Controlling the stack on SmartFade ML with ProPresenter

We use an iMac and I have succeeded in figuring out how to step through the stack because regular midi notes just turn on memories with no fade. Maybe I'm missing something. The way I did it I only control advancing the stack. I used a USB to midi converter and set up the midi linking the iMac to send PP6 midi to the USB converter. I had to download a program called Midi Pipe to change the PP6 Midi Note to a Program Change message. Program Change 125 is the Go button of the stack. Then in PP6 I add the midi note 125 w/intensity 1 or greater to what ever slide I what to fire the next cue in the stack. The SFML midi setting is midi channel.

This worked fantastic - thanks!

I've only been able to send the GO command through MIDIPipe. Are you aware of a way to translate specific notes to specific program changes to access particular parts of the stack? I only see a place to convert the idea that a note is on to trigger a program change, and then specify that program change to be 125; I can't see a place to convert note 1 to Program Change 1, note 2 to Program Change 2, etc. (I'm able to do this through BOME, but I like the freeware of MIDIPipe).

Yes, the message converter just changes the note to a program change and passes the numeral through. So note 125 changes to program change 125. Note 4 changes to program change 4. According to the SMFL manual program change 1-99 selects the stack step 1-99. So to use it that way you would need to add a cue on one of the slides before your Go slide to select the stack step you want. Then your slide that has your Go cue would launch your lighting change to that step.

I 'm prerecording the slide changes in time with our click track in the songs PP6 timeline by adding our click track with MP3 backing to the timeline for each song. I add background changes that go with and enhance the dynamics of the song. Then add lighting cues to those slides and everything changes together and matches. It really creates a nice uniform environment. It a lot of back work but I've been doing it for about 6 months and have 80 different songs setup and can just drag and drop them into the playlist and then go through the set and record my stack sequence. Our worship leader uses a wireless network midi connection from his MacBook running Abelton Live to select the playlist item (i.e. 1,2,3 or 4) of the active PP6 playlist with one midi command and then play that timeline with another midi command. These notes need a slight millisecond delay for PP6 to hear them both. Those notes that PP6 is looking for and what the do are shown in the midi setup of PP6. I do need to set an offset in each PP6 song as the is about a 1/2sec latency between the MacBook and my iMac. If it was a wired connection I probably wouldn't need the offset but it's easy enough to get right.

Anyway, I hope that helps you and others. I'll try to get a video of how it all works together and post up to YouTube. When I do I'll send the link. God bless.

This is a HUGE help - thanks. I was misunderstanding MIDIPipe and thinking that you needed to define to it that you wanted note 125 to go to note 125, so I had some "Set" steps in there that were not necessary. THANK YOU!

I currently have MIDI cues on certain slides of PP6 to change the lighting to go with the mood/tone of the song (and color of the slide). Right now I'm just using the cues to advance the stack linearly; which means the stack will have to be rebuilt weekly. I'm considering trying to build a static stack and then create the corresponding MIDI cues in PP6 to each static reference so I don't have to actually make a new show within the stack on a weekly basis; but I'm not sure 99 steps will be enough to accomplish that well, and my understanding is that there's not a way to access the incremental steps of the stack (ex. X.1, X.2) directly.

This is a HUGE help - thanks. I was misunderstanding MIDIPipe and thinking that you needed to define to it that you wanted note 125 to go to note 125, so I had some "Set" steps in there that were not necessary. THANK YOU!

I currently have MIDI cues on certain slides of PP6 to change the lighting to go with the mood/tone of the song (and color of the slide). Right now I'm just using the cues to advance the stack linearly; which means the stack will have to be rebuilt weekly. I'm considering trying to build a static stack and then create the corresponding MIDI cues in PP6 to each static reference so I don't have to actually make a new show within the stack on a weekly basis; but I'm not sure 99 steps will be enough to accomplish that well, and my understanding is that there's not a way to access the incremental steps of the stack (ex. X.1, X.2) directly.