Software lighting console - which one?

[ghance]

Hi,

 

 

I need really cheap console with a REALLY small footprint for a small band stage during the summer festivals. We're talking 18 PAR CANS, a couple of MAC 250's and a hazer. Once its rigged, just want top leave it with the sound op to babysit it.. a few scenes on subs, maybe a sound-to-light chase... and a DBO. something so simple even the sound op can understand it! just enough control to bash between a few scenes on the fly.

 

Read thru posts on Chamsys and Light Factory, but I'm out of my depth with lighting. So far was thinking the ENTTEC USB DMX interface plus some cheap/free software..

 

help please?

 

ta

 

.spike

[Modge]

Well two sound engineer's and a hippie managed to make limeLIGHT do something that was apparently adequate for a tv advert, so I think everyone should be able to use it. I'll post back here with in a week when we release a new beta version.

 

No plans to work with the ENTTEC interface though.

[tommulliner]

Whats your budget? With that, more people will be able to tell you their thoughts about products in the price range :)

[Wol]

Laptop/Netbook + Touchscreen + MagicQ + USB DMX Interface will probably do what you need. Gives you a footprint the size of the touchscreen if thats small enough?

 

Program up some states into a button grid (click Exec in MagicQ) so all the OP has to do is jab their finger at an onscreen button to turn on / off a certain state. If you did need manual control of fades, something like a USB Mini Wing would do the job, which also gives you one universe DMX output, which is more than enough for the size of your rig.

 

If during playback you're just going to want preprogrammed states to come in / out, you can probably get away with presetting a fade in / fade out time beforehand and using a touchscreen rather than manually fading it in /out with a fader.

[p.k.roberts]

Since you are already considering an Enttec interface, have you had a look at their DMXIS product?

[KidRay]

Read thru posts on Chamsys and Light Factory, but I'm out of my depth with lighting.

 

I'd avoid MagicQ for the moment then, I'm sure it's great software, but I'm struggling to get to grips with it (and I'm not a lighting newbie, but new to software based desks), Only had a couple of hours on it, managed to get my fixtures in okay, couldn't get them to do anything for ages, then when I did get one lit up I couldn't get it to turn off! Some serious study of the tutorials needed!

 

I'm looking at DMXIS as a simpler solution, although I have had some issues with the fixture library on the demo version I have on my PC. The fixtures I was thinking of buying weren't on the list, not a major problem as it's very easy to create your own library entities. ENTTEC say they can do it for you, but it seems they're moving away from this position as it's tying up the developer too much. Jeremy Kumin (ENTTEC's US sales and marketing guy) has been seconded into creating library entities too, but he's obviously got other things on his plate.

 

Also the library entity for the fixtures I do have (Eurolite LED par64 10mm) is wrong, which is not a major issue, but it does make me question how reliable the rest of the library is.

 

The software itself seems very intuitive and easy to operate, (can be operated with a simple footswitch) with some nice touches like the "oscillator" for easy creation of dynamic looks.

[Dave Brown]

I'm looking at DMXIS as a simpler solution, although I have had some issues with the fixture library on the demo version I have on my PC. The fixtures I was thinking of buying weren't on the list, not a major problem as it's very easy to create your own library entities.

The library in the 1.0.4 demo installer is quite old. Did you also grab the latest fixture library?

 

http://www.dmxis.com/download.html

 

Also the library entity for the fixtures I do have (Eurolite LED par64 10mm) is wrong, which is not a major issue, but it does make me question how reliable the rest of the library is.

Most fixture profiles are requested by users, so any bugs normally come to my attention immediately. In this case, it might be that a 'Rev B' of the Eurolite fixture was released with slightly different firmware. Since I obviously don't have every fixture physically to hand, I rely on feedback from my customers to help me repair anomalies like this.

 

Regarding the creation of new fixtures - yes, it's true that we're trying to encourage everyone to have a go at fixture creation. As you correctly pointed out it's a simple process, since DMXIS does not require a "deep" fixture implementation, but simply a plain text 1-1 translation of the channel info from the fixture manual. This frees my time up to work on new features. However, we aren't cutting off all fixture support - I am still very happy to help develop the more tricky fixtures, or to help tracking down bugs in fixture files. The last thing I want is for someone to purchase DMXIS and not be able to use it!

 

Hope that helps clarify things :-)

 

Dave Brown

[KidRay]

I don't want to hijack the thread but:

Are you the developer, Dave? If so well done! A really useful piece of software that fills a gap between the disco style semi-random lightshow and the full on MagicQ bells and whistles (if you can find the bell cupboard and the whistle drawer) package.

As I said, I like the software, I just thought I ought to point out that it may be necessary to check that the fixture library has the right attributes for your fixture.

