VDMX Buttons
From VidvoxWiki
Next to sliders, buttons are the second most frequently encountered interface item in VDMX. In principal, they're relatively simple: there are two different kinds of buttons, momentary buttons and toggle buttons. Momentary buttons trigger actions, toggle buttons switch between two states.
Buttons are a significant UI element worthy of mention because, much like sliders, they may be synchronized with data sources- this means that every button in VDMX is a candidate to be controlled by a Data Source, or be triggered via a keyboard / MIDI shortcut.
Using Buttons
At any given time you can click on a button to cause it to trigger (for momentary buttons) or flip its on/off state (for toggle buttons).
Automating button triggers with Data Sources (aka synch mode)
One of the most convenient features of buttons in VDMX is their ability to be synchronized to a variety of different Data Sources such as LFOs, audio inputs, or the current time of a movie that is playing back within VDMX. When synchronized the value of the button (and the parameter that it controls) will change along with the data source that the button is receiving from.
There are two basic ways to synchronize a button to a data source:
- Click on a button to select it. Look at the slider/button inspector window: there should be a selected item in the list on the left-hand side- this is the source the button will be synchronized to. Press the button labelled "Use Above Value" (it should be directly beneath the list of data sources). As soon as you press it, the button's text should turn green, and it should start using the value of it's chosen data source.
- Right-click on the button. A contextual menu should appear- in the menu, under the "Use This Data Source:" heading, the button's current data source should be selected. It is important to note that all buttons have a default data source, and it will always be checked in the menu- even if the button is not synched to anything. At this point, you could choose "Synch To Data Source" (at the top of the menu) if you're satisfied with the chosen source, or you could choose another data source from the list- in either case, the button's text will turn green and start using the value from the chosen source.
Setting the Threshold and Edge Triggering vs Straight Synching
When a button is synched to something (be it keyboard, MIDI controller or data source), you have some level of control over how the button gets triggered by it's source.
Many data-sources that are used to control buttons are not simply on / off states - they can represent the level of an audio signal, the velocity of a MIDI note, or the position within the current measure of the clock. Using the threshold control in the slider / button inspector, you can adjust the point at which the selected button will change it's state.
For example, if you are using the level of an audio signal to trigger a button, you would set the threshold to set the level (loudness) that the signal reaches before VDMX will act on the input.
In addition to the threshold setting, the button inspector also allows you to set how (and if) the button should react when the threshold is crossed. There are two different modes that can be set for each button - straight synch (the default) and edge trigger.
Straight synch mode means that the button directly follows the state of the data-source. For toggle buttons, if the source's value is above the threshold, the button is in the on state, if it is below, it is in the off position. For momentary buttons, the button will trigger whenever the source is above the threshold and do nothing when below.
When in edge trigger mode, crossing the threshold will cause the button to react based on the current state of the button, not the data-source that is controlling it. To accompany this threshold slider are two toggles, labelled "Trigger on Rise", and "Trigger on Fall". These toggles allow you to specify if the button should trigger / change states when it's value rises above or falls below the threshold, respectively. The red bar immediately below the threshold slider displays the button's current value, which should make setting the threshold a bit easier.
Using Keyboard, MIDI and OSC to trigger or toggle buttons
Strictly speaking, keyboard presses, MIDI controllers and incoming OSC messages are treated as regular data sources. That being said, the diverse nature of physical hardware means that the procedure of synchronizing a button in VDMX to a MIDI device is slightly different from synching it to other data sources- there are three different methods for setting the keyboard / MIDI / OSC assignment:
- Click on a button to select it. Look at the slider/button inspector window: there is a button in the bottom-left corner of the window labelled "Midi Detect". Press this button, and then wiggle the midi control you want the button to be synchronized to; the button's text should turn green and it's value should match the controller you just moved. Likewise, the "Key Detect" and "OSC Detect" options can be used to detect for their respective hardware types.
- Right-click on a button. A contextual menu should appear with the "Start Key Detect" "Start MIDI Detect" and "Start OSC Detect". Select the appropriate hardware type and then press the key / note or send the OSC message you wish to use to control the button.
- Hardware Learn Mode. In the title bar of the Slider / Button inspector window is a toggle button for activating Hardware Learn Mode (HW Learn). When active, any incoming keyboard, MIDI, or OSC messages are automatically assigned to the currently selected button.
- Important note- buttons in the slider and button inspector are perfect candidates for keyboard shortcuts; especially the "show shortcuts" button. There's just one small catch: in order to select these buttons, you must hold down the SHIFT key while clicking on them. This is a bit roundabout, but since the default behavior of clicking on a button is to select it, if the shift-click wasn't necessary you'd wind up deselecting whatever button (or slider) you were trying to edit every time you interacted with the inspector.
Turning Synch-mode On and Off with a Keyboard / MIDI Shortcut
Often when using a data-source to automate control of an action attached to a button in VDMX, it is useful to temporarily disable the automation. This can be done using the per-button synch button.
Using the right+click menu or Slider / Button inspector you can expose a toggle button that appears on the left side of the main button that can be used to enable / disable the synch state. This new control is configured on a per-button basis and can be used to assign keyboard / MIDI / OSC shortcut, or any other data source to change the synch state of the main button.
Display Key / MIDI / OSC Shorcuts ("Show Shortcuts")
The "Show Shortcuts" button in the inspector is a toggle which makes every button in the app that is synched to something display what it's synched to (instead of it's normal title text).