Expression 3 + Venue SC48 with Qlab

[stagecrew]

Hi Everyone. I have come to use this forum as a great reference guide and hope I can add to it myself. Anyhow, I am in a situation that I need my fellow techies help with. Please understand, I have done DAYS of research and troubleshooting before posting here. Nothing bothers me more (and I am sure you) is someone who worked on something for 30 seconds then demands someone to help! Please note, I am an educator with a student crew so even though it might be easier to have Qlab to do everything, I still have to give my HS kids something to program! Here is the situation:

I have an ETC Expression 3 Light Console. I will program my lighting cues directly to the lighting console.

I have a VENUE SC48 Digital Sound Console. I will program my snapshots (cues) directly onto the console.

I have a brand new iMac with a pro license bundle Qlab and Lockstep (why????). I have a 2x2 Midi box hooked into the iMac with USB. MIDI side 1 is looped to the ETC (out to in; in to out) and MIDI side 2 is looped to the Venue. All connections are doubled checked and everything is where it belongs. At this point, I have not even thought about the SC48 as ETC is my focus.

I went in to my options Menu on ETC and set the device address as 1/20 (1 as receiving and 20 as transmitting). Although plan on have Qlab run the lighting and sound, NOT the other way around. I will probably remove the feedback loop (out from console, in to computer), I added it only as a "what if" when troubleshooting.

I have gone in Qlab, set its device number as 20 and setup a test MSC cue to fire a GO to device one. Qlab has PATCH 1 patched to Port 1 of MIDI and 2 to Port 2. I send the GO through general lighting protocol, sent it to device one (the console), tested it about 20 times with NO cue number, tested it with the cue number typed in (10); tested it with "1" typed in Cue list and path (saw that on this forum) and NOTHING when I fire it off. I can not get it to initiate the GO.

My objective is pretty straight forward, I want to be able to launch into a snapshot on sound, while starting a lighting sequence and playing any music track associated with it at the push of a button. Currently, my SM counts down (3. 2. 1. GO) and Lights hits GO and Sound hits play. They are typically good but once in a while, we are off.

I am desperate. I have contacted Lucky Dave with QLAB and he is stumped. I am about to Contact ETC. If some sees the issue, please let me know.

If some one has set this up themselves, maybe a step by step (assuming we know NOTHING!) would be great. Not only can I start from scratch but someone else down the line can use it! I am probably expert level with ETC Platform consoles (Congo and Ion are nice but I LOVE emphasis and obsession!) but a novice with show control!

Please help! Please even email me too! I am desperate! I am suppose to show the school on why they spent $30k on all new digital gear on Thursday night! Thank you guys!

 

[NicktheEvil]

I've found in my travels that sometimes ins go to outs and sometimes ins go to ins.

Also you say that you've set your expression up to have channel 1 as a receiving address so Qlab should send to channel 1.

I did a little write up a year or so ago about this exactly, maybe it will help.

This can be confusing but maybe I can help. But I should let you know that I have done this before, but we have an Obsession II board so it's a little older but the principle should be the same.
First -- make sure your Qlab has a device ID and that the 'use midi show control' box is checked.

Second -- Make sure your ION has midi turned on. in the Obsession II it was in the I/O settings.

Third -- Configure your ION to listen for the device ID of your Qlab and set its own device ID. For instance, lets say your Qlab is setup to be device ID 1 then you need to make sure that your board is listening for device ID 1. Then when you use the Cue in Qlab you'll have to set it to the device ID of the board (lets say 2).

That part is pretty easy.. now here is how you use the MSC command. It might be different for the ION than it was for the Obsession. but this should get you close.

In your MSC cue go to the midi show control message tab.

Make sure your output device is correct. Then set your command format to Lighting (General). Set the command to GO (assuming you want a cue to go). Set the Q number to the Cue number you want to go. The Cue list number correlates to the list running on the board. Most likely if you don't know what this is it's Q list 1. I honestly have no idea what Q path is but again I've had success setting it to 1.

If all the device IDs line up and the board is configured to accept the command this should fire lighting Cue X.

Now to take it a step further... we have a few boards at school. I've managed to make all of them talk to Qlab with the MSC function but with different results. On our Expression board i can take the MSC command and leave the Q number blank but make sure the command is still GO and no matter what Cue the board is on it will take the next cue or cue sequence. But on our Obsession board you have to put a cue number in to tell it to fire a specific Cue.

Hopefully this was coherent enough for someone to follow. Hope it helps!

 

[stagecrew]

Hi. I will try switching ports on MIDI and the console.
I read your write up (great stuff) and followed to a T but no luck.
I have qlab sending the GO command under general lights to device 1 (the console).

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[NicktheEvil]

another quick thought, are you making sure your MSC command in Qlab is sending on channel 1?

 

[stagecrew]

Hi guys. Thanks so much for your help. Lighting works GREAT now. But sound is an issue. When I go to EVENTS on the venue sc48, I can use a footswitch or gpi to trigger then event (recall snapshot) but I can not select MSC so my Qlab can do it. Please help!!!! Thanks!

 

[65535]

I looked at the manual for awhile, it appears you can't call up snapshots via midi, but you can fire midi commands when a snapshot is called which could be used to trigger QLab to send MSC commands if I'm remembering that. Unfortunately it doesn't solve the problem of the triggering snapshots through the computer.