Numpties Guide to LivePro - Anyone?

[Jem]

That'll be great, I look forward to seeing it on the ftp server, thanks.

Have a great time at FLEM, I look forward to the details here on PL.

Cheers

Jem

[buffo]

Well, as it turned out Hayden had to leave, so we didn't shoot the demo video after all. However, even though it was getting late, Bill gave us a brief tutorial of Showtime Live, and then showed us Live Pro as well. For the record, it was like comparing a harmonica to a piano. Yeah, they both make music, but one is a heck of a lot better at it than the other.

Bill explained that Showtime Live was really designed more for corporate shows. You know... Guy heads to podium for a speech, you push the key that displays the company name and the dude's name. Guy starts talking about product X, you hit a button to show a frame that says "product X" Dude finishes speech, you hit a button that shows the company logo frame again. Then you turn the laser off. That sort of thing.

Most of the features are covered in the help file, and the operation of the program is quite simple. You assign frames, animations, modules, or even entire shows to the keys. Then you set the parameters for the key. (What happens when you push the key, what happens when you release it.) Once everything is loaded up you just mash buttons on the keyboard. You can use it to do live shows to music, but you can only have one frame (or animation, or module, or show) playing at any one time, and you only have limited abilities to add effects. To do it right you need to have a really good idea as to what you want to display all laid out in your head before you start assigning things to the keys. (You'll also need all the frame files)

Live Pro, on the other hand, lets you layer objects on top of other objects, or effects upon objects, or even effects on top of other effects. You can have an animation that is syncronized to the beat of the music while you pop in other frames, animations, or effects at will. You can apply most effects in real time. Change colors, speeds, sizes, anything... You can also build up very complex scenes by layering simple frames (and effects) on top of one another and then save the result as a new file. You've got 4 tracks to work with, and each track can hold multiple effects. It's very powerful software, and is unquestionably aimed at the "disco laser DJ" market. Cool stuff, but a bit beyond what I'm ready for right now.

Adam

[Jem]

Thanks Adam

I had pretty much got to grips with Showtime 'Live', but it didn't want to do what I needed it to do, hence the upgrade to LivePRO.

I'm slowly (and I mean slowly ) getting familiar with the simpler aspects of LivePro now. I have my Novation Zero SL MIDI setup and i'm just waiting for my lcd touchscreen to arrive (that's another story ).

Cheers

Jem

[buffo]

Yeah, Live Pro is pretty incredible. Only two members that were present at FLEM 1.5 actually had a license to run Live Pro (and one of them already knew the program really well), but we were all curious as to what it could do, so Bill Benner gave us a demonstration. After that demo my head was spinning! It's really a very complex piece of software. But once you master it, it's pretty obvious that you could do damn near anything with it.

Maybe some day I'll upgrade and give it a shot. It sure looks cool...

Adam

[andy_con]

i hate reading manauls and never take anything in.

a simple demo and i take everything in.

so if you do have any vids i would luv to see em

[allthatwhichis]

Sorry man, we video taped the galvo tuning but not the Live/Live Pro demo.

[andy_con]

pffff

can we see that one instead?

[allthatwhichis]

pffff

can we see that one instead?

I'm gettin there... I taped the screen with the test pattern and it got a lil washed out from the light we needed for Adam's camera to see the scanner amps. I captured it but need to move a dvd burner from one PC to another and burn it. I also need to burn the video of the lasers shows we watched... and finish the die4driver, and... I seem busy all of the sudden. And all I want is a nice drink. I'll move the dvd burner here in a few. I still have to send that to Adam so he can merge them into a nice complete package to release to the masses.

[allthatwhichis]

Damn, 5 days later and I still can't get this crap burned. Can someone give me a link to a damn program that will burn an avi to DVD? Xp won't do it, Nero won't do it...

[buffo]

How about I just mail you a hard drive and you copy the raw data to that? Would that be easier?

Adam