Playlist for live performance: multiple playlists, thumbnails and transitions (consolidated)

[Sadler]

Hi folks,
This brings together several long-standing playlist requests together and describe making the Playlist a better live-performance surface. Eric said himself, and I agree, that's what it's for:

Then I recommend you use the Playlist for selecting your live scene, because it's color-coded and MIDI-mappable.

t1518, Feb 2018

Two of these were on one of the very first public to-do list in May 2014 ("More types of playlist transitions: wipe, twirl, zoom, etc." and "Multiple playlists per project" — t6), and thumbnails were "Definitely on my list" in 2016. With 3.0 well under way, I'd like to make the case for them again.

Multiple playlists per project have been asked for repeatedly, and confirmed as planned more than once:

What do you think about multiple playlists? In my case it could be one for manual triggering and one for automatic progress.

Yes, we have that feature on our to-do list.

t1518, Feb 2018

Coming from a lighting control background I feel like I am being limited to one cuelist and trying to run my entire show from that one cuelist.

I plan to add a feature allowing for multiple playlists per project, but it isn't supported currently.

t1927, May 2019

Right now the only way to manage different playlist is to disable/add new components.

t2750, Dec 2021

In a live situation changing playlist mid-show interrupts the output. Since 2.11 we can replace the playlist with a Folder (which I asked for in t1292 — thank you). But if a scene from the current playlist is playing when I do that, it's removed along with the playlist and the output goes to black. So the one built-in way to switch sets can't be used during a performance, which is exactly when you need it: a change of act, a DJ changeover, the director asking for something different.

Terry's current workaround shows how much it takes to get round this:

I run two instances of Magic into a video mixer so I can crossfade between them enabling me to change project or playlist in either instance whilst faded to the other.

t2728, Nov 2021

That's two instances (often two machines) and a hardware mixer, just to change set without a glitch.

What's needed is to prepare the next set while the current one is playing, and to move to it without the output dropping.

This is how I picture it: playlist folders. The Playlist gets collapsible top-level folders, like the ones in the Scene Group panel, and each folder is a playlist. One window, and a structure Magic users already know.

• Prev/Next and auto-advance stay within the folder holding the live entry, so each folder behaves as a playlist in its own right, not just a heading.
• Triggering an entry in another folder makes that folder live, with its normal transition. That's the hand-over, and nothing is ever removed from under the live scene.
• The live folder is marked on its header, so it can still be seen when collapsed.
• Entries can be dragged between folders, just as they're already dragged to reorder within the Playlist today.
• "Add Folder to Playlist" creates a new playlist folder alongside the others, so the 2.11 feature keeps working without blacking out the current set.
• Optionally, numbering per folder, so the same MIDI notes trigger entry 1, 2, 3… of whichever folder is live. One controller layout would then work for every set.

The Scene Group panel can't stand in for this, because only the Playlist has durations, transitions, per-entry MIDI and auto-advance.

I considered two other layouts and set them aside:

• A dropdown to switch between named playlists in the existing window: simplest, but you can't see the live set and the next one at the same time, which is the whole point when preparing a changeover.
• A second Playlist window (one live, one being prepared): you can see both, but it needs more screen space, which is scarce on a laptop at a gig (t2714).

Folders keep both sets visible in one window, and collapsing deals with most of the space problem.

multi-playlistmock-up-02.png (103.12 KiB) Viewed 9 times

Scene thumbnails

at my latest gig i noticed how my scene names werent always the best way to shortly describe a scene, while a thumbnail would be best at that imho.

Definitely on my list.

t915, Jul 2016

When you have a ton of scenes on the playlist sometimes it takes forever to scroll through them all to find the one you're looking for.

t2983, Feb 2023

On a dark stage, under time pressure, recognising a picture is faster than reading a name. Names written while building a project rarely describe what a scene looks like. Thumbnails also make a grid layout worthwhile, which deals with the scrolling: 100 entries in a few columns of tiles is a short page, not a long list.

Some considerations:

• A "Capture thumbnail" command on a playlist entry (or scene) that grabs the current output frame and shows it beside the entry name, with show/hide like the other playlist columns. A still image is all that's needed to recognise a scene.
• A grid view, chosen per playlist folder: grid for performing, list for editing durations and transitions. The live set could be in grid view while the next one is being built in list view.

multi-playlistmock-up-grid-02.png (830.05 KiB) Viewed 9 times

3. More transitions

You've already described what a transition needs:

A playlist transition needs to have the following stages: 1) Scene A is 100% visible, effect is not visible, scene B is not visible 2) Scene A is 50% visible, effect is 100% visible, scene B is 50% visible 3) Scene A is not visible, effect is not visible, scene B is 100% visible

t810, May 2016

ISF already has a standard for exactly this and there's a large existing library of them as D1gits pointed out in t2009). With 3.0 putting ISF at the centre an "Shader…" option in the playlist transition dropdown would open up hundreds of existing transitions to Magic users.

Three further requests that matter when live:

• A global transition time that overrides per-entry times, MIDI-mappable to a fader (you said you'd add it to your list — t1643).
• A "cut" override for hot cues, so a scene fired on the drop appears instantly, while the playlist keeps its fades for automatic progress (t1518).
• Interrupted transitions. If another scene is triggered while a transition is still running, the transition currently stops abruptly and the output jumps. Live, this happens all the time: you fire a cue on the drop while the last fade is still in progress. A lighting desk handles this by fading to the new cue from wherever the lights currently are, and that's what I'd hope for here: the new transition starts from the picture as it is at that moment, so the change stays smooth however quickly scenes are triggered. An alternative setting could let the running transition finish before the new one starts.

transition-menu.png (21.96 KiB) Viewed 9 times

In terms of priority, I'd put thumbnails first for live work. Visual memory is far quicker than reading names, especially for those of us who think in pictures. ISF transitions would add the most creatively. Multiple playlists would remove the one way a set change can currently blackout the show.

Pulling this together meant reading back through threads going back to 2014, and the posts quoted above made the case far better than I could alone, so thanks to everyone who wrote them. If I've missed a thread on any of this, or you handle changeovers in a way I haven't covered, I'd be glad to hear about it here.

Sadler