaves any sounding pad ringing over the top, which is usually what a blackout wants.

Will it move on to the next track on its own?

Only if you tell it to. Set “when a track finishes” to stop and cue nothing, and the track that just played stays loaded — Play starts it again rather than moving on. A slow reset costs you nothing.

Can I run it from a foot pedal?

Yes. A Bluetooth page-turner pedal sends ordinary key presses, so the app learns it like any other remote in about ten seconds — which is the usual answer when both hands are visibly empty and have to stay that way.

How do I know the act is inside the time limit?

The playing track shows the time remaining rather than elapsed, and the printed running order lists every cue with its length and a total for the act. Both are worth checking at home rather than in front of judges.