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Software Based Music Sequencer Control of myDMX

FM Former Member
After doing a search to see if my question was already answered, I became a little reluctant to post this... but I am in need so here goes...

What I want to do is use a software based music sequencer (GVox Master Tracks Pro) to control mDMX... I have assigned the 16 lights into the universe and have 80 faders to run the various colors and functions. I have asigned each light it's own midi channel... lite 1 has midi channel 1, lite 2 has midi channel 2... I have assigned each fader in myDMX to respond to a midi note... fader 1 responds to midi channel 1 note D3 and so on... when I play the sequence, the faders come on at the right time, but they do not shut off... so if I play a D3 for four counts, then an F3 for four counts, the result is D3 for the first four counts then D3 and F3 together for four counts... how do I get the fader to recognize when to shut off???

A relatd question, will velocity set the fader amount?... if the D3 is played with a midi velocity of 127 can it be full up? if the velocity is 65, will it be half way up???

My set up is as follows... Laptop A has the sequencer in it. I use two midiman 2X2... the first 2X2 goes to my drum machine where it sends the drum midi sequence on port A. the first 2X2 port B goes to the second 2X2 which goes to Laptop B which has myDMX on it...

like I mentioned, I can get the sequencer to play the drums... and send a signal to the myDMX software on the second laptop... and it recognizes note on... but not note off, and I am not sure about how to set different myDMX fader levels...

I guess I should mention that I do a lot of music sequencing of my keyboard... and all of the on/off/velocity/continous controllers work for the keys and drums...

My goal would be that if the sequencer plays a D3 at velocity 127 that the fader associated with that note would come on at 100%... if it is a D3 at velocity 64, the fader would be at about 50%... if I program a D3 8 beats long and crecendo from velocity 0 to 127, see the fader go from full off to full on over the 2 measures...

Help is very much appreciated!

Jeff
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FM Former Member
You are correct... I just want to be completely versatile... I have 2 ADJ TriPhase, 12 ADJ TriSpot and 2 ColorKey Par 64...

Each TriPhase has 4 faders assigned in myDMX... each TriSpot has 5 faders, each ColorKey has 6 faders...

I don't think that I can get the subtlty and variety I want by programming steps and scences...

Thanx for your reply!
FM Former Member
Imagine that... a user doing things the way they were intended?!?!?!?

Ok... It will be really cool if I can get it to program this way... then each light can be progamed like an instrument, fade from one color to the next strobe to a sequenced pattern so it could follow a guitar riff... a drum solo...

I am going to log off now but watch my email... I am heading over to the lights to se if it reads the velocity to set fader levels... just can't figure the lights off not working when the note stops playing.... mmm
S Studio42 (Guest)
You're really not thinking this through.

OK, yes, you can assign MIDI control to channels via note ON, but it's not really all that graceful. MyDMX will take the note on and the velocity data to generate a DMX value to the channel, but then you have to issue another MIDI command to that DMX channel(note value) wiht a ZERO velocity value. MyDMX will NOT acknowledge note OFF commands. This has been documented.

Are you looking for FULL automation? MyDMX isn't intended for that at all.

My suggestion:
Use not values and/or patch change for scene calls, and then use CC's for stuff you want more constant control over.

Use scenes. You'll get better results for triggers, which is what you want.

DO NOT assign notes to channels, as you can see what happens.

But on the DMX channel/MIDI Note issue:
A recap: yes, it will use the velocity tied to the note ON to generate a DMX value at a 2:1 ratio. Each MIDI step(1-128) will equat to a DMX value of 2X(velocity).
But, that also means if you pound the snot outta that note, you SHOULD get a FULL on. And if you can do a halfwaay value(velocity = 65), you will get a DMX value of roughly HALF, but that doens't necessarily equate to a half-intensity setting in DMX, as that's fixture dependent. Don't expect a 50% DMX value to necessarily equate to 50% output.

If you get out of this need for total control, you'll be fine.
FM Former Member
Understood... and way too funny... no snot being banged out by the sequencer.... I get your point about having to program an off... that is a bummer I was hoping that this could be like a guy with 80 pairs of fingers running faders... but I gues not...

So the next option is what... program all the lights in a step, save that as a note... program another batch of setings and program that as a note... and so on...?
S Studio42 (Guest)
You'll most likely want to use a hybrid set of CC's, note and patch change instructions and scenes.

Keep in mind that scenes can become quite complicated. The issue could be in timing as you lose some control over that, which might not be a problem if you're not changing your sequence's time for the scene.

Another option is to use CC's, wich can be a pain to program. Note ons with velocity are not a good way to do transitions, CC's work better. The only way to use this with note ons and velocity is to crank up your tempo so you can get higher resolution with your MIDI clock(not to be confused with MTC) so you can bust off with the 32nd notes with micro changes. But this gets cumbersome, time consuming. CCs would also be time consuming but would be easier to edit later on.

I think in some cases, scenes might work better. For other things you might want to do performance-type triggers.

I think it's best to let the software actually do some of what it's designed to do. You don't need to make extra work for yourself.

For example, I'm converting a show from MyDMX to Compu Show. I'll actually in the end have more lighting cues(the myDMX show has 214 scenes), but I won't have to built a 214 scenes. I mean, I only use so many colors. I might need some slower or faster for fades, and a few blackouts to handle blackouts, and some sets, but that's OK. In the end, there's a lot of time saved doing it this way than doing it the MyDMX way. But, in defense of MyDMX, I'm pushing MyDMX past what it was ever intended to be used for.
S Studio42 (Guest)
Another idea with your note channel triggering might be a change to triggering scenes. My idea here is to use short to ZERO fade times, and then short hold times. The problem here is that once the trigger is hit, and if that hold is too short, then it simply won't last long enough.

Keep in mind that MyDMX doesn't care about HOLDING notes. A trigger is a trigger, like on a percussion trigger: hit and done.

This might be an option. But the other problem that may be an issue for you is that it's the most recent SCENE trigger will kick out the previous scene trigger or whatever else you have going on. Also, as you may be aware, MyDMX does NOT allow scenes to overlap. You can however set channels to HTP or LTP modes on a per channel basis, which may be something you can use for your channel triggers in conjunction with scene triggers.
FM Former Member
Ok... took your advise.... I set a number of light scenes... assigned note values to them, and programed light shows for 3 songs... 93 to go!

All works well... so far I have only had lights flash on and off in appropriate places throughout each song... now I want to do some fades...

Do I just assign note values to the myDMX channels associated with master brightness, then do crescendo and decrescendo to fade from 1 scene to the other?

Thanx!

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