Hello,
I am in the market for a
dmx interface that i can control from my tablet or phone. I have both iOS and android devices.
I am looking for an interface and an app that allows me to patch something other than 1 to 1. I have been searching for a few days and have not found any answers on any of the apps if that is a function they have.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. And any reccomendations for interfaces would be welcome.
What I needed to make my set-up
- Smartphone/ android/ tablet
$ can
purchase a $30 phone at Walmart to use if you want to keep cost down and /or not use your regular phone.
(The bigger the
screen -the more
cue/scene buttons you can put on the
screen due to the fact you will see better)
-Micro to regular USB
adapter $3
-USB to
Midi adapter $5
-Chauvet Obey40 $119.00
- Software- Midi-Commander on Google
play store / another option was Beatsqueezer.
-
DMX lights $$$$$$$$
My most recent project was how to control my
DMX lights with my smartphone or tablet. I found a free app called
Midi commander for android on the google
play store. I installed this program. This program is great. You can created many setups. This programs sends many
Midi messages such as program change, CC, and more. THE BIG thing is that you can
send note on messages. This is the key. You create a setup with lets say 25 buttons- I
call these
cue pads or scene pads. My full phone
screen now has 25 buttons on it. I can go into edit mode and edit each
button individually. The only editing to the
button I do is telling it what
Midi channel to be on, and what note to
send. There you can also change the color of the
button and put a name on it.
Next thing I needed was a micro usb port
adapter to go to regular size usb.
Next was to
purchase a USB to
Midi adapter ( $5 on ebay )
The last thing I needed was a
DMX controller that had a
midi input to accept the note on messages to change it's scenes kind of what a
midi pedal does to a
midi effects pedal ( sending program change numbers).
Like I said these note on messages change the
DMX controllers channels or scenes if you like.
I had to
purchase an Chauvet Obey40.
I created many scenes in all banks on the Obey and the mapped out what my phone sent out using Midi-commander. This was a
bit of work programming the Obey but a great learning experience. Set up my light show in the basement and played with the programming and realizing what all my lights could really do.
Midi-commanders' starting note was C-0 ( C#0,D-0, D#0, - up to B-0- then starts over at C-1, C#-1,D-1 and so on.
One problem I found was that the lowest note I can
send from Midi-commander on my phone (C-0), is bank 2/ scene 5 -on the Obey controller. So I made a chart corresponding to this.
I now run the bands light show from my phone / or tablet mounted on a little tray attached to my
mic stand. Totally awesome. A quick little tap now and then and I'm all set. The only drawback is I do need to run a USB
cord from my phone on the
mic stand to the Obey controller behind me. I use
velcro strands /straps to secure the cable to my
mic stand.
I never touch the obey- it sits in a rack. I just
plug it in and turn it on, Pull out the already attached USB/
midi dongle cable and
DMX cable and
plug them in. The phone does the rest.
Realize this- I f I have a
midi sequencing app on my phone. I can create a sequence of notes in which the notes I write - change the Obey (
DMX ) controllers scenes.
I can also
plug this setup into my computer- and not the phone. I can then use my sequencing program on my computer to
play an audio
track ( a real song ) and add a
Midi track and write the notes of what scenes I want and when in the song I want them. Very dramatic.
You could bring a laptop or windows based tablet with sequencing software on it and
send the drummer a click
track to
play to for a certain recorded song (that you could
monitor yourself. Pan left or right?)) The show you put on will be fantastic. Being able to have the lights do anything at anytime in a song.
When I refer to "scene" I mean a static scene which could be just one light one color.
I have also used a drum pad -It sends note messages. I used an older AKAI MPD16 -small drum trigger with a real
midi port on it. Just ran
midi cable from MPD16 to the Obey40 with no
dongle adapter. You can edit the MPD16s notes that it sends per each pad to correspond to which static scene you want.
I could fit the drum pad onthe tray I made for
my
mic stand.
My next project shortly will be to get a windows based tablet or touchscreen laptop. so I can run a program like Freestyler and use a $20
dongle from Ebay to
send DMX out directly from tablet through
Dongle to lights. I will probable just start by using the
CUE buttons in Freestyler as my scene changer. There is other
DMX software that will allow you to
cue lights to an audio
track. Touch screens are great!
