Sending MIDI Timecode to full system

[Kevin August Landesman]

Hello All. 

I am playing around with a setup using Qlab on one computer to generate MIDI Timecode to trigger events on several over computers as well as an ETC Ion. I have everything working fine individually but when putting the components together I ran into a problem. Because you can only assign one MIDI destination to a Timecode cue I can only send to half the system at a time. The Ion is connected with a Scarlett interface. The other Qlab computers are connected using a MIDI network. 

I have tried a few 3rd party apps for MIDI routing including MIDI Pipe, but they don't seem to play nice with MTC. Currently, the only way I got it working was to put two timecode cues in a group one for each destination. 

I would rather not have to do the double timecode trick as I plan on doing a lot of starting and stopping and it would slow down the programming. 

Is there some other cool app I have not found that will take the MTC in and split it. Or is there a way of doing a loop through virtually? I think the most robust set up would involve getting an interface for each Qlab computer and use a MIDI thru box but I would love to not spend more on hardware. 

Thanks,

[Rich Walsh]

I came up with a convoluted thing involving Dante, but then it occurred to me to you could generate LTC and loop it to two instances of Lockstep, one outputting MIDI on your physical device and the other on the network. Seems to work with Loopback and Dante Via.

Rich

[Kevin August Landesman]

This worked for me. Thanks!  I still wish I could find an app that allows for multiple MIDI outputs. Does anyone know how to tell lockstep how to change inputs and outputs in apple script? I would love to have a script cue launch both instances of lockstep and set up the routing.

[Rich Walsh]

The routing is stored in the preferences, so all you have to do is create separate preference files for each instance. Change the CFBundleIdentifier in the Info.plist inside the application package of the second copy to something other than com.figure53.Lockstep.

Rich

[John Huntington]

On Wednesday, July 18, 2018 at 6:18:04 PM UTC-4, Kevin August Landesman wrote:

I am playing around with a setup using Qlab on one computer to generate MIDI Timecode to trigger events on several over computers as well as an ETC Ion. I have everything working fine individually but when putting the components together I ran into a problem. Because you can only assign one MIDI destination to a Timecode cue I can only send to half the system at a time. The Ion is connected with a Scarlett interface. The other Qlab computers are connected using a MIDI network. 

I'm loathe to suggest a non-networked solution but if the machines aren't that far apart is there a reason an old-school MIDI Splitter wouldn't do the job?

http://midisolutions.com/prodqth.htm

When using an 80's technology... :-)

John

controlgeek.net

[Rich Walsh]

Except you then need to buy a MIDI interface for every Mac, as opposed to using the free network MIDI implementation…

To quote the original post:

I think the most robust set up would involve getting an interface for each Qlab computer and use a MIDI thru box but I would love to not spend more on hardware.

IP networks are 70s technology aren’t they?

Rich

[John Huntington]

From: 'Rich Walsh' via QLab [mailto:ql...@googlegroups.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2018 10:27 AM
Subject: Re: [QLab] Sending MIDI Timecode to full system

 

Except you then need to buy a MIDI interface for every Mac, as opposed to using the free network MIDI implementation…

 

$20 these days: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/407703-REG/Hosa_Technology_USM_422_USB_to_MIDI_Cable.html

 

Or $12 on Amazon, but those look super sketchy. 

 

We have a bunch of the M-Audio ones:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/189911-REG/M_Audio_9900_52537_00_MIDISport_2_In_2_Out_USB.html

 

 

>>>IP networks are 70s technology aren’t they?

 

J

 

But really didn’t make it into our market until the 90’s…

 

John