FOREWORD ---------- Hello and thanks for downloading MMS, I hope you'll enjoy it. This documentation is a brief version of the original one which is normally written in french. If you do read french, i'd recommande you to send me an e-mail at tworowski@freesurf.fr and ask me for it. I'll send it to you right away ! MMS is for MultiMedia Sequencer. Its aim is to give a free software (distributed under the terms of the GNU licence) that allows you to synchronize and trigger events of the three following types : - lights in continuous control by DMX or in binary control 1/0 ("all or nothing" mode) - video (one beamer per machine) - sound (6 audio outputs) These three types of events can be controlled with plug-ins that you create and organize in time in a window called "events window". MMS is developed to work with the GLUION sensor interface by Sukandar KARTADINATA (http://glui.de/old/prod/gluion.html). The idea of MMS came-up from a special need for a museum in California (BOISSET Entr.) but it is very flexible and open source so... very easy to change whatever you need... if you need to. The sound controls everything, it is the master event in a way. It's the clock of the sound being played that gives the time reference to the two other types of events (video and light control). With MMS, you can easily construct and control a whole spectacle exactly the same you would in a software like pro tools but this time it is for lights, video and sound. Please, before you start installing the software, read the two following files : - CopyRight_GPL.txt - LICENCE_GPL.txt These two files can be found in the folder named MMS_All. If you have any question, please do not hesitate to contact me at contact@synart.org or on Skype at contempojazz. Thanks again. SUMMARY --------- - Installation of the sequencer MMS - How to set-up the network configuration of your MAC (Mac OS X 10.4...) - How to set-up the network configuration of your PC (Windows XP) - How to create a new session in MMS - How to load/change the audio file in a MMS session - How to create a plug-in in the Event window - How to edit the content of a plug-in - How to save a new session - How to open an existing session - Description of the different windows of MMS and how to use them - How to edit the content of the different Plug-ins *******Here we go******* INSTALLATION OF THE SEQUENCER MMS ----------------------------------- - If not done already, unzip the file containing the patch - There are three important things to do now - drag and drop the file called Jit_MMS_New.pat to the template folder of Max-MSP. You can normally find this folder here on the Macintosh : /Applications/MaxMSP\ 4.6/patches/templates/ - in the unzipped folder, you should have one folder left, this folder's called MMS_All. Put this folder somewhere on your hard drive, just make sure to remember where you put it for latter use. - launch Max-MSP and in the File Preferences window, add two search paths : - one should point to the folder MMS_lib which is in MMS_All - a second one should point to the folder called video which is also in MMS_All Once this is done, quit Max-MSP and relaunch it. In the File menu, click on New. A second menu should appear in which you should see our sequencer as Jit_MMS_New. DON'T DO ANYTHING FOR THE MOMENT !! We still have to set-up the network parameters first. HOW TO SET-UP THE NETWORK CONFIGURATION OF YOUR MAC (Mac OS X 10.4...) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ONLY DO THIS IF YOU'RE THINKING OF USING MMS WITH THE GLUION... if you only want to use MMS for sound and video, you do not need to use Ethernet. In order to use MMS with the GLUION, you're gonna have to set-up your network connexion as follows : - Open the System Preferences (from your dock most of the time) - Click on Network - In the scrolling menu "Configuration" please select "New Configuration" and name, for example, GLUION - In the scrolling menu "Display", please select something like... "integrated Ethernet" I write "something like" because it's in french on my computer... - In the menu TCP/IP, in configurate IPv4, please select "Manually". The field "Address IP" must be set to 192.168.5.80 and the filed "sub-network" must be 255.255.255.0. Other fields are empty... as for Address IPv6, it must be set to "Automatically" - PPOE is empty - Apple Talk is not activated - Proxy is empty. "Use passive FTP mode" is checked - Ethernet is set-up as "Automatically" - Now click on apply at the bottom of the window - You can now quit the System Preferences, you're all set :-) Connect the GLUION to the computer with an Ethernet cable. We're gonna check if your Mac sees the GLUION... To do so, launch a Unix Terminal and type the Unix commande : arp -a The GLUION should show up as : 192.168.5.77 00.12.34.56.78.90 If you want more info about arp, don't forget the very useful command man :-) --> man arp... Anyway, you can now quit your Terminal with the command Exit. HOW TO SET-UP THE NETWORK CONFIGURATION OF YOUR Pc (Windows XP) ----------------------------------------------------------------- ONLY DO THIS IF YOU'RE THINKING OF USING MMS WITH THE GLUION... if you only want to use MMS for sound and video, you do not need to use Ethernet. On the Pc I have under my eyes, everything is written in French so please excuse me if you have to search a little to find the