dmx lighting software for windows

jeff180

Member
hi everybody! total newb here with what may be some silly questions, so please be kind. i have a simple 16 can (par 38's - no movers, scanners, etc) light show and would love to find some simple pc software to create scenes that i can control via MIDI. i have downloaded many types and can't figure out any of them at all. is there something available to where i can simply tell it to recall scenes? example: program 1 is channels 2, 4, 6, 8 "on" and/or program 2 is a sequence of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. i will only have 8 channels. my setup would have 2 - 4channel dimmer/switch packs (channels 1 thru 4) and 2 - 4channel dimmer/switch packs (channels 5 thru 8), a laptop and a usb/dmx interface. is there anything that's just as simple as programming scenes and recaling them via midi program changes? thanks a bunch!!
 
Full disclosure... I manufacture and distribute the BlueLite X1 and X1-Mini.
You might want to take a look at our software/hardware system. You can download the software from our website and test it out.

We offer a couple ways to implement MIDI control. Using the Live Panel, we have three 'MIDI Maps" you can choose from to use as your MIDI input source (check out Appendix C the X1 Manual for details - available from the Help menu).
While the Live Panel will offer you greater levels of control, sometimes all you need is a simple one-to-one mapping. The API Sample apps (also available on our Download page), "MIDI Note" and "MIDI Controller Change", allow you to select a 'starting note' or 'CC' and have them sequentialy control the BlueLite's 24 submasters (e.g. Note# 48 bumps Submaster 1 to 100%, Note#49 bumps Submaster 2 to 100%, ...).
All of the software and samples come with manuals giving a brief example of how to use them.
I've had KORG NanoController's connected, one of our users controls his basement studio DMX lights using his MIDI keyboards and drums, and I've just picked up an APC40 controller to see if we can integrate it to offer a dedicated 'Mapping' for use with our software.

You might also like to check out the white paper, "MIDI to DMX Lighting" on our Resources page.
Feel free to contact me (or PM me if you prefer) and I'll try to answer any questions you may have.


hi everybody! total newb here with what may be some silly questions, so please be kind. i have a simple 16 can (par 38's - no movers, scanners, etc) light show and would love to find some simple pc software to create scenes that i can control via MIDI. i have downloaded many types and can't figure out any of them at all. is there something available to where i can simply tell it to recall scenes? example: program 1 is channels 2, 4, 6, 8 "on" and/or program 2 is a sequence of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. i will only have 8 channels. my setup would have 2 - 4channel dimmer/switch packs (channels 1 thru 4) and 2 - 4channel dimmer/switch packs (channels 5 thru 8), a laptop and a usb/dmx interface. is there anything that's just as simple as programming scenes and recaling them via midi program changes? thanks a bunch!!
 
There's a number of pc interfaces available, from nearly free, to $2K range. I think the least expensive is the Entec USB, which works with some of the software that's out there. But it doesn't work with everything, such as Martin LightJockey, High End HogPC, etc. You'll need to do some research to make sure that

a. Software and hardware are compatible
b. there's a midi input and access in the program

But also consider that pc based systems aren't typically as good as a hardware controller (which can also accept midi) for running par cans for the simple reason that there are no faders on a pc to manipulate manually. That may not be important to you NOW but keep you future needs in mind as well.
 
great info! i do understand that hardware is most often better than software, but we're just a 3pc band playing some local, smaller clubs and i'd ike something a little more than the 4 pars that stay on all night set up that most people around here are using. there are numerous interfaces available on ebay for fairly cheap. i'm just reay hoping i can find some software that an idiot like mysef can set up a few scenes and stomp them out on a behringer fcb1010. the PCStage stuff says "contact for pricing". any idea how much something like that costs? thanks again!!
 
the PCStage looks to be more like what i'm looking for, but of course, you must use their interface. i'd love to find something closer to free that would just allow me to set up a few scenes and call them up via midi that will also work with the cheap ebay interfaces. i'm thinking that maybe my terms are outdated also. i keep saying "scenes", but none of the software i've looked at mentions "scenes". the PCStage mentions "presets". is this what scenes are called now? and what is a "universe"?
 
