Simultaneous Sequences

[lrhorer]

This Halloween I would like to expand my display with some display-triggered animatronics with sequence based audio.  Is there any way to get FPP to play one or more sequences while another is playing?  I will be playing music with sound and lighting effects continuously, but I would like to have sounds accompanying people triggered displays.

[mararunr]

Yes, you can have one pi running the continuous elements and another pi for your interactive elements.  Leave them both in stand-alone mode.  That's if there is multiple audio tracks (which what I think you say).  If they are both using the same audio, then yes you can have eseq and fseq that execute at the same time (basically the eseq overrides the fseq to cause certain elements to do whatever is in the eseq).

[CaptainMurdoch]

If you are talkin about a single Pi/BBB, you can try playing another audio file manually via a script while FPP is playing the main audio.  You might need to setup a different /root/.asoundrc file if it doesn't work out of the box.  It has been a while since I have tested multiple audio streams playing at the same time with one being FPP and the other manually started using mpg123/ogg123

[gc2016]

I used mpg123 to play multiple overlapping sound files. It works pretty well. I did have to make changes to my scripts between 1.x and 2.x, and then I found using a separate sound player and mixing board worked better for setup.

[DesignTagline]

Hello, 

Just revisiting this thread, Does V7.5 allow multiple sequence playback? I can't seem to get it to work even if I use them as effect sequences.

[Poporacer]

Just revisiting this thread, Does V7.5 allow multiple sequence playback?

Can you explain what you are trying to do? Maybe you do not want multiple sequence playback? Asking if FPP can play multiple sequences at the same time is similar to asking if you can tune your radio into 2 stations at the same time.

I can't seem to get it to work even if I use them as effect sequences.

Can you explain how you tried to get this to work?
FPP Does allow Effects to override sequence data so that a portion of your show is playing something different.

[DesignTagline]

In a Christmas lights sense I am trying to control my entire house without having it in one sequence. 

Maybe I want my front yard to do one thing and the roof to do another and rather than having to record multiple combinations I would love to pick and choose. 

In the touring/light art world this could allow the FPP device to run multiple artworks, perhaps the first one uses channels 1-5120 and artwork two uses 5121-15361 

Running multiple artworks with different show loop lengths is quite common in this world and since it's a function in other products I don't believe it's not a feature others would find useful. 

I accept that only one of them could have a sound track attached to it and I could just 'buy another device' but I am trying to enhance what we use currently but building something that supports more universes than our current solution 

[tbone321]

Asking if FPP can play multiple sequences at the same time is similar to asking if you can tune your radio into 2 stations at the same time.

LOL, at one time a long time ago, I had a HIFI unit that could tune into two stations at the same time.  Thanks for bringing back those memories, those were fun times.

[Poporacer]

In a Christmas lights sense I am trying to control my entire house without having it in one sequence. 

Why would you want to overly complicate it? I think I am missing something here?

Maybe I want my front yard to do one thing and the roof to do another and rather than having to record multiple combinations I would love to pick and choose. 

Every model down to each individual LED is programable and is not dependent on what any other LED or prop is doing. You can pick and choose what each prop does.

In the touring/light art world this could allow the FPP device to run multiple artworks, perhaps the first one uses channels 1-5120 and artwork two uses 5121-15361 

Each model already has unique channels so I am not sure how that would help?

Running multiple artworks with different show loop lengths is quite common in this world 

Now I think you are explaining what you really want, but there is still not enough information to fully answer. Is each artwork going to be a "Stand Alone" product since if they have different durations, there is no way to actually sync them together. Playing multiple sequences in this case is not what you really want.

and since it's a function in other products I don't believe it's not a feature others would find useful. 

I don't think that it is a feature you want, but a better understanding of how to accomplish what you want.

I accept that only one of them could have a sound track attached to it and I could just 'buy another device' but I am trying to enhance what we use currently

And what are you currently using? You are asking for answers but are not giving us the entire question. Without COMPLETE information, you will likely get 5 answers but 4 of them will be wrong.

but building something that supports more universes than our current solution 

And are universes actually a limiting factor?

