xmus
11-17-2007, 05:05 PM
Finally getting the hang of this, after perhaps 200 hours using vixen (over the year) I just made Jingle Bells (Jim Reeves, 1min 50 seconds) in only 2 hours!
My advice (I'm NO EXPERT, but if your a newbie this might help)
1) learn about beat tracks, and make some. (tap in the beat using ctrl key, you'll find this in sequence->audio.) Make a beat track for the basic rhythm, and then make additional beat tracks for other things you want to synchronize to (lyrics, drums, etc)
2) learn how to use the "effects-chase lines-paste from clipboard" feature for chase sequences.... and when making long chase sequences, learn to build them instantly with that feature, not try to create them manually, manually they will look choppy (some fast, some slow, awkward).
The trick is to make a single channel with blocks of on/off (or ramp) that is very long (and perfectly symmetrical), and copy the ENTIRE thing, and then use the "paste from clipboard" feature, you'll be amazed. They will look perfect, and you can make them in minutes (from your beat tracks).
LAST TIP:
In my humble opinion, 25mS is unnecessary, I wish I had never used it on my first two songs. Too late now, they are done. It makes SO MUCH more work to have double the boxes to fill in, especially with the "125, 126,1267 issue, where two bytes are sent via the serial port to do a single channel rather than one, I had "too many" (in the worst case, not the nominal case) channels on a serial port, so when ramping, I had to manually remove instances of 125,126,127 and replace them with 124, and 128 (respectively?). If I had simply used 50mS I could have avoided that all together.
To prove to yourself that 25mS is unessisary try the following experiment. Take a bunch of channels, i'll give the example with min-trees (which is what I used) and have every other channel turn on at time X, and then all the other channels turn on 25mS later. You cant see it.
Now if you repeat the experiment above with 50mS resolution, you can detect the difference in timing. And honestly, after HOURS of hacking sequences, I never had a light I couldn't time perfectly with the beat at 50mS.
Again, I'm sure others will disagree with me, but from now on, I'm only using 50mS in the future.
For the record the WORST case maximum channel count for Renard @ 25mS is 43 channels, and 86 @ 50mS (Given the 125,126,127 issue).
Now, 90% of the time, you are fine with more channels than that, I am running 96 channels per serial port at 25mS and I only rarely see issues, so i need to manually go in and get rid of 125/126/127 sometimes (what a time waster!)
Just my 2 cents worth :)
For more info:
http://www.christmasinshirley.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=921&highlight=124
My advice (I'm NO EXPERT, but if your a newbie this might help)
1) learn about beat tracks, and make some. (tap in the beat using ctrl key, you'll find this in sequence->audio.) Make a beat track for the basic rhythm, and then make additional beat tracks for other things you want to synchronize to (lyrics, drums, etc)
2) learn how to use the "effects-chase lines-paste from clipboard" feature for chase sequences.... and when making long chase sequences, learn to build them instantly with that feature, not try to create them manually, manually they will look choppy (some fast, some slow, awkward).
The trick is to make a single channel with blocks of on/off (or ramp) that is very long (and perfectly symmetrical), and copy the ENTIRE thing, and then use the "paste from clipboard" feature, you'll be amazed. They will look perfect, and you can make them in minutes (from your beat tracks).
LAST TIP:
In my humble opinion, 25mS is unnecessary, I wish I had never used it on my first two songs. Too late now, they are done. It makes SO MUCH more work to have double the boxes to fill in, especially with the "125, 126,1267 issue, where two bytes are sent via the serial port to do a single channel rather than one, I had "too many" (in the worst case, not the nominal case) channels on a serial port, so when ramping, I had to manually remove instances of 125,126,127 and replace them with 124, and 128 (respectively?). If I had simply used 50mS I could have avoided that all together.
To prove to yourself that 25mS is unessisary try the following experiment. Take a bunch of channels, i'll give the example with min-trees (which is what I used) and have every other channel turn on at time X, and then all the other channels turn on 25mS later. You cant see it.
Now if you repeat the experiment above with 50mS resolution, you can detect the difference in timing. And honestly, after HOURS of hacking sequences, I never had a light I couldn't time perfectly with the beat at 50mS.
Again, I'm sure others will disagree with me, but from now on, I'm only using 50mS in the future.
For the record the WORST case maximum channel count for Renard @ 25mS is 43 channels, and 86 @ 50mS (Given the 125,126,127 issue).
Now, 90% of the time, you are fine with more channels than that, I am running 96 channels per serial port at 25mS and I only rarely see issues, so i need to manually go in and get rid of 125/126/127 sometimes (what a time waster!)
Just my 2 cents worth :)
For more info:
http://www.christmasinshirley.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=921&highlight=124