Sony ACID Pro (audio track) OCS VST - Cue Automation / Hue Automation

[DavidC]

Hi:  I had some questions about the OSC VST plug-in. Hoping you can help me out.  First of all, thanks for creating this! I am envisioning the possibilities with this. I would like to use this for automating lights with backing tracks from our band. 

I have Magix ACID PRO DAW and added the plugin and it is recognized by Lightjams. Added your sample config file as well, and it was recognized. The Sample lj file you uploaded works well. Lightjams is recognizing all of this

- bpm
- beatIndex: current beat index in the bar from 0 to (numerator-1)
- beatProgress: progression of the current beat between 0..1
- beatBarProgress: progression inside the whole bar between 0..1
- numerator and denominator for the time signature
- PPQPos: current song play head position

- lastBar: last position when the bar was at the start
- samplePos: number of seconds since the start of the session
- cycleStart and cycleEnd: position of the loop (if currently looping)
- transportIsRunning: 1 if playing
- transportLoopEnabled: 1 if looping (which is always 0 for Cantabile)

My questions:

1) Can I automate changing of the Scenes/Cues using the OSC plugin? That is, can I change to a different cue in my 'sequencer' grid for say for a Verse or a Chorus?

2) I added automation for Knob 3 which seems to be Intensity. When the track gets to the part where I have a change (see pic) I can see the knob moving Up and Down. However this is not reflected in Lightjams. 

I am not sure how to map that. 

3) I would like to map Hue changes as automation, in the same way. However I am not sure how to do that. How would I map that to a fixture? Is that a specific OSC parameter, or would it be a Lightjams parameter, and how would I connect it to a fixture?

Would you have any more project samples that would explain this?


Thanks

[Mathieu]

Hi David,

1) Can I automate changing of the Scenes/Cues using the OSC plugin? That is, can I change to a different cue in my 'sequencer' grid for say for a Verse or a Chorus?

One way would be to use the knob 1 to activate the verse cue, knob 2 to activate the chorus, etc. To do this, go in the grid manager (ctrl-g) and select the grid activation slider corresponding to the verse and then select OSC and then select the knob 1. 

If you have multiple songs, each song with its own cues, you may want to create one group per song and then puts all grids or groups corresponding to the cues under it. Then you link the song group activation sliders to (let say) knob 1 to 20 and then you link inner cue grid activation sliders to knob 21 to 40.

Another way to create your show would be to think more in terms of a lighting effects library you create in Lightjams (one grid or group per effect). Then in your DAW, you activate the proper effects via the corresponding knobs when you need it. Remember that multiple effects (grids and groups) can be activated at the same time in Lightjams, so you can mix multiple effects to create unique results.

2) I added automation for Knob 3 which seems to be Intensity. When the track gets to the part where I have a change (see pic) I can see the knob moving Up and Down. However this is not reflected in Lightjams.

I opened your project file and all knobs are received as vst/knob/number OSC messages. So it looks like the configuration file for the VST has defined custom names for the knobs but they are not mapped like that in Lightjams. If you don't want to use custom names, edit the VST configuration file and delete the lines with the custom knob names.

To map an OSC message in Lightjams, go in the View/configuration menu, then under OSC, click on the mappings button. Then go under the Learn tab and play with the knob in your DAW. You should see the message in the ignored message list. Select it and map it to the same channel as the know number for clarity sake. So if you renamed the knob 1 to intensity, map the vst/knob/intensity to the channel 1.

In other words, the names of the knobs in the VST should match the name of the mapped OSC message in Lightjams.

3) I would like to map Hue changes as automation, in the same way. However I am not sure how to do that. How would I map that to a fixture? Is that a specific OSC parameter, or would it be a Lightjams parameter, and how would I connect it to a fixture?

- First, you could optionally edit the VST file and rename a knob to be hue. This is just for clarity sake and not needed. If you do so, make sure to map this OSC message  (vst/knob/hue) in Lightjams.

- You then link the power of a source to this hue knob. Select a source and its power slider. Then click on OSC and (make sure the Mapped mode instead of all is activated to see only mapped messages) select the knob you want to use.

- Then put on the grid the light attributes you want to control and make sure they are reached by the source.

[Mathieu]

And remember that you can also use MIDI in addition to the VST plugin. For example, you could only use the precise timing info coming from the VST plugin and activate your effects/cues via MIDI.

[DavidC]

Thanks for the quick response Mathieu and the great answers, very informative.  I tried many of your suggestions yesterday and today. The OSC Learn feature is very handy. Tried to get lightjams to react to MIDI note, but so far no luck. 

 I guess I am in over my head. :-) Nothing seems to be working for me.

I am going to go back to basics and go through all of your tutorials again. 

Appreciate the help though. 

[Mathieu]

To send midi from your DAW to Lightjams running on the same computer, use loopMidi (https://www.tobias-erichsen.de/software/loopmidi.html) or loopBe.

In your DAW, select loopMidi as the midi output and in Lightjams you'll see loopMidi in the midi input devices.