Midi basic understanding ?

[Matthewclay]

I just don't understand how to use this using a midi track. Let me explain.

We have always played live in my band & have someone on the side of the stage change the lights. I created scenes that move & don't move & they just step through them in live. Obviously the scenes that move were never in perfect time with what we were playing.

Now we r playing with tracks & I want to recorder midi notes to trigger the light software, so that everything is perfectly in time. I don't need to know step by step instructions on how to do this, I'm just trying to understand the CONCEPT of how to do this.

Do I program a midi note to each color, gobo, pan,tilt, etc. Or just have a single midi note play a sequence, if I do this then whatever scene I have pre-programmed won't be in time with my tracks. Is this making sense or am I making it to difficult? Well I know I'm making it to difficult, but u know! I just don't understand the concept of how to do this!

Any help please, & thank you!

[support]

A midi note can trigger on/off a button in Live.
A button in Live can trigger on/off a light scene.
A scene can be one static step, or many steps.

[Matthewclay]

I understand how it works. What I'm trying to understand is how to go about it? Do I program 1 static step & put a midi note to it then make the next step & put a midi note to it. Or just program the scenes with multiple steps? I know I could do that but then how do u make that in time with the tracks?

Thank you!

[tomrbland]

Does my comment on your other post help? I don't think that you can trigger the "tap" from midi to get it in time. Support can clarify this. But you can select a BPM for each scene. So you could have several versions of the same scene set to a different BPM.

If it would help I can make a demo show to show you how you might make a system like yours work.

[Matthewclay]

So how many scenes can I have? How many midi notes is there? Is there a limit or can you use al 16 different midi channels?

So if I want 2 lights to come on & then right off I have to program a scene for that?

Why couldn't u assign a midi note to lights on white, another midi note to lights on blue, etc.... Another midi note to strobe white etc... & then use multiple midi note to create what u want on a certain measure? Or is that just too complicated?

Sorry for all the questions. Thanks for any help

Matthew Clay

[tomrbland]

Why don't you create a scene for each of those states? You can then "play" your light show in this way.

Edit to answer: There are limits to how many scenes you can have but I think you are quite unlikely to get there.