What a Sound Cue Is Really For

A sound cue is simply a planned moment where the sound of the show changes. Music begins, an effect plays, a level lifts or drops. That is all it is. The skill lies in the planning, not the technology.

In community and amateur theatre, the person running sound is often a friend, a parent, or a cast member who happened to be good with a laptop. That is entirely normal, and it is not a problem, as long as everyone agrees on one principle: a good sound cue supports the moment without drawing attention to itself. If the audience notices the thunder, you have probably made it too loud. If they jump because the phone rang when they had forgotten one existed, you have done your job beautifully.

It helps to sort your cues into two rough families. Effects cues are specific and timed: a doorbell, a gunshot, a car pulling away. Atmosphere cues sit underneath the action: pre-show music, interval playlist, underscore for a monologue, scene-change transitions. The two behave differently, and your cue sheet should reflect that.

Building a Cue Sheet You Can Read Under Pressure

The cue sheet is the document that keeps a show repeatable. It should be readable by someone else at a glance, in a dark box, with a prompt script in the other hand. A reliable set of columns looks like this:

• Cue number — Q1, Q2, Q3, running in performance order, never renumbered mid-run unless you tell everyone.
• Script page and line — the exact trigger word or action, not just "Act Two".
• Description — "front doorbell, two rings" is better than "bell".
• Source and track — the file name and where it lives.
• Level and fade — the number you actually set, and the fade-in or fade-out time.
• Notes — anything you had to remember in rehearsals, such as "wait for the laugh".

Print it. Pencil is still the most reliable editing tool in theatre. Mark the same numbers in the margin of your script, and make sure the deputy stage manager's calling script matches yours exactly. Mismatched cue numbers are the single most common cause of a sound cue arriving at the wrong moment.

Fade Times: The Difference Between a Nudge and a Shove

Fade times do most of the emotional work, and they are the numbers people most often leave blank. Some practical starting points:

• 0.5 seconds or less — a button. Right for a slam, a switch, an abrupt cut to silence.
• 1–2 seconds — a natural stop for an effect that has finished its job.
• 4–8 seconds — a crossfade between two pieces of music, or a gentle exit from a scene.
• 10–20 seconds — a slow tail under a closing speech, or music rising beneath a scene change.

Where a fade curve is available, a straight linear fade often sounds mechanical on music, while a soft S-curve feels more natural. Never cut music dead the instant a line lands unless the silence is deliberately brutal. Let it breathe for a second or two and the scene will feel warmer.

Timing the cue itself matters just as much. Cue on the word, not before it, unless the action demands otherwise. A phone should usually ring two beats after the line that mentions it, not on top of it.

Calling the Show: Standbys, Gos and Keeping It Calm

Clear calling is what turns a cue sheet into a performance. The deputy stage manager gives the warning, the operator confirms, and then the cue is called. The standard pattern is short and unfussy:

"Standby sound Q14." — "Sound standing by." — "Sound Q14, go."

Say the cue number before the word "go", so the operator knows what is coming. Repeat the standby back, even if you heard it perfectly; it confirms the line is open and you are awake. If something goes wrong, the operator should never be more than one button away from silence. Know your mute, know your master fader, and know how to get out of a track that has jammed. A calm recovery is invisible; a flustered one is not.

Rehearsals and the Dreaded Tech

Ask for a paper tech before the technical rehearsal. Half an hour with the director, the stage manager and your cue sheet will save you an entire evening of stopping and starting. Then use the cue-to-cue to check the joins, and the dress rehearsal to set levels properly.

An empty auditorium sounds entirely different from a full one, because bodies absorb sound. Set your music and underscore levels with an audience present if you possibly can, and be ready to nudge the master fader up by a decibel or two on opening night. Dialogue always wins. If you cannot hear the actors, the audience cannot either.

Sensible Habits for the Run

• Carry a printed cue sheet and a pencil, even if everything is on screen.
• Keep a backup copy of every track on a second device, and test it before the first performance.
• Arrive early, run a top-and-tail check of the opening and closing cues, and label your desk.
• Log any changes you make during the run, and tell the stage manager the next day.
• Write your levels down. Memory is not a cue sheet.

Do those small things and your sound will sit quietly inside the production, lifting the moments that need lifting and staying out of the way everywhere else. That is the whole art of it.