Starting an automation track not at the beginning but with an time offset

[garysn]

Hi all,

we have a song with a very long piano intro.

Lyrics autoscroll is created with an Automation and everything works fine.

In our rehearsals we don't like to wait until the piano intro (> 1 minute) is over, before the rest of the band can start.

So we are looking for a way to skip the intro and let the automation track start at the position when all band members are involved in the song.

Is there a way to achive this with standard banhhelper functionality?


Kind regards
  garysn

[arlo]

You can add the Automation Controls to a layout, then use the progress bar to slide forward past the intro.

[garysn]

Hi Arlo,

Thanks for your quick reply.

I have tried your suggestion and it works fine - as long as I start the automation by tapping the "automation" button in my layout.

Unfortunately I have to start the automation via midi as I have to synchronise 4 tablets and our backing track software.

As long as I don't touch the position slider, I can start the automation via midi, but as soon as I change the start position of the slider, the automation handler ignores the midi start command.

Is this a bug or is it implemented this way on purpose?

Kind regards
  garysn

[arlo]

It looks like the Start Automation app control action doesn't do anything after you move the automation progress bar because at that point the automation is considered to have already started. However, you can use the Start/Stop Automation app control action instead, because that acts like a pause/resume function.

Alternatively, you can trigger the Start Automation function before moving the progress bar rather than moving the progress bar first.

[garysn]

Hmm,
I've just tried it and the 'Automation start/stop' trigger solution works - but only if the progress bar is NOT at the start.

I.e. if the progress bar is AT the start, I have to use 'Automation start' and
if the progress bar is NOT at the start, then I have to send 'Automation start/stop' to start the automation.

How do I do this?
Actually I only have one button to start everything and somehow I would also need to query the current position of the automation to know what command to send.


Kind regards
  garysn

[arlo]

Are you sure? Automation Start/Stop starts the automation track for me regardless of whether I have already started and paused it or moved the progress bar.

[garysn]

Okay, I have re-checked it again, and you are right, the "Automation start/stop" functions works indeed on all positions. Sorry :-(

Is it possible to set the progress bar to a specific position via MIDI?

If have seen there is an "Automation search" function using continuous controller" but I was'nt able to get it to run.

My first test was to use the mod wheel on my keyboard to send CC1 on channel 15 but the progress bar didn't change, even I can see the midi commands in the midi monitor of bandhelper.

MIDI Data is BE, 01, 00  | BE, 01, 01  | BE, 01, ...   to BE, 01, FF