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MIDI transport control & wait for note

Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2017 5:23 pm
by GrahamB
Hi all,

It's my first post here, I wonder if anyone can help...

I'm trying to get a MIDI 'buttons' transport remote box to operate DP in the way I'd like, but it's proving tricky - here's the problem:

I'm using a MIDI Go Box by That Little Box
http://www.thatlittlebox.co.uk/MIDI-go-box
It's intended for use with Q-Lab, but I'm running it in Program Change mode and have re-mapped the buttons using the commands window to NEXT CHUNK, LAST CHUNK & PLAY/STOP (etc.). This works pretty well, simultaneously driving two copies of DP on a master and backup Powerbook for live show playback. However, the synchronization is somewhat (inevitably?!) hit and miss. I've found that I can pretty much solve that problem by setting 'wait for MIDI note'. If I set DP to wait for any MIDI, then any button on the remote box sets the two machine off in 'perfectly close enough' sync every time. This really needs to be one button or commands get confused, so I'm thinking what I need to do is set DP back to wait for note, then
[- here's the question -]
Can DP transform a program change into a MIDI note.
so I can create a GO button..

I hope all that made some sense! I'm happy to elaborate more on the setup if anyone's interested.

Thanks
Graham

Re: MIDI transport control & wait for note

Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2017 9:00 pm
by stubbsonic
That would be super useful. I just was doing a little search for something that would convert a program change to a note. If you have an iPad, you might check into MIDI Designer. The developer is very responsive, so you'll get an answer fast if you can't find it in the manual.

Re: MIDI transport control & wait for note

Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2017 8:55 am
by GrahamB
Forgive my ignorance of DP..
Isn't the 'console' module able to transform a Prog Change MIDI input into a note?Isn't that the sort of thing is designed to do?
I can't find Prog Changes in it's receive list.
If a console can do that, would that constitute the 'input' of a note enough to trigger start on 'wait for MIDI note', I guess it must do if it was routed to a MIDI track in the sequence.

To clarify:
I simply want DP to 'stop waiting' when (& only when) it receives Prog Change 0.
Surely that's possible! Please can anyone help?

Graham
I'm using a MIDI Go Box by That Little Box
http://www.thatlittlebox.co.uk/MIDI-go-box
It's intended for use with Q-Lab, but I'm running it in Program Change mode and have re-mapped the buttons using the commands window to NEXT CHUNK, LAST CHUNK & PLAY/STOP (etc.). This works pretty well, simultaneously driving two copies of DP on a master and backup Powerbook for live show playback. However, the synchronization is somewhat (inevitably?!) hit and miss. I've found that I can pretty much solve that problem by setting 'wait for MIDI note'. If I set DP to wait for any MIDI, then any button on the remote box sets the two machine off in 'perfectly close enough' sync every time. This really needs to be one button or commands get confused, so I'm thinking what I need to do is set DP back to wait for note, then
[- here's the question -]
Can DP transform a program change into a MIDI note.
so I can create a GO button..

Re: MIDI transport control & wait for note

Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2017 11:10 am
by davidh
It may be worth checking out this site. They have both software and hardware solutions to accomplish what you're trying to do. It might be a sledgehammer to crack a nut in your case, but it looks like it might be a very useful tool to have around. There's a free demo too.

https://www.bome.com/products/miditranslator

Re: MIDI transport control & wait for note

Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2017 2:57 pm
by GrahamB
Thanks for that David. The Borne translator would certainly do what I need and a thousand times more! Very interesting products I'd never heard about.

I'm still amazed that no-one is telling me that DP will easily do this simple transform! I'm hoping at the moment that the developer of the button box that I'm using will be able to re-program the GO button to a MIDI note for me...

Graham

Re: MIDI transport control & wait for note

Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2017 3:37 am
by philbrown
Have you looked at MIDIPipe? It's donationware.
http://www.subtlesoft.square7.net/MidiPipe.html
I'm not sure it will do what you want but the feature list says:
Message Converter - converts messages from one type to an other

Re: MIDI transport control & wait for note

Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2017 8:29 pm
by GrahamB
Hi,

I now have found an alternative solution to my control change/MIDI note problem, but I now have other issues:

We now have a new USB Go Box. http://www.thatlittlebox.co.uk/usb-go-box
The developer Rob, very helpfully made a 'DP version' with a change to one of the modes to make the GO button send a MIDI note. This almost works perfectly, BUT:
When the machines start to play (after being triggered by a MIDI note), they 'miss' playing the first frame or two of audio, which means our click isn't heard on bar one, beat one!! Can anyone else reproduce this behaviour, or think of a simple solution? Delaying the start of play by more than a little would of course be highly undesirable & a pain having to change many chunks....
I also have another problem; I've started a new post about that:
viewtopic.php?f=26&t=63141

Thanks again to David and Phil for your suggestions earlier.
I've now realised who you are - I was listening to records you guys made in the late 1970s, wondering how I'd get to become a sound engineer...
I thoroughly enjoyed your book Phil. I'll read it again when I find it! I think I'd have enjoyed my own career even more if I'd been old enough to start in the seventies!

Cheers
Graham

Re: MIDI transport control & wait for note

Posted: Wed Mar 08, 2017 5:51 am
by philbrown
GrahamB wrote:Thanks again to David and Phil for your suggestions earlier.
I've now realised who you are - I was listening to records you guys made in the late 1970s, wondering how I'd get to become a sound engineer...
I thoroughly enjoyed your book Phil. I'll read it again when I find it! I think I'd have enjoyed my own career even more if I'd been old enough to start in the seventies!

Cheers
Graham
I'm not that Phil Brown. There are at least 3 relatively famous Phil Brown's that I'm not.

Re: MIDI transport control & wait for note

Posted: Wed Mar 08, 2017 8:59 am
by GrahamB
Ah, sorry Phil!
I'm Graham Bonnett, but I didn't sing with Rainbow!

Re: MIDI transport control & wait for note

Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2017 12:25 am
by SMS
Wouldn't MIDI Machine Control work here? It always worked great for me when I used to sync my VS-880 to Performer...