As one example of designing a new physical layer, a single resistor is all you need to get an Arduino micro-controller to spit out not-quite-standard, but still quite readable MIDI. MIDI is, as a language, quite simple and robust, and so is the physical layer. It is when you geek out a little, though, that things really open up.
#QLAB MIDI TRIGGER SOFTWARE#
I hasten to add that Sound Cue Systems and SFX also have these abilities, plus there are some other tricky ways you can get the same kinds of interactions with other software or even hardware options (I've done more than one show with an old Roland "Doctor Sampler.")
A Korg nano-key has been good for that I double-stick tape it to the top of the sound board and mark off the "Go" and "rewind" keys with board tape and Sharpie.
On the flip side of the interaction, I prefer using MIDI surfaces to control Qlab, as MIDI "Go" and "Stop" commands will execute regardless of where the cursor is or if Qlab is even focused. So Qlab could actually do something to a rafter. On a dance show a little while back we ran the entire show from Qlab, and while each music track was playing multiple Qlab auto-follow cues spat out MIDI Show Control commands to the lighting console, calling up non-sequential access lighting looks.Īnd when you include MIDI Show Control, there are motor controllers that respond to MIDI. There are lighting consoles (and some automated fixtures) that already speak MIDI.
#QLAB MIDI TRIGGER SERIES#
There are control surfaces (such as, the Korg nano series - I have seen video of a Korg nano-slider being used to control remote cameras in real time) Or the Behringer BCF2000, a motorized 8-fader control surface, that are already capable of communicating via MIDI. OSC gives you more detailed control and is the current choice among experimental musicians.īut MIDI is out there. I've seen workplaces with Mac Minis tucked behind display screens running video loops. What would Qlab do with a rafter? Or would it be ON a rafter? Since it is software, it can't "be" anywhere by itself, but you could certainly stick it on a Mac Mini and stick that in the rafters. (That particular search seems to turn up mostly references to James Bond computer games.!)
I wonder what it was they were trying to find, and if anything I wrote was any help at all. Someone landed here using the above as a search term.