After calling on you guys for help finding the ideal soundboard-type program, I received DOZENS of different suggestions. Many of you even offered to program something for me – though the offer is appreciated, it’s unnecessary. :) The really truly interesting part is that no two suggestions were the same. Nobody recommended the same program as someone else.
That said, after looking at all the different options, there’s a clear winner for what I’m looking to do : Jazler Show. It’s a freeware cart replacement program designed specifically for use in a radio station studio. It can play multiple tracks overlaid over each other, you can queue up a bunch of things to be played in order, (so it can handle commercials) and you can see how long any given sample has left in it to play. It’s even designed to be used with a touch screen, so if I ever spent a few bucks (I wouldn’t) and got a small touch screen to go with the laptop, we could do sound effects all official-like.
Thanks to Mike for the suggestion – and thanks to everyone else who helped out. You ALL helped me out – I got to see the variety of options open to me. That’s worth more than you know.
And stay tuned – if all goes according to plan, the (NSFW) Greg, Liz and Ben show should be coming back to the intertubes in only a few weeks. We’re discussing doing our live broadcasts at ~7-8 PM PST on Sundays, and then putting that up as a podcast after that. Just so’s ya know, and whatnot.