Control of Theater Stack Via MIDI

[Bob Healey]

So, I've been asked to implement chases with Sound 2 Light for a musical I'm working on. One of the boards I can potentially rent with Sound 2 Light functionality is a Pearl Tiger. The big question I have is can I control the theater stack via MIDI? I can generate notes, program changes, or MSC from the show control system. I couldn't find anything definitive either way in the manual. Thanks for any help.

[icke_siegen]

MIDI is covered in section 13.2 of the Pearl manual. I used it a few times a time ago. Essentially, what you can to is fire presets - that time we prgrammed the cues on the desk, and programmed the stack (of the cues) on another MIDI control system. The very MIDI commands are described in a.m. section. However, I don't think MIDI goes well along with theater stack programming on the Pearl.

Another option which might come in handy: MTC (Midi timecode)...

[Bob Healey]

Thanks. What I'm trying to do is have a stack of cues where I hit GO, GO, GO, etc to step through the stack, but instead of having an op hitting GO, I have a show control computer that normally talks to an ETC Express sending a MIDI go command to the board to ensure lighting and video and sound cues go at the correct time with respect to each other. Don't have a way of generating timecode, and its a musical so its going to be different night to night anyways.

[icke_siegen]

Hm. As far as I can see it, the Go button has no MIDI code assigned on the pearl. I don't know if MIDI works when the desk is set to theater stack mode (you'd have to send the go via swop 12~15).

But you might go the way I described previously: fire the programmed memories (cues/chaser) via MIDI. Only backdraw: this involves much more programming on the MIDI machine. Example from the manual:

Stop/run/step a chase etc: after touch ($An pp cc)
Note number (pp) = playback number, from 0 - 19 (decimal)
Aftertouch value (cc) = control codes:
$00 stop chase
$01 run chase
$02 restart from step 1
$03 fade to next step using programmed fade times
$04 Snap directly to next step