Using Ableton's track delay with Beam For Live?

[rooftopoperator]

Hi, I’m currently building a live set in Ableton using Beam for Live instruments for lighting and my own custom software for visuals, which receives commands via the LiveGrabber devices.

Because the commands to the visuals run through a network and go through various applications and a projector in the end, I work with Ableton’s track delay option to nudge its OSC commands to be sent ~100ms earlier than the music for a perfect sync.

However, I noticed that when doing that, the lighting tracks also send their automation and MIDI notes 100ms earlier - not in sync with the music, as I would have expected, but rather, together with the “earliest” track. Upon further testing, it seems that the Beam for Live devices don’t react to the track delay option at all.

Is there a solution or a workaround to enable a workflow that makes use of track delay? I would’ve expected the option to work with any instrument, even Max for Live ones - Is Beam for Live perhaps doing anything under the hood to counteract the delay?

Having the option to customize this behavior would be very essential to my workflow to ensure the tightest timing possible.

[tdk]

Doesn’t look like the showsync folks have jumped in yet, but here’s what I can recommend as potential workarounds.

One option, if it fits your use case, is to trigger Beam device output via MIDI notes rather than automating the intensity dial. You can then use track delay to shift when the MIDI notes trigger. A slightly more awkward workflow if you need to shift Beam automation data via track delay is to use MIDI loopback; send the CC data out of Ableton and back in (via remote mapping) to control the Beam device.

I’ve definitely noticed there are limits to what Beam tracks in Live for modulating DMX data. For example track and device-chain volume are monitored, but if I put a utility device on the track with a gain adjustment, that’s ignored. Which seems reasonable, given what Beam is trying to do.