Surface role scene MIDI

[figursagsmats]

I’m using midi from my dLive console to trigger scene changes in Waves SuperRack. The SuperRack computer is connected to the MixRack via Allen & Heath Midi Control. This works fine – as long as the surface recalling the scenes does not have any Role selected. As soon as I select a role, no midi is transmitted.

How get my dLive setup to transmit midi when using Roles?

[msteel]

Are you explicitly sending the scene changes via the “Custom MIDI” parameter for specific scene recalls?
Or are you relying on the built in bank/patch change messages as documented in the MIDI over TCP document to send messages for every scene recall?

Our system uses multi-surface with roles, and I think (but have not verified recently) that custom MIDI messages per scene still work along side surface roles.

However, if I correctly understand the way scene changes work with multi-surface, I can see how the behavior you describe might be a natural result of the way the system is designed. Here is why that might be, based on my observations of what happens in a dLive system:

In a dLive system, each component maintains its own set of scene memories, with data that pertains to itself. Mix Rack data (like routing and processing) for scene 10 is stored in Mix Rack scene memory 10. Similarly, Surface data (like strip layout) for scene 10 is stored in Surface scene memory 10. If there are multiple surfaces, each has its own set of memories for its own data.

First consider the case where there are not surface roles (perhaps this is even a single surface system). From what I have observed, without surface roles, a recall on any surface triggers a recall on all surfaces.
Suppose someone taps “Go” on Surface 1 for Scene 10. Surface 1 needs to recall its Scene 10 data. So does the Mix Rack, and any other Surface in the system. So Surface 1 tells the Mix Rack “Go on Scene 10.” Perhaps it uses some undocumented command to do this, but could potentially use the documented MIDI bank/patch change message for this purpose. Additionally, Surface 1 probably doesn’t know or care what other surfaces are in the system – the Mix Rack probably keeps track. In this case I think it is likely that the Mix Rack just shouts a MIDI “Bank 1 patch 10” to every device that has an active connection and lets them do their thing.

But as soon as surface roles are active in a system, scene recalls on one surface can’t automatically apply to all surfaces. In this case, the Mix Rack is probably selective about what surfaces it forwards the recall message to. It is even conceivable that the Mix Rack assumes every Surface has a unique surface role and doesn’t forward scene recall messages at all.

Here’s a wild thought – what if dLive uses the MIDI channel parameter to specify surface role? Any chance that changing the SuperRack MIDI channel would get it working again?

[Author]

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