hot keys - key-on key-off (in 10.5.0)

[eduardo]

Hello,

is there a way to play Hot Key cues like a sampler of sorts, that is keep playing until you release the key?

[Mike Daniell]

A bit late, I know but I'm planning to include this functionality in the next release. I'd like to clarify the terminology. Is something like 'Hot Key (Sampler Mode)' correct? The approach will be to add this to the Activation method drop-down list, and to change 'Manual (Hot Key)' to 'Hot Key (Normal)'. They would share the same set of hot keys, but the 'sampler mode' hot keys would be displayed with a following », eg A». So if interested users could give me their preference regarding terminology that would be great. Any other comments also welcome.

[jmgordon]

My Yamaha SU10 mini Sampler has three keypad actions, which can be allocated to keys as required.

"Trigger" plays the sample once, but repeated presses restart the sample (like the current HotKey action).
"Note" plays the sample until released (or until it runs out, unless it is looping).
"Toggle" starts the sample on the first press and stops it on the second, a bit trickier to error check if the sample runs out before it is toggled off and the action is then out of sync. Probably it is better to maintain two separate HotKeys for this.

Other samplers may have similar nomenclature. "Note" is the action you are considering; your suggested label seems suitable, as long as it is explained in the Help file. However, since a lot of people don't read it, it might be an idea to have a warning flag if it is selected. Presumably it will only appear in the drop-down list for audio (video?) cues; it's difficult to envisage what might happen with a SFR cue.

Malcolm

[Mike Daniell]

Many thanks for this info, Malcolm. The three options (Trigger, Note and Toggle) all have their uses, so I'll consider using that approach and terminology.

[eduardo]

thank you Mike!

the "Toggle" option I hadn't thought of, but seems useful as well.

eduardo

[Nick]

My vote is definitely "Trigger" "Note" and "Toggle". Very standard terminology. Can you actually trap a continuously-held keyboard key? And - would these options work with external MIDI control? That would be excellent...

cheers,
nick

[Mike Daniell]

Thanks for your input, Nick.

I haven't written the code yet but I'm confident I can handle the continuously-held keyboard key scenario. This is because with a continuously-held key the program receives multiple "key down" events (because of the auto-repeat functionality of Windows), but only receives one "key up" event (when the key is released). So if you are using the "Note" hot key method then after processing a "key down" event to start the cue I'll ignore subsequent "key down" events until the "key up" event is received, which will, of course, stop or fade-out the cue.

Not sure what you mean with regard to external MIDI control. Can you give me more info on this?

[Nick]

well... we've been talking about hotkey cues - and being able to play or loop playback as long as the hotkey is held down ("Note" mode) or Toggle it to play and stop on successive presses. In recent versions of SCS you can assign a Midi Trigger to a Hotkey cue. Would the new "Note" mode as described above respond to a MIDI Note ON command to start playback, and a MIDI Note OFF command (or note-on-velocity-zero... ) to stop it again - meaning you could press and hold a key on a MIDI Keyboard or similar, and loop the sound while it was held down, and it would stop when released - just like if you were pressing the hotkey? Good for when you want someone on stage to trigger a sound for a variable duration. If the cue was in the proposed "Toggle" mode, sending the MIDI trigger note or whatever would start playback, and sending it again would stop it.

Cheers,
nick

[Mike Daniell]

Would the new "Note" mode as described above respond to a MIDI Note ON command to start playback, and a MIDI Note OFF command (or note-on-velocity-zero... ) to stop it again ...

That seems a reasonable request and should be workable. Meanwhile, you can achieve something like that now by setting up your MIDI control like this:

.
Although I've assigned "Note Off" to Fade Out Cue 1-127 you could alternatively assign it to Stop Cue 1-127. I guess the above may not be entirely satisfactory as it would treat all your cues (that have MIDI cue numbers) like "note-trigger" cues.

The suggestion for handling Toggle Cues with consecutive "Note On's" toggling the state is also quite workable.

[Mike Daniell]

Many thanks for this info, Malcolm. The three options (Trigger, Note and Toggle) all have their uses, so I'll consider using that approach and terminology.

These three options now in 10.5.0.

[dramatic1]

It would be nice to have a 4th option. each time you press the hot key the sound file fires from the begining while alowing the previous sound to play out. would be great for gun shots and thunder to overlap the same sound effect.

thanks
ed dimarzio
dramatic sounds

[Theatre III Sound]

It would be nice to have a 4th option. each time you press the hot key the sound file fires from the begining while alowing the previous sound to play out. would be great for gun shots and thunder to overlap the same sound effect.

Hi Ed,

You could do what you want now by copying the cue and assigning the copy to a separate hot key (trigger). Then you could fire off the original cue and while it's running fire off the copy.

Bruce Gray (of "Cabaret" fame)

[dramatic1]

It would be nice to have a 4th option. each time you press the hot key the sound file fires from the begining while alowing the previous sound to play out. would be great for gun shots and thunder to overlap the same sound effect.

Hi Ed,

You could do what you want now by copying the cue and assigning the copy to a separate hot key (trigger). Then you could fire off the original cue and while it's running fire off the copy.

Bruce Gray (of "Cabaret" fame)

that a good point but i tend to populate the keys surrounding an effect like "t" for thunder with different versions to the right and left so it stays easy to do in the dark of the theatre with mics being mixed etc. sound of music comes to mind as a show with this kind of need. rapid fire gun shots from one key is another.

thanks again
ed

[rcharaf]

I like the option of overlapping, I can use that as well.
I used to work with stage research and it had an interesting option.
hot key down and hot key up in the same keybord key, for example, for gunshots or so, when you pressed a key it would play a file and when you release that key it would play another file.
Other option I would like is to be able to randomly change pitch or velocity on a same file, for example the same gunshot
pressed several times would sound different with a random pitch and velocity. the same way to randomly change volume or pan

[Mike Daniell]

I like the option of overlapping, I can use that as well.
I used to work with stage research and it had an interesting option.
hot key down and hot key up in the same keybord key, for example, for gunshots or so, when you pressed a key it would play a file and when you release that key it would play another file.
Other option I would like is to be able to randomly change pitch or velocity on a same file, for example the same gunshot
pressed several times would sound different with a random pitch and velocity. the same way to randomly change volume or pan

These are good suggestions which I will add to my list for SCS 11.