Is there a way to make a sequence Auto Stop?

[James Steele]

I haven't had time to mess with this, but I'm trying to find out if there's a way to make DP stop by itself when a sequence is over. It seems DP will just keep playing and playing, happily scrolling along empty measures it creates on the fly. I'd like it to just stop playback by itself.

The reason for this is that if you forget to stop playback, you cannot change chunks. I'm setting up an iPad to do this remotely using Keypad Plus. It's crazy simple, but since it can't show you a counter display, you could forget to stop playback before loading the next chunk. Having it just stop when it got to the end of a sequence would make it foolproof.

[bdr]

Isn't there an Auto Stop button to the left of the counter?

[James Steele]

Okay... looks like I answered my own question. I know I must seem daft, but I'm diving into using DP for live backing track playback for the first time and coming up against problems I've never dealt with before.

I found a setting in the Chunks window that will cue up the next chunk in order as soon as the playback cursor reaches the End time indicated. I was looking for something that would just park the cursor at the end without going to the next chunk, so I could then call up another chunk at random, not necessarily the next one in order. (This is probably because I've been in rehearsal mode, and when I reach the end, sometimes I just want to rewind and do the same sequence again. OBVIOUSLY not something you'd do live.)

So that's a good enough solution for me, and probably works best if you are indeed going to work off a set list. You don't even need to use a key command to load chunks that way. And if I don't want to play the chunk that DP has cued to, I just issue the command for a different one.

One little thing I did that helped is at the very first measure of each chunk/sequence, I placed a marker with the song name. I have the large counter window up with markers as the main counter and measures as the aux counter. When a new chunk is loaded, I can see the name of the song on the MacBook from a good distance and can confirm playback is started when I see the measures counter start rolling. The markers counter could be used to tell me the section of the song I'm in, or I could even use it as memory aid, to prod me with the first few words of an upcoming verse a measure or two before I start singing again.

[James Steele]

Isn't there an Auto Stop button to the left of the counter?

Might very well be! As I posted above, I've never wanted to Auto Stop before. I'll check it out. Thanks! I was looking at that earlier, but I think you have to loop a section? I don't know that it stops and stays at the end, or either rewinds and then stops.

[Shooshie]

DP has auto-stop, auto-rewind, and loop. They occupy the Keypad row with 7,8,9, and - (minus) assigned as follows:

[7] toggles on/off your auto-settings
[8] toggles auto-rewind
[9] toggles auto-stop
[8]+[9] When activated together, these will engage Auto-Stop & Rewind.
[-] toggles loop

To use any of these, you do have to set your memory, either stop, start, or both. There are F-key commands that make this easy. DP's defaults are:

• F1-Set Memory Start to counter
  F2-Set Memory Stop to counter
  F3-Set Auto-Record Start to counter
  F4 Set Auto-Record Stop to counter
  F5-Set Selection Start to counter
  F6-Set Selection Stop to counter

Since my F-keys are already assigned to something, I changed all of those to Option-F1, Option F2, Option F3... etc., but you can assign them to whatever makes sense for your setup. Remember the mnemonic: MAS (as in Motu Audio System), or in this case MMAASS, where each letter has a start and stop for Memory, Auto-Record, and Selection.

The workflow possibilities enabled by these commands, as well as Link Selection to Memory and Link Playback to Memory are vast and wonderful. Here's a short video that describes just one of those possibilities: Click at your Start Point, or Drag your start-stop range.

Shooshie

[James Steele]

Thanks. I'll watch that in the morning. I'm using Tapatalk on my phone at the moment. So these locations are retained per chunk, and if I cue up a new chunk, it will use the locations specific to that chunk? I'm actually doing fine with the Cue Chunks mode so far.

[Shooshie]

Thanks. I'll watch that in the morning. I'm using Tapatalk on my phone at the moment. So these locations are retained per chunk, and if I cue up a new chunk, it will use the locations specific to that chunk? I'm actually doing fine with the Cue Chunks mode so far.

Sorry, I missed the part where you said you were looking for Chunk Chaining/Cue. That and its sister, Chunk Chaining/Play are essential for live sets.

The marker window is a good place for displaying lyrics before they happen, but there's also another place: the Chunks Window. In the Chunks Window is a comments section, and I used to put cues in there to tell me when to roll each chunk. In the Disklavier show that I directed for several years, there was a half-second delay from the time the Disklaviers received a MIDI signal until they actually played it. In conducting terms it was the longest, most unpredictable half-second on earth. Having the cues there, with exactly the syllable highlighted that would make the disklavier start on time, was something I couldn't live without.

I guess you wouldn't be able to see them from across the room, but if you're close enough to read them, those Chunks Comments can hold anything, including lyrics, though it may not display them with line breaks.

Shooshie

[daniel.sneed]

James, in case you could be interested in multiple stops in a single chunk:
- create an ARMED MIDI track output set to IAC driver
- in Command window, Transport / Play-stop set to note C8
- insert C8 anywhere in the MIDI track where you want DP to stop
- set the notes a little ahead to get effective transport stop

BTW, I've used for years now the Counter/marker to check next chunk ready.
I can see and read it on my MacBookPro from quite any place on stage.

