Various questions (SD2)

I'm happy to see someone is using the monitor software. I have received 0 feedback over the years it's been out there so I assumed hardly anyone used it. It might be possible for me to modify the colors, I will have to look into that.

For the MIDI commands, the CC messages now being used I think are much easier to enter than sysex. Just enter these three bytes: B0, page-1, scene-1. So for scene 3 on page 3 the CC message would be B0 02 02.

Oh yeah...I love the monitor software if for nothing other than showing the saved scene names for the entire page at once. Our volunteers use it as a cheat sheet to verify they are calling the correct scenes and minimize the issues of hitting the wrong button.

We don't use the fixtures page much. In fact, I can't think of us ever using it for anything other than just seeing what it does. However, the playback page (can't remember the exact name) is used all the time.

We also use the SD backup software regularly. Having worked with computers for years, I make it a point to back up everything computer related on a regular basis.

We also love the fixture profile creator utility. It comes in very handy when adding new fixtures to our system.

As for the CC commands, I understand that it's supposed to be a short hex string, but we use Cubase for a lot of backing and click tracks (and now MIDI control of the SD2), but I can't find anywhere to manually type the MIDI hex string. Cubase does have a place to manually type in SYSEX strings though.

What I've been doing is recording a scene change from each page. Then copying that midi event in Cubase to multiple places in the songs and then changing the CC value to correspond to the specific scene. I can change the CC value on a prerecorded MIDI event without issue, but I can't create one from scratch. When I try, the SD2 doesn't recognize it so something in CuUase isn't framing the manually created CC messages the same way as the recorded messages.

The frustration with this is I have to keep a Cubase project around with the MIDI recordings in it to copy the MIDI events from and paste them into the new songs. It would be far easier if I could just create new MIDI events in the new songs.

I'm surprised Cubase won't let you manually enter a CC command that the MIDIcon can recognise. Is it possible the values are getting shifted by 1 or the channel is getting shifted?

I always thought the fixture page was the most useful thing on that software. I spent quite a bit of time on that. It shows you all the possible settings for a fixture channel in a drop down box.

The fixture page may be pretty useful, we just haven't looked for a use for it yet. I had considered using a wireless laptop to sit in the house or on the stage and use RDP to control the computer next to the SD2. Then I could remotely run the fixture page and change values to program....the problem is that I still have to go back to the console to actually record the scene. Since it's already so easy to program and record scenes on the console itself, we never bothered trying that.

As for Cubase, It may be able to manually generate the proper messages. I haven't played around with that much more than trying it to see if it worked and when it didn't, I chose not to spend a lot of time figuring out why. (Not sure why you mentioned the MIDIcon). Sometime, when I get enough "playtime", I may hook a computer in between with a MIDI interface and run some software to view the framing of the actual messages to see exactly what Cubase is sending when I manually create the CC messages.

I have been working on the MIDIcon lately so its stuck in my head. I looked at the monitor program and I can change the color of the page display from white to something else if you like. Can you suggest the color you would prefer and any other views you would like to change the color of. It would be difficult to add a selector at this point.

I'd be glad to. I think a Black background with Yellow text would probably be the easiest to see in a dark environment.

If you have to do it per page, then the ones we use most are the Scene page, Select Fixture page, and Preset page.

Thanks.

The page window is the same for all memories. They share the same grid and populate it from the data. I can set the color scheme for the grid before compiling. I have two versions of this software, the original that only supported SD2 and the later that supports both SD3 and SD2. Are you still using the old version? You can probably tell by looking at help.

It looks like we're running v1.01, but I can update to a newer version if needed. I'll have to install the update whenever you change it anyway, so whatever version you update is fine with me.

I sent something to your nsbcc email.

Update for those interested. I was able to successfully "write" a MIDI Continuous Control command in Cubase that called the correct scene on the SD2. This is good since I won't have to record everything from the SD2. I think my earlier attempt failed because of differences in the way Cubase handles CC channels. Cubase counts 0-9 then A-F before continuing on to 10-19 (Normal Hex code). I think what I did earlier was to try CC channel 11 in Cubase which actually output Hex character "A" instead of decimal 11. After trying again with the correct CC channel corresponding to the decimal of the scene page I wanted (minus 1), it worked fine.