Questions about MIDI support - something is missing!?

[jw-lighting]

Hi,

trying to connect some MIDI equipment I' been wondering about the current support for MIDI. In the advertisement the FLX is promoted to have support for

Midi In/Thru (Notes, Timecode, Show Control)

see FLX Brocure: http://www.zero88.com/literature/Zero%20FLX%20Flyer%20UK%20Rev1%2002%202015.pdf

 

I can't find the setting to configure e.g. a playback to react to a specific MIDI note. But this is what the brochure (and other) promised, isn't it?

 

Maybe you could help me to understand the support for MIDI the way it is is meant and / or show me how to configure it.

 

Regards

Jan

[Jon Hole]

Hi Jan,

 

There's various options available, depending what you want to achieve. The two we mainly use are MIDI Show Control (MSC) and MIDI Timecode (MTC).

 

MSC allows a central device (often a computer) to send a message along the lines of "go cue 5". This allows you to sync multiple cues together - for example sound, lighting and video. On FLX, go into SETUP > Inputs & Outputs and enable "MIDI Show Control". Once enabled, you can also select a "Device ID" which is used to send messages to a specific device when there are multiple devices on the MIDI network.

 

MTC allows a device to send out a time, in hours, minutes, seconds and frames (usually starting at 0h:0m:0s:0f), to multiple devices, so they can trigger cues based on the time. For example, during a song there maybe dozens of cues - so if there's a timecode linked in with the backing track, the lighting console can be programmed to automatically trigger cues at very specific timings linked directly with the music. On FLX, go into SETUP > Inputs & Outputs and enable "MIDI Timecode". You'll need to select which frame rate is being sent to the console - 24FPS, 25FPS or 30FPS.

[jw-lighting]

Hi Jon,

 

thanks for clarification!

 

What I'm missing is MIDI Notes (mentioned in the brochure, too). Is there any support for that? If not, is it on your roadmap?

E.g. can i use a launchpad or keyboard with native MIDI out (we already discussed about USB MIDI support formerly) to trigger a cue or playback?

 

Regards

Jan

[Jon Hole]

It is on the roadmap - in fact ZerOS already supports MIDI Notes on other consoles, we just haven't brought it across to FLX yet as, truth be told, I think we can do a better job at it!

 

Which, leads me to the question... How would you like MIDI Notes to work? What exactly would you like triggered, and how?

 

Thanks

 

Jon

[jw-lighting]

It is on the roadmap - in fact ZerOS already supports MIDI Notes on other consoles, we just haven't brought it across to FLX yet as, truth be told, I think we can do a better job at it!

Thats fine. I'm looking forward to it.

 

Which, leads me to the question... How would you like MIDI Notes to work? What exactly would you like triggered, and how?

Thanks for that question, I appreciate the ability to contribute to zerOS from the users point of view.

 

I often have playbacks where the fader is unneccessary because there is nothing to scale with it. The 4 available UDKs are used for functions like Highlight, Clear Fixture etc.

 

What I'm missing are "executor buttons". Because there is no wing with a combination of faders and buttons or buttons only it would be nice to use a launchpad (or keyboard) for this (example: https://www.thomann.de/gb/novation_launchpad_mini_mk2.htm).

Launchpads aren't available with native MIDI out, so it could be worth to use a USB-MIDI library to let zerOS support them.

 

The pads could have any function that a playback's button has: Go, Flash, Tap Tempo, ...

 

I know about the WING and we already own one, but that's not the same. Unfortunately there is no "button wing".

 

To summarize:

 

What would I like to be triggered:

• Playbacks or cues within playbacks
• Select groups or pallets
• Execute macros
• Influence the speed of chasers: Global Tap Tempo, reset Tap Tempo, ...

How:

• Go, Flash, Latch, Tap Tempo - everythink the button of a playback can
• Additional to the current button functions: release the playback

It should be possible to "connect" a playback operation (actions like Go, Flash, ..) to a MIDI note and to have multiple notes connected to one playback (with different operations).

Maybe this could be done by enhancing the functionality of macros and let MIDI trigger those macros.

 

It's even possible to use the velocity as "fader position" or for other cool stuff, but one at a time.

 

 

I would like to talk about this with other users. Give me feedback to my ideas

 

Regards,

Jan

[Jon Hole]

Thanks for the comments Jan!

 

Within ZerOS, we're currently combining Submasters and Playbacks together (submasters were available on Solution and ORB consoles).

 

Once we've done that, the next job is to combine UDKs and Playbacks. Once we do this, it'll be much easier to link in MIDI commands as you suggest.