[solved] Open project on start up
#1
Hi,
I am intending to use this as a drum brain for my electronic drum kit. Ideally I would like to lead Rack Performer when Windows loads and open a specific project in edit mode so that I don't have to manually do anything to get it to work.
Obviously I can set the program to run on start up and there is fortunately a setting to go straight to edit mode when a project is loaded, but I don't know if there is a way to automatically load the project on start up. Is it possible to specify a project as a command line parameter perhaps? Or maybe include a way in the GUI to choose a project to automatically open? Either option would be REALLY useful and, all else working okay, lead me to actually use your product (as it is really rather good!)
Many thanks,
Richard
I am intending to use this as a drum brain for my electronic drum kit. Ideally I would like to lead Rack Performer when Windows loads and open a specific project in edit mode so that I don't have to manually do anything to get it to work.
Obviously I can set the program to run on start up and there is fortunately a setting to go straight to edit mode when a project is loaded, but I don't know if there is a way to automatically load the project on start up. Is it possible to specify a project as a command line parameter perhaps? Or maybe include a way in the GUI to choose a project to automatically open? Either option would be REALLY useful and, all else working okay, lead me to actually use your product (as it is really rather good!)
Many thanks,
Richard
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person147
Country: United Kingdom
Joined: Nov 1 2012
Joined: Nov 1 2012
There is no specific switch or flag to pass, just: RP.exe "c:\path\to\file.rpl".
But we need to add another option for your scenario to really work: "enable power on document load"... as currently you would still have to press Ctrl+4 to enable power once loaded.
It's quite trivial to add, so just tell me if you would need this option or not, and it could be added pretty quickly.
Live Factory Team
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Joined: Nov 15 2009
If you could add that feature in it would help me greatly.
Perhaps you can see other problems with my use-case that I have not encountered or thought of yet?
1. On PC boot-up load Rack Performer
2. When Rack Performer loads it automatically opens a project that has been previously selected (command line parameter or an option in the UI)
3. Rack Performer enters a mode that allows use of the VST plug-ins without any human interaction (in this case Superior Drummer with an attached kit). I guess this would be either edit mode or performance mode.
4. Close down smoothly without any human interaction when the PC is instructed to shutdown. For example, pressing the power button to instruct Windows to shutdown (I read on another post there is an option to remove the "do you wish to save" prompt, so I guess that helps)
5. When started up again, do not give any warnings or errors about being forced to close (I am using Cantabile VST Host at present which give errors >.<)
In my setup I have the multiple PCs and other equipment attached to a home cinema receiver/processor which is connected to a projector. I switch between source inputs frequently and noticed that there was some error produced by Rack Performer when I did this regarding changing screen resolution. Unfortunately it was 2:30AM at that time and didn't have a chance to really look into it. I am hoping that this will not take it out of a mode that allows me to play. I will check tonight but I am sure you already know the answer to this.
Cantabile almost meets my requirements but their latency programming is nowhere near as good as yours so am very keen to replace it with Rack Performer.
Many thanks and keep up the great work!
Richard
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Joined: Nov 1 2012
We would definitely like to fully support your entire scenario, as it is a pre-requisite for a pro-audio usage in events/installations where RP would run in a rack-mounted computer, with possibly no screen at all, fully automated.
1) would be done by adding a start menu entry
2) would be done with the command line parameter in (1)
3) will need the extra option I mentionned to enable power on document load
4) would be done with the hidden option to disable the save confirmations
5) no warning in RP...
...but of course there are other possible messageboxes or required interactions, for instance if something goes wrong or if a plugin crashes. So that would need to be adressed too.
As for the screen resolution change, we are aware that there is a bug in current implementation. And there is another issue: it automatically switches to patch mode (windowed) and it can be problematic maybe.
But overall those are just small details to sort out, and with your feedback I'm confident we will succeed in making it possible.
Live Factory Team
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Joined: Nov 15 2009
I'll be more than happy to help continue testing this scenario for you in future if needed. I will try and provide more feedback tonight.
Richard
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Joined: Nov 1 2012
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I have just downloaded the new version and given it a go. I can't seem to find a way to make it power up all the modules when the program opens. Could you please confirm if this feature was added to this version please?
