A Sound Cue Player for Theater
A stage show runs on sound cues: a door slam, a phone ring, a music sting, an ambience bed that fades out under dialogue. Instant Play 2500 lets a sound operator or stage manager fire those cues from a laptop, with a layout that mirrors the cue sheet.
Lay out the show
Give each scene or act its own bank, and each cue its own slot. With 50 banks of 50 slots, a full production fits easily. The free version includes Bank 01, slots 01-10, which is enough to try a scene. All 50 banks need Premium.
- Name cues the way your cue sheet does. A clip called "A2 Phone Ring" is easier to find in the dark than "ring_final_v3".
- Keep related cues together. Put the scene's ambience beds on the top row and one-shot effects below.
- Use Bank Select to jump scenes (Premium). Click BANK SELECT, then a slot number to switch banks.
Run the cues
Trigger from the keyboard
All 50 slots are mapped to keys, 10 per row, so your hands can stay on the keyboard. The key for each slot is printed under its button. Space stops the last sound.
Crossfade music
Right-click plays with a crossfade by default. The sound that is playing fades out while the new cue fades in over about half a second. It suits transitions between music cues. Left-click plays a cue without touching anything else, which is what you want for an effect over a music bed.
Loop ambience and trim clips
With Premium, the Sound Editor lets you set start and stop points, so you can cut dead air from the top of a clip. Switch on LOOP and the clip repeats between those points, which is useful for rain, crowd noise, or a room tone under a scene.
Stop in an emergency
STOP ALL silences everything. On the keyboard it is Esc, or Shift + Space while the app is fullscreen.
Save the show as a session
When you are logged in, SAVE SESSION stores which sound sits in which slot of every bank, under a name you choose, such as the show's title. Load it again for the next rehearsal or performance.
What it doesn't do
- No automatic cue list, GO button, or timecode. You trigger each cue yourself.
- No built-in multi-channel routing. Audio plays to your computer's selected output, so use an audio interface if you need to feed a mixing desk.
- Sounds are stored in your browser on that computer. Use the same computer and login for each performance.
A checklist before the house opens
- Plug the laptop into power and set its sleep mode to never.
- Close other tabs and apps, and turn off notifications.
- Load your session and click a cue once, since browsers wait for a click before they allow audio.
- Run through the loudest and quietest cues with the MASTER fader.
- Open the manual in its own tab beforehand, not mid-show, and keep the app tab untouched.