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Re: Question regarding 'BPM speed' requirement

PostPosted: 22 April 2019, 14:29
by muscanto
Pitwipe wrote:EXAMPLE:

Kick Drum (with MIDI trigger sending MIDI Note #36)
Time signature = 4/4
Drum pattern = Kick drum on each 1/4 note (1,2,3,4)

Desired lighting response = A light to go ON and OFF for each single MIDI note (execute 2 steps in a scene per single MIDI note)

I want a "Four on the floor" kick drum pattern and lights to go ON and then OFF for each hit of the kick drum.

This would be 2/1 with BEAT activated.

But in order for this to work you have to calculate the time between each step in the scene based on the current tempo. If the current tempo is 120 then:
1/4 note = 500 ms

Desired results:
A Single MIDI Note hit executes a scene containing 2 steps, each step is 250ms.
(Turn lights on [step1] then 250 ms later turn lights off [step2])

This will pulse the lights with the kick drum.


That is a very specific user requirement. It seems to me like you're taking a very complicated approach to a simple problem. You would be far better off performing with a click track and pre-configured scenes that can be triggered with a MIDI note track in a DAW like Ableton. I do this and the lights sync perfectly with the music. If you'd like help setting this up, I'd be happy to help. It works very well for us.

Re: Question regarding 'BPM speed' requirement

PostPosted: 24 April 2019, 04:01
by Pitwipe
I appreciate the suggestion. We've used click tracks in the past and for our tastes the performance becomes much more regimented with less opportunity for off the cuff changes and less prone to happy accidents and going off script (extended solos/breakdowns/impromptu transitions/etc).. things that to my mind have the potential to make a more memorable experience for the band and the audience.

The amount of coding effort involved unclear but making incremental/experimental changes and the idea of creating a dynamic MIDI "engine" of sorts might position ShowXpress in place that is less occupied in it's market segment and potentially create more demand for the product if such features become usable. I'm mainly thinking in terms of MIDI drums triggers for executing scenes/steps but other options may present themselves for traditional operators. Maybe advanced users could enable a "Lab" flag in the software to enable/disable experimental features for interested users to try (and provide feedback). Sometimes as you try things new ideas present themselves that do not immediately come to mind.

Re: Question regarding 'BPM speed' requirement

PostPosted: 24 April 2019, 04:03
by SeekLighting
Pitwipe wrote:I appreciate the suggestion. We've used click tracks in the past and for our tastes the performance becomes much more regimented with less opportunity for off the cuff changes and less prone to happy accidents and going off script (extended solos/breakdowns/impromptu transitions/etc).. things that to my mind have the potential to make a more memorable experience for the band and the audience.

The amount of coding effort involved unclear but making incremental/experimental changes and the idea of creating a dynamic MIDI "engine" of sorts might position ShowXpress in place that is less occupied in it's market segment and potentially create more demand for the product if such features become usable. I'm mainly thinking in terms of MIDI drums triggers for executing scenes/steps but other options may present themselves for traditional operators. Maybe advanced users could enable a "Lab" flag in the software to enable/disable experimental features for interested users to try (and provide feedback). Sometimes as you try things new ideas present themselves that do not immediately come to mind.


The software already has the functionality built in to accept MIDI drum triggers. You just need some hardware to convert acoustic drum triggers to conventional Midi signal. Then feed that MIDI signal into ShowXpress and have it trigger your buttons however you like

Re: Question regarding 'BPM speed' requirement

PostPosted: 24 April 2019, 05:17
by Pitwipe
Right, I'm referring to the features requested:

- BEAT Trigger [MIDI] - 2/1, 4/1
- Listen for 4 MIDI notes numbers (rather than 1) and have each note number selectable per scene

Re: Question regarding 'BPM speed' requirement

PostPosted: 26 April 2019, 21:35
by support
2/1 makes sense for me...
For instance you want to have a Dimmer Pulse every Beat on a Fixture
Step 1: Dimmer 100%
Step 2:Dimmer 0%

What do you think about a button in mode "Loops : 1", with a 2 steps scenes, triggered by a midi note ?

Re: Question regarding 'BPM speed' requirement

PostPosted: 27 April 2019, 23:13
by Pitwipe
Notes from experimenting with this:

- The timing of the two steps in the scene will still need to be adjusted depending on the tempo of each song along with which ever fixtures are relevant. This is not a show stopper but will require a unique scene for each usage scenario.

- A bigger problem with this scenario is that the scene will trigger any time the kick drum (MIDI Note) is struck regardless of what else ShowXpress is doing, meaning it will run any time the drummer hits the kick drum for every song *all night* - which is not very useful. It would be preferable to have it run only during specific scenes (verse/chorus). In order for this to work I'd need to stop the band, pull up the laptop, pull up the tab/scene and disable the MIDI trigger for that button and enable for every song using that type of scene. Is there a way to enable the scene only as required?

Re: Question regarding 'BPM speed' requirement

PostPosted: 13 May 2019, 07:57
by support
Done in this fix: http://download.thelightingcontroller.c ... _05_10.zip

Caution it is "beta".
Please make a copy of your software folder for the test.

Re: Question regarding 'BPM speed' requirement

PostPosted: 13 May 2019, 17:55
by Pauluzzz
I am in love with the feature already. works like a charm. What I do, I read the BPM from some external app, multiply that by 4 and set the BPM to this value. I then have the option to 4x faster or 4x slower. That's right, yeah?

Re: Question regarding 'BPM speed' requirement

PostPosted: 14 May 2019, 08:17
by support
Thank you for your feedback.

Re: Question regarding 'BPM speed' requirement

PostPosted: 15 May 2019, 20:08
by muscanto
support wrote:Done in this fix: http://download.thelightingcontroller.c ... _05_10.zip

Caution it is "beta".
Please make a copy of your software folder for the test.


Very glad to see 1/16 and 1/32. When will these be added to the general release?