same things in the different menus... sorry about that. In order to use MMS with the GLUION, you're gonna have to set-up your network connexion as follows : (if you know a better way, do it your way, I'm not a Pc expert... sorry) - Go to "Control Panel" - Go to "Network Connexion and Internet" - Double-click on "Connexion to the local Network" - A window appears, it's called something like "local network properties". In this window, you should find two tabs. The one we're interested in is the "General" tab. - In this tab, you have a scrolling menu... scroll it down until you find "internet protocol (TCP/IP)". Select this and double-click on "Properties" just below. - An other windows pops-up, it should be called something like "Internet Protocol Properties..." - In the tab "General", select "use the following IP address" and enter this address : 192.168.5.80. The sub-network should be set to 255.255.255.0 (normally, it should already be set to these values) - In the same window, click on "Advanced" - You will get four tabs this time (Parameters, IP, DNS, WINS, Options) - Click on WINS and in "Parameters NetBIOS", click on "turn off NetBIOS with TCP/IP" - Agree by clicking "OK" - Agree one more time with "OK" - Click on "Close" Now, to check if your Pc sees the GLUION we're gonna do few little things : - Make sure the GLUION is connected to your Pc with an Ethernet cable - Launch a Terminal and enter CMD (Start menu -> Run...) - Once the terminal is there, enter the command ipconfig The GLUION should appear as follows : 192.168.5.77 00.12.34.56.78.90 If it's the case, you can quit your terminal with the exit command. If it is not the case, try to re-launch everything and redo the ipconfig thing, check your Ethernet cable, try a crossed cable and a non crossed cable... If it doesn't work, contact me :-) HOW TO CREATE A NEW SESSION IN MMS ------------------------------------ In this chapter, I'll explain how to create a new session in MMS. For this chapter and the four following one, you can also refer to the little movie called NewSessionMMS_Demo.mov ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQud8u2Hn5o ). This movie was made with a little patch developed in Jitter... you can find that patch here : http://www.bloghotel.org/tworowski/51854/ - Launch Max-MSP/Jitter (version 4.6 at least) - In the File menu of Max-MSP put the pointer of your mouse on New, a sub-menu appears. Click on Jit_MMS_New.pat so MMS opens a new session - A series of windows appear on your screen, click on the one located on the left, the one where you can read MMS on it. This brings it to the first-ground - In this MMS window, you can see two number boxes ( a red one and a green one). On top of the red one is a message that says "Create New Session". Click that message so a pop-up window appears - type in a number (for example 54), close the window and click on the number now showing in the red number box - Do the same thing with the green number box using the "Open" message located on top of it - Your new session is now created and is ready to be edited. If you want to save it right now, go to the file menu and click on save. Please save your session in the "My_sessions" folder located in the MMS_All folder. HOW TO LOAD/CHANGE THE AUDIO FILE IN A MMS SESSION ----------------------------------------------------- - In the MMS window, you'll find a scrolling menu. Clock on it and select "Dac". A red window appears - In this "Dac" window, you'll find a scrolling menu on the left which, by default, shows "STOP". Click on it and select "START". This action activates the audio of Max-MSP. the window should now turn to green - Lets move now to the "Waveform" window. This is where we're gonna load the sound file - In this window, click on the "Open" message and choose the sound file you want to use... make it short for your first try... this is just a test ;-) - Once the file selected, click "Play" in the "Waveform" window... you won't ear anything but it's normal - Wait until the sound file is entirely loaded before you do anything Now, lets create a plug-in... our first plug-in !!! HOW TO CREATE A PLUG-IN IN THE EVENT WINDOW ---------------------------------------------- - Lets move to the "Creation" window - click on the "Open" message, a window appears - write a comment in it for your plug-in. This comment should be in one word only and do not use any special character like ^'?(>$*...etc. This comment should also be explicit so you can easily remember what this plug-in does exactly without having to open it latter. For example, you can write something like SoundTest. Close the window now - In the scrolling menu, choose "SoundLoudSpeaker" - In the number box, insert a number... like 1 for example (!!! you cannot use twice the same number... NEVER!!! otherwise, your plug-in will not be created) - Click on the button that says "Create" so that the plug-in is created in the "Event" window You can now see your plug-in in the Event window. It should show the following information on itself : vm n1 SoundTest 54 vm = volume (level in french) n1 = this is the name of your plug-in. This name is very important for Max and its memory. This is why it is not permitted by MMS to have two plug-ins named n1... obviously :-) SoundTest = This is the reminder... it will remind you what this plug-in was created for 54 = 54 is the