Top Tips For Small Lighting Desks

[Stu]

Stu, you're a gem and a gentleman!

No worries guv'nor.

 

S

[Mars]

I bought a proper used XL a few years ago for ~ 100 euro (~75 PS?).

Nice desk, clear & straightforward.

 

Steps for easy use non-advanced users:

1 check/patch DMX

2 program up to 12 scenes on first bank

[the upper and lower preset faders controls the scenes and channels 'independent']

3 ready to go

 

1 is fundamental

2 try to explain banking & level matching in 30 seconds: not

3 if they become passionate, hand over the manual

 

~~~~~

[James C]

Thought I'd report back on my joyous MX experience: Much thankings to all those on here for putting me right - had a very straightforward time with it - and actually grew rather fond of it over the course of today, in a "the way we used to live" kind of way. Who needs "Go" buttons anyway? Some minor irritations, as pointed out by Stu (having to let a timed fade finish before starting the next one etc), and the fact that you can only clear either one memory at a time, or do a factory reset got to me, when it would have been nice to erase all the memories without resetting protocol etc. However, felt cocky enough to a little blind plotting, and an emergency softpatch mid-show on the first show today, so all was well.

 

Thanks again, oh people-in-the-know B-)

[Stu]

Ah thanks for letting us know on your results James - BTW you can clear memories without doing the protocol and what not, can't remember what bit it is in the clear menu, but it is possible!

 

Anyway, it's not a bad little desk, minor irritations aside...

 

S

[bill]

You can't program Chases to Subs nor Cues (which, quite frankly, is an arse) so you have to do that Live from the Live Panel.

I have used the MX24 a couple of times, and don't like it. It is not at all intuitive, probably the least so of any of the boards I have ever used. A person who has had some experience programming boards should be able to sit down at any board and figure out how to do basic cue programming after a few minutes of experimentation. This is the only board on which I have not been able to do that.

 

There is a way to put chases in cues. I don't recall how, since a friend that was more familiar with the board did it for me. And since the subs and the cues are basically the same thing, that means that the chases were in subs as well. We managed to generate a quite realistic looking fireplace flame "flicker". The chases were on two fresnels, both shining through the same Rosco effects wheel to get some motion in the light.

 

The board op we had was a novice, who capabilities did not extend much past pushing the GO button on command. There is no way that he would have been capable of doing anything live.

 

On further thought, it is possible that it was the channels themselves that had the chases, since they were not used without the chase effect.

 

One of the things that I intensely dislike about the board series it that you cannot expand the channels. On the MX24 board, there are 24 channels maximum. You can soft patch a bunch of dimmers to any one channel, but that gains little. In the theatre, they had to build a patch panel, so they could do a hard repatch during intermission for many shows. For some of the shows I do, even that is not sufficient. That is when I haul out my Monochrome Melange (as limited as it is) and my stack of portable DMX dimmer packs. That way I can have a much more reasonable 72 channels.

 

Bill

[smeggie]

the only gripe I have with the xl 12 is that you can't use it in a wide mode. otherwise it is a kickapoo little bit of kit.