My church is doing a Passion Play a couple of weeks after Easter. Last two times around, I loaded up our Leprecon LP-624 with all the cues it could hold in the stack (50) and operated it manually. But now our board is starting to act flakey, I need more cues, and I want to drive everything off MIDI control so I only have a single cue list to worry about. (Planning to use Palladium as the driver.) I am looking for a free/inexpensive lighting package to use. I only have three requirements:
But unfortunately it has two issues. First, there is a bug in it somewhere with how it handles the "PLAY CUE xxx" task. It will play the cue I ask for, but not before flashing wildly to another cue first. So I'm limited to just using a "GO" (to next cue) trigger. Second, and more serious, it has crashed several times in rehearsals...locking up on me to the point where even the Task Manager couldn't shake it loose! (Had to reboot.) Now granted, I was using it on a PC with the other programs...but still I'm worried. Last practice (yesterday) I moved it to a separate PC by itself and triggered it via MIDI, and it behaved itself just fine...so maybe that's the answer.
Anyway, my question (finally!) is this: Does anyone have any experience using miniStageConsole in a show, and would you feel comfortable counting on it? Alternately, does anyone have any other suggestions that might be worth considering. A couple of things I have considered, but that don't work for me right now:
- Free, or at least cheap enough to buy myself and call a donation.
- Works with my Enttec DMX-USB Pro.
- Can work a cue list and have the "GO" button be triggered via MIDI.
But unfortunately it has two issues. First, there is a bug in it somewhere with how it handles the "PLAY CUE xxx" task. It will play the cue I ask for, but not before flashing wildly to another cue first. So I'm limited to just using a "GO" (to next cue) trigger. Second, and more serious, it has crashed several times in rehearsals...locking up on me to the point where even the Task Manager couldn't shake it loose! (Had to reboot.) Now granted, I was using it on a PC with the other programs...but still I'm worried. Last practice (yesterday) I moved it to a separate PC by itself and triggered it via MIDI, and it behaved itself just fine...so maybe that's the answer.
Anyway, my question (finally!) is this: Does anyone have any experience using miniStageConsole in a show, and would you feel comfortable counting on it? Alternately, does anyone have any other suggestions that might be worth considering. A couple of things I have considered, but that don't work for me right now:
- Chamsys MagicQ. I have heard nothing but praise for this product, and have tried it and become quite a fan of it myself. BUT...the only way to MIDI it is to buy their proprietary $1700 interface. Not gonna happen! (Similar line of reasoning for Hog 3PC, etc.)
- LSC Clarity. Powerful with a clean look to it, and does everything I could possibly want. EXCEPT...it's a brand new program, and they haven't quite gotten the MIDI triggering bit in there just yet. (Probably show up the week after I need it, right? LOL)