The library in the 1.0.4 demo installer is quite old. Did you also grab the latest fixture library?

 

Yes, I copied the latest version in when I saw that the original had the wrong attributes(the new version is the same).

While I'm on the subject, what is the thinking behind the "0-9", "A-F" etc. folders below the manufacturers folders in the fixture library? Do they duplicate the entities in the manufacturers folders? I've been having a play in there and there are some more anomolies:

If I assign the 5 channel mode for an ADJ Mega Bar 50 from Fixture Library>American DJ>M-R>Mega Bar 50 5ch to a channel, it copies the (presumably correct) attributes (red, green, blue, dimmer, macro) to the next 5 channels; if I use the path Fixture Library>M-R>Mega Bar 50 5ch, it patches to the next 20 channels with attributes including colour, gobo, pan and tilt, so obviously not correct! Also Fixture Library>M-R>P64 10mm patches to 6 channels (mode, dimmer, colour, gobo, pan, tilt) which seems wrong.

I think the 0-9, A-F etc. folders were in the original library, but don't appear in the new version, maybe I should have deleted the original library and put the new one in it's place rather than "copy and replace".

Obviously I haven't been through the whole library (and I wouldn't know what the right attributes were for most of the fixtures anyway), but I've found enough errors on my first dip in there to be a little wary.

 

As I said, the fixtures I am thinking of getting are not in the library in the moment, but Jeremy (Kumin) has been very helpful in his advice on how to write the attribute files for them.

 

I must say that none of these issues has put me off DMXIS in the slightest, and I'll be buying it, along with some new fixtures, when I finally get a couple of large cheques that are due in the next couple of weeks. I'll be writing my own attribute files though!

[Dave Brown]

I don't want to hijack the thread but: Are you the developer, Dave?

Yup, I'm the creator of DMXIS, the developer, the company director, and the tea boy. Yer typical small software company, really :)

 

I too have no wish to divert the thread, so perhaps it would be best to divert any further questions into the DMXIS forum (on Google groups). I just wanted to directly address your points about the fixture library, so everyone could see where our thinking was on that topic.

 

Cheers,

Dave

[DonkiDonki]

There are a number of packages for you to choose from. About the cheapest (software is free, so cost comes down to what you can get some kind of PC & Touch-screen for) and best (in my opinion) is MagicQ; be warned however that if sound to light is important you need to buy the usb audio module (not sure of the price but probably not too bad considering most of the competition charge for the software).

 

One thing you might want to consider if you are a novice to lighting is seeing if you can enlist the help of a lampy in your area (if local you will probably find the promise of a few bevies works wonders). Even better if that person already uses a package that would suit your needs and could help with setting it up.

 

That would save you a lot of headaches getting to grips with whichever solution you go with.

 

(Also bear in mind that it is possible to get training for any of the major solutions, not a bad idea when it is something quite alien to you.)

[Modge]

Rather later than promised, owing to a bad outbreak of being engineers and not letting it out until we're happy on our part is the new version of limeLIGHT to beta test. This should now have rather fewer bugs - in particular issue's around embedding cue lists in cue lists have been resolved, along with the out of memory error. This has also given improved performance.

 

Download here:http://www.tracelighting.com/downloads/

 

As to pricing: the software is, as has become the norm, free to download. Whilst we're beta testing we're very open to discuss giving people output dongles (The DX2 advertised on our website - a proper 2 universe metal box) to test with on condition that they're only used with beta versions of the software. Beta testers will be entitled to buy the software at vast reductions when we do release, or go on testing newer versions of the software as we beta new features.

[Richard CSL]

The simplest to use software on the market in my opinion is Daslight.com free software, proper video tutorials, hardware from 200 euros.

big buttons, you assign whatever you want to. easy operation.

 

Not the cheapest but defo the easiest. Have a look.

[SoLiEn]

Im one for MagicQ or Light factory. they are much more suited to theatre and music in my opinion than Daslight which ive also used, but it comes down to personal preference. I'll be interested in limeLIGHT. going to have to investigate the one methinks :-)

[Richard CSL]

Im one for MagicQ or Light factory. they are much more suited to theatre and music in my opinion than Daslight which ive also used, but it comes down to personal preference. I'll be interested in limeLIGHT. going to have to investigate the one methinks :-)

 

 

The OP talks about simple band use not theatrical use, hence I suggested Daslight. as the other two you mention have a much steeper learning curv, as many on here have said before.

 

Not looked at limeLight though I must admit. can you give a link?

[HobitLight]

Not looked at limeLight though I must admit. can you give a link?

http://www.tracelighting.com/limelight.php