Submit a pull request, or write an issue tag documentation.
After you've got LX Studio running, please peruse the documentation. However, you'll see a wealth of info. We'll specifically focus on using Entwined.
Not everything works yet! Please report issues using Github's issue system. You may see your issue already listed, upvote it or add a comment so people working can see you care or have experienced the issue.
The window has the following elements.
The left bar tends to have output information.
The lower bar has active channel entries that you can manipulate.
The right bar controls interaction, such as the MIDI map, recording inputs, the pattern entry for a channel, the OSC entries.
There is a small upper ribbon that allows saving and restoring projects.
The lower left had a tip bar. If you're unsure what a button does, hover over, and read the tip.
Unlike Processing based LX Studio, the window can be resized. Moving the sculpture around is best done with a trackpad. Pinch to zoom, drag to rotate, and CTL-drag to shift.
The name of the channel can be set to a string - like "channel 1" which isn't very descriptive - or can be set to something more descriptive like "TREES" (a channel which only effects the trees), or can be set to the currently playing pattern.
You can change this yourself by clicking on the name and using the pulldown.
Changing a running pattern on a channel is a very different experience in LX Studio these days! To the right of the channel list, when a channel is selected, is a list of all the patterns currently allowed for the channel. To add more, use the '+' icon nearby - but remember you'll have to save the project file and check it in for other people to use this pattern.
The checked in version of the project files has every interesting pattern on every channel. Test patterns can be added to a channel and used, and not checked in.
Changing patterns on a channel can be done with an autofade. It can also be done automatically. There are two lines: the first is the ability to auto-cycle to another pattern in the list - and whether they should be cycled sequentially or randomly, and how long on each pattern. The second one is a fading transition. This allows setting a time that one pattern will fade into the next, or other transitions, and how long the transition takes. If you look carefully at the amount of time, you'll see a very small green crawling bar when a transition is active, which shows the progress of the transition.
When changing patterns, you can use the pattern list at the bottom, but we've also replicated that list on the right hand side. That list can't be edited, but you can see a lot more patterns. To change patterns, you can scroll with the arrow keys then hit return, or you can scroll with the track pad and double click. If you have the transition feature set, the transition will be done, so the old pattern will still show as active until the transition is complete.
The left most channel, channel 1, and the right most channel is Master.
There are 8 channels, but there are also 3 visible channels that are used by the Ipad. In the old interface we had these channels, but they were invisible. Now you have to scroll over them to get to the master channel. Don't touch the ipad channels.
If you can't see both the master channel and channel 1, then you have to scroll. There is no scroll bar in this interface, so you have to use a trackpad with a swipe interface. Possibly selecting a channel and using the arrow keys will work also.
The channels have a mini mode, and a full mode. In the mini mode, you'll be able to see and switch channels easily, in the full mode you can set capabilities like a channel which only applies to some structure elements.
Changing mode is in a small triangle just to the right bottom of the master channel, and you have to be scrolled all the way over.
In order to change the pattern running on a channel, you'll have to select it.
The only way to select on a channel with the visual interface is to click in the channel name (at the top of a channel).
If you have an APC40, the 'Track Selection' row will allow selecting the first 8 channels.
In the expanded view of a channel, toward the left bottom, is a small button like a group of boxes in a pyramid.
This allows a channel to be filtered and effect a particular set of fixtures. They are set in the fixture files. If you view the fixtures on the left side, select one, and look down, you see a set of tags for each fixture. For example, a Shrub will have "SHRUB" and its peice name 'shrub-01' or similar.
If you wish a channel to control only the shrubs, or only a certain shrub, or a group of shrubs and circles, you can do so with a comma separated list.
I am uncertain, as of writing this guide, whether those changes are saved as a part of automation. I would guess not, so you should set up channels that effect parts of the sculpture.
The fixtures are the elements in the left bar. The correct fixtures for this
installation will have already been saved for you. If you have to create a new
installation, you are best off creating the new fixtures - which will be copied
to the Chromatik/Fixtures directory. Use a project file that you like, delete
all the existing features, add the correct set of features, enable them, and you'll
be done.
If you have to change the IP address of a fixture, you don't have to do this, but you might have to hit the friendly "reload fixture files" button.
If your sculpture is not lighting up, try the following.
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Make sure all individual fixtures are enabled, and none are 'soloed'. There is a button to the left of each fixture which is whether it is enabled, and adding a new fixture will add it disabled to the end of the list, which is easy to mix.
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Make sure output is enabled. This is a large friendly button on the master, and it needs to be red to actually output to the sculpture. When running in headless mode, output is enabled by default and through a command line switch.
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You don't have a license! One of the main differences between the free version and the licensed version is only the licensed version can be used to run a sculpture. If you have a red "license" button in the upper right, then you're unlicensed and need to request one from Mark. Please contact Entwined staff.
The upper left corner has a play, stop, record button. You'll want to play your set, then record it. The file has to be copied somewhere to auto-play. If you want to list files and play them, that's simple.
[TODO: add more specific instructions]
The recording automation system doesn't record several things:
- the master brightness
- changes to the pattern list on a channel
- trigger events (or any midi event)
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Master brightness The purpose of not recording the master brightness has a purpose: you can change the overall running brightness on the sculpture, and not have that be recorded. Therefore, when you are playing in a different sitaution, or on a different sculpture, you should set this brightness and not worry about it being recorded.
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Some channel changes The purpose of not recording changes to the pattern list is due to the difficulty of uniquely naming patterns (essentially effect rack entries). The reality, though, is this normally does what you want: you want to select or act on the only pattern with a given name. This means that practically you can add a pattern to a channel and use it.
However, if you play that file back without saving a project with that pattern on that channel, it won't work right. You'll need to add it.
Realistically, don't add patterns to channels during recording.
- Trigger events If you hit a trigger pad on the APC40, the trigger action is not saved, its result is saved. This means, under the covers, that all triggers have to change parameters or other similar elements that will be saved by an automation.
This ends up "doing the right thing" because you didn't really want to record pressing the button (which might do a different thing with a different program file later), you wanted to record the action that button took.
This installation tends to use the APC40 and is tuned with that in mind. The APC40 MK1 has a row of knobs called "track control" in the upper right which are visibile also in the interfaces, as well as "device control" for the currently playing pattern in the selected channel.
You just attach an APC40. The checked in project file has an APC40 already selected as a controller.
You can also attach any other Midi device! LX Studio has rich midi control in the style of Ableton. There is a midi map mode, and you assign any midi control to any on-screen visible function.
For example, you can attach a Midifighter Twister, and have knobs assigned to specific functions. Unfortunately you'll have to set these up every time, as they're saved with the project file, and different people might have different favorite buttons.
Entwined has an LX Studio plugin. This is how we make interactions work and a few other things. If you are running an unlicensed version, you'll still see the sculpture, and you'll be able to develop and run new patterns.