Re: Manual Step - Answer???
Posted: 22 September 2013, 17:19
More and more I think I need this feature, so I wracked my brain trying to think of a workaround, and then it hit me. The only thing I know of in the software that will step through a scene is the Auto BPM feature, so if I have my external trigger just make a proper tone, and put that signal in instead of music, that would step through the scene, one step at a time. First I thought about making a little tone generator circuit, when I realized I have an old drum machine with drum trigger buttons. SO, I put that into the audio input, instead of my music source. I had trouble getting enough volume, so I have to run the output of the drum machine through an old DJ mixer.
And the answer is.... it sort of works! If I hit the drum trigger (like bass drum), it steps through the scene rather consistently at one beat per second (60 BPM), but as you go faster than that it starts to miss or drop beats. Very disappointing for my needs. And it made me go back and study the Auto BPM feature with music, and using old disco, with a solid bass beat, I see that it doesn't step on EVERY beat, but misses some. To test this further, I filtered my disco signal and just put the low bass freq of the music into the computer, and still its not as consistent on the beat as I would like, and also, Auto BPM, at least on my system, has some delay, so the lights change a little off the beat, and I think sometimes more off than others. I'm a dancer, and maybe am overly sensitive to lights flashing not really consistently on the beat. I'm looking to do light changes ON THE BEAT or multiples. Does anyone else have this personal problem? (I lived through the disco era, when we used analog color organs, which really didn't have much delay.)
This is what drives me to want a manual step trigger. You can actually learn to tap off the beat to compensate for any system lag. I've even considered running the music through a delay to compensate for lighting system delay, LOL. That might make DJ mixing fun! You'd have to mix the real-time feed, and ignore the delayed audio in the room. Oh, that's why we have headphones!
SO, my idea didn't really solve MY problem, but for you guys who just want to step rather slowly through a scene, you might want to experiment with my "solution".
And the answer is.... it sort of works! If I hit the drum trigger (like bass drum), it steps through the scene rather consistently at one beat per second (60 BPM), but as you go faster than that it starts to miss or drop beats. Very disappointing for my needs. And it made me go back and study the Auto BPM feature with music, and using old disco, with a solid bass beat, I see that it doesn't step on EVERY beat, but misses some. To test this further, I filtered my disco signal and just put the low bass freq of the music into the computer, and still its not as consistent on the beat as I would like, and also, Auto BPM, at least on my system, has some delay, so the lights change a little off the beat, and I think sometimes more off than others. I'm a dancer, and maybe am overly sensitive to lights flashing not really consistently on the beat. I'm looking to do light changes ON THE BEAT or multiples. Does anyone else have this personal problem? (I lived through the disco era, when we used analog color organs, which really didn't have much delay.)
This is what drives me to want a manual step trigger. You can actually learn to tap off the beat to compensate for any system lag. I've even considered running the music through a delay to compensate for lighting system delay, LOL. That might make DJ mixing fun! You'd have to mix the real-time feed, and ignore the delayed audio in the room. Oh, that's why we have headphones!
SO, my idea didn't really solve MY problem, but for you guys who just want to step rather slowly through a scene, you might want to experiment with my "solution".
