Regia

The timeline

The timeline shows the show like a video editor. Time runs left to right and each row is a track. Above the tracks you see the cues with their flags.

Tracks

Each track has a type, written under its name:

  • Video: videos, images, text, generators, cameras. Higher tracks sit in front of lower ones.
  • Audio: sounds. Each track sends to an output (house, stage, monitors) and has its own fader in the mixer.
  • Lights: looks, effects, chases, reactive lights.
  • Commands: MIDI, OSC, network commands, projectors, OBS, actions, memos, timecode, cue lights.

An audio or video track plays one element at a time. When a new element starts, the previous one closes with the new element's fade: one piece of music takes over from another without you stopping it. For two sounds at once, use two tracks.

A lights track behaves like a console: a look stays on until another look on the same track changes it. With several lights tracks you keep, for example, house lights and stage lights apart.

Audio track names carry Mute and Solo. Hover a track name and open the three-dot menu to Rename, Lock it (no accidental edits), make it Taller / shorter, Move up / down, add a New track below or Delete it. Below the tracks, + Track adds one.

GO marks and cues

The yellow flags at the top are GO marks. The stretch between two marks is a cue, like the cues in QLab and on lighting consoles. When the timeline reaches a GO mark it stops and waits for you to press GO.

A cue that starts by itself (Follow, After, Clock, Timecode) has a dashed edge and a small arrow instead of a flag: the timeline does not stop there. All the start modes are in Cues, cue list and GO.

  • Click a cue header: you select it and set it as standby.
  • Double-click the header: play from there.
  • Drag the right edge of the header to change the cue length.

Playhead and cursor

  • The green line is the playhead: where the show is now. It turns yellow while waiting for a GO.
  • The blue line is the edit cursor. Click an empty spot to move it. New elements and looks recorded from the programmer land there. Above the timeline you can read which cue it is in and at which second.
  • From here plays from the blue cursor. Double-clicking an empty spot does the same.

The timeline toolbar also holds snap (elements stick to starts, ends and GO marks), Follow the playhead during the show, zoom (−, +, or Ctrl and the mouse wheel) and Fit, which shows the whole show.

Adding elements

Four ways:

  1. Drag files from the computer, or from the Media library, onto the timeline: the element appears where you drop it. If the track under the mouse is the wrong type, Regia uses a free track of the right type.
  2. + Element in the timeline toolbar: pick the type and the element appears at the blue cursor.
  3. Right-click the timeline › Add here.
  4. From the Lights workspace, New look on the timeline records what you set in the programmer.

The full list of element types and what they do is in Elements.

Selecting and moving

  • Click an element to select it; Ctrl+click or Shift+click to add more. The inspector shows them on the right.
  • Drag an element to move it in time, to another track of the same type, or into another cue. Hold Alt while dragging to move it without snapping.
  • Alt + arrows nudge the selected elements by a tenth of a second; Alt + Shift + arrows by one second.
  • Drag the left or right edge to shorten or lengthen an element. For sounds and videos this changes where the file starts and ends.
  • Hover an element: two dots appear at the top. Drag them to set the fade in and fade out.
  • Double-click an element to open its inspector.

The right-click menu

Right-click a spot on the timeline to:

  • Play from that point;
  • Add here an element;
  • Split the cue here: the cue becomes two, with a new GO mark at that point;
  • Cut selected elements here, Duplicate or Delete them.

Copy, duplicate, undo

  • Ctrl+C copies the selected elements or cues. Ctrl+V pastes cues after the selected one and elements into the selected cue, at the same distance from its start. Clicking the timeline selects the cue at that spot.
  • Ctrl+D duplicates the selection; Delete removes it.
  • Ctrl+Z undoes, Ctrl+Shift+Z (or Ctrl+Y) redoes. Regia remembers the last 500 changes.

Reading an element

  • Waveforms and thumbnails show what sounds and videos contain.
  • The diagonals at the corners are the fades.
  • The loop symbol marks an element that repeats; the anchor, one that ends in a later cue; the infinity sign, one that stays until something stops or replaces it.
  • A dashed, faded element is disabled: the show skips it.