The Lighting Controller

This feature would be very useful. Thanks for suggesting it.

I put the bug in OTSlabs for you.

Who is OTS labs?

DHoude

Scott is open to any proposition, so we are looking for the best way for VDJ to trigger buttons in Live. We see two possibilities:

Possibility #1
- VDJ: you add basic tags along each song ("tag1", "tag2", ...)
- LIVE: we put a "learn" button (like there is in software 6.30 with midi trigger) together with a 'on/off' state option, in the "Trigger button" window

We define the trigger events like this:
- VDJ: you put the "play" cursor a few seconds before the tag
- LIVE: you set the 'on/off' state and you press the "learn" button
- VDJ: you play the song until the "play" cursor cross the tag
- LIVE: records automatically the infos "Artist", "song", "tag number" with the 'on/off' state

It operates as follow:
- each time VDJ cross a tag, it sends the info like for instance "VDJ just crossed the tag #1 of the song 'The wall' of the artist 'Pink Floyd'" to LIVE
- when the tag is recorded in LIVE as trigger for a button, LIVE switches on the button

Possibility #2
- VDJ: you add special tags dedicated for LIVE (with the name of the button to trigger in LIVE + the 'on/off' state)

It operates as follow:
- each time VDJ cross a tag dedicated for LIVE, it sends for instance the info "switch on the button called 'scanner movement left to right'" to LIVE
- LIVE switches on the button called 'scanner movement left to right'

Could you please tell us which possibility you would like to have, or if you would prefer something else ?

I think simple is best, unless it limts possibilties later. #2 sounds good as I am not sure how well the whole learning thing will pan out for other users. It would be nice if I could just manually specify cue names for it to respond to that could be consistant on any song like "stobe on" "strobe off" cue names (for a song break down start and finish). That way my lighting rig could do what it normally does until a stobe event is triggered. Then I would not have to think about the special spots of the songs I want to highlight. I could just mark them before hand and concentrate on mixing. Being mobile, I am the light guy too and I spend 95% of my time on the sound board with very little change on lights for now. That could really improve the mood of a song, while I concentrate mixing in the next without ever even thinking about it.

So to sum it up, I would only have a few key scenes like "strobe on", "strobe off" and I could name the CUE points that. I think VDJ can send those names. This could also be handy in another way. I have a Live Macro button for solw songs. I could make a CUE at the start of slow songs to automaitically trigger the Slow song Macro. Which would help me from jumping to the other PC imediately (if I even remember right away). That could really help save me some work.

I do like the feature, but have another approach as well. With every set I play being different, I don't always get to pre stage a show unless it is like Halloween. I have done some Time Line shows before and wonder if it would be better to have VDJ be able to load or run a Timeline show? Sounds complicated to me, but when I really want to sync to music timeline just seems like the better tool. Except that now the song would be on my lighting laptop, with it's cheap sound card... If I could load the Timeline set to a deck in VDJ or play it in VDJ somehow (maybe as a sample) and then the lighing data is sent across my network to the lighting PC, that could possibly be another good approch. Without going crazy on CUE point learning. I will say that there is some sound latency and it coud shift the light syncing a bit. So there may have to be a "Lighting delay" setting to make this work.

Hope these ideas help!

FYI, our software (beta) is ready.

Great, I did not see it under the General section. Is it Posted? Or do I have to opt in? If so I would like to try it and help out if possible.

VDJ is not ready

Ok, I was asking about the beta show express. But yea makes sense that you would release it then. Thanks again for considering this feature!

I've just sent you guys the beta plugins from our end - just sorting a Mac version for you now