garageCube

[johnwford]

Hi there ..

Ok, Just got Modul8 to run pre-made individual clips for each song for our show..

We will be running the music from one Macbook pro modula8 on another.

I have set up the midi , it all reads the vids ...

The MASSIVE problem is, It never triggers the same each time.. The visuals must be synced as much as possible as we are singing on vids also.

Some times its bang on, but the next time its early and then the next time its late..

I bought Modul8 after being told one of the guys at garageCUBE that it would sync perfectly...

They dont go out of time after they have been triggered.. They just trigger at different times, every time..

we go on tour in 1 week.. PLEASE TELL ME HOW TO RESOLVE THIS.

At the moment i am testing the setup like this:

VISUAL COMPUTER:

MACBOOK PRO - 2.8 PROCESSOR - 8BG RAM (band new)
MODUL8
M-AUDIO MIDISPORT 2x2 (just a basic midi in and out, also brand new)

MUSIC COMPUTER:

MACBOOK PRO
LOGIC 8
RME FIREFACE 800 (just using it for midi)


But when show time comes we will be using Cubase for playing the music with an apogee duet.

PLEASE GUYS... HELP ME OUT..

I wont be touching the effects while the show is running, Just letting it play whats pre-made.

Thanx alot

John

[mowgli_uk]

How are you triggering the clips?
Are they loaded before you trigger them?
If you set up everything correctly they do trigger on time.
You'd probably be better off and it's less hardware if you use a network cable to feed MIDI from one laptop to another.

[johnwford]

FRY_UP has given me some tips... i will try them later and post the results..

Really? Would a network cable work out better?

Really good to know if so..

Thanx

j

[johnwford]

Ok.. I have tried everything.. Now all the clips are exported as PHOTOJPG at 75%.... 1280x720.

I tried loading as ram , lossness quality ect ect... The midi still triggers ramdom.. slightly off , or bang on, or late or early..

I must fly to our shows in 10 hours, AFtre i fly, I will have no way of checking before the show..

Please people. If anyone knows what i can do to make this midi trigger on time everytime.. NOW is the time i need to know..

Big f.... problem here..

Thanx in advance


John

OH, I tried the network cable thing, but i cant seem to get it working right...I was given an explanation how to do it, but some of the info does not match what i am seeing on the screen...

ANyway..

J

[mowgli_uk]

It's hard to give advice without knowing your os etc.. and I know nothing about reason or cubase but here is an explanation about midi and network:

1 connect the two laptops with an ethernet cable
2 open your network preferences and select to configure manually on both laptops
3 in the IP address field use 10.0.0.2 and 10.0.0.1 respectively for each laptop
4 subnet mask 255.255.0.0 for both laptops
5 open audio midi set up on both laptops and click on network
6 add a session and give it a name
7 in the directory window select the signal coming from the other laptop (on both)
8 you should see the other laptop listed in the participants window
9 I can't help you here because I don't use Reason but you should set reason to output MIDI through the created network. If you start off by sending MIDI clock you should see little red lines appearing in the latency space in the opposite laptop
10 in modul8 preferences ensure that you have the network signal enabled.
that should do it.
Also ensure that airport is switched off on both laptops as otherwise the ethernet connection will be unstable.

In any case your problem sounds very strange, how could the clips ever trigger EARLY? if that's the case the issue is probably with reason/cubase and the way you've configured MIDI within them

[djsemuta]

Hi all. I am new to Modul8, but the short story is that I am doing essentially the same thing as the OP.

I am triggering M8 with Ableton on another computer via a hardware midi interface.

I believe that in my case at least, the latency comes from the time required to load a clip when triggering from the 4X4 media library.

If this is the case, must I then have every clip already loaded into a slot on the left and playing in order to get it to trigger in timely fashion?

If so, what sort of organization strategy would folks here recommend for a video show that essentially goes back and forth between a static image on the screen videos triggered in time with each song?

I imagined a scenario more like triggering session clips in Ableton, where the video sits there waiting for a play command, but things don't appear to work that way...

Also, if I need to start a clip at some point in time >0, what's the best way to do that?

I'd like to have M8 running in a fashion that requires as little interaction as possible, and delivers the most consistent behavior possible.