number of the session (in my example anyway !) This is exactly how you'll create all your plug-in, no matter what they're for. You have four types of plug-ins available : - Contact = light On/Off - LightDimmer = light in continuous control - video = for video output of course - soundLoudSpeaker = to control your six different audio outputs (you can easily add more if you really need to) To move and place your plug-in where you want in time (and so in the Event window), go to the Waveform window. In this window, you have a scrolling menu and if you click on it, you should see your plug-in(s). Select the one you want to work on. Now make a selection in the sound-file's waveform. You'll see that your plug-in's length is equal to that selection. This is for the X axis and the length of the plug-in(s). To move your plug-in(s) on the Y axis, change the value in the number box located right next the scrolling menu... where you can read "Y coord of plug-in". Drag this number box up and down... you should see your selected plug-in move along. Lets save this marvelous job of yours :-) HOW TO SAVE A NEW SESSION --------------------------- Well, to save a new session, there's nothing easier. Simply go to the File menu and select Save... that's it :-) Save it as Max-text format and don't forget the .pat extension !!! You'll always be able to get back the code of a patch if it was saved as text but you may not be able to do the same if it was saved as binary... In the MMS_All folder you copied to your hard drive, I made a folder called My_Sessions. Please save your MMS sessions in there. It's better and that way you know that everything that has to do with MMS is in this MMS_All folder... My_Sessions, Video, SoundFiles... everything is there. Just do not ever change anything to the MMS_lib folder please ;-) HOW TO OPEN AN EXISTING SESSION --------------------------------- Even simpler !! - go to the folder called My_Sessions located in the folder MMS_All - double-click the session you want to open - Once it's opened, click on the green number box located in the MMS window THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. If you do not click the green number box, it won't work !!! DESCRIPTION OF THE DIFFERENT WINDOWS OF MMS AND HOW TO USE THEM ----------------------------------------------------------------- MMS window ------------ Lets start with the window called MMS as it is the main window of our sequencer. All the other windows are sub windows of this one (sub patchers). In the MMS window, you can see a scrolling menu. It is from this menu that you can open any other window. The red number box is for creating the memory of the session. The green number (which must absolutely contain the same number as the red one) is for memory allocation... you don't really need to bother about this but you must be very careful with them. They're very important (see HOW TO CREATE A NEW SESSION IN MMS for more details). The yellow button closes the window but as this window is the main one, pressing this button will close your session too (you'll be asked whether to save the session or not). The toggle on the left of the comment "All windows editable" is to get the title barres on every window so you can open them, move them and of course edite them... Open Source !! :-). Now, lets go back to this scrolling menu. Click on it please. See ??? from here you can access every window of MMS. Most of them are already open though. Creation window ----------------- The "Creation" window is where you create your plug-ins (please see HOW TO CREATE A PLUG-IN IN THE EVENT WINDOW above). The yellow button closes the Creation window. To open it again, select it in the scrolling menu that you can find in the MMS window as we've just seen it. The red rectangle is for when you try to create a plug-in that already exists !!! For example, you try to create the plug-in n1 when n1 already exists... it won't work and you get a message in that rectangle telling that "n1 already exists"... You'll have to change your second n1 to n2 for example. There can only be one plug-in called n1 no matter what this plug-in is for (video, soundLoudSpeaker... etc). Destruction window -------------------- This window allows you to delete plug-ins. you can delete many plug-ins at the same time as a list. Click the Open message, write the different plug-ins you want to delete (for example 1 2 5 8), close the window and press the bang button at the left of your showing list. !!! BE CAREFUL !!! the list is under the form of 1 2 5 8... not n1 n2 n5 n8 !!!. The yellow button closes the window. Waveform window ----------------- Lets describe it from left to right. Well, the huge rectangle is the waveform~ object from MSP... you recognized it. Now, at the very left of the window you have three tools. The hand is for moving the wave, the two arrays is for moving a selection and the selection's tool well... it's for selection ;-) just have a look at the waveform~'s help patch in MSP to learn more about these three tools. The number box labeled "zoom en Y" is for zooming on the Y in the waveform~ object. Then, you have three messages : - play = plays the loaded sound - stop = stop - open = is for loading a new sound or the sound related to this session (the sound is never saved with the session, you always have to reload it when you open an existing