Pete Chirpich
Member
Hello! I wondered if anyone can give me direction on the concepts or use of the Martin M-PC computer program.
1st, a little about what I am doing:
I am volunteering at our church to make some creative use of lights during services. We have a band that plays every other week and it would be nice to do some simple effects, even if they are small cross fades. We have 3 electrics with mostly standard par cans, ellipsoidal and some fernels (is that the correct spelling?) through an ETC Smartpack 6T04. All in all 22 of those fixtures in the mix. We also have 6 Chauvet SlimPar Pro RGBA's in the mix. I am learning as I go due to a great lighting person who helps with our musical we do yearly. (The other reason for my board search). Previously we have rented the ETC Express board and he showed me how to program it for cues. That is what got me started! So I did a small deal during Easter season last year to flood the front of the sanctuary with different colors, as well as the walls. I really enjoying getting into that but I know this is really starter material!
I have been evaluating and testing light controls to replace my Lepricon 612 board that we use currently. I am leaning toward software based as I think we will be purchasing more LED lights, possibly some Martin scanner 812's and some LED floods for the walls. I do have an option to buy a physical board if it is easy to use but for now I have my head wrapped on computer based. I have a DMX King USB to DMX box.
The options I am looking for:
So here is my struggle:
In M-PC, I setup all lights in fixture groups, created some presets and group presets, and created a cue List. Last night I created some simple cues to simulate going from "all lights on" for regular service to "Lectern only" when it is just a reader, to "Center only" for highlighting the singers. This is where I either did it wrong or don't get the terms. I saved them to the number each time. Then I basically took what the previous cue was doing, modified it, and saved it as the next cue.
When I ran the cues, I watched in programmer screen and it did not match what I had saved for any of the cues!
I keep checking the manual within the program and it tells me how to do this (sometimes is hard as I need to know Ctrl-R is record when they say to press record, as they are referring to the physical board, right) but I wonder if I am not getting the terms. Is there a document out there somewhere that explains what each of the features is for? As an example, I created presets called All Lights on, Lectern only, Singers Only, Alter, etc. I thought to create a cue I just click on 1 of those, then it places it in programmer and I do Ctrl-R to record and tell it what cue to save it as. Didn't seem to work. Maybe I just need to read over the manual again and see if it makes sense, I don't know.
I am also looking at Light Factory. The concepts in there seems obvious to me, I think because I have seen the ETC Express. But I have had issues with running cues on there as well. (Hmm, maybe it is the operator/programmer and not the software itself?!). I am not sure I like the interface as much but also need to run both of these on a larger screen or multiple screen if I can. For testing it has been on the screen of my laptop.
Any way, if anyone can shed light on some docs or web pages for me to get concepts of M-PC down, I will check it out. Any other opinions or feedback is also welcome! Again, I admit I am a newbie but I am getting there!
Thanks!
Pete
1st, a little about what I am doing:
I am volunteering at our church to make some creative use of lights during services. We have a band that plays every other week and it would be nice to do some simple effects, even if they are small cross fades. We have 3 electrics with mostly standard par cans, ellipsoidal and some fernels (is that the correct spelling?) through an ETC Smartpack 6T04. All in all 22 of those fixtures in the mix. We also have 6 Chauvet SlimPar Pro RGBA's in the mix. I am learning as I go due to a great lighting person who helps with our musical we do yearly. (The other reason for my board search). Previously we have rented the ETC Express board and he showed me how to program it for cues. That is what got me started! So I did a small deal during Easter season last year to flood the front of the sanctuary with different colors, as well as the walls. I really enjoying getting into that but I know this is really starter material!
I have been evaluating and testing light controls to replace my Lepricon 612 board that we use currently. I am leaning toward software based as I think we will be purchasing more LED lights, possibly some Martin scanner 812's and some LED floods for the walls. I do have an option to buy a physical board if it is easy to use but for now I have my head wrapped on computer based. I have a DMX King USB to DMX box.
The options I am looking for:
- Easy to just turn on standard lights for a regular service - Anyone can walk up to it and press the button to get the lights on.
- Easy or somewhat easy to create cues so we can fade to different looks during a regular service, or when the band plays, or special occasions.
- Ability to create what I perceive as a larger number of cues for our plays/ musicals. Then easily play them back and anyone can do it. (ETC was as easy as press go. If they messed up they knew how to go back. )
- Control moving lights or scanners if we rent or buy them.
- Sync music to lights. (not for sure we will do this but a nice to have).
- remote control - I like the idea of changing cues or changing intensity of a light using the iPad. As a test last week I was drumming in the band and in between songs was able to change the light on the keyboard player. Or sometimes we don't have someone who wants to sit up in the balcony with the light board so it may be nice to control from a pew.
So here is my struggle:
In M-PC, I setup all lights in fixture groups, created some presets and group presets, and created a cue List. Last night I created some simple cues to simulate going from "all lights on" for regular service to "Lectern only" when it is just a reader, to "Center only" for highlighting the singers. This is where I either did it wrong or don't get the terms. I saved them to the number each time. Then I basically took what the previous cue was doing, modified it, and saved it as the next cue.
When I ran the cues, I watched in programmer screen and it did not match what I had saved for any of the cues!
I keep checking the manual within the program and it tells me how to do this (sometimes is hard as I need to know Ctrl-R is record when they say to press record, as they are referring to the physical board, right) but I wonder if I am not getting the terms. Is there a document out there somewhere that explains what each of the features is for? As an example, I created presets called All Lights on, Lectern only, Singers Only, Alter, etc. I thought to create a cue I just click on 1 of those, then it places it in programmer and I do Ctrl-R to record and tell it what cue to save it as. Didn't seem to work. Maybe I just need to read over the manual again and see if it makes sense, I don't know.
I am also looking at Light Factory. The concepts in there seems obvious to me, I think because I have seen the ETC Express. But I have had issues with running cues on there as well. (Hmm, maybe it is the operator/programmer and not the software itself?!). I am not sure I like the interface as much but also need to run both of these on a larger screen or multiple screen if I can. For testing it has been on the screen of my laptop.
Any way, if anyone can shed light on some docs or web pages for me to get concepts of M-PC down, I will check it out. Any other opinions or feedback is also welcome! Again, I admit I am a newbie but I am getting there!
Thanks!
Pete