Beyond MIDI Control Help!!!

[PhillD]

Hi All,

I emailed this question to Bill @ Pangolin and he asked me to post it on the forum so that someone could hopefully assist.

I'm trying to setup MIDI inside Beyond so that when I start and stop a cue(laser animation), a MIDI signal is triggered.

I am using MIDI yoke as the MIDI driver and have successfully setup Midi yoke as a Midi device in Beyond. Next, I have tried to configure the Grid out setting to trigger a midi signal when playing a cue, but I cannot get it to work consistently.

Please take a look at the following video and you will see the exact problem I am having.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tfgik-_Zrw&feature=youtu.be

I assume the MIDI signal should trigger each time the cue is started? It wouldn't make sense any other way. If I go back into the MIDi settings and make just a single change, it performs some kind of reset and the MIDI signals will retrigger again when the animation is played. It seems like something is broken in my version of beyond.

I need all the help I can get on this.

Thanks

 

[wlan]

I'm very new to this, and I could be wrong here, but I just spent some time debugging your problem and here is what I found:

First, the "Foc." columns are the midi commands that are sent when the cell is Focused (selected).

For instance, column "Playing Foc." is sent when a grid cell has focus and is activated (such as clicking on the cell with a mouse), while column "Playing" is sent when a cell is activated but DOES NOT have focus (such as when triggering a non-selected cell via keyboard or midi).
Perhaps for your purposes, they should both be set to send the same midi signal.

Secondly, the columns "Used" and "Used Foc." are what is sent when a cell is deactivated.

I found that "Used" and "Used Foc." need to be populated for "Playing" and "Playing Foc." to trigger reliably.

If "Used" and "Used Foc." are not populated, then the behavior is as you described it (buggy).

Hope this helps!
~bill

 

[Bob@Pangolin]

In Device settings,
The output device is set to Midi Yoke in 1? Make sure it is..

To explain the first part of the midi surface main grid:

What you need to do is right click on an cue and then enter an script like:

The thing is, Beyond is not an Midi Generator.
You can make it happen by adding these scripts, but by default Beyond will not generate midi output on its own.


PS.. you are familiar with the fact Beyond can also do all the things you do with your DMX application?
In Universe you can build your own Laser/DMX interface
In scripting and in universe DMX out is available.

 

[PhillD]

I had posted a reply to this, but my post has disappeared (not sure why).

Anyway, I did setup the MIDI command in the cue properties as you have demonstrated and it did exactly what I needed.

With regards to DMX functionality in Beyond. That is a long conversation that I have begun with Aaron and Bill. I am currently running 24 DMX fixtures using 150 + channels. I was previously using Quick DMX in Quick Show to program and save DMX cues. I lost my Quick Show file and was going to have to re-program everything. It was going to be too much work (too manual) to recreate what I had so I decided to start using Compu Show.

I'd love to discuss the DMX capabilities of Beyond and the direction Pangolin is taking it. I've only been given snippets of information regarding "fixture" capabilities in Beyond and how it might help me. But unfortunately, I was not able to get any information on how to program them.

Let me know if you have time to do this as I would gladly get more involved.

Thanks

 

[Bob@Pangolin]

Hi Phill,

I removed those posts. An graphic representation is for everybody better readable.

Ill come back on controlling DMX fixtures from Beyond.

 

[PhillD]

Agreed, I wanted to post screen shots, but don't have the means to host them.

 

[PhillD]

Bob,

I just discovered a major problem. When the cue is triggered via Virtual LJ, the midi command is not getting triggered. If I manually click the cue, I see the midi command in the MIDI monitor window, but I see nothing when Virtual LJ triggers the cue. Please tell me there is a way to fix this.

 

[PhillD]

Bob,

I'm wondering if this is actually a bigger problem and that the cue start and cue end commands are not getting triggered when virtual LJ is used to stop and start the cue.

 

[Bob@Pangolin]

Hi Phill,

Thanks for contacting us directly.
As I heard, the issue is resolved and it will work pretty soon.

 

[PhillD]

Bob,

Will the fix be delivered as a patch or a new build? Just wondering how soon it will be released as I am running short on time to get this working.

Thanks

 

[Pangolin]

Hi Phil,

The fix comes in two forms. 1. We'll publish the fix for everyone on our web site soon. (In the mean time I sent it directly to you by email.) 2. I also sent you a very short PangoScript that will solve the problem and tide you over in the mean time.

Bill

 

[PhillD]

Thanks for the fast turn around on this problem. The update did fix the problem.

Bill, you and the team do an awesome job for your customers and I want you to know that I really appreciate it.

Thanks again,

Phill