Preselect & GO

When a show runs song by song, you often want to line up the next song while the current one is still playing, then start it on your cue. LTCast separates the two steps: preselecting a song only marks it as next (STANDBY), and GO is the one action that actually starts it. A stray arrow key can therefore never cut a song that is playing.

Preselect a song (STANDBY)

Press ↑ or ↓ to move the preselection to the previous or next song, or click a song in the setlist (a single click). The preselected row is highlighted in the setlist and the timecode display shows ● STANDBY — song name. Nothing else changes: the current song keeps playing, and no output is affected. A double-click on a song is different — it loads that song at once.

• Stepping starts from the current preselection, or from the active song if there is none.
• Songs marked Skipped are stepped over, and the selection stops at the first and last song — it does not wrap around.
• As soon as a song is preselected, LTCast starts decoding it in the background, so GO starts quickly even for a large file.
• A MIDI controller can preselect too: map a button to Next Song or Prev Song (see MIDI input). Number keys select a song as well when you press them while a song is playing (see Keyboard Shortcuts).

GO

Press Enter — or a MIDI button mapped to Trigger Cued Song (GO) — to start the preselected song. LTCast makes it the active song, loads it and plays it, cutting whatever was playing. The preselection clears once the song has loaded.

• If no song is preselected, Enter does nothing.
• Pressing Stop, Esc or Panic before the song has finished loading cancels the start.
• Do not confuse GO with Space: Space only plays or pauses the current song and never starts a preselected one.

While chasing

When LTCast is chasing an external clock, the external source chooses the song. The arrow keys and the MIDI next / previous buttons are ignored, and Enter (or the MIDI GO button) only shows a message that chase is active.

Clearing the preselection

The preselection clears when the song starts (GO), when you double-click a song to load it, and when you press Panic.