VENUE: The All-Powerful Events List

By Robert Scovill
Beginning with D-Show® 2.5 software, Digidesign added a feature called Events to VENUE, which allows you to create and customize macros for better workflow efficiency. Used in conjunction with the footswitch inputs on the D-Show® control surface, or the General Purpose Interface (GPI) on D-Show Profile™, events provide a means to trigger a variety of actions — internal or external — to the console, based on user-designated actions.

For example, you can choose a simple switch closure as a trigger to generate all kinds of actions, such as recall a snapshot, change the console mode, clear solos, and so on. You can even assign these actions to D-Show or D-Show Profile function switches, other switches, or even fader movements. D-Show software offers a number of pre-programmed events built into the function switches, including “copy,” “paste,” and “enter Preview mode.” You can disable or even remove these as needed.

With that in mind, I thought it might be nice to offer up a few real-world examples of events that can get you on your way to programming, and show you how you can use this feature to make your live sound workflow a thing of beauty. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll have some real fun creating your own events to gain maximum efficiency with your workflow. Let’s get started…

Clear Solos with the Tap of Your Foot
Let’s start with something nice and simple just to get us going. Let’s create a footswitch action that simply clears our solo selections.

1. Go to the Options > Events page, and click “New” to create a new event.
2. Double-click the new event that appears in the left pane (Events list), and rename it “Clear Solos.”
3. In the top-right corner of the Triggers pane, click “Add,” then choose “Footswitch > Switch 1 (Footswitch 1)” from the drop-down menu (see Figure 1).

Tip: You can rename the footswitches and GPI to whatever you want; simply double-click on the text field above the switch icon to edit the default name.


Figure 1: Here are some of the available triggers accessible from the Add Triggers drop-down menu in the Events window.

4. In the Actions pane, click “Add,” then choose “Clear Solos” from the drop-down menu (see Figure 2).


Figure 2: Here are some of the available actions you can set for your footswitch trigger from the Add Actions drop-down menu.

5. Solo up a number of inputs on your control surface, go back to the Events page, and click “Test” from the middle row of buttons. All soloed inputs should now clear to the un-soloed position.

There you have it; now the next time you have multiple items soloed on the console, a simple tap of the footswitch will clear your soloed selections — isn’t that nice?

Now that you have some sense of how easy it is to program an event, let me fire off a few other real-world examples that show how you might use events to great advantage when designing your system or preparing your show file for use. As you get more familiar with the Events list, you’ll find countless actions you can make happen using any number of triggers that will soon become an invaluable part of your live sound workflow. If you come up with some cool ones, be sure to share them with other users on the DUC. Let your imagination run wild, and let the fun begin!

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