[Solved] Level changes triggered via midi

[bendyboy]

Hi Mike,

I recently had reason to use a midi note on/off to trigger and stop a cue via a switch I rigged to a door. The effect was to be that every time the door opened music was heard , and stopped when the door was closed. I had the switch plugged into a midi solutions footswitch controller to generate the note on/off signal to SCS. Ideally I would have liked to have had the music playing on a loop with the volume down and had volume change cues triggered via midi, so the music didnt have to start at the same point every time, but as cues can only be triggered via either note on or note off, I could not trigger a volume up cue and a down cue from the same switch. (the same would go for lights, if I rigged a light switch to midi trigger). Would it be possible to determine how a cue is triggered on a cue by cue basis, i.e have 1 cue triggerd by a note on and another from note off, rather than assigning the setup in the permanant preferences? I ask this, because I could not find a way to trigger one cue from note on, and another from note off. Or perhaps there is another way around this?

Cheers,

Brendon

[Mike Daniell]

Here's a partial solution - let me know what you think.

1. Set up your audio file cue with the level you want when the door is open, and set up the loop as required. I'll call this Q1.
2. Set up an SFR cue to 'Fade Out and then Hibernate' Q1, with a Fade Time Override to suit the required fade-in/out time on opening and closing the door. I'll call this Q2. Set Q2's activation method to 'Hot Key (Toggle)' with a suitable hot key assignment (eg 'D' for 'Door').
3. Q2 should be assigned a MIDI/DMX Cue number to enable it to be activated by, say, a MIDI Note On command.
4. Before each performance, ie before the audience comes in, start Q1 and then immediately press 'D' or whatever hot key you assigned to Q2.

The above uses a single note on message for both opening and closing the door. So when Q2 is first activated (which as explained above is before the audience comes in) the 'door is closed' and Q1 fades out and hibernates. The next time Q2 is activated, eg by the next 'note on' message for the relevant note number, Q2 causes Q1 to be resumed from hibernation, so fades in Q1. And then the next time Q2 is activated, Q1 again fades out and hibernates. And so on.

All this makes use of the 'toggle' form of a hotkey cue. I say this is a 'partial' solution because on resuming from hibernation Q1 will carry on from where stopped. But at least that's better than restarting from the beginning of the cue each time.

I've tested the above using SCS 11 but this should also work in SCS 10.

Is this a satisfactory solution?

[bendyboy]

Thanks Mike,

That solves the problem.

Cheers,

Brendon