Does anyone think that the current DMX control software hard to use?

Coming from the audio side of the world, I find the USB/Artnet lighting control software really not intuitive and hard to use. Just a bunch of faders and buttons laying out there does not help non-professional to understand the work-flow.

I'm thinking to bring some of the music software's design idea to the lighting control software design. Anyone interested or everyone is OK with the current ones?

Thanks.

Maybe that's a good thing.

Running lights is a full-time job - at least during the show.

Running sound is a full-time job - at least during the show.

And when either operator tries to poach on the other operator's job it hurts the show. So when the budget allows only one operator, then it's decision time: either the sound is the 'star' or the lighting is the 'star.'

The owner or the senior pastor or whatever may think that one person should run both positions: sound and lights. I would strongly suggest that you steer that owner or senior pastor or whatever away from that idea. Or to make sure that either the sound is the main job and the lights kept extremely simple, or that the light-show is the main job and the sound kept extremely simple.

best, john

Thanks for the input on one man for both sound and light.

I think for a sound simple gig, it is possible to do it on one laptop with one man.

Using a XR wireless mixer and a usb to dmx box, run both mixer and lighting control software on the laptop...

I think it very much depends on the software. Something like Hog2PC and M-PC is very simple and quick to use. However I agree completely you can not have the same person handling sound and lighting at almost all events. They are both very time consuming and will always lead to one of them suffering.

Doing both is a full time job, lights and sound..
I use DMXis for software and its connected through a usb midi controller, Akai MPD26. So,,,,, it's just a single button affair to go to presets in my lighting program. I have plenty of banks of presets, pretty much unlimited as many as I'd like to create.
DMXis has a lot of easy to use programing functions easy to use.

Hmm... I don't see how it's very practical to more than a few lights with any setup (even a dedicated engineer) except a cue-based control board/software. A lot of lighting is/should be predefined, anyway.

However, it really does depend on your venue. But, I still think that most cases it'd be cheaper to buy software/an engineer to make a click track/easy to use presets than to pay an extra engineer for each performance. But that's my worthless 2¢.

This all depends on your requirements, and I mostly agree for sound. I prefer a soundman, but will handle sound from the stage if the budget is too tight.

In a band-setting I've had great success with pre-programmed light-shows for each song controlled by a setlist-manager. I've used Enttec DMXIS to arrange scenes and sequences for light/fog/smoke for each song on the repertoar. The key to a good "flow" is to create separate sequences for the pauses between songs so you get more variation. Sequences include details such as special focus on individual band-members during solo parts. The progress is then controlled by a lyrics/setlist manger (Bandhelper). My stage-effects-rig consist of 8 RGBW zoomeable wash/spot moving-heads, 12 RGBAW+UW LED PARs, a hazer and a smoke-machine, but the software solution could handle a much more complex rig.

You definitely need one or more dedicated light people if the show is more improvised, a musical, theatre or anything of that nature.

This is pretty good and affordable. I think it is the same thing that ADJ sells under the Compulite name.

Sunlite Suite 2 : lighting control software, USB DMX 512 controller

I have been using an older version for years and it is pretty simple to quickly create looks and preset focus positions for movers. Also, it has several midi controller templates but the Behringer BCF2000 is the best. You can assign chase speeds and anything to the faders so you can adjust quickly in a live situation. It also has a HUGE fixture library.

Good luck,

fb

Thanks for the info. But I'm already creating my own, I will let you guys know when it's available to try:

There are lots of options. We sell lots of Chauvet and Chalet DJ lights with ShowXpress. It is very simple to program and use. We usually set up a couple of pages worth of presets so all someone has to do is hit the cue buttons. If you have MIDI on your mixer, you can advanced through lighting presets from the audio console as well. You could consider the Soundcraft Expression, which has limited DMX control. If you have to provide video and lighting for productions, consider Qlab. You can run it all from there.

I think it's the performer that has the DMX.

I also use DMXIS. I control it from a MIDI food pedal. Would it be better to have someone controlling lights? Yes, but in my band it's another mouth to feed.

http://youtu.be/JnbvcdGOG1I

I'm fairly new to DMX lighting. As I try to manage all PA and light using wireless solutions, (soundcraft ui16, Enttec ODE) I switched from Luminair to Enttec D-PRO.

Luminair will give you a fair amount of options to work with and pretty doable but can be time consuming. Also, for programming I had to setup my leds/movingheads to see the result. Enttec DPRO however has a "phisical layout" window where you can position the fixtures with an optional background jpg to simulate the venue. Using this makes it possible to make a large amount of cues and sequences.

I also love the feature to make templates to be used on the fly in live usage. You just select the fixtures of choice, select the action and select the color(pattern). All done with a little more than 3 clicks.

Enttec DPRO really cuts down the time consuming DMX programming by the way it works. For me well worth the money.

here we go:

MaizeDMX is a simple and easy to use DMX lighting control software. As beginner lighting operator or designer, you will find it’s perfect for your small stage or event.

Supports both Art-Net and USB DMX interface.
Supports both macOS and Windows.
Supports up to 2 universes over Art-Net.
Cloud based fixture profile library than you can benefit from and contribute to.
Key frame based sequence and BPM based timeline.
Supports MIDI controller for sequence triggering and slider control.

Maize DMX | Maizesoft

I was gonna go with Luminaire as it seems very easy to use and program. All my stuff is set up on my soundstage so it's easy for me to be there programming it. I looked at D-pro and it seems ok but Luminaire just looks like it's easier and makes more sense. Would love to hear more insight!

Well for example the demo videos on the enttec d-pro site show some pretty powerful features. No way to do this in Luminair.

Just followed the links and this actually looks really great now, I'm going to have to get an interface!