Hey Guys,

Let me start off by saying I am new to the boards and hope this isn't a repost. I looked around but couldn't find the answer to my question.

What I am curious about is how the controller works for live music. For example, I do lighting mainly for live bands. I was wondering if the software would allow me to move say features like pan/tilt or color wheels while the band is playing. Thus, mimicking how a controller like the DMX operator works. I am not sure if this is possible with the controller but this is the deciding factor if I will be purchasing the software or not. Thanks!

Jason

hello. Welcome to the forums. Yes you can adjust faders during live playback but you will need to make the faders either HTP or LTP. This is covered in the manual. Check it out on the webpage. Always check out the user manual before you buy a product. Always. LOL if you have any other questions feel free to post them. Sincerely,

Well I tried looking in the manual several times for this answer. Have you had experience using them live? What do you mean when you say HTP or LTP??

Thanks for the quick response as well!

if you go to page 19 in the my dmx user manual all your answers are there. i havent used it in a live situation yet but may get the chance to n a few weeks here. sincerely,

I have downloaded the program and have been messing around with it. Its only been a few but its been fun to play with. The only thing I am worried about is the on the fly control which may be a little harder to do than with a normal controller.

well give it a shot on the demo. also some controllers also disable the fader until u select a fixture button in playback mode. sincerely,

My suggestion for "on the fly" control is as follows:

I intend to mainly make scenes that are color washes. I have a great many lights for that. I have 32 Par 38's, which I have gel'ed Red, Green, Blue and Yellow, so 8 of each. 8 Par38's /T-bar(4 up, 4 down). Color Fusions. 64B LED Pros. I have some color changers and movers.

So, using well named and organized banks of colors suits 99% of my needs. I can combine any type of lights. "Oh crap, I want pink...." hit the LED 64 PINK button. While not perfect, for me it is ideal
I can put my colors in 64Bs, then in Color Fusions, and as my other color changers and Par38 banks. Then, banks of scenes that combine, such as "all Red, all Green..." and others like "64B and Color Fusions Red, Pink..." Just organizing to keep things easy to find. Click, click, click. Maybe not ideal, but syncing to music isn't necessary for me. I can just throw a scene up per song and it gets the job done. If I want fancy, I can sweep between a few scenes in a song on a timer sequence. Button triggers for blackout, fade to black/blackout and a soft white between songs.

Why can this be weak? Well, if you want to do some real-time stuff using multiple fixtures(especially not like for like fixtures), it can be clumsy. It's not the software's fault, it's just a limitation of the software. In a live situation, controller surfaces tend to be the better option for "on the fly" stuff, they just have a tactile interface more conducive to that sort of thing.

Now, there are ways of grouping faders in MyDMX. I forget, but I know it's there. But for me, color washes get the job done. If I need a manual feature, I have specials I can on/off via other faders in My DMX and none of those are "critical"

What works best for you is determined by how you work and what you want to do. I think doing "real time manipulation" of a moving head fixture might be a bit more than MyDMX can do for you. Not saying MyDMX bites, but rather, how do you manipulate 2 faders at once for the X and Y axis? Because you can do a vast number of scenes, you might just consider "hey, I'll do a circle in red" and then "circle in red with Gobo 1" and then "Circle in red with Gobo 1 Rotating", stuff like that. That's also what I plan to do. Like for example, with my weddings, I'll do a scen that has the movers pan down to up and then to the back wall in red(lucky color) and use a specific gobo(no bounce or rotation, gobo not determined yet), as well as wash the stage in soft red, specials off. this is for the "entrance of the bride and groom" afer family introductions(please don't ask here, hit my site if you want details as to how these things go)

I say make lots of scenes and name them very well and organize them. Looking at what MyDMX did for my QSpot150's for circles, that was a lot of movement, very specific using 2 faders. It was nice to have the MyDMX software tackle that for me. That alone was worth the price I paid.

Hey Chris,

Thanks for the reply! I think I may mess around with the program some more and see what happens. I am currently using Martin MX-10's, Roboscan 812's, Wizards, and some par cans. A major draw back I see so far is the channels for the MX-10's aren't exact. Meaning, when I do the color wheel, it is missing several of the colors, so unless I have the fixtures exact channel qualities in front of me, programming sort of sucks.

I really like the 3D function and the fact that it is computer based, thus making programming much quicker.

You don't know of an interface for the program like if it had an actual hard console controller option? Probably out of my league I know some of those packages run in the tens of thousands lol.

Thanks!

Sounds like the profile is screwed up to me. which profile are you using? let me know and send me a link to the user manual and i can see if i can fix it. and no there is no hardware option for my dmx. there is sort of for compu live but not my dmx. my dmx is a basic software controller. sincerely,