sequencer / vst host for theater

[kensuguro]

I remember seeing a sequencer of some sort for theater that had very detailed control over play back, cue points, etc.. like, play to cue point and wait, loop between marker A and B, etc.. I just can't remember what the name was.. does anyone know of a similar app?

[Tau]

Ken, I know I keep saying this, but,

try Ableton Live.

[kensuguro]

oh, ableton has this? I was going to go fully Live once 8 came out with max integration. Live finally did it man! I also like the fact that it's cross platform. If only it had all the MIDI power of Logic. Oh well, each tool in its own context.

[Tau]

The arranger view (the "matrix" editor) should be perfect for what you want, since you can setup "scenes" that can be triggered at any time. These can be looped or not, and with a single keystroke you can playback a scene and cue the next one. You can work with or without a musical quantization, and, of course, you can trigger any individual clip at any point. This, I believe, will give you great abilities to provide live audio cues and musical backgrounds to theatre and other performance scenarios. Given the fact that clips can be audio or MIDI ...

i have to say that it's not what I usually do, but I know several people who use Live for exactly this purpose you were referring, so I am really confident it will work. A demo version of Live can be obtained from their site - but you won't be able to save the projects. You can give it a try, though. Also, the LE version is mostly limited in the number of VST / VSTis you can load at a time, so it may provide enough functionality for you, and it'll be upgradable to the full v8 when it's out.

on the other hand, if you're into max and modular stuff, try out Usine. It's a sort of mix between Ableton Live and Max, and there's an "almost" unimpared free version online. if you have some time to work out how it works, maybe you can do what you need with it- the main advantage is that you can design your own "control surface" for the whole project, leaving all the cables / tracks / devices out of view and having just the controls you need in sight. There's also a "conductor" function, in which you can program sequences of sets, or scenes to be triggered at will. But IMHO, Live will do what you need.

Usine can be downloaded from here: http://www.sensomusic.com/usine/

Best of luck,

T

[kensuguro]

oh yeah, usine. That looks cool too, esp since my playback unit is a tablet pc. I installed it and messed with it just a bit.. seems like it has lots of potential. I still need to learn it to make good use of it though.

[Krabat]

You can also give energyXT a try. You have to use the outdated version 1.4 altough, and its not downloadable anymore (but maybe if you ask for it). XT 1.4 has a Live-mode, where sequences can be triggered by midi or qwert. You can also use it as VST in your favorite host. The live-mode is (still) missing in the actual vers. 2.5

http://www.energy-xt.com

Regards, Gunnar

[astroman]

oh, ableton has this? I was going to go fully Live once 8 came out with max integration. ...

for Ableton there's a couple of dedicated controllers (quite affordable) that would be handy to drive such an application under live conditions.

cheers, Tom

[astroman]

oops, I was a bit outdated
there's a dedicated controller by Ableton/Akai on their page, the Akai APC40

cheers, Tom

[dawman]

I love the way that controller can be used with an Audio/MIDI Sequencer app.
Akai is definately in touch with the needs of many users.
It looks like a Shroomz device too...

http://www.energy-xt.com/download/standalone.zip

Here's a link to the 1.4 version of EnergyXT too.