Recording

CuePoints > Settings… > Recording

CuePoints can record your show, video and sound together, with your cues landing on the recording as you fire them. This pane is where you set the recorder up: source, audio, output and overlay.

This page is about setting up. For running a show, pressing Record, the transport, getting sync right, controlling it over OSC, see the Recording article.

Video Source

Video device: your camera, capture card, or network source. If something you just plugged in isn't in the list, click Refresh Devices.

Digital Exposure: brightens or darkens the picture before it's recorded. Leave it alone unless the picture is too dark or too bright to read. This changes the recording, so get it right before you shoot.

Show a record preview in main window: puts a small live picture on the main CuePoints window so you can see what's being recorded without opening Settings. Worth leaving on; it is the quickest confirmation that the source is live.

Preview window opens a bigger floating picture when you need a proper look.

Audio Source

Two sides, AUDIO L and AUDIO R, which become the left and right of your recording's sound.

For each side:

• Audio input L / R: which device. None is a real choice: pick it to record silence on that side.

• Channel: which socket on that device. If a device has no channels to pick from, this shows as unavailable.

• Gain L / Gain R: how loud. Watch the Levels meters and aim for the loud moments to move well up the bar without pinning at the top.

Both sides can use the same device (the usual setup) or two different ones.

Delay Compensation

Cameras deliver their picture later than a microphone delivers its sound; a network camera can easily be a few hundred milliseconds behind. Left alone, you'd hear things before you saw them.

• Offsets (ms): shifts the audio later so it lines up with the picture.

• OSC MARKER: shifts cues arriving over OSC later by the same logic, so a cue lands on the recording at the moment the picture shows it firing.

• Sync Calibration… opens a tool that measures the offset for you and fills these numbers in. Use it. It's far quicker and more accurate than guessing.

The right numbers belong to your camera and network, not to the show; the same setup needs the same correction every time. CuePoints remembers them. Re-check them when you change camera or network.

The Recording article has the manual clap-test method if you'd rather do it by hand.

Output

Resolution: the size of the recorded file: 3840 × 2160, 2560 × 1440, 1920 × 1080 or 1280 × 720. 1920 × 1080 is right for almost everyone. Bigger files aren't more useful if nobody watches them that closely.

Format: MP4 / H.264 plays absolutely everywhere. MP4 / H.265 makes smaller files on modern machines. If you're not sure, use H.264.

Quality: High, Medium or Low. Higher quality means a bigger file. Medium is the sensible default.

Overlay: whether your on-screen overlay is burnt into the recording:

• None: clean picture, no text.

• Current: whatever overlay is on screen right now.

• Or pick one of your saved overlay presets, so the recording gets its own layout regardless of what's on the live output.

Loopback Output Device: lets the recorder pick up sound that's playing on this computer rather than coming down a cable, so a recording can include what CuePoints itself is playing.

Save Locations

• Save recording to: where the video file is written.

• Save overlay recording to: where the overlay version is written, when you're recording one.

Files are named with the date and time they started, so takes never overwrite each other.

Check your free space before a long show. At MP4 / H.264, Medium, 1080p, budget roughly 45 MB per minute, about 8 GB for a three-hour show.

Control

Record mode:

• Manual Record: you press Record and Stop yourself.

• Timecode Triggers Record: pressing Record arms the recorder. It starts by itself the moment timecode runs, stops when timecode stops, and arms itself again for the next run. Perfect for capturing every run of a show without anyone watching the machine.

The buttons here mirror the main transport: Start Recorder, start or stop a take, pause the take, resume it, and discard the take in progress for a run you don't want to keep. The status shows Running or Not running.

Name

Every recording becomes a new track in your project. Track name decides what it's called:

• Custom: you type it. If you leave it empty, it falls back to the date and time.

• Date/Time: named after when it started.

• Cue Range: named after the cues fired during it, like Q12-Q45. Pick which cue type counts under CUEPOINT TYPE, so standby notes or other departments' cues don't affect the name. If no matching cues fire, it falls back to the date and time.

Cue Range is the one that makes an archive easy to search a year later.

Presets

A preset saves your whole recorder setup: camera, audio devices and channels, resolution, format, quality, record mode and naming, so moving between venues or rigs is one click instead of ten.

• New Preset starts a fresh one.

• Save Recording Preset stores what's set up now under a name.

• Pick a saved name to load it back.

• Delete preset removes the selected one. This cannot be undone, but it doesn't change your current settings, only the saved copy goes.

Your settings are remembered even with no preset chosen. (No Preset) just means "whatever I last set up".