Sound Reactive Installation - Help with Setup and Best Practices

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dan_StudioRRD
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Feb 28, 2023 9:01 pm

Sound Reactive Installation - Help with Setup and Best Practices

Post by dan_StudioRRD »

I'm working on an installation project that will be stand-alone. The lighting wants to react to the volume of crowd cheers by playing back specific effect looks. These would be triggered by different ranges of volume. I've been able to create multiple effect layers in one storage place that react to different volume levels using macros. The macro applies full opacity to the layer if the sound level is within a certain range. The problem I have is the effect appears in a 0 second count. I'd prefer that it fade into the effect. Is there a way to do this easily? Is there a better way I could set this file up?

Since this is an installation that wants to run for 1+ years, we will be running 2 computers with Madrix in case one fails. So far, I understand the backup system triggers the slave computer if the master fails. Is there a way to have the two setup files mirrored so that one is mimicking what the other is doing? Is this what the "Receive Sync Commands from Master" check box does? The manual just restates what the check box says.
Guertler
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Joined: Tue Feb 04, 2014 10:47 am

Re: Sound Reactive Installation - Help with Setup and Best Practices

Post by Guertler »

Hello dan_StudioRRD,
Welcome to the MADRIX forum.

Regarding your request about "fading" the opacity value if a desired sound level threshold is reach you will have 2 options:
  1. Use the "Storage Place Parameter Chaser" as parameter stack and call the desired steps via the Macro.
    • Therefor simply create a "Storage Place Parameter Chaser" with the Parameter "Visibility Settings" and add the desired steps with the different opacity value settings.
    • The "Auto Start" option in the "Storage Place Parameter Chaser" should be disbaled.
    • Now you are able to trigger the desired chaser step according to the received Audio Level resepectivbely if the defined threshold was reached.
    • For every Step in the "Storage Place Parameter Chaser" you can set a desired Fade-IN time.
    • In the macro you should now add the functionality that the triggering of the different chaser steps will be disabled for the time of the fade (and if needed a little bit longer).
  2. Use a desired amount of render frames to increase resepectively decrease the Opacity value to mimic a fade-in and fade-out.
    • By default the Macro will be rendered 50 times a second.
    • With the GetOpacity and SetOpacity functions for the desired layer you can increase or decrease the Opacity value manually.
    • Please ensure the value won't be set to a lower value than 0 and higher value then 255.
    • Also in this option you can add the funcitonality to disable the triggering of another fade-in or fade-out during a fade.
Now let's talk about the second request. At the moment MADRIX can't reload a setup automatically. That means if you will modify the setup at one PC you will need to load the modified setup at the second PC manually. But of course you can save it to a cloud service and load it from that storage.
If both MADRIX instances have the same setup loaded I reocmmend to use the "Backup" functionality of MADRIX to activate always the same Storage Places. Therfor simply create a Cue List which consitis of all needed Storage Places. MADRIX will sync the played cue of the cue list.
Because of working with the script which will activate the desired layer the splitting of the audio signal is necessary and the activate Storage Places of both MADRIX instances will activate the layers synchronized
dan_StudioRRD
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Feb 28, 2023 9:01 pm

Re: Sound Reactive Installation - Help with Setup and Best Practices

Post by dan_StudioRRD »

Thank you for the suggestions, Guertler. The parameter chaser was the best way for us to create the fade. Also, the backup worked as planned since we were no longer using a cuelist and just creating our looks from 1 storage place.
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