What are BEYOND channels?

[meeble]

Hi again,

I am (obviously) new to BEYOND, having come from QuickShow. Can someone tell me what channels are used for in BEYOND?

Also, is there a complete manual available for BEYOND somewhere? I tried searching for channel in the help file, but nothing came up. It seems the help file for BEYOND is quite out of date and missing a whole lot of information about the current feature set. Also, all of the images in the help file are missing or broken, which makes it even less helpful.

Thanks,
Devin

 

[Pangolin]

Hi Devin,

Channels are basically a way to move information (specifically numeric values) around in the software. You can think of it as a routing mechanism, but with some additional benefits too.

For example, you can create an Abstraction with the Abstraction generator, and assign virtually any of the sliders to a channel (instead of to a specific value given by the slider). When a slider is assigned to a channel, it means whatever is controlling that channel can then affect the abstraction.

Now let's say you have that channel assigned as an input from DMX, or MIDI or even as a "Left channel audio BASS beats". Then you can start to see that this is a way that any of these external things can directly influence the abstraction.

Many things in BEYOND can be assigned to a channel. Many effect parameters, abstraction parameters, etc. And then many external things can feed channels.

There is also a "Channels" tab in BEYOND which allows you to directly access (through sliders) the first 16 channels, so you can kind of "get your hands on" these channel values pretty easily.

Let us know if you have any other questions.

Best regards,

William Benner

 

[Stuka]

This is a Beyond feature I would REALLY like to explore.

Any chance there is some sample code available that demonstrates what Bill was talking about?
(Specifically, MIDI input to channel, then using that channel to control a Beyond feature, master control, etc.)

Also, is there any advantage to using MIDI via a channel, versus MIDI linked directly to a particular Beyond control?

Thanks!

Randy