DMX lighting for dummies, where to start?

**Entheos406** · 03-24-2015, 05:34 PM

Ok, here is where I'm at:
I have a bunch of wireless DMX stuff, battery par cans, and wicicles and some smart lighting (10 105w led rgbaw moving head washes, two Chauvet spot 350s, two knock off spot 350s) I have some four bars and some four plays and a few lasers. It's an effing mess. Granted the par cans are in sync through wireless DMX in sound active mode, a slow song comes on and it's an emabarrasment. Those poor old people trying dance to some sappy George straight song and they get hit with 1000watts of led strobe.

I have an extra MacBook pro 16gb core i5
I have a 64gb iPad 2

I want to use one of these to DMX my setup. I don't know much about DMX, but I would like to program a basic scene that runs similar to the sound active mode and be able to trigger the movement between scene with a direct input from my subwoofer or lighting out send from my denon x500. then as time goes on I would probably program something that is less aggressive for the mellow times, and something that is more aggressive for the ultimate party or prom etc.

I have made the mistake too many times of just buying stuff and then wanting to upgrade. This is a well funded hobby, I routinely have money burning a hole in my pocket and want to buy something good. I don't need touring grade, but just need to know where a good start and end point is for DMX. Something that I won't have to go to college to learn how to use but something that I can expand on as I get into it. I really just want to get luminaire for iPad or CueLux for my MacBook but am unsure of what to do. The idea of having iCloud backups of my lighting show, being able to run it off my iPhone and being able to mount my iPad on the microphone stand and run my lighting from a touch screen is really appealing. I just don't know anything about it. I realized I was lost when the DMX interface they recommend for luminaire was a 5 pin DMX and i did not know if there was some way to adapt it to work with my 3 pin gear.

I understand DMX channels and values and have a 6 fader 12 channel battery powered DMX board for setting custom colors on uplighting. That's it. I am in way over my head.

Thanks!

**robdquick** · 03-25-2015, 03:32 AM

I only know of 1 DMX program that will accept a sound input to change lights to the beat, and that is Freestyler, which unfortunately only runs on windows. It does work beautifully though, I run a cable out of the booth output on my MC6000 into the microphone socket on my laptop, and Freestyler automatically changes colours/movement etc. to the beat.

Somebody else might know of a different program that will work with mac. Freestyler is free, so if you don't find anything else and really need this feature, either find an old windows laptop or pick up a very basic one for dead cheap (maybe even a second hand one). Freestyler does not use much resources (I run it on my laptop along with Traktor and Engine, and my laptop is about 4 years old). The only thing you will need is a usb to DMX adapter, but you will need that for any software. The one I use only cost me about £50. It is also a 5 pin output, but I just bought a 5 pin to 3 pin adapter for about £5 and it works fine with all of my 3 pin DMX lights.

**ZxZDeViLZxZ** · 03-25-2015, 10:18 AM

There is a free DMX program by American Dj or Chauvet I can't remember who... It might be a good start you will need a DMX dongle though to connect up... This will allow more control then a DMX board as can have pure programmed sequences

**Irrational Fear** · 03-25-2015, 10:56 AM

Originally Posted by ZxZDeViLZxZ

There is a free DMX program by American Dj or Chauvet I can't remember who... It might be a good start you will need a DMX dongle though to connect up... This will allow more control then a DMX board as can have pure programmed sequences

Both do one, ADJ's is MyDMX and Chauvet's is Showxpress.

The software for both is free, you essentially just pay for the hardware (the usb/dmx dongle). In this regard the ADJ one is significantly cheaper than the cheapest of the two Chauvet ones, but I would say that Chauvet's Showxpress is the better/more comprehensive of the two pieces of software.

That said, I use MyDMX and have found it extremely intuitive to get on with (I had an understanding of hardware-based DMX already). Programming moving head fixtures with it is a breeze compared to using a hardware controller. I went with MyDMX ahead of Showxpress purely on cost grounds, as they both do what I want to do.

One biggie with MyDMX though is it does not support a sound active mode and they have repeatedly stated they have no intention of doing so in the future. This isn't an issue for me as I have never got on great with sound active in conjunction with DMX so I simply have a large variety of scenes programmed for different tempos.

This works for me because I like to have the lights doing different things at slower tempos than at faster tempos so simply adjusting the speed of programs (as in basic sound active) wouldn't be enough anyway.

Have a bit of a read of the various DMX software out there and see which one fits your needs best. I'm not sure off the top of my head if Showxpress supports sound active or not, but that is something to consider.

The cheapest option is Fresstyler (as mentioned) as it will run off of a generic usb dongle, where as the ADJ & Chauvet software will only work with their own (not so cheap) dongles. The more comprehensive lighting software I am not so sure about, but you tend to have to pay for the actual software in those cases so they are going to be more expensive anyway.

**robdquick** · 03-25-2015, 11:22 AM

Showxpress does say that it supports triggering scenes by sound: http://www.chauvetlighting.co.uk/sho...s-program.html

I have no idea how it works or how effective it is as I have never used it.

**deevey** · 03-25-2015, 02:40 PM

Originally Posted by Entheos406

I realized I was lost when the DMX interface they recommend for luminaire was a 5 pin DMX and i did not know if there was some way to adapt it to work with my 3 pin gear.

They reccommend ALOT of gear for Luminaire, but anything that runs Art-Net over ethernet should work fine e.g. http://www.amazon.com/CR-ANET-2-Conv...rface+ethernet

You can just use a 5 > 3 pin XLR cable

http://interactive-online.com/suppor...adapter-wiring

Personally I would go with software ipad setup like you were thinking (to start) and maybe get a Midi controller hooked up to it to make programming easier

Although It might be just as cheap and easy to just pick up a dedicated lighting desk to run everything, e.g. a Behringer 2412 is only $200 has a ton of function, independent frequency controlled sound to light (PITA to program though).

**Entheos406** · 03-25-2015, 05:46 PM

Okay, got the luminaire app, the enttec ode, a few short conversion cables. I read through version history on the luminaire app and it seems it will take a hard wired sound trigger, plus it has a tap tempo. I can use the ODE for another software application later if I don't like the luminaire app and I can always use the luminaire app for changing wireless uplighting via my iPhone so I figure if it's on sale for $89 I might as well go for it. $400 plus a $30 router is cheap for a control setup I think. I just didn't want any $1500 setup to control $8000 in lights.

**P4ULSON** · 03-26-2015, 11:46 AM

Originally Posted by robdquick

I only know of 1 DMX program that will accept a sound input to change lights to the beat, and that is Freestyler, which unfortunately only runs on windows. It does work beautifully though, I run a cable out of the booth output on my MC6000 into the microphone socket on my laptop, and Freestyler automatically changes colours/movement etc. to the beat.

Somebody else might know of a different program that will work with mac. Freestyler is free, so if you don't find anything else and really need this feature, either find an old windows laptop or pick up a very basic one for dead cheap (maybe even a second hand one). Freestyler does not use much resources (I run it on my laptop along with Traktor and Engine, and my laptop is about 4 years old). The only thing you will need is a usb to DMX adapter, but you will need that for any software. The one I use only cost me about £50. It is also a 5 pin output, but I just bought a 5 pin to 3 pin adapter for about £5 and it works fine with all of my 3 pin DMX lights.

i can't get my sound to light to work right. what is your "Gain Vu" "Beat Freq" "Thr Beat" and "Beat Decay" at? thanks