Trigger

Sound designing a broadcast or a live event can be a difficult task; you can be in charge of many off-screen/off-stage sound effects, and you not only have to make sure that they’re always on cue, but also that they come out at the best quality.

This is why the professionals who handle this need to have the right tools to work with, both hardware and software. Trigger is one of the latter, and it may offer audio engineers an intuitive and effective way of manipulating sounds during such events.

The developers have labeled Trigger as a “professional audio playback software”; they also recommend using the program during broadcasts, theatre and dance performances, academic and corporate events, or even in houses of worship.

The program works with cue sheets, which are basically grid-type interfaces where you can add your sound files. Click on a certain sound and it will play; click again and it stops. Pretty easy, right? Well, behind this intuitive interface actually resides a very powerful audio tool.

When you access a button’s properties, you will find many sections dedicated to editing the sounds. These include tools for enveloping, trimming, looping, skipping, but also effects like chorus, compressor, distortion, EQ, flanger and reverb. It’s not to say that Trigger is a music production program or anything like that, just that it’s very versatile and lets you adjust a lot of parameters.

The aspect of every button is also customizable, because you have to able to organize your sounds using colors and shapes. You can also add video buttons to the interface, and trigger buttons, which probably represent the program’s best feature. Trigger buttons have to be linked to other audio or video buttons, and can be used to further manipulate the content.

Though the interface may be something new to many professionals, the learning curve isn’t exactly steep. Should you choose to integrate Trigger into your workflow, there’s a big chance that you’ll discover a truly powerful application.