How can I get better accuracy in the timeline?

create synch shows with video, audio and lights

How can I get better accuracy in the timeline?

Postby jons3657 » 23 April 2019, 18:47

Hi all,

I'm hoping to achieve better synchronization/accuracy with my cues in the timeline. To preface, I've got one media track with an mp3 in it and about four lighting tracks. I've noticed that after I place my lighting commands in the timeline, they don't play back very accurately. Also, I should mention that I've browsed a couple threads and tried using the techniques described e.g. hitting spacebar at the beginning of an "audio event"/where I want to place my cue, and using the bpm tool. Unfortunately, the current time marker doesn't seem to scrub very accurately, so when I hit spacebar (to stop) at the beginning of an audio event, and place my cue there, it won't be in quite the same spot when I play back what I've programmed. I've also tried placing cue's visually, in relation to the displayed waveform (as most "audio events" can be recognized visually as well) however that visual representation of the waveform doesn't seem to be very accurate either.

What other options do I have? I'm looking for "daw-like" accuracy... like I'd expect from Ableton etc. so that I can place my cues and hit each audio event with +/-200-300 ms of accuracy. If that's not possible, how accurate can I realistically get the placement to be? Is it possible that the inaccurate scrubbing is a function of my computer? The computer I'm working on isn't very impressive...

Any and all insight is greatly appreciated... thank you for your time!
jons3657
 
Posts: 2
Joined: 23 April 2019, 18:13

Re: How can I get better accuracy in the timeline?

Postby SeekLighting » 24 April 2019, 03:56

To get DAW like accuracy, use a DAW.

Import your audio into your DAW of choice and set the BPM and time markers so the ruler lines up with the beats of your track.

Then, create a MIDI track, and add midi notes where you want to trigger your lighting scene

Then add all your scenes as BUTTONS in ShowXpress, and under "button trigger" choose MIDI, and map them to the note you want to use coming out of your DAW

Press Play in your DAW and the midi notes should send to ShowXpress, pressing each button as the song goes along.

I should mention this does require internal midi routing between the two programs, which does require some mucking around and some third party freeware to get working, but isn't all that difficult.
SeekLighting
 
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Joined: 03 April 2017, 02:28


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