MIDI
All editions of SFX can be triggered through
MIDI. SFX can also transmit
MIDI commands to external devices such as light boards or mixing consoles. While
MIDI is a standard, each device interprets the
MIDI data in its own specific way. Manufacturers of
MIDI controllable equipment will publish the set of
MIDI commands their equipment understands and how those commands are interpreted.
For this tutorial it isn’t necessary to actually have another device connected to your computer, but if you do, then you can substitute the proper
MIDI commands for the examples below.
Similar to Wave files, outputting
MIDI needs an output Group:
1. Click on your Cues window to make it active.
2. Select from the main menu Cues | Patch |
MIDI Patch.
3. In the Group 1 dropdown select the
MIDI device that is the actual output (and NOT the synthesizer).
4. Click OK.
Any
MIDI command in this Cues list assigned to Group 1 will be transmitted to this output.
Adding a
MIDI Command:
1. Drag-and-drop a
MIDI command from the Tool Box into your Cues window. The
Effect Properties dialog box will appear.
There are three ways to input
MIDI commands to this window. The first is to use the Builder View to create the actual
MIDI data. You can use the dropdown boxes to select and fill in the appropriate data. If you know the exact
MIDI raw data, then you can
switch to Data View and type in the
hexadecimal data. You can
switch back-and-forth between Builder View and Data View to see how the data is converted. Finally, you can capture the
MIDI data from an external device by clicking the Capture
button. To capture data you must first set the proper
MIDI input device and
channel which is found under the main menu Tools | Options |
MIDI Command Control.
For this example, assume you want to
send a GO to a light board and the manufacturer of that device has specified that it takes a Program Change with the data of the
cue number to execute. So, in the
Effect Properties dialog box you will create that command in Builder View:
1. Select C0h Program Change from the
MIDI Command dropdown.
2. Type 1 in the
MIDI Data field. The
MIDI Channel can be a number from 1 to 16 and this must match the same number that the
MIDI gear was setup with (typically the device’s options allow you to setup the
MIDI channel to listen on). Most devices default to
MIDI channel 1 unless you’ve changed it.
3. Next, click on the Attributes
tab and give this
cue a Description.
4. Finally, click on the Output
tab and highlight the proper
MIDI output.
5. Click OK. The new
MIDI command will appear in your
cue list.
Anytime this
cue is executed, it will transmit the
MIDI command.
