Timing Options

[Arvol]

Hello All,
Very small request:
When using the strobe FX, I have a DMX user that wants to use the BPM time for his master FX speed control, And the Timeline speed to control clip speeds.
This has been working perfectly for him with one exception...

When we try to map the speed (frequency) of the strobe FX to BPM (or any other method that's automated) the speed slider keeps moving forward or backward.
Example: He taps a BPM of 55 the slider moves very slow. If he taps a BPM of 300 the slider moves very fast.
Regardless of what he taps the slider keeps moving.
What he is wanting is that when he taps a bpm, the Strobe FX moves to that speed and doesn't move from that position (essentially adding a pause button to the BPM sync). This would allow him to sync his Strobe lights on his lighting rig, and the video wall strobe FX to be sync'd to the same speed.

This might be a lot more difficult than my mind can imagine, but I did want to bring it up as a feature request.
Personally I run the show off a Midi controller and just assign the strobe speed to a fader and eyeball it.
He would be running light's, lazers, and video all from one console, So having him VJ or give more attention to one aspect of the show would be more work than he wants to do, He rather just tap the bpm and sync the video and lighting FX to the same speed and have it simplified.

Very low priority request, but again, wanted to get the idea on the table.

Thanks

[Joris]

That's not how the frequency slider is supposed to work. When you set the frequency to animate to BPM, you're essentially saying that the frequency should go from 0Hz to to 25Hz repeatedly in a set amount of beats. In other words, you're not setting the frequency to an amount of beats, you're *animating* the frequency in an amount of beats. What you're seeing is totally expected behaviour.

What your LD needs to do is figure out which DMX value he needs to send in order for the strobe to coincide with a BPM. This is essentially the same as how you'd do it with a midi controller.

I'm not sure about the math, because the frequency slider isn't linear. To get your LD started, 120 BPM is 2Hz, which is DMX value 127.

[Arvol]

Perfect! I told him to map the frequency to a dmx channel and then have his time map (bpm tap on his console) directly affect this dmx value. It's a bit more programming on his part but he's young and can take it haha.

I wanted to check here first in case there was an internal work around to minimize any external programming.

Thanks for the reply and the frequency math. Very helpful!!

[Joris]

http://www.wiseguysynth.com/larry/convert/bpm_table.htm

[Arvol]

WOW!
Thanks