Decks and MIDI Mappings by This Clip

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NEWP_Official
Met Resolume in a bar the other day
Posts: 10
Joined: Sat Aug 05, 2017 20:20

Decks and MIDI Mappings by This Clip

Post by NEWP_Official »

Hey Hive Mind,

I have been touring since last August and have been struggling utilizing Resolume's tools to its fullest advantage. The ease of use and quality of life could be drastically improved for touring applications around Deck Management and MIDI Mapping.

I like to reorder and rename all my columns from left to right for each new show. A new Ableton timeline, a new Content Timeline across the Columns.

My apc mappings generally control lots of Layer specific controls that will never change from show to show. I also utilize a lot of rtpMIDI mappings from ableton to advance content as our DJ launches her clips.

The Decks will often change per show and the MIDI Mappings per Deck will need to stay the same for that particular content timeline. I then clean up my showfile and utilize only 1 deck with the necessary content for that night in order to speed up Composition load time should an erroneous crash occur. It seems like an important practice to clean your showfile before a show.

However, access to old showfile information easily gets mismanaged when creating a new deck with a new column order and new MIDI mappings whilest saving over the only MIDI mapping Shortcut File that determines the whole composition midi behavior. For example, dragging an old deck from an old composition with a different midi mapping than the actively used show file will fail to load any midi mappings for the existing clips in the deck.

It is near impossible to currently manage Clip or Deck specific MIDI Mappings when dragging old decks into new showfiles.

I know Resolume steered away from Composition and Program level midi mappings. But I think we need to continue to oversteer in that direction and add in granular Deck Level MIDI mappings. This would provide Clip Launching MIDI management with actual control over importing deck based timelines into compositions.

Separating MIDI management on Decks would offer finer control over long term Timeline development for shows while allowing for the flexibility of utilizing and adapting a composition/group/layer level control scheme over time. Vastly improving quality of life and reducing programming times for artists.

--- Well what about By Position MIDI Mappings as they're persistent across decks?

By position won't work with for this particular use case. my challenge is not multi-deck midi mappings but clip specific midi mappings within a deck that I would like to keep specific to that deck while importing to new compositions. Ie old decks with their This Clip midi mappings should keep all of their This Clip mappings. As I make a new deck for the set and rearrange columns to stay in setlist order. I often have to remap clip launching triggers because old decks don't carry midi info when a different MIDI Shortcut file is used from the old comp to new comp. Resulting in lots of repeated work midi mapping timelines.

By position mappings retain column layer location, however the content positions will change every show for a songs' clip selection. Layers don't change order but columns do.

Additionally when working within a single deck: cutting and pasting a clip with This Clip midi mapping - the shortcut disappears and needs to be remapped. If you move a clip by dragging it from one position to another it keeps it's mapping. However you must cut and paste between decks which additionally poses a challenge of migrating This Clip Deck Dependent midi mappings into Active Show Decks.

Additionally, This Layer or This Group carries across all decks for midi mappings and is more useful than By Position. That way if I add a layer underneath everything, my shortcuts don't break.

So it really is just Clip specific mappings that need Deck Dependency. But I know Deck Mappings would offer so much more flexibility if kept separate from the existing MIDI mapping solution. It would definitely improve quality of life when sequencing a set list from Ableton.

-- What happens if a Deck Specific This Clip MIDI mapping is loaded with a Deck, causing the composition to have duplicate midi mappings?

Duplicate midi mappings are already handled well by Resolume. Multiple clips launched go to the last mapped midi clip.

A This Clip midi mapping on the same shortcut as a This Layer or completely different midi mapping is not an issue in regards to improving the quality of life workflow when managing decks. It could cause confusion for someone who doesn't separate their hardware clip shortcuts from their layer shortcuts, but that seems like a substantially smaller issue to manage on the end user side than losing hundreds of This Clip Midi Mappings everytime a new deck is made.

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