Thanks for any advice!

S

[The Midi Thief]

Hi all. I am new to Modul8, but the short story is that I am doing essentially the same thing as the OP.

I am triggering M8 with Ableton on another computer via a hardware midi interface.

I believe that in my case at least, the latency comes from the time required to load a clip when triggering from the 4X4 media library.

That is probably true. Be sure to have your media in the right compression, Photo jpeg at 75% quality is suggested. That is the codec that is the fastest for the computer to unpack in RAM while still looking descent. The shorter your clips are the better. And don't make your clips in unnecessarily large sizes (width/height). Having a lot of RAM installed on your computer will help you. Have your media loaded and unpacked in RAM - if you mark a clip in the 4x4 media library and press the info button (upper left corner of the same window) you will find the settings for this.

If this is the case, must I then have every clip already loaded into a slot on the left and playing in order to get it to trigger in timely fashion?

This is another option. Then your media is already loaded in to a layer. I think theoretically you should be able to turn all layers off and then turn them on with a continuous MIDI signal that turns them on. When you do your midi mapping, be sure to have "Position" or "Layerset + Position" set, you'll find these buttons on top of the Modul8 main window when you go to MIDI mapping mode. And remember - it's the layer on/off button you'd want to map, it's the first little square to the left in the layer. You might get different result if you turn the opacity up and down, you can try that too.

If so, what sort of organization strategy would folks here recommend for a video show that essentially goes back and forth between a static image on the screen videos triggered in time with each song?

I imagined a scenario more like triggering session clips in Ableton, where the video sits there waiting for a play command, but things don't appear to work that way...

That's a third method and I think this is how John finally did. He edited all videos together and jumped to a specific place in the video time line for each song. I made a simple cue module for him with 12 cues. But I'm not sure that this was the ultimate solution either since there was a little delay every time M8 did that jump in the timeline. It could have been depending on the codec of the video I was testing with, I'm not sure. It wasn't optimized for Modul8.

This would NOT be the way for you if you're mixing video and stills.

Also, if I need to start a clip at some point in time >0, what's the best way to do that?

Nudge any of the timeline knobs (either side of the play/reverse button) or make a custom module that uses direct_media_timePositionSec. I'm not sure the latter is the perfect suggestion to a new user, but you can read all about making modules in the manual.

I'd like to have M8 running in a fashion that requires as little interaction as possible, and delivers the most consistent behavior possible.

I and many other people have done this. In my case, I made a set that was traveling with two musicians. They only needed to boot up the computer, launch my Module8 set and connect the computer to the screen. It ran super smooth. However - it took a lot of time for me to set it up that way, especially since the visuals I created was much more dynamic than only playing videos and stills.

So prepare to put in a lot of work in creating the set if you want it to be simple during the show. My set did't need to be touched at all during the show, but consider having a midi device for changing media sets or something.

For what you mention, videos and stills, I think loading media in to one layer could work and preloading in to different layers and turn the layers on/off would work too but you'd have to figure out how to do when you've used the 10 first layers and want to change media sets.

Thanks for any advice!

S

[djsemuta]

That helps... It's good to know that I at least am not missing anything super obvious...

In the ableton set I use to back up the band, I trigger a scene to start the song. Would it be possible to create a module that stores a bunch of different values for direct_media_timePositionSec associated with the various clips in the library such that I can call the clip into a layer with a note at the beginning of the track, and then on the second beat of the first bar or whatever, issue the value for direct_media_timePositionSec for that video clip that I worked out and stored somehow?

Am I thinking in the right direction?

Thanks again!

S

[The Midi Thief]

First of all direct_media_timePositionSec relates to a layer not to the media set. And remember that this command only applies to video. If you have a still image it won't work, since there is no timeline. But if you're doing video only, the module you're describing is possible.

If you're doing media on different layers there is another way of restarting the clips so that they start from frame 1 when you turn the layer on. I forgot which keyword you use but it's probably clrl_layer_movie_shuttle1. (Maybe you can even do that with a midi note without using a module?)

Don't forget that one of the best ways to learn doing modules is by watching the code of other people's modules!