ABShowMaker
Using: Mac-mini with OSX10.4 and ABSM 1.3.1
PC using XP Pro and ABEdit 7.2.3

Ive been working with Tim trying knock some of the kinks out of
ABShowMaker using the AB64. We started with the last production here
at the Vancouver Playhouse. The data transfer, file conversion now
works well. I've converted and loaded 2.3 gigs of various size files
at one go. The file sizes have varied from 500k to nearly 200 megs.

Show files built on an AB1616 now import and open smoothly and
work. The only modification needed to those show files is that the
AB64 uses file names and the AB1616 uses selection numbers. At this
point, the selection number has to be replaced with the track
name. This is a drag and drop operation between the audio directory
and the (opened up) load selection command. At this time, the
process does not work back to ABEdit. Tim and Shelly are working to
make these compatible.

The current show (just in the final stages of teching and going into
previews) was put together on the ABShowMaker/64 unit. This was to
be the maiden voyage of the program as a playback device as it were,
but hasn't happened yet. There was a problem with some files which
had been imported from the net. Those files contained hidden
characters or non-english characters (ie, umlauts) which caused the
program to misbehave. Ran out of time trying to solve this
problem. Tried to import the show file back into AB1616 and
discovered that the import function did not work. Shelly is now
working on this.

The file name problem caused some other issues such as file
corruption and problems with system between the mac and 64 which
affected levels. After doing a lot of testing and measuring etc,
both machines now appear to be well matched and when doing either an
A/B test using the same strips or using strips side by side, the
machines now produce indistinguishable output levels. As well, both
machines are working in parallel, running the same lists and
selections. The AB1616 is the show machine at this point, and will
continue to be through opening. When all the show changes are
finished, with company approval, the show will be run from ShowMaker.

For those of you who are PC users and not mac users (me,too), there
are many things that are different between ABEdit and ABSM. The
first main difference is the layout of the live screen. I found it to
be about 90 degrees different in direction from what Ive been used to
with ABEdit.


When you open ABShowMaker you will notice 2 windows: The first is
labeled ABShowmaker and has the blue AudioBox information window;
the 2nd window is labeled Show Editor. If there is communication
between the 64 and the Mac, the AudioBox label appears along with the
time and the date.
This window also has several small menus near the header. As you are
setting up a show you will probably switch between this small window
and the window from menuitem Show.


Start a new show: Go to the File menu item and select New Show

Goto the ABShowmaker menu item and select preferences. At the bottom
of the preferences screen is a box which is used to set where audio
selections will be stored .. in particular the converted files.



show editor window will display List 1 which has a downward pointing
triangle, path 1 which also has a down triangle and cue 1 which
doesnt have the triangle. If no triangle then no events in the
cue/path/list. To expand or contract the information
displayed, press on the appropriate triangle.

Populating Q1:
First get some audio selections into the AB64. Go to the AudioBox
drop down list and select Send audio files to the audiobox ( or the
apple button and B).

A screen opens so the location the files are located can be
selected. Click your file(s) which you wish to load and click on the
open. The selected file(s) will be processed and a copy of the
coverted files will be put into the converted folder. The converted
files will be automatically sent to the AB64. As soon as the file is
successfully logged into the AB64, the listing will appear in the
audio directory which is located on the left hand side of the
ABShowMaker window.

Go to the ABShowMaker window. To load a selection for playback,
either click on a single selection and, holding down the left mouse
button drag the selection to the desired channel and drop it into the
box next to the U. If the selected file drops into the wrong
channel box, simply hit the U to unload the selection and redo the
selection action again. Multiple selections can be loaded at the
same time. To capture adjacent selections, hold down the Shift key
when clicking, then drag and drop. To load random selections, hold
down the Apple key and select, then drag and drop.

Go back to the Show Editor window and click on the History tab. If
you dont see the History tab, it is located near the top of the
right hand pane. There are 3 tabs here, one for templates. which
have examples of many MSC instructions, a Reference tab where another
version of the show can be opened and the two shows can be compared,
and the History, which is the window used to populate the cue list.

The History list will hold the last 250 actions performed in the
ABShowMaker window, which is also called the live window. To build
a cue, select items from the history list using either the Shift key
and the left mouse for adjacent items, or the apple key and left
mouse for random items. Drag and drop the selected items into the
area to the right of the cue number/name. Thios will populate the cue.

In order to do crosspoints ... if the crosspoints are adjacent. use
the shift key. Press the shift key before making the selections and
hold it down for the whole process of selecting. Selecting can also
be done by holding down the left mouse button and dragging across
the desired crosspoints.

When the selecting is complete, for full on crosspoints, hit the
return key. Full on is indicated by a dot. Hit the return key again
and all the selected crosspoints will become zero. To set any other
value, right click on on of the selected cells and a volume box will
open. Use tjhe left mouse button and set the volume level. As all
these actions are being performed, they are entered into the histroy window.

If, when setting a volume level, the Option button is held
down, a volume window will pop up. If the blue slider button is
touched (while still holding down the Option key), and dragged out to
the right side, the window will expand out and become the time
vector for the fade. The vertical portion of the line is the gain
and the slope is time. If there are multiple crosspoints
selected, this gain/time vector will apply to all of them.

Assuming that things are as they need to be in the history, drag and
drop the appropriate portions of the history into the cue. When you
save the cue, you save the current show file. So , before you do
this, make sure that the save is going to a new file, otherwise you
may over write an existing show file.

Of course there will be changes to the cues. Remember the little
triangle to the left of the cue. Click on this, and the cues MSC
commands will be displayed.

Now we have to change all the crosspoints from channels 1 and 2 to
channels 3 and 4. If all the channel 3 crosspoints are not
together, we will have to use the Apple key and select the channel 1
crosspoints. Then hit the enter key and a window with the 1st
selected cue parameters and hex will display. Change channel 1 to
channel 3 and hit the update button. All the selected crosspoints
are now channel 3. If this is not correct then go to the edit menu
item and undo the change and all the crosspoints will go back to the
original state. If there are several parameters to change, change
only 1 parameter and then update, do the next parameter and update
and so forth. Only similar commands can be edited at one time. That
is, crosspoints or inputs or starts.

That's the nickel demo. Check it out. It will import AB1616 sho
files, so then there is something prebuilt to play with.

Lucas


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