MIDI Notes in CommuniquéPro

[David Buffham]

Hi Guys,

 

I'm lighting a show next week where I'd like to use MIDI Notes from SFX to trigger the Strand 430 we'll be using. In the past we've done this successfully with our own console, but I'm not sure how to achieve the same with Strand!

 

I've read the very sparse information on MIDI Notes in the manual and have downloaded the OLE to have a look at the configuration options, and have got some questions...

 

- does the 430 console actually support MIDI Notes? From what I can tell the 430 has similar hardware to 530 apart from a slower processor, but I've seen some references to software functionality not supported on the 430.

 

- what MIDI channel should the Notes be sent on? Presumably same as the 'Channel' setting on the Show Setup page - or does this setting just apply to slaving consoles?? I guess the adjacent 'Mode' setting is irrelevant to Notes?

 

- what is the mapping between the Notes and the submaster or fader that is triggered? i.e. which 'Note' triggers submaster 1, etc?

 

- the manual talks of 'submasters' and 'channels' - in the software the 'Notes' mode option is 'subs' or 'faders' - in this context does 'fader'='channel'?

 

- my understanding is that if a note-on command is sent to a submaster, say, then that sub bumps to a level determined by velocity. However does that sub remain at that level until a note-off command is received?

 

- also when a submaster is bumped can it trigger a macro? In this case does the macro execute until completion, or does it only execute whilst the submaster is on i.e. could a momentary bump of a submaster be used to trigger a much longer sequence of events

 

- in the OLE is there any way of accessing the submaster flash buttons so that we try manually triggering the sequence of events that would occur when the Note is received?

 

- does anyone have a OLE of version 2.2 of the c5 software?

 

I'm sure that we can get it working through trial-and-error, however there's not much time in the venue and both the sound engineer and myself would like to get as much of this sorted out as possible beforehand!