Operating MagicQ PC

[LXCG]

Hi all. Our school's desk is dying out (no surprise having been purchased in '98 second hand!) and while we go through the long process of getting school funds for a new one I've got us MagicQ PC to work with. I'm teaching myself on it and have got a decent grip on it, but being on PC I'm not really finding a nice way to busk/operate it. So how do others do it? Touchscreen with the execute or playback softbuttons, or touch screen on the playback hard buttons? Can you set it up so your computer keyboard fires cues? As I said a self-taught newbie, so any tips on general for ChamSys would be helpful. Thanks in advance

 

[Footer]

There is a "playback" mode which puts each playback on the number keys. It works. Its not perfect. In reality busking on that thing without a wing is going to be a real pain. A mutlitouch touch screen will help but its not perfect. In the heat of a show nothing really beats hard buttons and faders.

 

[dreamist]

What kind of shows are you going to be doing? You mention busking, so I'm guessing you may be doing concert stuff.. but if you're just doing theatre cue-list type stuff, then the playback keyboard mode of MagicQ PC works just dandy. I've run dozens of shows that way...

If you really need to busk a concert or something, I think you may find a touch screen is going to be a necessity at the least...

 

[jglodeklights]

As Kyle pointed out, there is a "playback" keyboard mapping. Lacking a wing, one of the better ways to busk is palettes and intensity setting with time. I'd look at pages 68/69 and 97/98 of the manual. They include some detailed shortcuts and information for doing this.

 

[Footer]

As Kyle pointed out, there is a "playback" keyboard mapping. Lacking a wing, one of the better ways to busk is palettes and intensity setting with time. I'd look at pages 68/69 and 97/98 of the manual. They include some detailed shortcuts and information for doing this.

And with that, when I was working with magic Q a lot, I had a keyboard that I gaffed the crap out of with all of the keyboard shortcuts. Really helped move things along.

 

[jglodeklights]

I can certainly imagine so, Kyle. If you have decent muscle memory, spending the time just programming and playing back "fake" shows can help significantly with learning the shortcuts. I'm also wondering if the investment in an Xkeys keyboard would be worthwhile? Relatively inexpensive, and you could map the keys to include any shift or ctrl presses that are needed. I'm sure it would even behoove us EOS fam programmers when doing offline work to have a 60 board, or to use with Client. Why didn't I think of this sooner?

 

[LXCG]

Thanks for all the tips guys. Being a school we cover evrything, from simple few state award shows classical concerts to theatre shows ( both of which just hitting go for the cue stack is fine) but we also do some rock concerts and disco things for which your tips will be really helpful. Also, dare I ask, with that range of shows, do you reckon when we go for our new board, probably up to around £3000, would a chamsys wing or even an mq40 be advisablece, or a different desk (avo,etc, zero88 etc.)

 

[Footer]

Thanks for all the tips guys. Being a school we cover evrything, from simple few state award shows classical concerts to theatre shows ( both of which just hitting go for the cue stack is fine) but we also do some rock concerts and disco things for which your tips will be really helpful. Also, dare I ask, with that range of shows, do you reckon when we go for our new board, probably up to around £3000, would a chamsys wing or even an mq40 be advisablece, or a different desk (avo,etc, zero88 etc.)

If you like the Chamsys stuff might be worthwhile to pick up a wing. For that amount of cash it is the biggest bang for your buck. See how you like the software first then go from there.

 

[jglodeklights]

I'm a big fan of the ETC Element for that price range. The price is right and you have a good control surface to work from. The amount of physical subs/channel faders is excellent, and the product support is excellent. Shorter learning curve than MagicQ, but MagicQ is more powerful in many ways when it comes to movers. However, if you don't have movers or only use a handful, then the Element has a more efficient syntax.

 

[Judge]

A MQ40 is about £3000 + VAT and as such is superb value. It operates like a theatre board, and also like a rock 'n' roll board depending on how you set it up. Even cheaper though would be a PC wing, a dedicated PC and a couple of touch screens. This will give you more screen real estate although less physical controls, but its the option I would go for. MQ 40 great if you are flying around and taking it as carry on luggage, but for a fixed installation I'd go with the wing for sure.