Please Recommend DMX Lighting Software

[David Lee]

I'm intrigued as to what you are running of this system. I.e: how many dimmers, any movers?

[FredBear]

I'm intrigued as to what you are running of this system. I.e: how many dimmers, any movers?

 

My current system outputs one universe (512 channels). The software can manage easily up to 16 universes (8192 channels). All channels can be outputted by ArtNet or by adding physical USB boxes:

• X1 mini (what I bought): DMX IN / 1 universe DMX OUT / True-lock SMPTE IN and OUT
  
• X1 19" rack: DMX IN / 4 universes DMX OUT / DMX trough / True-lock SMPTE IN and OUT
  

Several physical boxes can be combined to expand the system.

 

So you can easily determine the number of dimmers and movers...

 

EDIT: more info

 

A concurrent post has been automatically merged from this point on.

 

Up

What would you do in my place? Should I continue looking at MagicQ? Are the BlueLite missing functions available with MagicQ?

 

HobitLight, isn't it simpler to adjust in live with a real fader rather than typing a command?

[David Lee]

Sorry, that wasn't the answer to the question, maybe I wasn't clear.

 

At present, all I can deduce from the posts is that you want a desk with 48 channels and a cue stack (suggested I think by Hobbitlight)and you have built some colossus of a machine capable of running an arena size show - (sledgehammer to crack a walnut metaphore etc...)

 

Though I do admire your dedication to this project.

 

edit

 

I really need more faders for theater applications

 

No you don't, you need simple command line and cue stack. Maybe some subs for busking certain sequences I.e music bumps for Panto. The rest of theatre lighting is done in a nice rehearsed format.

[dbuckley]

I was wondering that too.

 

For scripted theatre shows all I do is press the go button. I've spent a lot of time on the cuelist and it is correct in every detail. If the sh*t hits the fan I have to reach for the mouse, but that is very rare.

 

For unscripted or musical shows I rent something appropriate which is all bumps and faders, not a cuelist (in the theatrical sense) in sight, and every night is an adventure.

[FredBear]

Can someone explain me how work MagicQ playbacks. I've seen a fader and three buttons per playback.

 

Have I to assign one chosen position per playback, one color per playback, ...? If yes, I will need a huge amount of faders. I've understand that there are many pages. Isn't too stressful to remember on which page/fader are assigned the colors playbacks, ... for live events?

 

With BlueLite it's what I do (I've 24 submasters x 10 pages). I use only one page because the MIDI controller doesn't have motorized faders. In addition they provide the "LivePanel" which offer chasers of cues which I can recall by pressing on my M-Audio Trigger Finger.

 

Now my main problem is: I've to light a gospel concert. Music is played back from CD. So I know exactly the order of the concert. Normally, no surprise. I want to do like I do for theater with a cue stack (like I said, it's no a real cue stack, so I've to enter fakes times for each cue and to run it manually by stroking space bar). If it's only static scenes, no problem. But I want to add some chasers. I've to use the LivePanel which is a quite stand alone application. So I can't recall chasers from pseudo cue stack. It means that I've to activate manually the chasers in parallel with the cue stack. Static scenes order is memorized but not chasers. And I've several exactly same concerts. I want to produce quite the same result each evening (no improvisation). How can I do that? This is why I was looking to another solution.

 

Sorry if I'm confusing: I'm a french native speaker.

 

Let me know if you don't understand something.

[David Lee]

A quick response is, hire a desk that is capable of what you want from a cue stack - start looking at ETC or Strand consoles. If not, PM Matt from Chamsys re Magicq, he has already replied to you before and works for the company that make MagicQ so should be a great contact to have.

[dbuckley]

Now my main problem is: I've to light a gospel concert. Music is played back from CD. So I know exactly the order of the concert. ... I want to produce quite the same result each evening (no improvisation)

For this type of work its best if the PC not only runs the lights but plays the music too (*) so you can synchronise the two together, and do so without having to get involved with linking two sets of technologies. ShowMagic and PCStage both do this. You put cue points in based on the music track when you want something to happen, and every time the track plays the same things happen at exactly the right moment. This is my standard way of working, and It needs no specialised user interfaces; just a PC with a keyboard. I did Cinderella last year which had something over 100 called cues but once a song with lighting changes within started, the computer did it all itself every night without fail. Even the night the cast finished the song a couple of beats ahead of the music...

 

With a bit of effort, you can also get your chases to shift on the beat in time with the music, something many lightists (especially movers operators) have difficulty doing...

 

*: Its best to rip the CD to the PC as a wave file, far more reliable than CDs

 

And by the way - for a non-native-English speaker your English is excellent!

[DonkiDonki]

You can add Playback Wings to MagicQ if you need lots of faders, but it's an expensive option.

 

You get most of your playback "power" with MagicQ by using touch screens. If you have 1 or 2 touchscreens (ideally 15"-19") then you can arange hundreds of buttons for instant use. Those buttons can be configured for a mixture of group selects, pallettes, scenes, chases and so on. All can be given independent timings for all attributes.

 

MagicQ really needs at least 1 touchscreen, the console is based around one after all.

[gyro_gearloose]

Using MagicQ faders is really quite easy. Once you've got your lights patched and have set up any groups you might need, all you do is create the look you want and record it to a playback. If you want either a chase or cue stack, just keep recording cues to the same playback. You'll need to tell each playback what it is (cue stack, or chase). If you want a mixture of static cues and chases, record the static cues into one playback and your chase(s) into the others. You can either start your chases manually, or use Macros to start and stop them.

 

Hope this helps

[FredBear]

You can add Playback Wings to MagicQ if you need lots of faders, but it's an expensive option.

 

You get most of your playback "power" with MagicQ by using touch screens. If you have 1 or 2 touchscreens (ideally 15"-19") then you can arange hundreds of buttons for instant use. Those buttons can be configured for a mixture of group selects, pallettes, scenes, chases and so on. All can be given independent timings for all attributes.

 

MagicQ really needs at least 1 touchscreen, the console is based around one after all.

I've you an idea of which touchscreen could be fitted to a 17" LCD screen? I'm looking for not too expensive one which is accurate and has a good response time.

 

 

A concurrent post has been automatically merged from this point on.

 

Using MagicQ faders is really quite easy. Once you've got your lights patched and have set up any groups you might need, all you do is create the look you want and record it to a playback. If you want either a chase or cue stack, just keep recording cues to the same playback. You'll need to tell each playback what it is (cue stack, or chase). If you want a mixture of static cues and chases, record the static cues into one playback and your chase(s) into the others. You can either start your chases manually, or use Macros to start and stop them.

 

Hope this helps

Thanks for your answer. But I'm still wondering if only 10 faders are sufficient. What do you think about that? How do you do in practical cases? Are you using pages?

 

For a rock music concert you need more than 10 looks?

[Wol]

I've you an idea of which touchscreen could be fitted to a 17" LCD screen? I'm looking for not too expensive one which is accurate and has a good response time.

 

One of my colleages managed to find a touchscreen and screen as one unit, off ebay. Was relatively cheap and arrived within 22 hours of him purchasing it! I'd say its a lot easier to find a prebuilt touchscreen than having to find a touchscreen overlay to put onto an existing monitor. In the MagicQ case, you don't need an amazing amount of accuracy either. If you look closely at the touchpanels which come with the MQ100+ consoles, they dont have a really really high resolution, because they dont need it. The buttons on screen which you're aiming at are usually still larger than the end of your finger.

 

Thanks for your answer. But I'm still wondering if only 10 faders are sufficient. What do you think about that? How do you do in practical cases? Are you using pages?

 

For a rock music concert you need more than 10 looks?

 

For a recent revue show I programmed, I used a playback per song. If there were several different states in the song, I'd record them as a cue stack for that piece. After 10 different songs, I'd move onto page 2. Overall there were 29 different pieces required, so I spread the show over three pages. This was a show where some busking was used as well so we had presets set up on one of the chamsys execute wings, with some basic stuff like strobes / colours / beams for movers, and on the other playback wing we had states such as facelight, colours for the various LED kit we had (in case I'd missed it out of the somewhat brief programming session!), and so forth , which could be added as required.

 

If you want to have the whole thing as one cue stack as you mentioned in a previous post, you can do this still by recording onto a cuestack as mentioned before. You can also make chases in this by recording several steps to the cuestack, and in the cue stack window, set the follow on cue for the last step of your chase to link back to the start cue, as you would on a more 'theatre' style desk. Make sure you have the option set to exit any loops on press of the go button, and it should work.

 

Hope this helps.

[FredBear]

One of my colleages managed to find a touchscreen and screen as one unit, off ebay. Was relatively cheap and arrived within 22 hours of him purchasing it! I'd say its a lot easier to find a prebuilt touchscreen than having to find a touchscreen overlay to put onto an existing monitor. In the MagicQ case, you don't need an amazing amount of accuracy either. If you look closely at the touchpanels which come with the MQ100+ consoles, they dont have a really really high resolution, because they dont need it. The buttons on screen which you're aiming at are usually still larger than the end of your finger.

I've already bought two 17" LCD screens. So I don't want to another ones. Have you an idea where I can buy just the overlay?

 

For a recent revue show I programmed, I used a playback per song. If there were several different states in the song, I'd record them as a cue stack for that piece. After 10 different songs, I'd move onto page 2. Overall there were 29 different pieces required, so I spread the show over three pages. This was a show where some busking was used as well so we had presets set up on one of the chamsys execute wings, with some basic stuff like strobes / colours / beams for movers, and on the other playback wing we had states such as facelight, colours for the various LED kit we had (in case I'd missed it out of the somewhat brief programming session!), and so forth , which could be added as required.

I don't understand how does it work inside a song. You launch the playback at beginning of the song and it runs itself automatically (cue after cue) until it ends to the final cue of the playback. Then you launch the next song playback... You have to press the start button of the desired playback exactly at the beginning of the song if you want that effects are synchronized to the music?!

[Oovis]

I don't understand how does it work inside a song. You launch the playback at beginning of the song and it runs itself automatically (cue after cue) until it ends to the final cue of the playback. Then you launch the next song playback... You have to press the start button of the desired playback exactly at the beginning of the song if you want that effects are synchronized to the music?!

Each cue in the stack will be actioned when you press the 'Go' button (in general).

 

I think you need to spend some time familiarising yourself with lighting desks in the outside world. I don't want to sound patronising but these things will all make sense if you download some software, read the manuals and spend some time with them, or even better - get yourself freindly with someone who can show you how any desk with a cue stack works.

[FredBear]

I very familiar and at ease with the BlueLite software. I've performed successfully several events with it. But, I don't know at all MagicQ and I don't have a DMX interface nor a Wing which could let me try it in the real world. I don't want to spend too much time with the user manual of MagicQ if I don't buy it. I just want to get user feelings with MagicQ in order to be able to take a good decision if yes, I continue with BlueLite even if there is no update or: no, I buy MagicQ because it's realy a better software and I invest time and money in it.

Do you understand my point of view?

 

A concurrent post has been automatically merged from this point on.

 

Each cue in the stack will be actioned when you press the 'Go' button (in general).

Do you mean that a playback correspond to a cue stack?

[smalljoshua]

Do you mean that a playback correspond to a cue stack?

Yes the Playback can have a single cue or a Cue stack or a chase or it can control the speed of an effect or other stuff.

 

It's all in the manual.

 

Josh