Using both QM2000.Net and FB3 with LivePro?

[taggalucci]

Hi there,

I just wondered if anyone had any experience with controlling both QM2000.Nets and FB3s from the same instance of LivePro. Is it possible to mix and match QM2000.Nets and FB3s?

I've had a search around, but I can't see any obvious info on this, whether it's been considered, whether it's possible etc.

Any thoughts?

Cheers,
Tony

[allthatwhichis]

I do not have experience but it sounds like something to try at SELEM. I think I heard last year BEYOND will let you communicate between the two.

I speculate you could run the FB3 by DMX somehow and use DMX queues in LivePro on the QM2000...

[Stuka]

I've been tinkering a bit with this myself -

Until a full-blown BEYOND package is available that supports both sets of hardware simultaneously, I personally feel like the best option is to use MIDI as the synchronizing protocol. It can be a bit "clunky", but I believe it will work...

Showtime, both versions of LivePRO, and QuickShow all support MIDI I/O.
If you're building a synchronized show set to music, build your show in Showtime, and include MIDI effects cues in the timeline to trigger sequences / frames / effects on the FB3, using either LivePRO USB or QuickShow for the link to the FB3. If you're going to play "live", you could set up an external MIDI controller to send specific commands to either the QM2000 software or the FB3 software.

The possible drawback is depending on the software packages used, you may need to use separate computers to host the QM2000 and FB3 software. Luckily, the MIDI interfacing between the computers can be done over a LAN without requiring any additional hardware. You would need a MIDI client device such as "MIDI Yoke" to run in place of a MIDI interface on each computer, and a network MIDI client such as "MIDIover LAN" to link them across the network.

I haven't done a full-up test yet, but from what I have seen so far, this should work quite well - although admittedly, multiple QM2000's would be much easier to program...$$$$$...

[taggalucci]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I had considered DMX, but I'd be missing some of the cool features from being able to visualise the cues, use BPM and other timing related capabilities.

Now I hadn't really thought about MIDI, and that could provide an interim solution. I have a lot of MIDI gear in my studio, so controlling hardware is not really an issue. Other than having to cart around the MIDI gear, the only other thing I can see would be the need for two instances of Live Pro, one for the QM and another for the FB3 and an additional screen. I am currently using a Windows XP VM on OSX to host Live Pro, and I could probably get away with another instance on the same computer without an issue, it would just be the extra screen and MIDI gear factor.

I'd prefer to have run a single instance to use both (and less equipment to carry as a result), so hopefully we'll see a version of Live Pro (Beyond edition) that does.

Maybe I'll buy an FB3 and try or...