Help a Freestyler n00b with footswitch control?

[tjobrien21]

Hey folks,

I'm a Freestyler n00b, but I'm an engineer and quite technically inclined. I'm trying to use Freestyler to control lights for my band, using a MIDI foot controller to tell it what I want to happen during and between songs. So far, I have the following set up and working:

ART X12 MIDI controller. It has buttons which send MIDI channel change requests. Those are translated in software to note up/down messages.
USB -> MIDI cable.
PC and Enttec Pro DMX interface.

Software-wise, Bome's MIDI translator and a virtual MIDI cable are running to translate the MIDI control messages. These may not be necessary in the end, but I couldn't get Freestyler to listen to the channel change requests my footswitch sends out and do what I wanted. This arrangement at least has them communicating, and responding to repeated presses of the same button if necessary.

SO, at this stage, I can toggle a blackout from the foot controller. Believe it or not, it feels like a big accomplishment, lol. At least I know the hardware is all working together now.

Here's what I'm ultimately trying to do: From the footswitch, I'd like to be able to have a light program for each song and select it, and start it. I'd also like to have a few "over-ride" effects I can run at the right times, and continue with the program for the song. At the end, black out or go to a spot on the singer or whatever... Then select the next song, and have it, along with its unique pre-programmed "special effects" ready on the foot controller... And so on, and so on for each song til we're done.

In an effort not to re-invent the wheel, does anyone have ideas how to make this happen? I'd appreciate any ideas/help you may have. I'm sure there are some "best practices" for doing this - and being new to Freestyler, I have no idea what they are!

Tim

[dmxlighting]

Try contacting Shannon D (you should be able to message him via FS)
I know that he has experience with using a midi foot switch with FS and has had some success.

My experience is with using a BCF2000. If you have managed to get B/O to work from your switch then it shows that it will at least talk to FS.
I dont know exactly how you want to control the software but there is loads you should be able to do.

[remco_k]

Try contacting Shannon D

... and don't forget to post the (possible) solution here.

[Shannon D]

Hi guys,

On the hardware side of things, I have the Behringer FCB-1010 midi foot controller, the M-Audio Midiman 4x4 midi to USB interface (you don't need the 4x4 because Freestyler can only receive from one channel at a time) and an Akai MPD16. The Akai is powered usb from the laptop, but I don't use that usb as an input. The output of the Akai MPD16 goes to the input of the FCB-1010. The output of the FCB-1010 goes to the Midiman 4x4 and the midiman is connect to the laptop via usb as well. One note on the hardware: The FCB-1010 has to be powered up WITHOUT the midi cables connected. Once the FCB-1010 is powered up and has gone thru its start up mode, you can connect the midi cables. Don't know why, but it will lock up every time if the midi cables are connected upon power up.

On the Freestyler side of things, I'm not using the Submasters for the band shows. I strictly use Cues.

Building scenes/sequences:
I created several static scenes (ex. dimmed colors and spot light on singer) and also added them to the over-ride buttons. I created several multi-scene sequences ONLY USING COLORS (P&T set to OFF on the movers) that had about 15-20 scenes each. These were not added to the over-ride buttons. I created several SINGLE scene sequences with the moving heads and scanners set to different positions of the stage. I also created several scenes with the moving heads and scanners set in motion, but the colors set to off. I created a blackout scene as well with all lamps and LEDs turned off and added this one to the over-ride buttons

Building my Cues: I built several cues, but used different scenes in each. This is how I saved the cues:
Sequences 1 thru 4 are always some of the static scenes that were also added to the over-ride buttons.
Sequences 5 thru 8 are always the multi-scenes which contain all the different colors.
Sequences 9 thru 12 are always single scene positions for the movers.
Sequences 13 thru 16 are always motion scenes for the movers.

Programing the midi foot controller:


The FCB-1010 has 10 programmble buttons for each of the 10 banks. Buttons 1 thru 10 do exactly the same thing in each bank. For example: Button 1 is always triggering the over-ride #1 which is blackout. Buttons 2, 3 & 4 trigger the static scenes that were added to the over-ride buttons. Button 5 is always set to "Manual Trigger" to step through the scenes of the multi-colored sequences 5 thru 8 in the cue. Buttons 6 thru 9 are set to select sequences 5 thru 8 in the cue. Button 10 is set to select a motion scene from sequence 13 thru 16.
Each bank of the foot controller is set to choose a different Cue from the Cue list buttons.

The hardest part that stumped me setting all this up was getting the FCB-1010 programmed. Behringers manual was about as clear as mud. I finally got it working once I programmed the CNT1 / SYSTEX SEND and CNT2 / SYSTEX RECV to output a velocity of 127.

I wrote this up kinda fast, so if you need more clarification on certain parts, just let me know.

Shannon D

[LJ_krede.dk]

thanks for sharing, shannon. Sounds like you used a lot of time to get this working.

one thing which could be great in freestyler would be that you could make a cue which could step through one or more sequences at the same time when pressing a "go" button. its like the cue list buttons which activate/deactivate on or more sequences.

Code: Select all

EXAMPLE:
CUE 1
Seq 1: fade up frontlight
Seq 2: fade up LED backlight: Blue
Seq 3: position MAC250's: lead singer  

CUE 2
Seq 1: fade up Mac250's
Seq 2: snap LED backlight: Red
Seq 3:

CUE 3
Seq 1: Random strobe
Seq 2: Circle shape for MAC250's
Seq 3: Change corlor for MAC250's: Red
Seq 4: Backligt: fast fade colorchange: Red/blue/white

CUE 4
Seq 1: fade to Blackout

All sequences in one cue are activated at the same time, so you don't have to program all lights in one sequence, but just drag and drop. you can already do that now with cuelist buttons, but you need to have to have a button for each cuelist. it could be cool with at "Go" button to change cuelist (maybe another button to go to previous cuelist if you pushed to early)


I think it's like a theater stack or something, am I right? for a couple of weeks ago I was helping to set up lights for a Danish band called "DÚNÉ". their lighting guy had preprogrammed all the lights on chamsys MagicQ PC and just pressed the "go" button each time the LED-lights should change looks, pretty easy I must say

it's something like that which could be cool for a lot of band members to have in FS

[tjobrien21]

Thanks for all that info!

I've been away a while on shows with the holidays. Now that I'm back, I'm working with Freestyler again.

I'm trying to find documentation or a manual on how to use it now, because the more I mess with it, the more lost I seem to get. :-/

[LJ_krede.dk]

I'm trying to find documentation or a manual on how to use it now, because the more I mess with it, the more lost I seem to get. :-/

try the help --> Contents in Freestyler. the basic thing are described there. otherwise check the Freestyler wiki page. it's not done yet but i hope a lot of people will contribute the next few month.