Re: [QLab] Attach a MIDI clock to audio file in qlab

[Andrew Nagy]

You will have to send the MTC out to itself using a hardware device (out to in) or using a virtual MIDI device. You can't directly tell qlab to accept it's own MTC. Unless someone tells me otherwise this is what I've always had to do and it works just fine.

Andrew Nagy
http://www.andrewsnagy.com
(951) 259 4723

On Tue, Oct 2, 2012 at 12:42 PM, Lebowski11 <jpr...@gmail.com> wrote:

I am trying to use QLAB as a trigger system for audio and lighting.  I currently have the audio mp3 file in QLAB workspace as well as many MSC cues that trigger the current lighting desk.  All cues are triggering the lighting desk just fine.  1st cue in QLAB is MTC cue.  It sends time code to the Lighting desk.  the lighting desk sees the time code just fine. 
THE PROBLEM: I cant get the audio file in QLAB to see the timing from the MTC cue.  I want the audio track in QLAB to be synced with the timecode that the lighting desk is seeing.
Then i can just stop the audio file where i want, look at the timing and write the time trigger in QLAB to trigger the proper lighting cue in the lighting desk. 
END GOAL:  to get the audio file in QLAB to manage the clock that all triggers happen from.

Thanks for all your help in advance.

-Jim Rood
Lighting Designer
617-780-9828
www.jimrood.com

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[Christopher Ashworth]

Hi Jim,

QLab doesn't have a built-in way to direct the output of an MTC cue back to itself.

Moreover, QLab timecode triggers are synced to timecode in the way you might be thinking. A cue in QLab will be triggered if incoming timecode passes the time set as the cue trigger, but that is the only time. It will not, for example, pick up a cue in the middle based on incoming timecode.

However, if I am understanding your goals, it might be useful to have:

- MTC Cue which auto-continues to Audio Cue
- Starting the MTC Cue thus immediately also starts the Audio Cue
- Use the [ and ] keys to pause/resume playback in order to stop at a certain time in the audio and enter timing information.

Does that help, or have I misunderstood?

Best,
Chris

[Christopher Ashworth]

On Oct 2, 2012, at 3:50 PM, Christopher Ashworth <ch...@figure53.com> wrote:
>
>
> Moreover, QLab timecode triggers are synced to timecode in the way you might be thinking.

Typo -- this should read "QLab timecode triggers are NOT synced to timecode in the way you might be thinking".

-C

[Jeremy Lee]

Not sure what you actually want to do here.  If it's just a single track of audio, open the track in any audio editor and find the points for your lx cues, and add the MTC start point to that.  If you want to be able to start and stop the time code and audio at random points, maybe make a multitrack audio file with your stereo source, and a 3rd track of LTC.

The figure53 utility Timecode Display will also show you any MTC that QLab is creating:

https://github.com/Figure53/TimecodeDisplay

If you're sending MSC messages to the LX board, why are you also using MTC?  You could just put the MSC into a Fire All group and use the PreWait value for timeline purposes.

On Oct 2, 2012, at 3:42 PM, Lebowski11 wrote:

I am trying to use QLAB as a trigger system for audio and lighting.  I currently have the audio mp3 file in QLAB workspace as well as many MSC cues that trigger the current lighting desk.  All cues are triggering the lighting desk just fine.  1st cue in QLAB is MTC cue.  It sends time code to the Lighting desk.  the lighting desk sees the time code just fine. 
THE PROBLEM: I cant get the audio file in QLAB to see the timing from the MTC cue.  I want the audio track in QLAB to be synced with the timecode that the lighting desk is seeing.
Then i can just stop the audio file where i want, look at the timing and write the time trigger in QLAB to trigger the proper lighting cue in the lighting desk. 
END GOAL:  to get the audio file in QLAB to manage the clock that all triggers happen from.

Thanks for all your help in advance.

-Jim Rood
Lighting Designer
617-780-9828
www.jimrood.com

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Jeremy Lee

    Sound Designer, NYC - USA 829

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[Andrew Nagy]

Christopher,

What do you mean by "the middle". I suppose I'm a little confused by that. I just ran a MTC show from qlab (qlab generated the timecode) in cue list A which the output was sent to a midi-sport 2x2 and I placed a midi cable from the OUT A to IN A and I had all of the midi cues triggered in list B accepting timecode from the midi-sport IN A. We had over 310 cues and it worked perfectly every night (and BTW thank you for that) So I suppose I'm a little confused myself by your message.

Andrew Nagy
http://www.andrewsnagy.com
(951) 259 4723

[Sean Dougall]

What Chris means by "the middle" is: If you use a DAW like Pro Tools or Logic, and have an audio file starting at 1:00:00:00, and you send it timecode starting at 1:00:01:15, it will pick up from that point in time and jump a second and 15 frames into the audio file. 

QLab doesn't do that; it only treats timecode as a trigger for the beginning of a cue. So if you have an audio cue set to trigger at 1:00:00:00 and you send it timecode starting at 1:00:01:15, that cue won't trigger. If you're playing back from the beginning and letting MTC roll, you won't notice a difference, but if you try to start from the middle for rehearsal, you might miss some triggers. That's the benefit of using auto-continues instead of MTC triggers on the audio and MSC cues; you can always use the Load to Time slider to pick up at a certain point, without missing cues.

Regarding your MIDI setup (patching an output port to an input port), you can get the same effect without any external hardware by using an IAC bus. To set one up:

- Launch /Applications/Utilities/Audio MIDI Setup

- In the MIDI window, double-click on the "IAC Driver" icon

- If "Device is online" is unchecked, check it

- Click on the "+" button to add one.

If you need MIDI to go both to the IAC bus and to the lighting board, you can send directly to the IAC bus and use a program like MIDI Patchbay (http://notahat.com/midi_patchbay) to duplicate that to the 2x2 output port.

Cheers,

Sean

[Jeremy Lee]

QLab doesn't "Chase" timecode like a video deck or something would.  It uses incoming TimeCode to start cues, and then waits for the next start time.

So, if you had a 5 minute cue, triggered with MTC, it would not stop if the incoming timecode stopped.  And if the first timecode that QLab saw was 30 seconds into the 5 minute cue, it wouldn't catch up- it would just ignore it.

On Oct 2, 2012, at 3:54 PM, Andrew Nagy wrote:

Christopher,

What do you mean by "the middle". I suppose I'm a little confused by that. I just ran a MTC show from qlab (qlab generated the timecode) in cue list A which the output was sent to a midi-sport 2x2 and I placed a midi cable from the OUT A to IN A and I had all of the midi cues triggered in list B accepting timecode from the midi-sport IN A. We had over 310 cues and it worked perfectly every night (and BTW thank you for that) So I suppose I'm a little confused myself by your message.

Andrew Nagy
http://www.andrewsnagy.com
(951) 259 4723

On Tue, Oct 2, 2012 at 12:51 PM, Christopher Ashworth <ch...@figure53.com> wrote:

On Oct 2, 2012, at 3:50 PM, Christopher Ashworth <ch...@figure53.com> wrote:
>
>
> Moreover, QLab timecode triggers are synced to timecode in the way you might be thinking.

Typo -- this should read "QLab timecode triggers are NOT synced to timecode in the way you might be thinking".

-C

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[Andrew Nagy]

Sean,

Thanks. I think in the future I will just use the load timer and pre-waits like you mentioned. It seems MUCH easier. 

Andrew Nagy
http://www.andrewsnagy.com
(951) 259 4723

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