Trigger a macro when Shift-Z is used?

I've been searching through "Specific Use Questions & Macros" as well as the feature request threads, and I've not see this question directly addressed (or I've missed it). It appears that we can trigger a sound file with a macro - and what I'd really love to do for my Call of Cthulhu games is have a sound file play when I do an image reveal using Shift-Z.

This could be used in clever ways to build tension or even produce a jump scare.

Is this possible, or is there another approach to accomplish this - or to do something similar? :-)

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Edit: by the way, I'm totally open to prepping a macro and doing Shift-Z and quickly firing the macro one right after the other, but the timing is a little tricky. I see over at https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/6502780/is-it-possible-to-bind-macros-to-keyboard-keys that we can bind macros to a hotkey (e.g. ALT-F1 or similar) - so that I could just type "Shift-Z" followed by my hotkey combo. If that's the best way to accomplish what I'm hoping to do, I'd be happy to get confirmation.

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2nd Edit: (sorry lol) - even more fantastic would be the ability to connect a sound to the image placed in the desktop (e.g. on the GM layer) so that I can set up a series of these Shift-Z + Sound reveals. :-)

The API has no ability to create or be aware of a Z-key preview, unfortunately. Even if it were, the nature of the internet is that it would be near impossible to achieve perfect, consistent timing of the sound and the visual.

Thanks for the response!

Quite so - I know a perfectly timed jump-scare isn't really achievable, but if the sound file is smallish or well made, and I can trigger it fast enough (or even at a small delay after the Shift-Z), that's good enough for my needs - I'm not looking for perfection. :-) -- And attaching the "play" of a jukebox sound to a keyboard keystroke will be convenient for lots of my needs (though I use a ton of tracks) - at the very least to quickly launch battle music.

At the moment, I'm considering pre-setting one or several hotkeys to trigger a play - and I can just do my Shift-Z reveal followed by my hotkey of choice. And I can change this as needed from session to session. Jump scares have to be used really judiciously anyway - and rarely - or they can get a little hokey.

And as a further quick aside @keithcurtis - thank you for all the amazing advice over at https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/5899495/stupid-roll20-tricks-and-some-clever-ones - I'll confess to only having seen this thread today (after six years!) - which says something about how good the base functionality of Roll20 is, really. But I'm really excited to read my way through all of this. Kudos!

since the answer to the original headline question is No (a macro isn't triggered by the same key combo)..

You could consider having your macro (Roll20 Audio Manager API?) to trigger a sound that has a click-track, a lead-in, or a silent intro section. Something that gets the Audio playing, whilst you're listening, and then you do Shift-Z second, at the time of the soundtrack that matches when you want the jump-scare.

That's a really good idea @Gold - there are many times I want to build tension with a sound file that's been created just for that purpose, and using it as a means of queuing a reveal is neat. This could be an excellent means of getting a jump on my players. I might try these approaches out on a few friends to determine which is more effective: seeing an image then hearing a sound or hearing a sound then seeing the image. The audio has the better opportunity to surprise, I'd think - so perhaps the latter approach will be more effective?

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Edit: this of course leads me down the path of researching jump-scares (which are really interesting) - and this article does a great job of describing how they work and how they've developed in film: https://slate.com/culture/2021/10/how-jump-scares-work-and-how-to-tolerate-them.html. In particular, it suggests that indeed priming the players with a proper audio track is the way to go prior to the attempted jump scare (audio) and associated imagery.

What I'd most likely do is queue up my tension music early on and raise it by levels: I organize my Roll20 Jukebox into folders already - and along with "Travel Music", "Town Music", "Sound Effects", "Ambient", and "Battle" (etc) - I have a series of folders titled "Low Tension", "Medium Tension", and "High Tension" - these are background pedal tones and the like that are great for ratcheting up apprehension on top of whatever ambient music is already playing. I'd likely click on one or several of those in succession when the time is right to begin raising the hairs on the players necks, and then when I need to prep the jump scare, run the macro to start the sound file (which might have a tricky click track - because that's easy to create, will give me my cues, and it could be very creepy) and then do the Shift-Z image reveal. :-)

(And while I know the Shift-Z image reveal will load a little slowly rather than being a jump cut - I think this will still be pretty effective. :-)

Thanks for the feedback!

interesting research and I like your plan!

One more related tip, possibly obvious or you're already doing it, but:

a high-resolution (large scale of pixels) Shift-Z is more impactful, than a "Token-sized" shift-Z reveal. 

A lot of Spider tokens that you'd buy from Roll20 Marketplace are around 280x280 or 500x500, roughly.  When you Shift-Z they are small in the center of the screen.

Versus, if you get a huge spider pic (say from Google or photography, or Marketplace art that is intentionally oversized, let's say 1600x1200 or larger)... Then the Shift-Z will take over the entire screen for everyone. 

The times I've had successful Jump-Scares in-game on roll20, not even necessarily intentional, but it's always been when I popped up a big Spider or Scorpion or Leeches, it's always been a large image that got a Gasp! or a Shriek! from players.

One of the player's quotes was: "Tell me ahead when you're going to do that!"

This would be a good method for a Star Wars game to do a jump to lightspeed.

Thanks @Gold - That's very good advice about using larger images, and I'm particularly amused at using a large spider. I'll find a use for that!

And I love the jump to lightspeed sound @keithcurtis. I may have to fire up a Star Wars game just to use it!