Gig writeup and general V6 thoughts

[tomrbland]

Hey all,

Last night I used V6 for the first time in a live gig, I have to admit I forgot about some of the missing functions, such as the space bar doesn't set the BPM (I use this all the time) and the ctrl doesn't shut off all the other scenes. I didnt realize that the function of a preset button had changed. I used to find the fader at the bottom of a scene really useful to move through the steps with "page up" and "page down" keys. This is how I did colour changes when I didn't want them every beat, or if I had my colours changing on the beat but my gobo changing per bar, one would be manual BPM and one would be a preset.

And now some errors: This could be to do with the fact I was recording 6 channels of audio at the same time but this wasn't a big show, so it should have been fine. I had 5 total dropouts of DMX putting the whole place in to darkness whilst the musicians carried on. This was only rectified 4 times by random button pressing and dmx turning on and off, and once by exiting Sweetlight and starting up again. I re-booted the whole system during the interval and it seemed to be ok. But before the interval sweetlight had been running for about 4 or 5 hours. I can't say if this is a software error of if this was a computer error but it makes me wish I had the money to buy an SSA more and more!

I would also like to suggest that if a fixture has no icon then the name of the fixture is displayed in 2D view rather than a very unhelpful question mark! (I made all of the fixtures on arriving at the gig and seeing what lighting was available. As it turned out there were a load of KAM par cans with no manual or internet connection so I was guessing the fixture! But I was on sound also so I was glad that there was nothing too complex)

Towards the end of the first half (before I re-booted) I was experiencing a lag, the BPM wasnt responding as it should, the lights not changing with the BPM. The scenes were slow to load and the flash buttons had a huge lag. Could this be to do with recording at the same time?

Anyway there is the gig report! On other news the new Makie speakers and DBX driverack worked a dream and sounded fantastic, even better as didn't have to pay for them!

[directsound]

Is Auto BPM working yet? in 6.2

thanks DJ Mikey mike

[support]

Thank you very much for this report Tom.

the space bar doesn't set the BPM

Not easy to handle because of the MacOS. Please use mouse click for now.

ctrl doesn't shut off all the other scenes

We are studying the best way to handle "Macro's" (we would like to make better than it was in V5). We have a few nice ideas, but each brings issues. We need some more time to take a decision.

the function of a preset button had changed

No way to insert sliders into buttons, with native gadgets of MacOS.

I would also like to suggest that if a fixture has no icon then the name of the fixture is displayed in 2D view rather than a very unhelpful question mark!

Good idea. Added in the TODO list.

the BPM wasnt responding as it should, the lights not changing with the BPM

We checked with a basic chaser, and it seems to work.

The scenes were slow to load and the flash buttons had a huge lag

Software V6 is supposed to use less processor time than V5, and it is supposed also to have a better response.

Please send us you light show, and if possible tell us what actions to do to see the problems. We will check that.

Auto BPM is not available yet in V6. Currently working on dmx input and midi input. After this, we will take an eye on auto BPM.

[tomrbland]

Hi,

Sorry for my slow reply, I have big exams coming up!

Mike - as you can read above, no not yet.

The reason I really need spacebar is that I never use the mouse. All of my scenes have a trigger key and I "Play" a light show rather like you would play an instrument. It seems being compatible with mac is causing nothing but problems!

The problems with the BPM and the lag happened just before all my DMX dropouts so I assume it may be to do with what ever caused that. I can't recreate the problems as I don't actually own any fixtures.

Is there going to be an alternative to the slider? I am going to have to use V5 for ever if not! It is so vital to all my programming! I will send you the show if you think it will be useful but I can't recreate the problem. (I haven't tried, but it would mean having sweetlight on for 6 hours with 90mins of recording 6 channels of audio to recreate the situation and just at the moment I don't have time - in 2 months I will!!)

But it does make me wish I had the money to buy an SSA so that it would be possible to store a scene or two on there so that if my computer fails then it doesn't all go dark and the show can continue.

Thanks for your reply.

[support]

"keyboard key" to trigger the manual BPM is added is the TODO lst.

Sliders in buttons are not available in native Windows. In V5, we were using .NET libraries for for this. And honestly, we are really happy to do not use anymore .NET (many users were lost with so many different versions of .NET and some conflicts with some Windows versions). We notice your problem, but we have no solution for now.

[tomrbland]

Fair enough, Ill keep my eyes open to see if I can think of anything to solve the problem.

[directsound]

Got it thanks

MM

[Pink LD]

I read through all the conversation with great interest.
Just one question: There is no CTRL macro that releases any and all scenes activated? Cause I use that function religiously between each and every song.
Too many times I have found that a wrong behavior of fixtures is from a scene still running on a page or two back in LIVE. So when I am done with a song I just CTRL Z'ed.

[tomrbland]

As do I.

It should be coming soon.

"keyboard key" to trigger the manual BPM is added is the TODO lst.