Software Basics

Like I said, the main workspace is called the Schematic.

You can drag objects from the Side Panes into the Schematic, and these are called components.

For instance I can open the Schematic Library and drag a Gain into the Schematic.

You can see that it’s labeled Gain,

but if you wanted to rename it you can simply start typing to change its title.

You’ll notice that there are these little shapes on the sides of it.

These are called pins, and they represent available inputs

and outputs so you can wire your component to other components.

Pins on the left side is audio coming into the component,

and pins on the right side is audio leaving the component.

There are different shaped for different types of connections,

and you can only connect them if they’re the same shape. These circular pins represent an audio signal.

If you want to make some room for yourself,

you can collapse or expand these Side Panes by clicking the little double-arrow icon,

or by dragging their border to make them smaller or larger.

You can zoom in and out of the Schematic by holding the Control key and scrolling your mouse wheel,

or you could zoom in and out of the side panes as well by holding Control and Shift while you do so.

Now you can position your components anywhere you want in your Schematic.

You may notice there’s no grid, but the software uses alignment lines to keep everything well-organized.

Here I’ll grab another component,

let’s pick an Audio Player, and you’ll notice as we move it around

these red alignment lines pop up to let us snap the components to parallel lines.

You can have them intersect and a green vertex will show you where they’re touching.

If for some reason you have overlapping components then you can change

which one is on top by right clicking and picking a new option in this Order submenu.

In this case you would want to use the Bring to Forward or Bring to Back buttons to relayer these objects.

If you select multiple components, you can also organize them with the Align,

Distribute, and Pack tools, which are quick ways to visually organize the components in your design.

Here’s an important tip you may want to note :

when you’re selecting multiple items you can do so in two ways,

and if you use Auto CAD you’ll be familiar with this – and if not, well then here’s a free tutorial.

When you make a selection box moving your cursor from left to right,

then anything that is FULLY enclosed in the box will be selected.

You’ll notice that this Gain is not fully enclosed, so it will not be selected.

But if you make your selection box moving from right to left,

anything that is TOUCHED by the selection box is selected. See the difference?

Anyways, let’s look at some of the other things we can do with components.

As I mentioned earlier, if you select a component you can reconfigure it using its Properties panel in the right.

Here you can do simple things like change its color or its position,

but you can also restructure the components settings

or change the number of input and output channels available.

These properties will vary depending on the component itself.

Once a component is configured for your purposes, then its most important part will be its control panel.

If you double-click a component, you’ll see its control panel,

which adjusts the manner in which it affects the audio in your design.

Every object inside a control panel is called a control.

However, you’ll notice that clicking on a control doesn’t do anything right now.

The reason for that is a very important concept regarding which Mode you are currently in.

So far, we’ve been working in Design Mode, which is a purely structural mode.

We can move components around and wire them together, change their properties and such,

but we can’t adjust any controls or actually process any audio in this mode.

Think of this like the plumbing in your house.

If you want to move the pipes around, you have to make sure the water is off.

So once we start processing audio,

you’ll no longer be able to move components, change their wiring or their properties.

To start processing audio, we need to save our design to a Q-SYS Core and enter Run Mode.

You can do this by going to the File menu and selecting Save to Core & Run, or simply by pressing F5.

However … my laptop isn’t currently networked to a Core.

And often times when working on a design, you might not even have access to one.

So there is a third mode called Emulation Mode.

You can enter Emulation Mode by going to the File Menu and selecting Emulate, or by pressing F6.

This will allow you to make all the adjustments within the control panels that you’d like,

as well as give you access to the Administrator tool, which we’ll look at in a later course.

You’ll probably use Emulation Mode a lot during this training series,

unless you have a Core you’re able to play with.

You can do a lot in Emulation Mode, but you can’t do everything.

For instance, you won’t be able to actually play anything in this Audio Player,

since the Core is required to actually process audio. But you can set your gain knobs, change buttons,

and prepare your design as much as possible so that it will be ready to Run when you do connect to a Core.

For now, best memorize these shortcut keys.

F5 connects to a Core to enter Run Mode, F6 enters Emulation Mode when you don’t have a Core handy,

and F7 will disconnect from either of these modes and return you to Design mode.

The biggest visual cue as to which mode you’re in is the Right-Hand Pane

it is only available in Design mode, so you’ll notice that it disappears when you’re in Emulation Mode

or connected to a Core. Also the Q-SYS Administrator

and System Mute button are only available in Emulation or Run mode.

So if you’re trying to do something and you can’t figure out why you can’t move a component

or adjust a control, you’re probably simply in the wrong mode.

Alright, that’s a general run through of the software’s layout.

In the next section, let’s actually add some inventory items and connect to a Core.