Exporting Question 2 + one or two other Questions

spbaker

Hi, Found the app via Create Digital Motion and after using QC for all my visuals and going thru the hassle of exporting video via firewire and then having to capture back to the computer to record, you can imaging my excitement at finding the exporting feature of ME! After running some tests with the demo (and before I commit financially) I just need to clarify a couple of things (I have RTFM too but just need clarification). When recording a track (http://abreojos.net/?p=275 for reference) it's all recorded live/improvised in the studio, both audio & video, it seems that ME when creating a recording is only recording changes to the QC files or videos, or effects rather than recording actual frames- so that when a recording is exported it essentially replays all of those commands, so it doesn't matter what size the viewer window is, everything will be replayed at whatever export width and height without interpolation, eg. viewer played at 320 X 240, video exported at 720 X 576. Is this correct? Second question is will ME ever have more channels than 2? I usually have QC comps made of up to 8 layers, and I can prolly get around it by making two QC comps of 4 layers and load them in to ME, but it'd be interesting to know if this is planned. Quick one, is there an additive blending/mixing mode? Finally, is it possible to slow video down or speed it up, preferably linking the time to audio? Thanks, it's a great app, I'm just hoping it's gonna work for me :-)

Nick

That's correct. MixEmergency only records what MixEmergency is doing. For example, MixEmergency records data such as: Time 1 second: Crossfader in the middle, playing source 1 at 10 seconds, playing source 2 at 4 seconds Time: 2 seconds: Playing source 1 at 11 seconds, playing source 2 at 5 seconds Time: 3 seconds: Crossfader to the left, playing source 1 at 12 seconds, playing source 2 at 6 seconds etc, etc When you export this data is fed back through MixEmergency to recreate the performace. Because of this there is no limitation on the dimensions of your export. So you can easily record at web sizes (320x240) and export at HD (1920x1080). Recording Quartz Compositions is a little more complicated, as some compositions don't play the same every time. For example, a composition that displays the current system time would render out 11AM when exported at 11AM, and 1PM when exported at 1PM, etc. Most compositions work fine though. I can't say anything about further channels right now. You can have a QC overlay though, which would bring the total number of QCs available to 3. No additive blending mode. There is a maximum mode that you might like though, which, when in the center crossfader position, displays the maximum of both channels.

Nick

As for slowing video down or speeding it up. Currently the only way to do this is through the use of Scratch Live to control the video.

spbaker

thanks Nick! well based on your answers I did a bit more testing and found that if I layered my QC files in QC then imported them into ME I can have as many layers as I want :-) And performance is just peachy! Just a couple more tests with a MIDI controller and I'm on board. I have found one little issue- because I can't do temporal shifts in ME with video directly I made a couple of test QC patches that utilise the asynchronous mode and loaded them in- strange thing is I can't see the video in the Viewer but when recording it plays back perfectly. Come across this before? The QC patch is simple a Movie Loader and Billboard witht he Rate parameter published. Finally is additive blending mode planned later down the track? In the meantime Maximum is great.

Nick

That is strange about the video player. I'll see if I can reproduce the problem. I could create an additive transition plug-in - shouldn't be too difficult.

spbaker

my specs are MBP 2.66 i7 Nvidia GT330m if that helps

Nick

Thanks - I'll probably have a look into it on Monday here (it's currently Saturday afternoon here in New Zealand).

spbaker

np, it's sat arvo here too in Melbourne :-) enjoy yer wkend!

Nick

I've had a look at this and am also unable to load compositions with video (though as you said, they work fine when exporting). I've figured out a way to get them loading, but this requires a changes to MixEmergency's code, and so will have to do some more tests to make sure it doesn't harm performance. In the mean-time, I've sent you an e-mail about something else....

spbaker

Hi Nick, Thanks for all your hard work but I've just found another problem- I was testing a recording for a new series of releases and found that none of the Quartz parameter sliders are recorded into a recording, with it only taking the ME changes. Eg I have a QC in each deck and each QC has 8 sliders (yes please enable the option for more) and recorded for a minute with many changes via a midi controller of the QC params. Exported the recording and only the crossfader and effect mix actually recorded with the QC patches only playing back the state they were left in before exporting. Is this documented somewhere, intended or other?

Nick

I've managed to reproduce this myself. It is supposed to record the movements of mapped buttons and sliders. I haven't figured out the cause of the issue though. I'll let you know if I find out anything further about it when I look into it again later today.

Nick

I think this is sorted now - will send you an e-mail about it.

akiem

this is currently an issue for me

Nick

It should be working fine now. Can you describe the issue you're having in a little more detail?

akiem

running SSL 2.3.3 offline player - ME 2.0.4 Looks like only the BPM1 data is not there when exporting other data is working

akiem

never-mind, I have it working. not sure what I did to change it but it must be user error.