samsound Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 Hi All, Looking around on the web, there seems to be more and more wonderful inventions for controlling Qlab instead of the famous spacebar. My desired controller is the Widgeteering Q-Widget - http://widgeteering.com/product/qwidget/ A great invention which looks to be well made and seems like it will last for years to come. However with the price being around £250 to buy in UK, I am slightly gritting my teeth. What have you guys found to be good piece of kit right for the job? - Look forward to hearing your thoughts. Cheers, Sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomHoward Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 I use a DJ Tech Tools "MIDI Fighter 3D". I bought it when it was on offer one time at $150. It's got accelerometer, side buttons and page switching, but you can turn all that off, and I use it just as a 4x4 button matrix - it's quite nice as you can change the RGB backing colour of each button with a little utility app. It makes a 4x4 button so I have Up, Down, Go, Panic and you can use the remaining 12 for any regular cues in a show - if there are panto style effects or regular cues I might put them on a dedicated button. For less experienced ops and single shows you can put each cue on a button of it's own (up to 16, obviously) which has helped for school shows etc where they just have a few regularly repeated effects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cedd Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 Here's the unit I built for somebody earlier this year. I have a similar one, just with different buttons.It's designed for redundant backup, so has a usb connection to 2 MacBooks. The left column of buttons control the left macbook, the right control the right. Centre row does the same keystroke on both machines simultaneously. In practice I only use the middle row unless something's gone wrong.Buttons are freely assignable to be any keystroke you like. I have it configured for go, stop, up and down. http://i513.photobucket.com/albums/t335/ceddison/Web%20images/26AD5ADA-E70A-4962-B240-5F74645A31F4_zpslbxj9bml.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomHoward Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 It that with USB keyboard or MIDI Chris? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cedd Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 Neither. It's got an interface card inside that emulates whatever USB device you want it to be - keyboard, mouse, game controller. You can configure it via USB some config software. It's not a hacked keyboard inside it though, it's a bit more elegant than that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samsound Posted March 29, 2015 Author Share Posted March 29, 2015 Thanks for the replies. Particularly liking the creation from Cedd. Has anyone found a specific product designed for controlling Qlab? - Ready to buy. Cheers, Sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomHoward Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 That's an interesting card Chris is it off the shelf or custom build? How does that work if the QLab window loses focus - something makes me think Game Controller might still work but I might be thinking all the way back to GType. I have built some similar MIDI boards using the HighlyLiquid MIDI CPU, which is a nice little board that generates MIDI from open contacts, pots etc but it's old-school DIN midi not a direct USB connection. You can hack the boards out of things like the Korg Nanokeys as well but it's not always pretty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allenav Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 I agree the cost of the q-widget is high, but it is quality and you don't have to waste time making / bodging something. Also the firmware and drivers get updated now and again as Mac does software changes etc. I use mine religiously especially having a backup machine in sync. Show producers also prefer the look of something professionally made. Saying that the box cedd has made looks great, the idea of running two machine separately or in sync is genius. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoLiEn Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Literally just had a show do production week with a Widgeteering remote as shown above.. turned out the lag on it was too much, so they had to go back to using a midi keyboard. such a shame as looked like a decent piece of kit, but with things needing to be on the beat and INSTANT with minimal lag, it wasnt up to the task! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cedd Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 I bet they'll have used something like an Arduino. Mine uses controllers from the gaming & home build arcade game market, so they're very quick. Certainly never noticed a lag or delay, and I had plenty of cues on the beat in panto earlier this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pdherring Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 May not suit everyones requirements but I have been using the soft keys on the GLD with custom MIDI commands configured on the desk with the below MIDI messages. Then I have the GLD TCP Midi driver running on both the primary and secondary mac, I have also done it via usb midi ins on both with a midi thru signal to the secondary mac. But of course the network based solution is much simpler. Zero lag and triggers both macs perfectly every time. Plus works even when the window isn't the focused window. F0 7F 00 02 10 01 F7 goF0 7F 00 02 10 13 F7 plusF0 7F 00 02 10 14 F7 minusF0 7F 00 02 10 08 F7 stop Hope this helps someone P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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