Audio File + Control Send

[bane]

I was wondering if there's a better way to link up a control send command to an audio file? I generally program lights for a lot of dance shows, and split second execution of cues is very crucial for me!

Currently I have SCS activating cues from my Ion board using the auto start feature. Although the auto start activation feature works beautifully to execute cues when I need to do a full run, I am having difficulties when I want to go back and edit timings. My big issue is the fact that I can't jump to the middle of the song and have the lighting cue at that particular point be executed. Instead, the auto start feature treats my jump to the middle of the song as the start of the song, and executes the very first lighting cue. At this point it seems like, the only way to get my timing right is run the song from start to end every time!

Is there a better way of doing this?

- bane

[Mike Daniell]

A problem with changing the position of a cue containing any type of control send is what to do with the commands you 'skip'. For example, if your control send commands have set a particular lighting cue/plot and you advance your audio track manually, the lighting requirement at the new audio track position may have been set by a Control Send sequence that you have skipped over. If you are using "recall scene" or similar on your lighting board then it would be feasible to get SCS to send the latest Control Send prior to the new position, as this "recall scene" would cue the whole lighting board (or whatever you have included in the scene). This would also cover the scenario of skipping back. But if you are sending control messages to set individual lights, etc, then it would be more complicated trying to work out the required state of each lighting channel. Are you using "recall scene" or similar?

[bane]

Yeah. By executing a cue, I am doing something similar to recalling a scene.

You mentioned, "If you are using "recall scene" or similar on your lighting board then it would be feasible to get SCS to send the latest Control Send prior to the new position, as this "recall scene" would cue the whole lighting board (or whatever you have included in the scene)"

This is where I am confused. The way I have it set up, is as follows. Q 1.1 which is a Control Send cue in SCS, activates Cue 1.1 (recall's scene 1.1) in my lighting board. This Q 1.1 is activated by the auto start option at time 15.6 seconds. In other words, Q 1.1, which triggers Cue 1.1 does not go off until after 15.6 seconds after the audio file starts.

Now, similarly I also have Q 2.1 (also a Control Send cue) which activates Cue 2.1 (again in my lighting board) at time 2:01.4. I think you are suggesting that if I want to jump to Q2.1, I should make sure the Q1.1 is first executed through SCS. And that's where I am having a problem. Say, I start the audio file and then I have Q1.1/Cue1.1 executed (either through Control Send or directly through the lighting board), I then proceed to skip to 2:01.4 in the audio file. ]The reason I'd like to skip to this point is to see if Cue 2.1 is if that time 2:01.4 is the right time to execute the cue or not.] So what I'd like to see happen is, when I make that jump in the song, the control send cue Q 2.1 is executed when I reach the time 2:01.4 in the song.

But instead what ends up happening is, Q 2.1 completely by passes that and instead focuses on the "timer" that started when I started on the song. So even though I skip in the song, it doesn't matter. Q2.1 is executed 2:01.4 seconds after I click on the audio file rather than being executed 2:01.4 mark on the song file. Is there anything I can do setup wise to change it so that control send is going of the clock of the song rather than clock of the system?

Again, the whole auto start based on when I start the audio file works awesomely during the show. It's more when I am at rehearsal, trying to get timings right on 30 control send cues, all of which are linked to an audio file that's 10-12 mins long, having to restart the song over and over again to see the timing is correct is a bit tedious.

And the other thing I wanted to clarify was, in the case of my lighting board, it doesn't matter if I skip cues or scenes. If I jump from cue 1.1 to cue 2.1 in the process skipping cues 1.2, 1.3, etc. I can still recall the exact same scene from cue 2.1 because all the lights are already programmed to that cue/scene. Admittedly I am not sure if all other lighting boards function this way.

I apologize for the lengthy post. I realized my last post might not have been clear enough. Also, if the rest of the rant doesn't make sense, the crux of my problem is in bold. So I hope that helps!

[Mike Daniell]

OK, that all makes sense, and because your lighting board scenes set the states of all channels then it would be feasible to get SCS to handle position changes the way I suggest. Note - this isn't available now, so unfortunately there's no quick alternative to what you are doing, but since I've had a few requests like this I'll have a look at modifying the program.

The reason I suggested SCS could "send the latest Control Send prior to the new position" is that with your cues if at, say, 3 seconds into your cue file you drag the progress slider to 1:58.0 then SCS should (immediately) process Q1.1 to get the lighting state to what would be expected prior to 2:01.4. Then (with the change proposed), when the progress slider reaches 2:01.4 SCS would activate Q2.1. The same would apply if you went past this point. For example, if you were at 2:30.0 and dragged the progress slider back to about 1:58.0, SCS should again search back for the previous control send cue, find Q1.1 and activate that.

Make sense?

[bane]

My respones on this post is waaaay late, but I had been rather caught up with work since then and never had a chance to get back to you.

I was just curious to know if what I had mentioned below was being considered for the upcoming date? If not, it's not the biggest deal.

[Mike Daniell]

Been rather caught up with other changes, so it may be a while yet.

[ChuckTX]

This should almost be moved to the feature requests at this point... but since it's here & this is exactly what I was looking to see if I had missed a way to do.
I to use SCS for dance shows & would love, as would my artistic director, to be able to start a song in the middle instead of having to run it from the beginning to get the timings to work. It would be great if there was an auto start that was based on the "time code" of an audio or video cue instead of just X seconds after the other cue was started. In regards with what to do with what was skipped by moving around in the song, skip it. In my case I am using MSC so when I send a control command to the light board I am also telling it specifically what cue to fire. If I jump to 2:34 in the song and light cue 313 is supposed to go at 2:38 at 2:38 I am saying to the light board fire cue 313 not just go to the next cue. There is no reason to make sure that any other cue that was supposed to get fired in the first 2:38 of the song has already gone. That is handled by just setting up the cue you wanting to see the transition between on the light board by hand. In order to see transition from 312 to 313 at 2:38 without waiting 2:38 to do it. 1. Drag play head to 2:34, 2. (On light board) load cue 312 > Go, 3. (On SCS) press play. At 2:34 the current way isn't to bad, it gets pretty tough to deal with with the 10 and 15 medleys, and having to tell the dancers "we need to run it one more time... yes from the beginning."

Thanks Mike, Chuck

SCS has helped me do great things more than once! by that... It gives you the gift of repeatability. If I can program it once I can make it happen that way every time!