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song metadata to trigger Magic scene?

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chrisfrombmore
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Joined: Thu Jul 03, 2014 4:41 am

song metadata to trigger Magic scene?

Post by chrisfrombmore »

I have no idea whether this is even feasible but so far I have had no luck. I'm interested in figuring out how I can use a dj program like Traktor and assign a specific scene that I attached to a song and have it be triggered in Magic. E.g. I make a snazzy scene for Armin van Buuren's "Ping Pong," that has ping pong balls flying around. Would it be possible for Magic to pick that up from Traktor and start that scene? Since it would be in mixed music, i.e. the song technically starts playing long before anybody hears it I would still need crossfader/scene change control to blend the visuals but overall it would probably free up the dj workflow. What do you think?
Magic
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Re: song metadata to trigger Magic scene?

Post by Magic »

If I understand you correctly, what you want to do is have Traktor send out a MIDI message when a new song starts. I assume that Traktor can send out MIDI, but I'm not 100% sure.

If it can, then you need to send the MIDI message to an intermediary utility installed on your system, such as LoopBe1 (http://www.nerds.de/en/loopbe1.html). This utility can receive MIDI messages from programs that are running, and send those MIDI messages to other programs.

Then, in Magic, you select LoopBe1 as the MIDI device for playlist control, and use that to change scenes.

Easy enough?

Eric
Kompiler
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Re: song metadata to trigger Magic scene?

Post by Kompiler »

Well just on playlist change may not be enough. You really wouldn't want the scene to change until the song is being brought into the mix.

I could use a feature like this as well but cannot really think of any way to pull it off other than x-fade or line fader triggers.
Magic
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Re: song metadata to trigger Magic scene?

Post by Magic »

If you set the playlist's transition duration to be long enough, it wouldn't fade in right away. So that might be a way to do it. But you're right, it would still be a fixed duration. Allowing for more real-time control is a good idea. I think it would at least partially address this idea as well: http://magicmusicvisuals.com/forums/vie ... ?f=4&t=101
chrisfrombmore
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Joined: Thu Jul 03, 2014 4:41 am

Re: song metadata to trigger Magic scene?

Post by chrisfrombmore »

Hi Eric,
I have now spent a couple of months messing around with the program and I still really like it and do intend to use it live once I feel I am proficient in its use. That's obviously not an issue with Magic, I just move at a glacial pace since I don't like live surprises. The suggestions on this thread regarding playlist transitions or using MIDI could all work but let me be more specific as to what I want and if that seems possible then I'll buckle down and start messing with MIDI.
I play music with Traktor and I have a scene in Magic that I want to show while I play a given song. I send that visual via Spout to Resolume which then displays that scene for people to see. In a best-case scenario I would like Magic to continue to show that visual for the audible song while I mix the new song (which only I can hear through my monitor.) Once the old song is finished and I have transitioned to the next song (with its own scene) I would like Magic to show the next visuals, and so on and so forth. So far this has been easy to think about but frustratingly difficult to pull off. I don't want to waste precious seconds going in to Magic and selecting the next scene. I would like for Magic to know that I just loaded song X into the deck and that scene X should go with song X. I could then perhaps use my xfader on the Traktor controller, which I do not use to mix music, and use it to transition between the two songs/visuals. Does that make sense? Let me know what you think.
Magic
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Re: song metadata to trigger Magic scene?

Post by Magic »

Hey Chris, I still think the solution I described earlier is what you are looking for. Basically what you need to do is configure your Traktor project to send out a MIDI message when a new song starts, and configure Magic's playlist to respond to that MIDI message. That way you'll get an automatic scene change for every new song. You won't need to interact with Magic's GUI at all.

This solution won't let you directly control the transition with a fader in real-time, but it will let you trigger a transition which will last a specific duration. So if you want the transition to be slow, you can set it to last 30 seconds.

This section of the User's Guide might be helpful: http://magicmusicvisuals.com/downloads/ ... .html#MIDI

Make sense?
chrisfrombmore
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Jul 03, 2014 4:41 am

Re: song metadata to trigger Magic scene?

Post by chrisfrombmore »

Hi Eric,
Thanks for the timely response, as always. You're probably right, it likely is still the best solution. I've found that I don't always ask clear questions, so this restatement of my issue was as much for me as it was for you. I am in the process of writing a couple of additional questions but I will post them elsewhere on the forum to maintain topic relevance. I intend to squeeze as much out of this product as I can, a second saved here and there in the workflow can make a huge difference for a solo performer like me. Thanks again.
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