Triggering clips with piano midi keyboard issues
Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2025 22:48
Hi everyone,
I'm facing a bit of a tricky issue!
Here’s my setup:
I have 2 PCs for my music show. One runs Reaper for the music and live play with my MIDI keyboard. The second runs Resolume for the visuals.
I have about 20 tracks in the show. Each track uses only PNG files (no video yet).
For each track, I use 1 background image on Layer 1, and around 25 PNGs on Layer 2. These PNGs are triggered by the keys of my MIDI keyboard.
MIDI notes from my keyboard are sent from the music PC to the visuals PC via rtpMIDI, and everything works fine.
My goal: I want the visuals to follow my live piano playing in real time.
But I’m running into a couple of problems/questions:
I can’t trigger more than one clip at the same time on Layer 2. Sometimes I play chords or multiple notes together, but only one clip will run.
My workaround idea: put the 25 note-clips each on separate layers → 25 layers with 1 clip each, mapped to 1 MIDI note. That way I can trigger them in parallel.
The issue: I can’t find a way to deactivate the clips once they’re fired, since there’s no true Gate/Piano mode for clips.
I tried mapping the notes to the Opacity of the clips, which works, but the cut is too harsh when I release a note. I’d like a softer fade-out.
Also, I’m wondering if running ~26 layers per track would be too heavy for performance.
What do you think would be the “right” way to set this up in Resolume?
Is there a best practice for syncing visuals to live piano notes, especially with chords and smooth fade-outs?
Thanks in advance!
I'm facing a bit of a tricky issue!
Here’s my setup:
I have 2 PCs for my music show. One runs Reaper for the music and live play with my MIDI keyboard. The second runs Resolume for the visuals.
I have about 20 tracks in the show. Each track uses only PNG files (no video yet).
For each track, I use 1 background image on Layer 1, and around 25 PNGs on Layer 2. These PNGs are triggered by the keys of my MIDI keyboard.
MIDI notes from my keyboard are sent from the music PC to the visuals PC via rtpMIDI, and everything works fine.
But I’m running into a couple of problems/questions:
I can’t trigger more than one clip at the same time on Layer 2. Sometimes I play chords or multiple notes together, but only one clip will run.
My workaround idea: put the 25 note-clips each on separate layers → 25 layers with 1 clip each, mapped to 1 MIDI note. That way I can trigger them in parallel.
The issue: I can’t find a way to deactivate the clips once they’re fired, since there’s no true Gate/Piano mode for clips.
I tried mapping the notes to the Opacity of the clips, which works, but the cut is too harsh when I release a note. I’d like a softer fade-out.
Also, I’m wondering if running ~26 layers per track would be too heavy for performance.
Is there a best practice for syncing visuals to live piano notes, especially with chords and smooth fade-outs?
Thanks in advance!