Crossfading scenes?

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 7:42 pm

I've got one song per scene, with the audio file, a MIDI file running the lights via MIDI-DMX, and a MIDI file running Arkaos video.

I've assigned a keystroke to each scene. I want to be able to select the next scene to play, and crossfade between tracks. But when I select the second scene, the first one stops playing.

Can anyone help? I'm using Live pretty simply.. just want to play the audio file and associated MIDI files in whatever I choose.

Thanks!

Spiralgroove · Post by **Spiralgroove** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 7:57 pm

you can only play one scene at a time

try crossfading between tracks, not scenes

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 8:06 pm

What would be the best way to set things up? I've got 50 songs for the set, each with one AIFF (the song) and two MIDI files. I need all three to play together, but then I'd like to select the next song on the fly and cross-fade into it. Seems so sweet to set it up as a scene, but if I can't cross-fade from there, how can I do it?

Thanks again!

Nick Maxwell · Post by **Nick Maxwell** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 9:31 pm

if I understand what you want correctly, you could just lay out each scene with clips on every other track. For instance, if you had 3 clips for each scene: For the first scene, you could put a clip on tracks 1, 3, and 5. Then for the next scene (which is the next song, in your case), put the clips on tracks 2, 4, and 6. Then for the next scene, go back to laying the clips on tracks 1, 3, 5. And so on.

Next, delete the stop clip buttons for each empty track space, so that when you hit play on a scene under the one that is currently playing, the clips on the current track won't stop. (you can do this by hitting ctrl-e on each box that you don't want a stop button in).

The final step is to assign tracks 1, 3, 5, etc. (all the odd numbers) to the A side of the crossfader. Then assign 2, 4, 6 etc. (all the even numbers) to the B side of the crossfader.

Now, when you are playing scene1 and want to switch to scene2, just trigger scene 2 and move the crossfader to the B position slowly, and voila.

I hope I explained this correctly. Someone will probably come up with a much smarter and simpler way to do this, but this is all I could come up with atm.

g'luck!

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 10:14 pm

Thanks, Nick!

I finally figured it out with your explanation. It works a treat. Only limitation is that you have to fade between tracks on odd and even numbers, but that's no big deal. I haven't warp marked the tracks yet, so I don't know how the tempo matching works with this technique. Will it keep everything in sync?

Nick Maxwell · Post by **Nick Maxwell** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 10:25 pm

No problem. Answering questions like this forces me to learn new things about Live that I didn't consider before, which I find to be a lot of fun in its own right.

The technique that you use to layout everything in your set should (AFAIK) be irrelevant regarding whether all your clips are in sync or not. Generally, just make sure you have your global quantize setting on 1 bar or more, and make doubly sure that you have warp-markered your tracks well by listening to them with the live metronome going at the same time, making sure that there is no drift. Some tracks require more extensive warping than others.

There are a few good threads on quick warp-markering techniques, but I don't have links off hand. Just do a forum search and that should turn up some good info.

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 10:41 pm

One small problem.. I think! When I cross-fade from one track to the next, audio is OK.. taken care of by the fader. However, if the previous song's MIDI tracks running the lights & video aren't finished, they continue to play along with the new track's MIDI.

Any thoughts?

Thanks again.. great to find someone so switched-on that's willing to help!

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 10:44 pm

Found a quick workaround.. assigning keystroke to mute the alternate MIDI tracks. Just need to remember to do it after cross-fading the audio.

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 10:46 pm

Found a quick workaround.. assigning keystrokes to mute and unmute the alternate MIDI tracks. Just need to remember to do it after cross-fading the audio. Cool if I could do it with one keystroke, though...

Nick Maxwell · Post by **Nick Maxwell** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 10:57 pm

Crap, yeah I didn't think of that. I only used audio clips when testing the method. Decent workaround, though. If I think of any other solutions, I will post it here. Likewise, if you figure out something more please let us know how you do it!

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 1:32 pm

It was too easy.. just don't delete the stop clip buttons on the MIDI track!

Now if I can figure an easier way to warp a song that has a varying tempo, I'll be there!