Creating Flash Content on the cheap

[Hambone]

I'm hoping for big things in Arkaos 4! A useable 21st-century interface, and project management would be good starters. A built-in customizable visualizer would be great.

I do the 200ms delay in Ableton Live. The live percussion obviously goes straight through without a delay (apart from the crappy mLAN audio latency). I don't cue the audio tracks with headphones (I know the songs!), but use a wireless in-ear monitor for monitoring the audio and listening to a click track for playing live percussion in sync between songs. As the audio tracks are warped in Live, they auto-beatmatch, and I have preset Live CC crossfade curves (instant, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 and 128-beat) that I launch with BCR buttons.

[ConsciousPilot]

Originally Posted by Hambone

Glad to help. I find that explaining this stuff to someone else helps me to understand it better. I feel like I'm re-inventing the wheels sometimes, though!

I do wish G-Force would run inside Arkaos. I have to run it separately on an iBook, then pipe the iBook's s-video output into a capture card on the G5 running Arkaos and Live. The iBook is MIDIed to the G5 to allow Live to control the G-Force parameters, either sequenced or triggered with Faderfox buttons.

Because the capture card has about 200ms of latency, I send the audio to the iBook straight from a mixer send, and delay the audio 200ms going to the PA. That way, the G-Force waveforms are exactly synched to the audio when they hit the screens. The 200ms delay also lets me set up various delays for the lighting in Live. The laser, for example, has about a 50ms delay after receipt of the CC, while the scanner panning needs all 200ms, and the scanner tilting 150ms. The strobes need 125ms to be firing exactly in sync.

Yes, Arkaos can use CCs to control layer opacity. I don't do it with a fader, though. I use Live CC clips assigned to buttons, or sequenced.

Sorry for hijacking the thread! It's the individual Flash variables I want to get tightly synched to the audio and lighting next.

So much to do, so little time...

Awesome, thanks. Would it be too much trouble to post a screen shot of how you have a sample CC envelope set up for fading from one visual layer to another automated, so I can see how you do it? So when you mix from one visual clip to another, it smoothly fades into the next one, automatically by how you programmed it yes?

Heres an example, let me see if I understand it right

Lets say I set up CC 41, 42, and 43 for layer 1, 2, and 3 opacity. Lets assume that there is visuals running on layer 41 and 42 at the moment. I set the blending mode in the clip properties, so just assign an envelope to send CC 43 value from 0, fading in to 100% at the end of a measure for a 1 bar fade in, for example, to blend in the top layer over the others? So all 3 layers will be running at the same time, then after layer 3 is at 100% stop triggering the bottom 2 layers (in this case, layer 3 won't be superimposed over the other 2 layers, will take priority)

Also, Would it be possible to set up both CC controlled envelope clips, and as well assign it to a fader for manual mixing as well if I wanted that option? (the CCs would take priority over the fader position though, although this is something secondary that would just be nice to have)

[Hambone]

There's a Faderfox button assigned to launch the cameras, fade camera 1 up over 4 beats, and fade camera two down over 4 beats. The button next to it crossfades the other way. They're pre-sequenced in some of the songs so I don't have to do it, and the camera pan/tilt/zoom settings (and exposure, night vision, etc) and appropriate lighting are launched by Faderfox buttons or pre-sequenced, too. On some of the sequences one camera fades up, then after the other fades down, it repositions to one of 6 preset pan/tilt/zoom settings (that I set up for each venue), it then fades up and the other fades down, then the other camera repositions while it's faded down, etc. Toggling like this gives the illusion of 12 cameras cross-fading back and forth. There are some preset super-slow pans around the room, too. Most of the live feeds have various synched Arkaos effects and layers, like a chromakeyed G-Force visualizer, or (my current favorite) Bubbles, Saturation, False Color, and pulsing Neon, all layered over the top.

Here's the MIDI clip that zeroes all Arkaos keys and launches the two cameras:


Here's the CC clip that fades up camera 1:


and the camera 2 fade-out clip:


You can assign a fader and a button-launched or sequenced CC clip to control the same parameter, and use either one. I have audio auto-crossfade clips assigned to BCR buttons:


and to a BCR knob:


Live continually feeds CC119 back to the BCR, so I always know the cross-fade position based on the LED ring around the BCR cross-fade knob.

Now if I could only remember what each Faderfox, BCR2000, 01v and FCB1010 button/knob/fader does, I'd be sorted! (Mmmmm.... Lemur with labelled buttons, faders & knobs...)