dLive scene recall from midi

[Kate Wecker]

Hi folks,

I've been pecking around on the A&H dLive forum, but I can't seem to find the information I'm looking for.

Can someone walk me step by step through how to set up a QLab midi cue (I'm guessing it's actually a Network cue?) to recall a specific scene on a dLive on the same network?

I have a dLive c3500 running firmware v1.80, QLab v4.5.1, and A&H TCP MIDI Driver 1.0.0

I know they can see each other because I can use the soft keys on the desk to trigger QLab, but my brain starts to melt when I try to get QLab to recall scenes on the desk.

It doesn't matter to me if the midi from QLab triggers to GO button on the desk and just fires the next cue in the stack or recalls a specific cue. I can run with either option.

Thanks in advance for helping me get my brain out of the hexadecimal muck. 

[Rich Walsh]

I think there's two bits:

1. Connect to the console
2. Work out what message to send

I'm a bit out of date on A&H's MIDI hardware implementation – I recall needing a third party box to get a physical 5-pin DIN involved – but it looks at first glance as if using their TCP driver would create a MIDI port that QLab can see. Is that right? Does the console appear as an option in the MIDI patch settings? If so, then you'll be using a MIDI Cue to send a MIDI message to that driver (which will wrap it up to send it over the network). It is not a Network Cue. A&H had not heard of OSC when I visited their headquarters…

The second part is a recurring challenge – search the list about A&H's awful, awful MIDI documentation. Here's a bit of it:

Scene Recall

Bank and Program Change message
To recall one of the 500 Scenes (4 banks)
Also transmits this message when a Scene is recalled from the dLive screen For Scene 1 to 128
Scene SS 1 to 128 = 00 to 7F

Select bank

BN, 00, 00,

For Scene 129 to 256

Recall Scene

CN, SS 

What this means is that for scenes 1-128 you should just need to send a Program Change message on the right MIDI channel of (scene number -1). $CN is the system byte for a Program Change on MIDI channel N. Attached is a picture of how it would look to recall scene 1.

For scenes about 128 you'll have to send the appropriate Bank Select message first – so 2 MIDI Cues. $BN $00 vv is Control Change 0 (Bank Select coarse) with a value of vv – 0 for scenes 1-128, 1 for 129-256, etc.

Rich

[Rich Walsh]

> On 20 Sep 2019, at 10:03, 'Rich Walsh' via QLab <ql...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
>
> For scenes about 128

For scenes ABOVE 128

Autocorrect… Seems to be connected to a random word generator.

[Gordon P. Howell, Jr.]

I’ve been writing mixer file for dLive for CH Sound Design’s Palladium program, and delved into sending cue recalls. I was working in Windows, but the process should be the same for Mac, or similar. The dLive has no MIDI input/output jacks, rather, A&H has elected to use MIDI over Ethernet, which complicates the process a little bit.

First you need to install the TCP MIDI driver — there is not one for Windows, but there is for the Mac. Next install the DAW control program. Once that’s done, you should see an icon for it in the top bar. Right click, and open preferences. Select dLive as your board, your MIDI port — dLive defaults to a range beginning with 12 — TCP. If your dLive is set up on your LAN or into a switch to which the computer is connected, you should see the IP address of your mix rack (not the surface) at the bottom. Click on connect.

Now you should be able to send the appropriate MIDI commands from QLAB to the dLive. I wanted to set the board illumination with Palladium's initial cue 0 and then change it to show illumination with cue 1. I stored the settings I wanted into two cues in the dLive, 10 and 11. I then sent MIDI cue from Palladium to the dLive — BB 00 00 CB 00 09 -- to call cue 10. 09 represents cue 10 on the dLive in hex. The “B” represents a hex “B” for MIDI channel 12. The second 00 is the cue bank.

Palladium has a MIDI monitor feature, so I opened it and did a GO on the dLive for cue 10, which let me see exactly what the dLive was sending to call the cue. You could also use MIDI OX to monitor the MIDI channel. Qlab also has a monitor function that you could use.

Geep
HH Audio

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[Kate Wecker]

Thank you Rich and Geep!

I've got it working, thanks to your guidance.  Here's what I learned in case anyone else is feeling as stuck as I was:

* Make sure TCP MIDI Driver is running and connected (if you haven't installed it, you'll need it. It can be found here: https://www.allen-heath.com/downloads/ah-tcp-midi-driver-installer/ )

* In QLab Settings, make sure you've selected AH TCP MIDI as your MIDI Patch

* In your MIDI cue settings - Message Type: Musical MIDI, Command: Program Change, Channel: 12, Program Number: [dLive Scene number -1]

* The highlighted scene in the scene list on the dLive *won't change* when the scene is recalled. I kept waiting for that to happen and it sure doesn't. The cue on deck for the dLive buttons (Prev, Next, GO) will stay on whatever you have cued up. This had me totally confused and thinking things weren't working.

I'm not sure what you'd have to change to recall a scene >128, but the show I'm working on won't have that many scenes, so for my purposes, this is working beautifully. Thanks again!