Midi and qlab

[Davo]

Hello all
I would like to assign a softkey to tell Qlab on my macbook to execute the next sequence.
is this possible
Qlab accepts midi obviously and also midi over ip.

How would I do this. as the manual for dLive is a little vague on midi

David

[Nicola A&H]

Hi David,

The MIDI Protocol is not fully implemented in dLive yet. However you can try the following:

Download the TCP MIDI Driver from here to hook up dLive with Qlab. This will create a virtual MIDI port in your Mac so Qlab can listen to and send MIDI strings to the mixer. It’s untested on dLive but early reports from other users are positive.

Set a SoftKey to Custom MIDI and type in a valid MIDI string, for example a Note On message like 91-00-7F. Make Qlab ‘learn’ this MIDI string.

Also you might want to have a look at the GLD MIDI Protocol for a list of MIDI commands the dLive system supports. For example, you can get Qlab to recall a Scene on the mixer, or mute channels etc. dLive’s protocol is identical with the exception of higher number channels, mixes and Scenes which we still need to document.

[dr_steve]

Hi Nicola,
Will the TCP MIDI Driver ever be ported to Windows? We have several windows computers that I would love to fire commands to from our S5000 using softkeys or scene changes. E.g., Virtual Sound Check Record/Play, lighting cues.

Is the tcp/ip protocol based on the network-MIDI built in OSX? If so there is the rtpMIDI implementation of this for Windows.

Thanks,

Stephen

[Nicola A&H]

Hi Stephen,

We are looking into this at the very moment. We are in touch with Tobias regarding rtpMIDI and hopefully we can address Windows users in future.

[Anonymous]

Will there be support for high resolution values on faders and auxes? (i.e. more than 128 steps, hopefully using SysEx)

[OPW_TES]

QLAB uses MSC midi control put this strings in custum midi:
Go: F0,7F,00,02,01,01,F7
stop:F0,7F,00,02,01,08,F7
next:F0,7F,00,02,01,13,F7
back:F0,7F,00,02,01,14,F7
And Qlab respons

[MJPA Hire]

Hi OPW_TES

Could you tel me where you sourced those QLab strings please.

Many thanks

Martin

[EliAudio]

I would like to add to this topic with my own findings…
I’ve been building a Qlab Go button (and then some) and was searching for MSC/Sysex commands to get Qlab to respond to, and I was surprised to find just what I was looking for in the Dlive Forums!! I’ve recently aquired a C3500 and a CDM48 rack, and I will be using Qlab and MIDI on a regular basis…

So to add to, and (slightly) correct the above list of usable MIDI strings in your Dlive…
although I got really far I would like to find out how to link cue numbers to the strings so I can have scenes trigger certain ques, and the stop all function is just a blunt stop…. I would love the escape/fade option too..

F0,7F,00,02,01,01,F7 — Go Current Cue
F0,7F,00,02,01,02,F7 — Pauze all running Cues
F0,7F,00,02,01,03,F7 — Resume all pauzed Cues
F0,7F,00,02,01,08,F7 — All Off (no fade out!!)
F0,7F,00,02,01,0A,F7 — Reset
F0,7F,00,02,01,11,F7 — Jump to next Cue
F0,7F,00,02,01,12,F7 — Back to previous Cue
F0,7F,00,02,01,13,F7 — Jump to next Cue Group
F0,7F,00,02,01,14,F7 — Back to previous Cue Group

[EliAudio]

OK… now it get’s harder
To get Qlab to respond to midi Show Control strings including specific cue’s, even in cue groups or Sequences as they would like to call it, some of your brain will have to melt when calculating the Hexadecimal 30h to 39h ascii …. yeah, I didn’t get it at first either.

When using the above MIDI Show Control (MSC) Strings to talk to Qlab, you can use the System Exclusive Data format to direct Qlab to the corresponding cue, inside the corresponding cue-list or group. To really get what’s going on in a MIDI Show Control message I’ll have to bore you with a very short explanation (or that’s what I’m aiming for).

MSC-messages are strings of hexadecimal numbers that tell the receiver what to do with the info inside the message, in the GO-message you’ll see what I mean…

F0,7F,00,02,01,01,F7 — Go Current Cue

F0, 7F — says hey this is a system exclusive message and opens the message.
00 — is the device ID, default set to 0 in Qlab, but you can change this yourself.
02 — tells the device it’s a MSC command (MIDI Show Control).
01 — tells the device it’s a Lighting/General command
01 — says GO!
7F — closes the message.

After the GO command (01) you could implement the cue number and cue list to tell Qlab to start a specific cue, and this is where it gets a bit confusing… because we’re dealing with hexadecimal numbers in 8 bit single bytes (single message length) we’ll have to divide the numbers in single digits and their hexadecimal ASCII equivalents starting from 30h to 39h to resemble 0 to 9… (go with it for now, you’ll see)

0 = 30 3 = 33 6 = 36 9 = 39
1 = 31 4 = 34 7 = 37 . = 2E
2 = 32 5 = 35 8 = 38

a cue number 3 would have to be called 33 in the string…
F0,7F,00,02,01,01,33,F7

a cue numer 12 would have to be called 31,32 in the string…
F0,7F,00,02,01,01,31,32,F7

a cue number 2.4 would have to be called 32,2E,34 in the string…
F0,7F,00,02,01,01,32,2E,34,F7

a cue number 13.2 in group/sequence 4 would have to be called 31,33,2E,32,00,34 in the string (00 to devide cue from cue list)
F0,7F,00,02,01,01,31,33,2E,32,00,34,F7

This was a revelation as much as it was a disappointment because it makes quick programming an absolute pain in the ass…
But it might inform you guys about this a bit more. I still need to find a way to get a faded panic exit…

[EliAudio]

Although I tested the above midi strings coming from a raspberry pi midi box I built a while ago I never really tested this from my C3500 going to Qlab. Now, almost a year later I am doing a show where I’m actually using qlab and my dlive with the TCP midi driver… Works like a charm, but it’s a pain to program with hexadecimals

[Jonjon1027]

Did you know panic button?

[MJCElectronics]

When I was mucking around building a Go Button box for QLab I just had the buttons send simple MIDI note on/off commands and reprogrammed the QLab functions to respond to those if you just want simple go/stop etc.
You could do the same with your soft keys and forget about SysEx and/or MSC.

[Scorch]

Has anyone else had success making this work with an avantis? When I try to type in the custom midi string for a soft key I cant get past the 5th pair of Hex characters. For go I can’t type past F0,7F,00,02,01 the last 01,f7 don’t take. I have had success assigning a midi fader on the desk and capturing its movement to start a cue so I know the console is able to talk to qlab. I’m on Avantis fw version 1.03.

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