TG DROP DECK
An accessible soundboard for podcasts, radio and live shows.


RUNNING IT

Double-click "TG Drop Deck.exe". Nothing to install.

Keep the "demo" folder next to the executable. That is where the forty
sounds that come with the app live, and the app looks for it there.

Windows may say "Windows protected your PC" the first time, because the
program is not code signed. Choose "More info", then "Run anyway".


THE FIRST THING TO KNOW

The whole app is the number row. Press 1. You should hear applause.

  1 to 0                    Sound effects 1 to 10
  Shift + 1 to 0            Sound effects 11 to 20
  Ctrl + 1 to 0             Dialog drops 1 to 10
  Ctrl + Shift + 1 to 0     Dialog drops 11 to 20
  Alt + Ctrl + 1 to 0       Music beds 1 to 10, press again to stop
  Alt + Ctrl + Shift + 1-0  Music beds 11 to 20

  Ctrl + Tab                Move to the next bank
  Escape                    Stop everything

Sound effects and drops overlap. They never cut each other off. Music beds
toggle: the same key starts one and stops it.


TWO VOLUMES

A music bed and a sound effect should never fight over one fader, so they
have their own.

  F3 and F4                 Sound volume, for banks 1, 2 and 4
  F5 and F6                 Bed volume, for bank 3

While a sound effect or a drop plays, the music beds automatically duck
down and come back up when it finishes. Ctrl+D turns that off.


EVERYTHING ELSE

  F1                        The full list of keys
  Ctrl + F                  Search every bank by name
  Ctrl + L                  Say what is playing right now
  F2                        Rename the sound you are on
  Alt + Enter               Properties for the sound you are on
  Delete                    Clear the slot you are on
  Ctrl + P                  Choose the audio output device
  Ctrl + S / Ctrl + O       Save or open a board
  Ctrl + N                  Start an empty board


MAKING IT YOURS

The forty sounds that ship with it are a demo. Here is how to build a board
of your own.

1. Press Ctrl+N to empty all eighty slots. Answer Yes.

2. Tab to any button, or press Ctrl+Tab to reach the bank you want.
   The tabs are: 1 Sound Effects, 2 Dialog Drops, 3 Music Beds,
   4 Miscellaneous.

3. Press Space on an empty slot. A file browser opens. Choose any WAV,
   MP3, FLAC, OGG or AIFF file. It is now on that key.

4. Press F2 to give it a name you will recognise when you are live. This
   is the name the screen reader reads, and the name search finds.
   Alt+Enter opens the full properties for that sound instead: its name,
   its level, and a hotkey that works even from another program.

5. Repeat. Put your stings and hits in bank 1, your own recorded clips in
   bank 2, and anything you want looping under your voice in bank 3.

6. Your board saves itself. There is nothing to remember to do.

Some things worth knowing while you build:

  - Bank 3 loops by default. Right-click a bed to turn looping off if you
    want it to play once.

  - Bank 4 has no fixed keys. Right-click any button there and choose
    "Hotkey" to give it whatever combination you like.

  - Right-click any button (or press the Applications key) for rename,
    level, looping, hotkey and clear.

  - "Level" adjusts one sound on its own, for when a single clip is much
    louder or quieter than everything else.

  - Sounds are not copied into the app. It remembers where they are. If
    you later move your sound folder, use File then "Relink missing
    sounds", point it at the new location, and the whole board repairs
    itself in one go.

  - Ctrl+S saves the board to a file of its own, so you can keep one board
    per show and open whichever you need with Ctrl+O.

  - File then "Load the demo pack" brings the demo sounds back at any
    time. You cannot lose them.


SENDING SOUND SOMEWHERE ELSE

To give another program on this machine your whole show, use Alt+Shift+O,
Send this show to another program. Point it at a virtual audio cable and
set that program's microphone to the other end of the same cable.

Do NOT point Ctrl+P, Output at a cable for this. That output carries your
pads, your beds and your running order and NOT your microphone, so the
other program would get your soundboard with no voice on it, and you would
stop hearing your own soundboard. Ctrl+Shift+R reads out where everything
is going at any time.

Ctrl+P chooses where your sounds come out, which is a different question:
your speakers, your headphones, or a card per bank if you mix on a desk.

Every device is remembered by its name, so plugging in a headset later will
not silently move your sound somewhere you did not expect.


ABOUT THE DEMO SOUNDS

The twenty sound effects and twenty music beds that come with the app were
generated with ElevenLabs AI. None of them is recorded or sampled from a
commercial sound library, which is what makes it safe to give them away
with a free program. Use them for whatever you like.


TG Drop Deck is free and MIT licensed.
Source: https://github.com/tonygeb23/tg-drop-deck
