Send MIDI note before and after every cue

[Jordan Pitcairn]

Hi folks,

Fairly new to scripting in Qlab. Looking for some advice.

I need to send the same MIDI note on whenever a cue plays and then send a note off when a cue stops playing. Is there an easy way to do this other than a group cue with a midi cue before and after a video or audio file? This looks quite messy and takes a bit longer to setup. Would love to just drop content in and have the group pre and post midi cue work straight away.

Thanks in advance!

[Phil Manson]

Hi there, Jordan

Hope you're well..... 

Simplest way, avoiding any too much scripting, might be to crate 2 x simple TRIGGER and PANIC groups that simultaneously sends both a (GO & MIDI ON CUE) or (PANIC & MIDI OFF CUE).

In this workspace I have set keystroke "G" for firing go, and "H" to replace the panic/escape function, but these could be easily replaced with MIDI keystrokes etc.

Theres no necessity to have the AUDIO CUES all within a group file but is just for tidiness

Nice little workaround

PHIL

[Rich Walsh]

This might work: it uses a pair of OSC commands running all the time to toggle the target of a Start Cue depending on whether any cues in the Main Cue List are running, and also to keep firing that Start Cue. The Start Cue fires cue “0” or cue “1”; you can put what you want in those: the OSC colorName method I’ve put in shows you what’s going on. I’m not sure I’ve ever managed to build a stable pair of cues that arm/disarm each other before, so I may have missed something – but it seems to work OK, and without trying to melt my machine… The downside is that panicking will kill the OSC commands. I’ve set them to last 10 minutes.

I’ve also stuck in an alternative version: another pair of helper cues and a hotkey script that can wrap up your selected cues as you describe. I don’t think it’s too messy, and takes practically no time to automate like this.

Rich

[Jordan Pitcairn]

Hi Phil! Fancy bumping into you on here.

Yeah thats about as far as I got earlier. The problem with that is that if a cue ends naturally (such as a VT rather than a sting) then theres no way to send the note off as there's no panic involved. 

Cheers,

Jordan

[Jordan Pitcairn]

Hey Rich.

I like both of your methods! The first method is great for shows where I don't need to hit panic(hopefully) and the second method is a great quick way to build groups. Thanks very much.

Jordan

[Phil Manson]

Me again, Jordan.

The monotony of heading down to Marylebone got me thinking again........ :)

I think for 99% of the usage in our industry, it's SINGLE CUE firing, be it audio or video, so I have made a workspace that reflects this :

Main points are :

• All show cues (audio or video) should be placed in the group folder called "FILES"
• (The cues are manually cue'd up as normal from within this group)
• Do not use GO BUTTON or ESC to trigger or kill cues, instead use the hotkeys, or any MIDI triggers you might set up.
• I have set up hotkeys - "G" for GO, "H" for FADE and "J" for HARD KILL
• These in turn affect the man group but also trigger a script, which is continually running, but is re-triggered if PANIC is pressed.
• This script simply looks at wether or not the "FILES" group is running or not.
• In my example, they simply fire a JPEG but you can set the target application to anything - like your MIDI trigger
• All cues are currently in the same cue list purely for an overview, but would be best to separate into a CONTROL and a MEDIA list

Drop us a line and let us know what you think

ATB

Phil

[Phil Manson]

..... You might have to change the "INFINITE LOOP" of the audio files enclosed, and set them as "! PLAY" to show what happens upon file end.

P