Feature Request

[benfnjovi]

There are a couple of features I would really like to see added to the timeline portion of the software to help me reduce the time spent building the timelines. Just a little background info on what I'm doing with the software... We have 12 ADJ accu scans, 4 ADJ Mega Pixel led bars, 4 Chauvet dmx Mega strobes, and 2 pars for front lights, and 2 60" flat screen tv's. We intend to use the timeline feature for every song. We will use the video track for all video, the audio track for our click on the leftside of the stereo track and any backing tracks on the right... This almost gives u's the ability to use showxpress for a fully integrated show. In many ways it fits what we are doing perfectly because of the ability to play video files as well as run the light scenes precisely when needed. One thing I would like to see to really speed up the programing is some sort of step trigger. A marker that can be put directly on to the scene line at a specific time to trigger the next step of the scene. This would prevent having to stack several scenes in the area of a song that has several accents in a row that arent on the standard quarter notes in a song... I know that you are allowed to trigger by the bpm but this does not help in areas I've described above. Another request would be more precise zoom ability... Kind of like in recording software such as Cubase to more precisely place the scene... The final most important request would be have an audio waveform image appear when audio is added to the timeline....(even on the video line, after the thumbnail) like many of your competitors...This would make work flow ten times faster because you would be able to visually match the scene change to a specific beat in the song. I come from a audio recording background and I use this method all the time when precisely editing tracks to be perfectly in time with one another as I'm sure many who is used to timeline based editing does. Is it possible that any of these request seem valid enough to be added.

[support]

Pause marker inside scene

This would mean:
- change the structure of the scene
- adapt the engine of Editor, Live/TimeLine and also the interface standalone scene running engine
- risk of losing compatibility with existing scenes
We do not plan to do this.

Showing audio waveform

We already got the requirement ; it is in the TODO list.
Not done already because of many other things more urgent to do.
So there is a chance to have it (we can not promise any date for this).

More efficient zoom function

Not easy with our development tools and the obligation of multi OS compatibility.

[benfnjovi]

Thanks for the quick response on my requests... I understand your answers on the "audio waveform", and the "precision zoom" features... However, I'm afraid I didn't explain my request thoroughly on the step trigger to be used in the timeline. What I'm suggesting is something very similar in function to what you've mentioned in your post that I've quoted and linked to below, except it would be used in the timeline portion rather than on a button. It would not be a pause marker, as you mentioned in your response to my post. I apologize for being confusing in my description. What I propose is a "Manual Trigger" option for the scenes' "Light Event Properties" in the timeline, similar to the one planned to be added to the "Buttons Speed" menu. In the case of the timeline, "Manual Trigger" could be added to "Light Event Properties" menu, along with "Auto BPM", "Manual BPM", and "Manual Speed", allowing a marker to be visually placed on the timeline by right clicking when hovered over(similar to the steps of placing the "Off" marker) and would trigger the next step of the scene. If you include the function you mentioned below, it might be as simple as calling that same function in the timeline scenario when the marker is reached as an alternative to using a key stroke to trigger the next step or if thats not an option, maybe you could simulate the keystroke(page down?) at that point. I'm not positive as I'm fairly new to programing but I dont think you would have to change the logic for the generator or editor since the change wouldn't be in how the scene is created, it would just be an added method of how each step is triggered on any given scene (similar to "Auto BPM" and "Manual BPM"). I apologize if I'm being too persistent... I just want to be as thorough as possible so that I dont miss an opportunity to help improve my and other users workflow. I want you to know that I'm really enjoying the software and the more I use it, the more I like it. I demoed every other major consumer dmx software out there before buying your interface and I'm very glad to say that you have them all beat hands down. Thanks for your time and expertise.

viewtopic.php?f=29&t=778

The window "Button speed" presently contains: "Auto BPM", "Manual BPM" and "Manual speed".
We note in the TODO list: add option "Manual trigger" in this window.
No date for this, because working on a new big project.

[support]

Understood: a "step pause" tool, only in TimeLine.
Noted, but not in priority, since it is this can be achieved by using several "one steps" scenes (this makes effectively many scenes but this works).
There is also some other issues like how to display this on screen !

[JohnRichards]

For support.
It would be a great help to see the TODO list in Announcements, especially the ones being worked on for the next release.

[support]

We will never do that, because we do not want to offer to our competitors a list of all things we plan to do.

[JohnRichards]

Point noted