Pre purchase questions about functionality - laptop mic?

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Mainer
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Joined: Thu Jan 24, 2019 2:46 pm

Pre purchase questions about functionality - laptop mic?

Post by Mainer »

Hi there,

I have looked in documentation and in forums but am not able to find answers to my questions.

Can Gforce do this?

What I want to do is while my band is playing I have my laptop set up with hdmi out going to an exetnded screen (projector) that has gforce visualization on it reacting to audio input from the laptop mic.

So the laptop would display as normal and only gforce shows on projector - which from a windows standpoint is an extended screen. (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/hel ... -windows-7)

Then I can also play from itunes during setbreak and that shows up on screen visualization as well.

Would this set up be possible? Are there any pitfalls or complications as far as going back and forth betweeen mic input and itunes output or whatever?

Thanks for your help!

mainer

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BTT
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Post by BTT »

Hello Mainer

You need to contact Brandon at SoundSpectrum and have a chat about G-Force Professional which is designed for commercial events such as you have described.

http://www.soundspectrum.com/support/contact.html
.
Regards BTT

ColorMap Creator for G-Force and Aeon --- SoundSpectrum Forum Administrator.

bnh
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Joined: Fri Jan 19, 2007 7:11 pm

Post by bnh »

Technically, the answer to your question is “yes,â€￾ but BTT wants you to do the right thing and get a commercial license before proceeding.

Just to stretch the thought, video effects from G-Force have a distinctive look and can be easily identified, even when mixed with the graphic output from other software. There’s a new music video from Snarky Puppy at the following link, or you can just Google “Snarky Puppy Bad Kids To the Back Videoâ€￾:
https://www.jambase.com/article/snarky- ... back-video

Parts of the above video sure look like they were generated via G-Force. I’m speaking of the abstract graphics syncing in real time to musical ques. The G-Force generated effects, if indeed those are G-Force generated effects, were layered along with other effects from Adobe’s After Effects or some similar software. Of course the producers of that video would have the common sense to seek a commercial license from Sound Spectrum before such blatant usage...assuming.

Which is not the case with other software developers such as Adobe. If you rent a license to use After Effects, you do not have to then negotiate another license to use the imagery produced via After Effects in a commercial venture. In other words, Adobe has gone into the software rental game. They are simply a provider of tools, and you pay a monthly rental fee for continued or sporadic usage of their tools. Sound Spectrum’s approach is to sale the software (without the right to re-sale that software of course), and to maintain some kind of usage rights for the end product as well. This gives Sound Spectrum the ability to sell their product at $39.95 and the flexibility to make its own marketing alliances with different production facilities and organizations. It may be that Sound Spectrum had a blanket contract with the production studio that produced “Bad Kids,â€￾ allowing them to use the output of G-Force in any commercial venture. It’s a marketing strategy that has both pros and cons.

I am also familiar with setting a projector to operate in the Extended rather than Duplicate mode. Two years ago I ran into a model of a popular projector that allowed only the Duplicate mode, because the manufacturer had determined that’s what teachers really wanted in a classroom, and they wanted to simplify the setup and operation of the projector for that market. In other words, this particular model would override (or ignore) the OS commands (duplicate/extended) coming from the laptop. We spent hours and days trying to figure out what was wrong because we had never seen that kind of exception before. That little customization wasn’t clearly described in the manual, and the projector’s reps kept insisting we were doing something wrong. The end user, a theater in New York mixing projected images with live performers during a staged play, had just purchased a worthless device because they went after price and performance specs, and you can’t really blame them.

You’ll find making G-Force submit to your creativity a little more complicated than you describe. The rabbit hole is deep in this regard. My suggestion would be to build a script for each song rather than let G-Force call the config files on a random basis. That way you’ll generate a learning curve in determining which config files react more predictably during a live concert. In these beginning scripts I’d eliminate everything except WaveShapes and ColorMaps. You don’t want to introduce complications from Flow Fields, Particles and Images just yet. Once you’ve gained “reaction predictabilityâ€￾ of Waveshapes, you can then learn how to recode those config files, introduce timed FlowFields and Particles (using the timing parameters embedded in a script), as well as modify other settings hidden in G-Force. The rabbit hole can be as deep as you want to go, but at least you won’t be lost.

Assuming your setup is as you describe and you use the mic built into your laptop, or even an external, unbalanced microphone on a stand some distance from your computer (which may introduce humm into your signal because the cord is too long and the configuration is unbalanced, all of which will end in a very unreliable mini-plug entering the mic port that feeds the sound card built into the motherboard of your computer), you’ll have little control isolating a particular audio event as the desired trigger to which G-Force should respond. For example, if you’re using a single mic to feed your laptop, and you’d like to have just the snare drum trigger the effect coded in a WaveShape config file, you’re going to be disappointed. Snark Puppy’s referenced video has such an event, and it was obviously accomplished in post-production. Although there are commands that can isolate frequencies and amplitude embedded in various Waveshape config files, during a live concert almost any noise will be capable of triggering the coded effects. The acoustic variables are just too complex in a live scenario without a more sophisticated set up involving multiple balanced mics, an audio mixer with balanced inputs, perhaps a video mixer, and even multiple computers, each running their own version of G-Force. At that point you’ll be ready to leave the rabbit hole.

But in theory, what you describe will work. And good luck.

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DanPin
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Post by DanPin »

When SoundSpectrum states, from the EULA, that "No commercial usage rights or rights of public display of visual output of the Software in any form are granted under this EULA, but may be available under a separate agreement provided solely by Licensor," it would mean that, unless you have a commercial license granted to you by SoundSpectrum, use of its software in public performance would be considered a copyright infringement because you are displaying other contributors' work without expressed consent.

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BTT
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Post by BTT »

Hello DanPin

You are 100% correct. You wouldn't do that would you?
.
Regards BTT

ColorMap Creator for G-Force and Aeon --- SoundSpectrum Forum Administrator.

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