[DesignTagline]

Hello, thanks for all of your answers. I wrote a long and following post but got caught in the spam filter, let me try this again.

In a Christmas lights sense I am trying to control my entire house without having it in one sequence.

Why would you want to overly complicate it? I think I am missing something here?

Maybe I want my front yard to do one thing and the roof to do another and rather than having to record multiple combinations I would love to pick and choose.

Every model down to each individual LED is programable and is not dependent on what any other LED or prop is doing. You can pick and choose what each prop does.

Answering these first two very valid questions. My examples weren't great as after writing my post originally I knew only providing my examples would elicit answers of 'but that isn't what FPP is for' so I tried to provide Christmas light examples as well.

Your every model comment raises the point of why I wasted your time using examples of christmas lights and that assumes that my programming starts with the use of Xlights whereas I actually aim to do all the recording and playback inside of FPP using the capture plugin instead.

but building something that supports more universes than our current solution

And are universes actually a limiting factor?

And now the information I should have provided.
I currently use these boxes. The onboard recording and capacity to record multiple shows and play them back are features we rely on quite regularly. Perhaps one part of the show is recorded from a media server and then later we want to add on some generic LED pars or maybe we are doing multiple areas off one controller and just want to unify things. I accept that given the cost difference the answer is just buy more FPP boxes but I'd still like to explore the options if there is a feature I've missed.
I accept I could only do one sound/video playback but being able to do multiple sequences (of different lengths) would be a massive deal for me.  The reason I am looking to move away from these units is simple. cost and lack of capacity if we want to do more than 32 universes of playback.
A timeline functionality would also be a dream but I feel like small steps are required before I ask a community supported project for a major feature like that.
<a href="https://ibb.co/Sm1dGVP">

[Poporacer]

Your every model comment raises the point of why I wasted your time using examples of christmas lights

It wasn't a waste of time.

I currently use these boxes.

And those are quite spendy!

A timeline functionality would also be a dream

I am still unclear on what you are trying to do and the graphic you provided seems to point to the same limitations that FPP has. Only one master sequence with triggers and events to remote devices?

How are you using FPP with the S-Play? 
Are you feeding the sequence data from FPP to the S-Play to then distribute the data to the appropriate locations?
From a very brief review of the S-Play, it also requires individual "controllers" at each endpoint with the S-Play sending Triggers and events to each endpoint.

The reason I am looking to move away from these units is simple. cost and lack of capacity if we want to do more than 32 universes of playback.

Yeah, you can get 65 FPP devices for the same amount and essentially unlimited universes. 
Is your goal to solely use FPP as your player and controllers? You mentioned not using xLights, but I think that might be the Timeline solution you are looking for (You don't have to use it for creating your sequences). xLights has an FPP Command Timeline where you can have a Master Timeline similar to the graphic you posted and then you can add triggers/events etc. on that timeline to trigger your remote devices.

[MikeKrebs]

You want to pick individual effects for individual models and you want them to start upon button push and play until they end or you select another effect? Very ad-hoc or predefined? The issue for xlights and fpp is that they aren't built for multiple model/sequence in an adhoc environment. They are built for predefined single sequences.

If you want to do predefined things to different models, then xlights is a possibility. But that means you cannot "DJ" the show and change it all on the fly.

This sounds like an interesting niche problem to solve. It would open up FPP to lots of uses outside of Christmas lights. Every beginner DJ would pick one up. I really like the idea. As a programmer, I would love the challenge of making this work. It would be like a fancy test mode. Unfortunately, my C++ skills are no where near what would be required to "re-wire" FPP.

[DesignTagline]

Coming back to this as I am solving other issues I am having and loving FalconPlayer this is my last holdup to large scale deployment. 

Our main use case is we might record the main show with a media server and then decide to add some other simple elements like LED pars at a later point/date. In other software we'd record another sequence and then add both to the playlist to start/stop at the same time rather than re recording. 

[darylc]

Haven't heard about plans for FPP to play multiple sequences at once in a few years so I wouldn't hold your breath on that one.