As you asked me in your last mail, here I post my suggestions and requests on the Forum, so please SCS users, give your reaction about my suggestions about shortcuts, and banks of shortcuts and the use in SCS of External MIDI Control Surfaces described below.
Mike,
Last days, I intensively thought how to improve SCS features and ‘ease of use’, and the more I thought, the more it became clear to me, that SCS improvements could be deducted from ‘how users use SCS during the different phases of their work’. (i did that, same way as an architect studies people’s way of living, before drawing plans).
The THREE MAJOR PHASES OF WORK, using SCS are : Creation, Rehearsal, Performance :
1/ CREATION OF THE SOUNDTRACK.
During this phase, we use mainly the functions :
Add Audio Cues, Add Stop/Fade Cues, Add Level Changes, Add Sub-Cues,etc ...
2/ REHEARSAL WITH DIRECTOR AND ACTORS.
During this phase, we use mainly the functions :
Play – Pause/Resume, Stop/Fade-out Hotkey, Go back, Go next, Go to top ...
(including modify levels and lengths, testing new sounds, adding some new Cues)
(and we would need also a Resume with Fade-in, and Play with Fade-in which currently do not exist)
3/ USE OF SCS DURING LIVE PERFORMANCE WITH AN AUDIENCE.
During this phase, we use mainly the functions :
- GO – GO – GO,
- Fade out smoothly and discretely,and Goback (if Sound Engineer did a ‘double GO’, or a ‘GO by mistake’),
- Goto next- Goto next- Goto next (if an actor has forgotten or passed a part of his text
.- Hotkey, Hotkey, Hotkey (when there is improvisation or interactivity between actors and the audience: e.g performance for children)
These 3 phases of work can be achieved, depending on the circumstances, by different people, on different computers, or complementary computers (a computer for performance, another for safety).
These different people and computers may: use different shortcuts, use different soundcards, use different external MIDI control surfaces and different MIDI equipments.
This means that all extra informations(*) should be clearly, easily, quickly & separately saved/imported/exported from a computer to another.
(*extra informations such as Option/Shortcuts, Hotkeys, Production/Devices/Control Send Devices/Cue Control Devices)
Let me tell you a true recent story that happened to me about that: 2 weeks ago, I went for a date with 2 computers on a show. One computer for performance, the other one for safety. Both were using an external midi control surface (Korg Nanopad2) for playing ‘GO’ cues and several other shortcuts that i programmed in ‘Cue Control Devices’. 20mn before the show, I did some changes in SCS Cue list session. So I transfered via USB key the session to the ‘safe’ computer. All my Cue Control Devices MIDI shortcuts were lost.
I just reprogrammed the ‘GO’, but did’nt have time enough to reprogram the others before the show started.(This is the reason i asked you last week about devices maps infos).
The fact that Cue control devices can’t be exported in a simple way is a very pity, and I am sure that most users don’t understand very well how it works : (What is saved, where is it saved, what parameters can be exported or imported etc.)
I wish all these Device parameters could be as clear and simple to manipulate, as they are in ‘Print Cue List’ function (in which you can select by checking or unchecking the Cue Types you want to print), or be as clear as they are in ‘Edit/Import/Export Cues from/to another SCS Cue file’ (in which you can select clearly the Cues you want to Import/Export).
I wish it should be as simple as these for Importing/Exporting Cue control Devices.
The more flexibility we will have using SCS, the more SCS will be universal, and would respond to all the different needs and ways of using it, by different people.
So, I believe the only way to give a concrete answer to The THREE MAJOR PHASES OF WORK that I described above, and give a concrete answer to THE DIFFERENT WAYS OF WORKING on a same project same by different people on different computers, is to give users more flexibility
- more Shortcuts,
- more Hotkeys,
- more External MIDI controls (easier to use),
- more MIDI Triggers,
- a ‘MIDI learn’ function
- more External MIDI surfaces (easier to set, to use, and to share with other SCS users),
Can we imagine in SCS architecture, that all shortcuts, hotkeys, external midi triggers, external midi control surfaces specifications, could be such as pieces of an engine that you could copy out of a session, put in a ‘library garage folder’ on your hard disk or USB key, and re-use separately onto another session or another computer ?
Imagine that, when creating a new soundtrack, I load the ‘External MIDI Soundtrack Creation MIDI SET’ I had prepared. Using this set, I can : Add Audio Cues, Add Stop/Fade Cues, Add Level Changes, Add Sub-Cues, etc, all these functions just triggered by my MIDI keyboard.