Thank you
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Joined: Nov 1 2012
No this did not make it into 0.99-beta3 as it was only a bug fix release.
But we will try to implement it this week and will likely need your feedback. We will contact you by mail when it is ready and you will get a custom build for you to test.
Live Factory Team
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Joined: Nov 15 2009
Any further news on this feature? Did it make it in to the build?
Thank you,
Richard
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Joined: Nov 1 2012
Rack Performer can now be used for fixed installations fully automated with no human interaction, and it is even possible to play music with it with no screen and no mouse nor keyboard attached.
To begin with, we added more options in the "General" config tab to deal with what should be done after a document has been loaded. The "show comments (if any)" and "enter 'Edit mode'" options were already present but there are three new ones that should be pretty self-explanatory: "enable 'Perform mode'", "enable Power" and "start master clock".
Already with these options turned on and by providing a file path to the command line (via the Windows shortcut options), the application will load any document on startup and enable power so you can play right out with no interaction.
The "start master clock" option has been made separate because the system might be in transport-slave mode, in which case the start command would be received later from an external transport master or controller.
This solved one part of the problem but there were still a few message boxes that could be displayed in certain cases (mostly to notify about error conditions etc, for instance when a plugin crashed) and we felt it was not acceptable when you have both hands already on your instrument or on your controllers.
This is why we changed all modal dialogs behaviours when Perform mode is enabled to use the Screen Ticker instead of message boxes, allowing to display slightly less informative messages but with no interaction required.
So, to make sure you will never have to reach for your mouse or keyboard while playing, just enable Peform mode. You might ask why we just don't remove all modal dialogs once for good, but this is of course not that simple. We already minimized their amount as much as we could and those that remain are a necessity, while some are appropriate when preparing / editing.
Now this covers the performance part, and only two spots where message boxes could be displayed were left: document loading and document closing. For the latter, there is the document save confirmation prompt, again a necessary evil. And for the former, a lot of different messages could be shown to explain what errors were encountered.
When loading a working document there should be no message displayed but if you really want to ensure there will never ever be any modal dialog when loading and closing documents, there are two advanced hidden config options for that purpose (one was already mentionned above):
<GUI-DisableSaveConfirmations bool="1" />
<GUI-DisableLoadConfirmations bool="1" />
Make sure the application is not running when you edit its config file. The procedure is explained in this post.
To recap:
Live Factory Team
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Joined: Nov 15 2009
If there is enough demand for these kind of uses cases, we might consider adding these last missing components.
Live Factory Team
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Joined: Nov 15 2009
I can't wait to give this all a try ASAP. I unfortunately have a lot of other plans for the next few days but as soon as I have an hour or two to spare I will try this out and respond with my feedback.
Thanks once again for this, I am really excited about finally getting a headless VST host with the excellent low latency performance Rack Performer has.
Richard
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Joined: Nov 1 2012
I have now installed Rack Performer (the latest test) and I am not getting that error <phew!> I will now go ahead an test it as requested.
Thanks, and sorry for the delay - life has gotten in the way these past few weeks (got married, friend's wedding, wife's 30th birthday, etc, blah blah blah)
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Joined: Nov 1 2012
For the I/O error, maybe you could paste the exact log file line(s) in case you can reproduce it on your main PC? If you did not restart the app since you got the error, it should still be in the log (could spare you having to relaunch it etc)
On first inspection, I think the I/O error is only triggered when the document path provided is either invalid or if for some reason the file cannot be read. Did you make sure to enclose your document path with quotes (") when passing it to the command line? Might just be that.
No need to stress, but Rack Performer is going to reach 1.0 maturity anytime soon, so if you could confirm the changes work as designed, we could mark that down as "complete"!
Thank you again for your help.
Live Factory Team
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Joined: Nov 15 2009
Sorry not posting in some time. Life has been hectic!
This evening I have download the latest release of Rack Performer and got it all setup. Everything appears to be working exactly how I hoped it would. The full use-case I described above has now been completely covered from what I can tell. I am very happy - thank you so much!
I will continue to use and test it. If I get any issues I will be sure to make you guys aware.
Richard
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Joined: Nov 1 2012