"Chain Select Ruler" not selecting discrete video effects

Hi there,
I’m having a great time playing around with Videosync at the moment, and almost everything is going swimmingly. But there is one thing I am perplexed by.

I want to have several chains in an effects rack that comprise of audio and video effects (i.e. A/V effects). As to not clutter each channel, I want to assign certain clips to certain chains (and not others), by automating the Chain Selection Ruler.
The problem is that moving the ruler doesn’t switch video effects on/off, but it will for audio effects. screen grab
Furthermore effects aren’t combined, they occur as separate iterations, whereas if I made entirely separate racks, the effects would combine.

All the best, keep up the good work.

Chris

Hi Chris,

Unfortunately, the LiveAPI does not give us access to the Chain Selector. That means that, unless Ableton expands the LiveAPI, there is no way for us to mimic Chain Selector behaviour in Videosync.

You could map a chain’s mute button to a Macro, and use the mapping’s min/max values to enable chains at a specific value. If you set the values to as they are in the image below, ‘Chain 1’ will be enabled when the Macro’s value is 0. ‘Chain 2’ when the value is 1, and so on. Although the Chain Selector is a bit more flexible, this might work for you.

Regarding your second question, I’m not sure what you mean with ‘separate iterations’ and ‘combining effects’ and what your expected result is. Could you elaborate on that a bit?

Best,
Hidde

Hello Hidde,
Thanks for the snappy response.

I tried your suggestion; it’s a very clever work around, thank-you.

Sorry for the confusion regarding the second question, I’ll try to elaborate.
Say you had 2 effects you wanted to use on the same video clip, for example Transform, and Feedback. If you had these effects as separate chains in the chain list, the effects don’t affect the video simultaneously (unlike audio effects). For instance moving the video clip from left to right with the Transform effect wont move what is Feedbacking from L ~ R. It looks as if there are 2 separate layers, or “iterations” of the same video.
I have tried putting them in the same chain, or separate racks and this solves the iterations problem.

Are there any other options?

Cheers,
Chris

Hi Chris,

Your observation is correct. The incoming video is processed independently for each chain, so effects on one chain do not affect the other chains. The output of all chains is mixed together at the end of the Effect Rack.

As far as I know, this is also how audio effects behave. I tried it with some audio effects, and when I use Utility in one chain to pan the sound, it does not have any effect on the audio in the other chain.

It’s possible that I’m using chains differently as you do. Maybe you could send me an example Live set that shows the inconsistency between how audio and video behave. My email address is hidde@showsync.info. :slight_smile:

Thanks!
Hidde

Thanks a lot :smiley:
I’ll send something through when i have the chance.