session) Then we found the scrolling menu. This is where you'll find all your existing plug-ins. When you want to work on a particular plug-in you first have to select it in that scrolling menu unless you double-click the plug-in in the Event window. If you double-click a plug-in in the Event window, it will open and you be able to edit its content. The scrolling menu is when you only want to change the position of a plug-in or its length without having to open it... useful. The number box labeled "Y coord of plug-in" is to change the Y coordinate of a selected plug-in in the Event window. The yellow button is for closing the window. Video_pos window ------------------ This window is closed by default. To open it you must select it in the scrolling menu of the MMS window. This Video_pos window allows you to put you jit.window where you want. The fullscreen button is for the fullscreen mode of the jit.window. Zoom-Time window ------------------ Zoom-Time is a very simple but also very useful window. The counter is to show where we are in time when reading the sound-file. Zoom is for different zoom factors... experiment with it when you have few plug-ins in your Event window... you'll see Dac window ------------ This window turns on or off the audio of MSP. Change the scrolling menu to start or stop to do so. Don't forget, if you use an audio interface, to select it first. (Options -> DSP Status...). When the audio is on, the window is green otherwise it's red. The yellow button closes the window. Event window -------------- It is in that window that you'll organize your different plug-ins and so synchronize your different events. This is just a brief description of the different windows of MMS. If you want more details i suggest you to read the french version of the documentation. Everything is explained in details.... everything ! especially how all these windows work together and how they were programmed. If you can't read french but want to learn more, send me an e-mail at tworowski@freesurf.fr or skype me : banou_069 HOW TO EDIT THE CONTENT OF THE DIFFERENT PLUG-INS --------------------------------------------------- As seen before, you have four types of plug-ins. Once created, each plug-in can be edited by double-clinking on it. When you double-click a plug-in, it opens and you can edite its content... lets say you can tell it what to do. Hereafter, I'm gonna quickly explain how the different fields of each plug-in should be filled. Lets start with the plug-in Contact. Plug-in Contact ----------------- This plug-in is for controlling the binaries outputs of the GLUION. It is ideal for controlling lights in "all or nothing" mode... 1 or 0... On/Off When you double-click a plug-in contact, its window opens and shows some information like the name of the plug-in "num evenement", the comment of the event "commentaires" and the number of the session it belongs to "num session". These are reminders. Then you have a field labeled Y. It's for the Y address of the plug-in in the Event window. The field labeled "contact" is for the binary output you want to send your message to. This depends of the configuration of your GLUION but one thing for sure. 1 will always be your first binary output. Then you can find the start time and the duration. Close the plug-in before playing it. Plug-in soundLoudSpeaker -------------------------- You have the same reminders as in the plug-in of type contact. Y is for the Y coordinate of the plug-in in the Event window. Track number is for the audio output you want to control. Then you have the start time of the plug)in and its duration... as usual. What's important here is the break points function (BPF). With this BPF, you can create the curve that will control the output level of each one of your six audio outputs. The length of the BPF is always equal to the length of your plug-in in the Event window. Draw a simple ADSR curve and you'll ear the result on your loudspeaker. Well used, it's quite easy to make the sound turn around you for example. Close the plug-in before playing it. Plug-in video --------------- It has all the same reminders as the two previously discussed plug-ins and the Y coordinate of the plug-in in the Event window. The only thing you have to do here is to tell Jitter what movie to play when MMS comes to that plug-in. To do so, click the Open message. Select your movie and close the plug-in before playing it. As simple as that. Plug-in LightDimmer --------------------- It's exactly the same as soundLoudSpeaker. The only thing that changes here is the range of the BPF. In soundLoudSpeaker the range is 0->1. Here it's 0->255 as it's for DMX control. *********************************************************************************************** Here you are, you know all the basics to use MMS at home. Again, if you have any question, don't hesitate to contact me at contact@synart.org or skype me at contempojazz MMS is Open Source so if you want to contribute to its development, tell me, it will be with pleasure. *********************************************************************************************** X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X TWOROWSKI Sebastien Live Electronic Designer, Drummer and Composer mail : contact@synart.org ****** http://www.synart.org X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X