MIDI note _toggles_ button state???

[Arjan]

Hi,

I'm looking at controlling SweetLight automatically from my own custom multi-keyboard sound-changing app (http://www.livecommander.com, haven't updated the website for a while) that I programmed and I just noticed that if you send a Note On message it actually toggles the state of the button.

For completely automated control through MIDI (no human operator) this is not the best choice since the previous state of the button becomes something of an uncertainty and the response to my Note On message becomes unpredictable.

It would be much, much more reliable if SweetLight would simply always turn on the button with one MIDI message and turn off the button with another message. For example Note On turn the button on and Note Off turns the button off. Or Note On with velocity 127 turns it on and velocity 0 turns it off. If software is controlling other software it must have direct control, not control that may depend on existing state in the software being controlled.

Is there any chance this could be implemented? In the current state I don't think I'll be able to use SweetLight in combination with fully automated software control.

Thanks,
Arjan

[support]

Note On (or velocity 127) > button on and Note Off (or velocity 0) > button off is what we presently do for flash buttons !

[Arjan]

Thank you so much. It works like you say (of course) but there is one drawback: Flash buttons seem to ignore the Page's 'Solo buttons' settings.

I guess that is because they were envisioned to be used for things such as smoke machines but wouldn't it be better generally speaking to group such buttons (for smoke) in a separate Page with it's own Solo buttons setting and have Flash buttons honor the Solo buttons settings? The Solo setting makes a lot of sense for mirrors and moving heads and it would be nice (t0 have the option) for the Live Board to enforce this 'business logic'.

Please let me know if this is something you can look into for a future update.

Incidentally, I'm totally new to lighting and so far I find your software the easiest to understand and use even though it does have a few things that confused me just a little in the beginning. Nowhere near as confused as some of the other software I have tried though.

The main thing that got me stumped at first was that I had to push the small 3d button in the Live Board in order to get the 3d view window to 'respond'. To me, as a programmer and software designer, it would make more sense if the 3d button in that (and possibly other) window(s) is simply an alternative way to open/close the 3d view window and anytime it's open it should actively visualize what's going on. If I push (enable that button it's pretty safe to assume that I want to see that window as well and if I disable that button there seems little point in seeing that window. In my opinion the added 'flexibility' of separate control in these two regards does not way up against the confusion. That's just my opinion of course but I really did find this confusing and I think it may be confusing to many newcomers.

[support]

If flash button follow "solo button" option, there will be most of the time no buttons in "on" state. And the purpose of "solo button" is there is always one button at "on" state.

Thank you for feedback about 3D button. Presently, there is an option to force "dmx" button of Live to green at start. We will consider this option for all "3D" and "dmx" buttons.

[Arjan]

If flash button follow "solo button" option, there will be most of the time no buttons in "on" state. And the purpose of "solo button" is there is always one button at "on" state.

I guess what I'm tring to say is that I would like to have the type of MIDI control of a flash button but for a 'normal' button. The way things are i can either get one (Solo button functionality/business logic) or the other (reliable MIDI control over button state) but not both.

I understand the choices that were made when viewed from the perspective of using MIDI to communicate with an external hardware controller with buttons etc but for automated control (triggering of sequences) it's not ideal. I wouldn't mind seeing a (global) option to allow non-Flash buttons to behave like Flash buttons in terms of midi control.

If I may provide another bit of feedback: the right-click popup menu on the Page comboboxes was very, very unexpected. I don't think I know any other software that has this and it's not very intuitive or discoverable. Yes it's described in the manual but those three things (conformance to accepted standards, intuitivity and discoverability) are nice properties for a user interface imho. It's original though, I'll grant you that . Perhaps you could consider adding a small butcon to the left of the combobox so that some visible to click on is available:

[support]

We take note of "not intuitive right click over combo box".
We will check with other users. If they confirm this case, we might change that.

[Ricardo Fuoco]

This is only one of many reason why tringering button with Midi Note is not good for all situation.
Trigering with Midi Note is good for Club lighting, Triggering with Midi Program Change is good for live bands stage lighting and trigering with Midi CC would be better for various type of automated control. It is time to improve the Mdi inside sweetlight.

[support]

There will be a button for page menu access (at the right side of the combobox) in next software release.

Midi CC is in the TODO list.