Full disclosure... I manufacture the BlueLite X1 products so I have a bias.
While the X1-Mini hardware may not be the cheapest 'dongle' on the market ($399), it's features will compete with DMX controllers many times it's cost. Many users have the same requirement you have (3 pc band that want's more control) using either a DMX console, PC keyboard, MIDI instruments (and/or MIDI controllers), our new iOS/Android app, or a combination of those control sources.
You can download the BlueLite software (including the User Manual) from our web site to experiment with controlling it using your MIDI devices and become familiar with it's operation. The User Manual lists the three 'MIDI Maps' you can use to control the Live Panel using a MIDI input device. We also have API sample apps on our web site that can be used to control the 24 Submasters on the Main console screen via MIDI.
PM or e-mail me if I can answer any questions.
 
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i downloaded it, but cant get it to open. i'll mess with it a little more and let you know how it works out. thanks!!!
 
Scenes is a good term for a specific lighting output. It relates more to theater work where a particular 'scene' would have a certain lighting and another 'scene' something different. For example, you could start with an indoor scene where the lighting looks like a living room. As the play progresses, the action moves to a different part of the stage to indicate outdoors, or the scenery changes to create another location/mood/scene. The lighting for that would be a different 'scene'.
A universe in lighting terms is a collection of 512 DMX addresses. The DMX dimming protocol is such that a maximum of 512 devices can be addressed through one interface. Theaters with more than 512 fixtures or needed addresses (some LED fixtures use 9 addresses) use multiple universes to control everything. It doesn't sound like a problem you will have.
 
I don't know if this matters to you, but most of the software is incompatible with Apple products. There is one or two Apple compatible dmx products, but I don't know their names offhand.
 
I did a little research into this a while back, and I couldn't find any free MIDI solution. I already used MagicQ by Chamsys, which is free (but you need to buy a ~$2,000 "wing" to use MIDI), and around then I started looking into ways to accept MIDI into another program, and then trigger AutoHotKey to send MagicQ to "GO" to the next cue. It works if all you're doing is stepping down a cue stack (no jumping around), and the rudimentary version I came up with had a quarter-second delay or so, but you could probably iron out the kinks by spending more time with it. I never did learn the Autohotkey DLL/COM interface stuff, and that's the proper way to do something like this. You could ask the folks over at their forum if there's a way to accept MIDI via the Windows midi driver, but I don't know.

If you're apple, your either totally SOL, or totally golden if you can write something in Applescript. Any applescript experts out there? QLAB could send/recieve MIDI and trigger apple script, I think.
 
Up front and full disclosure, I manufacture the BlueLite X1 products, but I'm just a user of the MIDI-OX products.
That said.. I just used the programs MIDI-OX and MIDI-Yoke to "remap" the output of an Akai APC40 so it can be used as the MIDI input source for our BlueLite X1's 'Live Panel' application. Using MIDI-OX (or some other MIDI 'remapping' program) you could use whatever MIDI device you'd like as your control.
PM, e-mail, or call me and I'll be happy to answer any questions you have.
I could also use any feedback you might have regarding how best to 'configure' an APC40 for lighting control from the band's point of view.
 
If you have the DMX-USB interface, there's a program called "Lights Up!" that's pretty easy to learn. Patching can be a bit of a pain (I'm probably just doing it the hard way), but with your setup that shouldn't be a big problem. You can figure the program out in about an hour, it's free, and it works with the Enttec device mentioned a little bit earlier.
 
i wanted to say "thanks" to everybody for the huge amount of info. i've been pretty overwhelmed this holiday season, but wil be going over all this info in the coming days and wil probaby be back with a mot more questions. :grin:
 
Sorry, I'm inadvertently double posting about the BlueLite X1... I didn't see my earler post until I'd sent this one. My apologies.
 
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May I put in a punt for Enttec's DMXIS. It's designed for bands, uses a straightforward preset-based approach, and supports MIDI control.

:!: Disclaimer time - I'm the author of the DMXIS software :!:

Edit: Sorry, I see further into the thread you're looking for something free/cheap. While DMXIS is not very expensive, it won't work with cheap eBay-sourced DMX interfaces.
 
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Lightjockey by Martin lighting is a very powerful product. You do require a DMX to USB "dongle" hardware piece, but there are plenty of used dongles on ebay and the like for around the 500 - 800 region, depending on your luck. I haven't used any of the other offerings that were mentioned here, by I have been using lightjockey going on 5 years or more, and I'm still scracthing the surface of it's capabilities. Check it out on youtube.
 

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