Imagine I want to share my MIDI set with other SCS users : I upload it on SCS website so other users can benefit from my set.
We can imagine many different sets and many configurations with many different MIDI devices provided and shared by all SCS community.
So I believe SCS Major Improvements could be :
- EXTENSION OF the function [OPTION/SHORTCUTS]
(using combination of Shift, Alt, Ctrl + Key)
All SCS main functions are accessible this way (eg Add a Audio File Cue, Bulk Edit Cues, Print...).
(In software such as Sony Sound Forge, Vegas, or Cakwalk Sonar, hundreds of shortcuts are configurable).
- EXTENSION OF the function [OPTION/EXTERNAL MIDI SHORTCUTS]
(triggered by MIDI)
All SCS main functions are accessible this way
- Import/Export these shortcuts from/to other SCS sessions.
- EXTENSION OF the function [HOTKEYS]
1/ (by using combination of Shift, Alt, Ctrl + Key)
2/ (by using ‘sets of Hotkeys’ see details below)
- EXTENSION OF the function [EXTERNAL HOTKEYS]
(triggered by MIDI)
(using ‘sets of External Hotkeys’ see details below)
- CREATION OF a new function [HOTKEY BANKS]
The problem is that number of Hotkeys is limited by the number of keys on the PC keyboard.
I wish that Hotkeys could be saved as ‘Set of Hotkeys’: Different ‘sets of Hotkeys’ could be loaded and played in a same SCS session.
Concretely it means that in a theater piece SCS session, a same key would play different sounds ‘on the fly’, or have different functions in the same session
( eg : one set for each different scene, ‘QWERTYUIOP or 123456789 keys’ would play different animal sounds in the forest scene, and same keys would play different kitchen sounds in Kitchen scene.
It multiplies possibilities of hotkeys in the same session.
Another utility of ‘Set of Hotkeys’ function, is that you can prepare some library of different hotkeys sets (phone rings, doors, natural elements etc.), that you can easily try when rehearsing.
Of course ‘sets of hotkeys’ would be available for ‘external MIDI Hotkeys’.
- ABILITY TO IMPORT/EXPORT EXTERNAL MIDI TRIGGERS
(just as we do for ‘import Cues from another SCS session’)
- IMPLEMENTATION OF ‘MIDI LEARN‘ MODE:
Setting a MIDI note to a Cue or to a function would be done by setting ‘Midi learn mode ON’, click in ‘key number’ checkbox, then play the MIDI note, so the MIDI note can be automatically set to such or such function. (Many programs use such MIDI learn mode).
- USE OF EXTERNAL MIDI CONTROL SURFACES:
There are vey many different MIDI control surfaces on the market.
It’s clear that you can’t configure all of them, just as you did (i presume) for the Behringer BCR2000 & BCF2000.
But SCS users can do this job for you, and share it on the website with SCS community.
(Some communities are very active, see the link below)
http://www.traktorbible.com/freaks/mappings.aspx
Most Control surfaces have 8,16, 40 or 64 pads, and different assignable knobs.
The problem is “How can we configure all these Control Surfaces?”
Mike, I suggest that you write a small utility program that would help users to create the presets for their own external MIDI control surfaces:
This utility prg would create empty ‘personnalised sets’ of External MIDI Cues (just as ‘place holder’)
In which you would be asked :
’Input how many pads ?
’Input how many columns ?,
‘ input how many rows ? ‘
‘Input how many banks ?’
‘Input the MIDI notes to be played in col1_row1; col2_row1, etc.
‘Input how manyMIDI controllers ?’ etc...
In Example below (2 col, 8 rows, 4 banks)
- korg_nanopad2_controle set.png (9.69 KiB) Viewed 5725 times
Once this empty set created, it could be saved, and then filled with Audio Cues, Function shortcuts, Cue contol devices etc... and saved as a useful set corresponding to such or such situation.
As I said above, Each situation would provide it’s own set :
In example :
CREATION OF THE SOUNDTRACK set :
Add Audio Cues, Add Stop/Fade Cues, Add Level Changes, Add Sub-Cues,etc ...
REHEARSAL set :
Go, Stop, Stp/Play next, Fade/Play next, Go back, Go next etc...
- Each situation would provide it’s own set (of MIDI external shortcuts):
- korg_nanopad2_scan_s.jpg (123.23 KiB) Viewed 5725 times
Mike, in conclusion, these are the major improvements i feel fo SCS.
If you have any questions, i’ll be happy to detail any point and work for that.
As you asked me, I can post these suggestions on the forum, so we can see the SCS users reactions.
Regards
Michel w