MIDI / DMX Lighting / Sequencing

General discussion about Gig Performer
1

I’ve been playing around with the GP3 trial and for almost all intents purposes it’s everything I need. With the exception of one thing. MIDI playback of a sequence.

The reason I want to do it is so I can sync my DMX lighting rig (via a Enttec DMX Pro 2 interface) to the audio backing track playback. I realise I “could” do this with Ableton if I had it but I’m already heavily invested in Cubase as my DAW.

So I guess what I’m asking is, has anyone else solved this problem/challenge and want to use GP3 to allow different VSTs/patches in each rackspace with an accompanying audio playback and midi playback.

Or is it realistic to expect MIDI playback to ever be supported. I see a fair few people have been asking for this feature for a number of years so I’m assuming not?

It’s the only thing that has stopped me from buying GP3 as it does everything I need, but lack of MIDI playback for my lighting rig is a deal breaker.

2

You could do that with Cubase also.

3

Another option could be scripting.
We are using DMXIS and programmed some presets.
This presets are recalled by note numbers on specific midi channels.
Such note numbers can be sent out via scripting in the on BeatChanged event.
When you do no need send many messages to your Enttec this could be a serious alternative to a Midi File Player.

DMX.gig (6.9 KB)

This is an example script (When you press the global play button in Gig Perfomer, the on beatChanged callback is triggered)

var m       : MidiMessage
     MOSC   : MidiInBlock
     v_beat : integer

initialization
   v_beat = Floor(60000.0 / GetBPM())
end

on beatChanged (bar: Integer, beat:integer, subbeat :integer)
 if beat == (2*4)  then // Start with 3. bar, play 1 bar  
  PlayNote(MOSC, C3, 100, 15, 0, v_beat*4)
 end
end
4

I’m not sure it would be possible with Cubase. I’m making an assumption that you can do it with Ableton Link. Even if I could with Cubase I’m not keen on taking my Steinberg license dongle out on the road with me.

5

However, this may well be a work-around worth investigating. I use LightKey on Mac to setup scenes for for my lighting. This handles chases, fades etc and I trigger them with midi notes at present. So all I need to do is at a given point in a song to send the MIDI note to a given device. The scene then runs until I change to another scene.

I guess my dilemma is I’m close to the end of the trial with GP3 and may not get this finished in time. I really want to buy GP3 but only if I can work around the problem. Will try getting it to work in script before my trial runs out.

6

Feel free to ask, when you need support or tipps :wink: