I had planned on buying a very basic desk to control cans and LEDs but I was trying to think ahead that some events we have will possibly require some movers so was wondering if a software solution would be better? Its nothing fancy, basic setups will be 8 LED cans with the addition of some hired moving heads.

Ive searched on BR and I keep seeing the Enttec DMX dongles but when Ive looked closer there are two types, the pro and the open source. Can anyone explain a little about these?

What software would be suitable to do the job or would a standard desk be the better option?

The open-source version is very basic, and relies on the computer to do all the processing work to make it spit out DMX. The pro version does some of the number-crunching on-board, theoretically making for a more reliable, less glitchy mux stream - but to be honest, on the few occasions I've used my cheap Enttec dongle I've not had any problems with it.

As far as software goes, if you're going down the Enttec route you'll not find better than MagicQ PC from Chamsys. The software is free to download, has all the functionality you'll ever need, works just fine with Enttec dongles of all types, and they have some groovy hardware that you can add on to the system as your needs grow. I have a MagicQ PC Wing that I use with a 17" touchscreen PC, and it's a great control system for those wanting maximum bang-for-your-buck on a tight budget.

Thanks Gareth. Just downloaded the Chamsys software and wow it looks complicated!! I can what Im going to be doing for the rest of January haha

I'll agree with Gareth's suggestion of MagicQ, it is complex but very good and very powerful. Have a look http://www.onstagelighting.co.uk/training-...agicq-pc-intro/ for some beginners guides to using it.

Josh

We exist
Currently we're still beta testing but get in touch to ether a)discuss the possibility of beta testing or b)buy it when it becomes available.

As to ease of use a lot of it is about what you expect: different software works in very different ways, hopefully one package will be capable of working the way you do. There's actually really quite a wide choice of different lighting software out there, not all of it aimed at the same market, so it's always recommended that you pick software then buy the dongle it works with, rather than the other way round. Ours works only with it's own dongle (2 universes,opto isolated and in a decent metal box) with Artnet to be available in the near future.

As with virtually all the software out there ours may be downloaded for free, in our case from:Here. The Registration is free and we really won't spam you.

Tried to download your software.
First link gave a mysql error when I tried to log on for a download.Second link gave a 404.
Hope the software works better than your web site.
Cheers
Gerry

Just got an email to the same extent, it appears the database server (not ours, hosted by some one reputable) is down. Must have gone down not long after I made the post.
Edit: and the second link works now - stray space had crept on the end.

Edit2: Database server is back online

I don't work for Trace Lighting (Modge's company) but I have had the privilege of using their product on a number of occasions - it really is a great computer-based controller.

It's very unlike using MagicQ (which is much more like using a traditional lighting desk) and more like traditional windows based "point and click" software. This takes quite a bit of getting used to, but it's very powerful when you do and the team at TraceLighting are great if you have any queries and are fast to fix the inevitable bugs in any beta product..

However, in my own opinion, it's not quite ready for critical use I've managed to get it to freeze on a couple of occasions when doing something relatively routine like saving a state - however, credit where it's due - it did seem to keep spitting out DMX, I just couldn't change the output

my vote has to go to chamsys - a great piece of software, backed up by superb service

I run a maxi-wing, a programming wing and also have an enttec pro usb box for when I need a 3rd control somewere. I did use a enttec open usb for a while, but the output tended to be a little glitchy, particularly with movers with the output dropping out momentarily on a regular basis. The pro does not have this issue and works faultlessly

for quick easy stuff I used freestyler its FREE and vert stable.

was very impressed considering no monies are need

http://users.telenet.be/freestylerdmx/

Download the manual and the 'quick-start guide' too - it doesn't have to be as complicated as you perhaps think it is at first glance! At its simplest, patching a couple of fixtures on the desk, making them do stuff and recording that stuff into cues is extremely simple. But you can also delve deeper and make it as complicated as you like once you get the hang of the software. But you need to learn to walk before you try running .

I have to say after a few hours playing with the software it does seem a lot easier than at first glance.

One thing I havent been able to work out is how to patch in a LED par can? Do you need to patch the number of channels in as dimmers? If thats correct how do you group them into one fixture and then how do you group multiple "grouped channels" so you can set up cues etc? That doesnt make much sense but Im sure someone will know what I mean

Mark

hit the patch button,then the chose head (top center),pick the manufacturer of your light,then the type of fixture,hit the patch it button and a keypad should appear,enter the number of fixtures and the start address( say 21 @99 will add 21 fixtures starting at address 99) you can also set an offset heres so instead of going 99 103 107 ect it can go 99 109 119,thats done by entering 21@99/10. once everything s patched hit ctr and click pallets (top left corner) and you should see your groups and pallets.
Sounds complicated but is really a piece of p155, biggest hassle is if your leds aren't in the database,but theres often an other manufacturers file that works,or just write your own.

Im sure I tried that you know Clearly I wasnt doing something correctly!

Thanks

Got to say I would choose the Chamsys software.
It has great features and is really powerful (as mentioned above)

Got a great auto-patch Feature for use in WYG aswell

What more could you ask for!

I find free styler a bit tedius at the best of times. Better used by disco dans.

Managed to get a basic show set up and all cued up and I have to agree that it was a lot easier than I first imagined. This was just with dimmers and no specific heads.

Having had a quick play with a few specific heads, is there a way you can programme them without actually having the heads? As I said in my first post if I were to hire some movers in I would like to be able to programme as much as possible on the software. Is this what a visualiser does or is that just to see exactly how the show will look (and not how it "lights")

Thanks

To answer my own question, a visualiser is exactly what I needed to see how movers work

indeed,and they aint cheep,however capture demo gave you 90 minutes to play and no saving.Not sure about the latest version as it wont play on my machine,something to do with windoze

Extremly easy to use free software, together with built in visualiser. low cost usb - DMX converter. especially for limited number of channels.

try Daslight.

http://www.daslight.com/download.php

Can anyone give me a quick once over how to chase LED pars rather than create a new topic? I can do it with standard dimmer channels but must be doing something wrong with the multi channel per head.

For a single dimmer I had been select the channels then clicking the odd even button selecting odd (then even the second time) and then recording them to a cue stack

With the LEDs Ive gone into groups, selected the LED heads, selected odd/even but then selected a colour and saved as a cue stack but then dont chase. I think it must be something to do with selecting the colour rather than intensity as with the single channel?

How I tend to work is assign each led can a virtual intensity channel,makes programming a bit easier for my brain.To do that patch the same number of dimmer channels as you have led cans,patch the DMX anywhere it aint going to cause a problem,then in the patch window change the head number of the dimmers so there the same as the led cans,program a chase using the led dimmer channels only ,select the led cans give em a colour and fire your chase.Doing it this way allows you to change the colour on the fly without having to record muliple chase all doing the same thing but with diffrent colours.

That seems to work in MagicQ but not in wysiwyg and I dont have any cans here to try it out for real. Is there any reason for this do you think?

Hi Mark,

Which LED fixtures are you using? Do they have their own in-built dimmer channel, and if so have you put this up to full? Which LED fixture are you using in WYG?

If you want to email me your show file for me to take a look then feel free - matt@chamsys.co.uk

Regards,

Matt

Just got around to trying the LED chase again from scratch and it worked perfectly this time?! Not sure what I was doing last time but it clearly wasnt correct.

Matt, thanks very much for the offer or support

Another quick question, is it possible to set up a chase with every 3 cans? When I click odd/even then 3's it highlights every 3 but then how do I get 2,4,7,10 etc and then 3,6,9,12 etc? I looked at fan options but not sure if thats correct

You just need to tap the odd/even button again to move onto the next selection. When you want to go back to all the fixtures hit the ALL button.

Matt

I had tried that but didnt think it was working, but after your instructions figured out I wasnt reducing the intensity of the heads on the first selection.

Thanks

If you only want to see the heads that you are working on at the time, then hit the HIGHLIGHT button. Depending on how the desk is set up this will either tke the intensity of the heads you're not working with to 0, or take them down to a lowlight level.

Matt

Matt I have a question, as I am now totally dissilusioned with daslight andhave once again picked up the manual for Magic Q.

Is it possible to control Magic Q by midi input, for example the BCF2000.
if so does MQ provide midi feedback, and which functiones are controllable by midi. Is there a list somewhere.?

Hi Richard,

Yes, you can control MagicQ via MIDI if you use our MIDI/Timecode interface. This gives you MIDI in/thru/out, MIDI timecode input/generation and SMPTE input/generation. Built into the software is a MIDI mapping table that allows you to link MIDI commands, eg 144,36 (note 36 on) to MagicQ serial commands - 1t (trigger playback 1 at full). We include a demo one with the software in the program folder if you want to take a look for yourself!

The full list of commands is detailed in the manual, the two sections that you want to look at are the ChamSys remote protocol, which is the part on our commands and the sections under MIDI to give you and idea on the more in-depth MIDI commands, for example you can use the velocity of a note to control the output level, etc.

We don't support MIDI without our interface connected for the simple reason that where we give the software and all of it's 18 universes of very powerful control away for free, the very few options that would allow it to be controlled by third party pieces of hardware are locked out until a piece of our kit is connected over USB. This stops people taking all the development and support effort that goes into the software and giving us nothing back for it!

Matt

Matt,

Can you please clarify the following for me. This is my understanding based on the manual, but there isn't a neat table which sets this out, so I've never been 100% sure which products activate which features:

MagicQ PC, Linux and Mac fully supports sound-to-light only via the Chamsys audio interface?

There seems to be some limited support via other PC sound cards but it only supports a subset of the functionality, and this is only activated when you have installed another Chamsys hardware product?

MIDI and SMPTE control is possible only through the Chamsys MIDI/SMPTE interface, not through 3rd-party MIDI interfaces?

I believe neither of these features are activated when you purchase another Chamsys product to use with MagicQ PC, such as an external DMX interface or PC wing, but only when you buy the specific Chamsys interface product, _except_ for basic sound-to-light which works as soon as you connect a PC wing or other Chamsys USB product. Is that correct?

The web server, TCP and serial port interfaces to external devices is activated as soon as you plug in another Chamsys USB product.

I believe only the USB products (Wings, audio, MIDI/SMPTE and two-universe DMX interface) activate the extended feature set of MagicQ PC, not any of the Ethernet/ArtNet to DMX interfaces?


Thanks,

Dirk

Well this isn't Matt, but I'll try and help!


Hopefully we'll have some form of table showing this at some point soon to do comparisons and compatabilities, but yes, there isn't one yet!


Yes. Same for our consoles too.


There currently isn't any support in MagicQ for in built sound cards. To quote the software change log for version 1.4.4.1:


Yes, only through the ChamSys MIDI/SMPTE interface module. Third party MIDI interfaces aren't supported.


It's not so much that the features are activated, but that our hardware provides the physical connection for these connections. For example, buying a PC wing isn't going to enable third party MIDI interfaces, and you can't plug a MIDI cable into the DMX on the back of a PC wing! ;-) I think the fact that the answer above says that basic energy detection is no longer supported probably changes the second part of this question!


Yup. As Matt mentioned above, we have to make our money somehow. If these were enabled by default then it would be very easy for someone to write third party control systems for the free software. Any of the USB interfaces or wing products will enable these features in MagicQ.


The three universe ArtNet to DMX box won't activate any features in MagicQ. However this product is somewhat different as it isn't tied to work exclusively with MagicQ in the first place. For example, you could write your own piece of software to output ArtNet and it would work with the ChamSys ArtNet to DMX interface. Whereas with our USB wing products, they will only work with MagicQ and not with other third party software. Hope that makes sense?


No worries!

Luke

p.s.: As a disclaimer, the content in this post is valid at the time of writing, so if someone finds this post in a few years time, it's probably best to either call us up or check on our website.

So no sound to light of any flavour ,even if you've got a wing is that correct? Thankfully I got some older versions stashed away

I think I can add a few additional queries to external interface and control capabilities:

a) DMX in is only supported via ArtNet or other TCP protocol, not via DMX in on any USB->DMX dongle?

b) Can DMX in be used for DMX merge without having a PC wing or other Chamsys USB product connected?

c) I believe that if you want to use DMX in to control playbacks, you need to have a Chamsys USB product like a PC wing connected, correct?

d) You can only bind a page of 10 playbacks to incoming DMX channels. If you switch playback pages, the DMX channels bound to the 10 playbacks shift to the playbacks on the current page.

e) There's a contact-close 'go' interface on the MagicQ consoles, but no equivalent capability in the PC/Mac/Linux versions?

In other words, if you want to have any external, physical representation of more than 10 playbacks, you need to use a playback wing.

Is the above correct, or have I missed something?

In previous versions you can get energy detect, but this literally takes the raw value of the audio signal and uses that. It doesn't perform any frequency calculations or BPM calculations on the incoming signal. To get frequency information into MagicQ, you can use our Audio Interface module.

You don't need to worry about finding a stashed away copy either if you're desperate to use the free 'energy detect' input, as the download page does go back to version 1.3.6.0 still!



a) DMX Input is supported by the list of dongles which show up in the "In Type" field in the View DMX I/O Page. This currently includes Art-Net, Pathport, ACN and ShowNet.
b) Yes. If you send in an Art-Net stream into MagicQ with no ChamSys products connected, it should be able to merge the universes as you'd expect.
c) Yes you do need a wing connected. Usually anything that utilises a third party piece of hardware, will require a piece of ChamSys hardware to enable this.

d) Yes, The DMX In basically mimics the 10 faders you get on our products, so in the same way that if you change to page 2 and move a fader, it will do the same if you move an external DMX "fader".
e) There is an external footswitch input for our MQ100+ consoles, but currently no USB interface for a similar function on MagicQ PC versions.

And regarding your last comment, Yes! If you need more playbacks, then a extra wing / playback wing / execute wing is the way to go. That will give you the normal faders, and it also provides the electronic legending to work with MagicQ as well as giving flash, go and pause buttons which you find on the main consoles. It also means you can split the playback pages as well.

Hope that helps!

Cheers

Luke

Just to clarify re the external switch input - this option is available on the PC software if you have a PC Wing or Maxi Wing connected. The pinouts for these are detailed in the manual.

Other than that, yes to everything Luke has said!

Matt

Ok, first event coming up where weve had to hire something in. Got a couple of MX1 scanners to rig up at the sides mainly for drum solos etc so we can get a bit strobing going on etc. but I have a couple of queries about programming them in MagicQ

1. To get a fairly random pattern/effect I am right in using differnt fx's and then saving them as a cue to a fader? It seems to go through each one (just like a chase on a par can does) and I can adjust the times of each cue etc.

2. At the moment, the 2 scanners are always in sync. Ie if you tell them to go left, they both go left. How can I "invert" one in certain cues/fs'x so that when one goes to the left the other one goes to the right, or up and down etc. Ive seen some great looking effects by doing this but cant seem to work out how to do it on the desk.

Many thanks.

You can do it on the fixture, rather than the desk. Should simplify the programming a bit.

http://www.showlight.nl/service/handleidin...iding%20MX1.pdf

Pg 14 seems to be what you're looking for. If you only want it to do it in certain cues and not others, then clearly that's not the way forward, though.

On the position effect, if you play around with the FX Spread, FX Parts and FX Segments parameters in the Prog window, these control how each head is treated by the FX engine, whether it be each individually spread out over the time of the FX spread, or whether all fixtures do the same.

Check out http://www.showmagic.com/ I have been using on touring shows for many years now. It is great!

You can do this by using the pan invert in the Patch window. Go PATCH, VIEW HEADS and then set P Inv (pan invert) for the heads you want to invert to Yes.

Matt