Multitrack Recorder. Think About!

Question

Hi DJ, (and guys!) Do you think it is possible to create a multitrack recorder control? Think about how useful that would be for animatronics! We could choose the sound track, and record movements for each part (eyes, mouth, neck, arms, torso, etc) in different "Chanels", just like we do recording music.. And of course, it would be too much easier to edit a single movement... Beste regards, Tevans.

tevans · Answer

No response?!.... At all? Maybe that's already there and I'm the only one that don't know how to use it! Lol....

DJ Sures · Answer

This: https://synthiam.com/Tutorials/Help.aspx?id=180

jayceekeys · Answer

Hey DJ! I think tevans is thinking along the lines of multitrack recording software like cubase etc. it's kind of similar to what ARC has for servo positioning, but if you can imagine a timeline going left to right on the screen, then a line for each component that is to be moved. The system works a bit like an old piano roll ..... As the timeline scrolls across the screen, the actions get reached and triggered. It's very similar to the screen shot you showed in terms of end result but maybe a little easier when it comes to visualising when each even gets triggered in respect of time. It's the same layout as a Gant chart so you can see when things are due to happen vs time. Think that's what he's meaning anyway lol. Cheers, Jay

Troy · Answer

You mean kinda like this? Skitter motion editing To be honest, to a layman like me this seems like a complicated addition and would take a bit of time. Or maybe I'm wrong and it's a change in how Autoposition frames are shown.

Antron007 · Answer

I think this would be a cool idea. I'm a big music fan so the more I could do with music and robots would be cool. Maybe just a simple 4 track to start. As far as the animatronics idea, I totally get it. Guitar tracks trigger arms. Vocals, mouth. Bass, Drummer legs. I imagine thats how the one robot band Compressorhead sort of works. I've never messed with sound servo but, I guess they could take the sound servo control and build off of that. Maybe modify it to be able to select the sound source and use multiple instances of them that way? That would almost be the easiest way I think. And simplest for the novice user. And another real problem is most PCs only have 1 audio input, aka the mic. If you have a multiport DI box then you'd be set then. I'm sure it wouldn't be too complicated to simulate that with mp3's and scripts. I'm guessing it would be a, "when this mp3 plays, move this servo" But I'm not sure if you can play more than 1 mp3 at a time. confused Just figured I'd but my $.02 in. Thanks.

tevans · Answer

Well.. All these ideas are great! But I was thinking about something much more simple... See.. At this point I am using four "recorder" scripts on my animatronic robot. On each one I recorded some movements, using the joystick while listening to the music track (just like a puppeteer does) Then I made a simple script that plays a song and plays the recorded movements at once... What I was thinking is a single command with multiple tracks to record... Just like a multitrack audio software.. We do not need multi inputs for that, since the idea is to record one movement track At a time... I believe the auto positioner can do that, but it's kind of hard to sync with audio.... (Or, my skills are limited!) lol!

Antron007 · Answer

OK Now I have more questions and suggestions. So you are recording movements? And you have four? Head, Mouth, Arms and Waist I'm guessing? So you want to record multiple movements? Will you use multiple joysticks? If your using ezb then you're best option is the auto position. You can use it to control as many servos at once as the ezb can support. Use frames to make little dances. These dances will be actions. Keep them down to a couple of seconds each. Then you'd use ez script to start the song then trigger the actions. You'll probably have to adjust the speed settings to your liking in the auto position but maybe something like this.
 #This is a very loose example #Start the song and action ControlCommand("Soundboard", Track_0) ControlCommand("Auto Position", AutoPositionAction, "Dance1" ) # We'll assume Dance 1 will be 1.5 seconds so we'll wait 1.5 seconds Sleep(1500) #Trigger next action ControlCommand("Auto Position", AutoPositionAction, "Dance2" ) # Dance 2 is a little saucy so it is 3 seconds long Sleep(3000) #Trigger next action ControlCommand("Auto Position", AutoPositionAction, "Dance3" ) # Dance 3 is just a little shimmy it's only .5 of a second Sleep(400) #Start the next action #Wait for the next interval #Repeat as needed

I started a rough project if you'd like to look at it a little. That's where I drafted up the code and then just figured I'd flesh it out a little. ActionScriptAudioSyncTheroy I hope that may be of some help. I look forward to your answers from my initial questions.

tevans · Answer

Great! I Will try it out! Thanks.

Antron007 · Answer

It's really more of a mock up of the theory. Don't try to use the values in the autopistion frames as I have no real idea what they are. I just used random values. if you have any questions feel free to ask and I'll do my best to help.

tevans

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