Problems controlling lights with MIDI

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xJDAx
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Jan 17, 2018 6:44 am
Real Name: Jason D Anderson

Hello, I am trying to move over to QLC+ 4.11.1 from FreeStyler on a Windows 10 system. I currently have my lights fully programmed using a MIDI track coming from Ableton. It goes from Ableton to LoopBe to FreeStyler to OpenDMX USB to the Lights. This all works with FreeStyler but I am having trouble recreating this setup with QLC+. In QLC+ I have my input coming from LoopBe, output to my OpenDMX USB and profile set to Generic MIDI. I have set up my Fixtures and set up a few basic functions to control them. Everything seems to be working up to this point. Here are a few of the problems I have had...

1. I have created a few controls in the Virtual Console and assigned them to Functions but in Operate Mode the sliders are very jumpy and keep snapping back to 0.

2. I assigned incoming MIDI using Auto Detect but as soon as I hit the Operate Mode button QLC crashes. It looks like I need to get the "Test" version for Windows off of GIT but I was unable to find it. Can someone point me to it or an earlier version of QLC that doesn't crash in this instance?

3. More of a question than a problem... The Generic MIDI profile has all the incoming MIDI set to sliders, even all the notes. If I am sending note/velocity do I need to change this?

I have not been able to find a good example of this kind of setup in QLC+ and not even sure if I am approaching it the right way. It seems I need to create functions for every channel for every light, then a widget for each function then assign MIDI inputs to each of the widgets. But I feel I'm missing something or making things more complex than they need to be. I have watched all the tutorials two or three times and searched the forums here and on Ableton but I'm still stuck.

Any help would be much appreciated.
siegmund
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Joined: Mon Nov 02, 2015 11:03 am
Location: Germany
Real Name: Lukas

Hi, welcome to the forum!
xJDAx wrote: Wed Jan 17, 2018 5:11 pm 1. I have created a few controls in the Virtual Console and assigned them to Functions but in Operate Mode the sliders are very jumpy and keep snapping back to 0.
For resolving this issue you should post your workspace file and any custom fixtures.
xJDAx wrote: Wed Jan 17, 2018 5:11 pm 2. I assigned incoming MIDI using Auto Detect but as soon as I hit the Operate Mode button QLC crashes. It looks like I need to get the "Test" version for Windows off of GIT but I was unable to find it. Can someone point me to it or an earlier version of QLC that doesn't crash in this instance?
The test versions can be found here. As stated in the thread, they are not to be used in a production environment!
xJDAx
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Jan 17, 2018 6:44 am
Real Name: Jason D Anderson

I'm now running 4.11.2.89 and that has fixed the crashing when incoming midi is mapped to widgets.

Attached is my workspace as requested. It's basic and only has one light mapped per bar but hopefully, you can see where I'm going with it.

The issue with the sliders snapping back to 0 still happens. And now with midi working, it does the same thing with the incoming midi.
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sbenejam
Posts: 540
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2015 6:28 pm
Real Name: Santiago Benejam Torres
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Hi,
Set your Dimmer. Strobe and color functions to a value different to 0. To 255 for example. When you move a Slider in playback mode it starts playing the function attached and adjust the level of function depending of the slider value.
xJDAx
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Jan 17, 2018 6:44 am
Real Name: Jason D Anderson

Thank you sbenejam! Setting all my sliders to 255 in the function did the trick. Only one thing that is still not right are the Strobe Channels on each of the lights. With the scene function at 255 the Strobes are full on regardless of what I have the slider set to in the Virtual Console during operation. But I can control them fin in the Simple Desk, so I know they're mapped to correct channel on the light. Any ideas? If not, I'll keep trying different things to see if I can get it to work.

Lastly, is my approach to controlling lights with MIDI correct? Is there a better, more direct way, other than what I'm doing? Where I'm creating functions for every channel and a widget for every function and a midi event mapped to every widget.

Thanks again for all your help.
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sbenejam
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Real Name: Santiago Benejam Torres
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Set the sliders controlling strobe channels to level mode selecting only strobe channel.
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