by jasonbeyers » Thu Aug 22, 2019 8:34 am
I tried Vezer a while back, but settled on Ableton Live Suite for controlling madmapper -- Vezer is a bit limited in the audio department and I make heavy use of Ableton's warping to align beats with the timeline grid in there. It certainly isn't the cheapest solution, but Max-for-Live (M4L) makes it easily to build patches that send OSC commands (or MIDI nodes) to Madmapper. There are a few publicly available patches out there, including ones specifically for Madmapper, but the possibilities are really endless with M4L inside of Ableton Live -- and you can build it visually, without having to write code. I usually have four or five simultaneous tracks tracks in Ableton (MIDI tracks, but they aren't sending MIDI), each of which is sending OSC commands for a certain row of cues in MM, using the same M4L patch.
Ableton Live can send MIDI clock signals, but I usually use the Ableton Link feature to sync the tempo with Madmapper (MM has direct support for Ableton Link). Using the automation built into Ableton Live, you can change the tempo for certain parts of your set and Madmapper will automatically adjust to the new tempo. This also works if you're changing the tempo on the fly (through Ableton + MIDI controller).
Another reason I switched to Ableton from Vezer, is that I couldn't control regular DMX fixtures from Vezer. Such as low-tech DMX lights, as opposed to Artnet ones like LEDs. There may be devices to convert Artnet to standard DMX and enable Vezer to do this, but I found it easier to use the DMXIS plugin for Madmapper, combined with the DMXIS usb-to-dmx box. Made it easy to automate things like pan/tilt for moving head lights, in parallel with controlling Madmapper.
Overall, Ableton's timeline and automation features are top notch, and M4L allows for endless customizations. But super pricey for the version that includes M4L, around $600.