[bayswater]

James, in case you could be interested in multiple stops in a single chunk:
- create a MIDI track output set to IAC driver
- in Command window, Transport / Play-stop set to note C8
- insert C8 anywhere in the MIDI track where you want DP to stop
- set the notes a little ahead to get effective transport stop

BTW, I've used for years now the Counter/marker to check next chunk ready.
I can see and read it on my MacBookPro from quite any place on stage.

!! Are you saying that DP will respond to key commands sent out as MIDI on an IAC bus? I would have expected it to respond to commands coming in on the IAC bus, but not the other way. That would seem to allow for a lot of interesting ways to control events.

[daniel.sneed]

Yes, the MIDI track is armed (last post edited), input is set to none and output to IAC driver-1.
I can't arg much about it, nor why, but it does work on my system.
I have used this way of auto-stoping my sequences in many live shows.

BTW, I set note to C8, but any other note will do.
I prefer to stay out of usual range of many VIs. Just in case of mis-routing.

[bayswater]

Thanks Dan. Can I ask how you came across this? Is it explicitly covered anywhere in the manual?

[James Steele]

I guess you wouldn't be able to see them from across the room, but if you're close enough to read them, those Chunks Comments can hold anything, including lyrics, though it may not display them with line breaks.

Yeah... I'd be too far away to read them. And I usually remember lyrics, but having just the first couple of words to get one started on a new verse is often enough to jog my memory.

BTW, I'm pleased as punch with what I'm discovering so far. I used Keypad+ Pro to make the most simplified controller ever for my drummer to cue songs and start playback. I've discovered, too, that DP can queue up key commands pretty well. That is to say, my drummer can use the on screen buttons to send the keystroke for loading a chunk, then hit the button to start playback immediately afterward, and DP will queue those keystrokes and change the chunk and start playback every time. As backup, I have programmed my MIDI Raider foot controller so I can load any chunk and start playback with my foot.

I'm especially proud of my newest wrinkle. I'm running VineServer on the MacBook (for some reason I found it works much better than the built-in screen sharing of MacOS), and then I have my iPad 2 (on the floor angled up next to my foot controller) running Remoter VNC, so I can have visual confirmation of chunks loading and know that DP is not having issues. I keep the large counter window forward, displaying markers and mensural time and it's just great. This also gave me the idea to place a marker with the first few words of the upcoming verse a measure or two prior to when I have to sing again should I ever have brain flatulence.

Thanks for sharing these tips, BTW. This is probably old school to you guys, but I've never really used DP in a live situation before, so these are all new discoveries to me.

[Shooshie]

It's great to get everyone contributing their own Transport Control tips. There are so many possibilities it's hard to find the time to try them all, so having people tell us what they've done is a big time saver. With the Commands Window enabling device-specific MIDI commands as options for every command that DP can do, the possibilities are astounding.

I have a whole bank of transport controls in my Roland FC300 foot-pedal board. That gives me 12 commands accessible by pedals. It holds 5 banks of presets, and I wish it held 60 banks, but I get by ok on the banks it gives me. It's just a trick of learning to find each of those pedals without looking. (sometimes I have to peek)

I find that MIDI Monitor is a great aid for practicing this stuff, as well as for remembering what is stored in each bank. CC#82? What the heck? Oh well, I guess it goes with something I did.

Then there's the Custom Console, which is wayyy too much trouble for most things, but occasionally there's that need that simply nothing else in all MIDI-dom will fill, and Custom Console comes to the rescue.

But the MIDI masters make a lot of things possible, and even self-controling tracks are among those things, as Daniel Sneed pointed out. If anyone hasn't explored the control possibilities of DP, they're missing most of the fun.

Shooshie

[James Steele]

My next issue to tackle when I feel ambitious is dealing with a section of a song that's sort of a break down... it's my homage to Def Leppard where it's just drum beat, hand claps, cowbell and a "Woah-oh-oh-oh-oh" thing. I want to be able to extend that section on the fly. I'm figuring I could do that by loading the chunk with a 4 bar repeat built in and then let it cycle during that section using a footswitch to send a command to DP that would turn off looping and then the song would continue along.

I also dug out an old, cheap in-ear monitor system and I'm using it to give me the click track in my left ear so that I can play intros, etc. without the drummer. I'm also going to probably embed some actual voice slates in with the click. I've talked to friends who say this is invaluable. For example if you start a click late (even if the first beat of the measure is accented), you want to know where you are. I know people who put a voice saying the name of the song just prior to the click track starting and a voice count: 1, 2, 3, 4... just prior to the downbeat of the first measure of the song. In the case of the looping section, I'll probably do this so I don't get confused and have to keep mental track. Every four bars I'll be able to hear "standby... 4, 3, 2, 1" in my in-ear monitor. If I'm done with working the audience and milking that section, next time I hear "standby" I can click off the looping and launch into the guitar solo that comes right after that section.

Gotta tell you it's a joy playing with a drummer who is good at following a click. So many things are possible!

[Dwetmaster]

I might not understand the question well but can't you use the auto/Manual End time function? On the chunks window, you right-click your chunk's name and there it is.

You set it to "Manual" then input the time where you want your sequence to stop.

Now you just have to make sure Memory Auto stop is enabled