Who's using DMX to control volume faders?

kenact

kenact

Active Member
I'm using QLC+ to run my theater productions. I love what I've been able to accomplish with QLC+ so far, but one thing I'd like to do is manage automatic audio fades. For instance, when I have my preshow lights and music playing, when I'm ready for places, I'd like to be able to fade my lights & music simultaneously.

I've only seen one device, a Raipec 4-Channel DMX VCA Unit, that looks like it would do the job, but I haven't been able to find out where they can be purchased, yet.

http://www.raipec.co.uk/Raipec DMX VCA box.pdf

Any suggestions out there?

Thanks
 
A lot of show control devices will do what you want. You want to look for something that will talk with your lighting console (usually MIDI but could be UDP if networked) and something that either acts as a playback machine (say a QLAB computer) or a separate mixer or playback machine (Alcorn Mcbride, or Gilderfluke) that can communicate through MIDI or UDP (or some other setup)

What type of mixer, light console, and interfaces do you have or are looking to get?
 
Morte615 said:
A lot of show control devices will do what you want. You want to look for something that will talk with your lighting console (usually MIDI but could be UDP if networked) and something that either acts as a playback machine (say a QLAB computer) or a separate mixer or playback machine (Alcorn Mcbride, or Gilderfluke) that can communicate through MIDI or UDP (or some other setup)

What type of mixer, light console, and interfaces do you have or are looking to get?
Click to expand...
I'm running QLC+ from a Windows 7 laptop, through an Enttec OpenDMX USB dongle. I'm not using a board. All my audio is coming out of my headphone/lineout jack on the laptop, into a tiny Behringer mixer (no midi, dmx or usb). When I need to fade out my Preshow music, I need to do it manually on the mixer, kill the preshow music, turn the volume back up on the mixer, then start my top-of-show.
 
Easiest way is probably to get something like SFX on your laptop, then loopback a midi trigger from QLC+ to SFX to trigger your sequence. Or vice versa.

FWIW, it's probably not the end of the world to have to hit go on lights, alt tab to another program, and hit go again.
 
llburg said:
Easiest way is probably to get something like SFX on your laptop, then loopback a midi trigger from QLC+ to SFX to trigger your sequence. Or vice versa.

FWIW, it's probably not the end of the world to have to hit go on lights, alt tab to another program, and hit go again.
Click to expand...

It is when you need to have them happen at the same time. Alt tabbing can mess up quite easily.
 
llburg said:
Easiest way is probably to get something like SFX on your laptop, then loopback a midi trigger from QLC+ to SFX to trigger your sequence. Or vice versa.

FWIW, it's probably not the end of the world to have to hit go on lights, alt tab to another program, and hit go again.
Click to expand...
I probably should have mentioned that this is all for a Non-Profit theater. I'm doing this for productions I'm involved with, because I tired of using the old 2x12 LiteOn board, that's always losing faders, and the cd & cassette players in the booth. I'm not getting paid, or reimbursed for any of this. It's just a way to keep me from going mad, and throwing things out of the booth. In other words, cost is a very big factor. :)
 
techwiz24 said:
I believe QLC+ has an OSC plug in. depending on your audio application, you should be able to use that to trigger cues.
Click to expand...
I have been using QLC+ to run my audio. That way I can have scene change music integrated with my lighting cues.

It's really a neat program, but it's designed primarily for lighting, so I'm appreciative of the sound capabilitiies Massimo has built in already. I'm just looking for a little more.
 
llburg said:
That's fair, it does depend a lot on the specific situation.

IMO, the best solution would be to just have 2 separate computers.
Click to expand...
IMO, the best solution is to have one program on one computer, doing everything, the way I want it done. :)

It also makes it easier to program, if you only have to deal with one interface.
 
No. Your "best solution" doesn't exist. There is no software that is decently good at running both lighting and sound, because the requirements are so vastly different. You will need a second piece of software running sound cues. This should probably also be the software that's in control (the master) and let the lighting software take commands (be the slave). This is because most sound cueing software provides much better show control tools than lighting software. Run the show with the audio software (SCS, QLab, whatever) open in a front window, and let the lx software run in the background and take GO commands.
 
It's true that "one program" would be a difficult solution. The user interface for lighting is better done separately from the one for sound. That said, there's nothing wrong with having the two interfaces/programs running and having them 'talk' to each other. Either on the same computer or over the network or midi. That is what we do at our theater for tricky scenes.
You might want to take a look at the Cue Player [disclaimer - my software] software that we use at Blackfriars. It will do sound and lights from the same computer or two computers on a network.
As a side note, the Enttec Open, while a good starter interface, gets it's timing from the host computer and may give you issues if you try to run several programs and many channels on a laptop. You might want to look ahead to getting the Pro model, or something from DMX King that may be less expensive, but has an internal processor.
 
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I agree that for various reasons I'd lean away from "one program". Lighting software is better for lighting, audio for audio, video for video, etc for the most part.. Not to mention that if you put all your eggs into one basket you risk loosing all of your eggs at once. Also this "one program" is more likely to crash, especially if not developed into an extremely stable solution as excellent lighting or audio software is.
I've never really had a problem hitting "go" on lighting and audio at the same time, and when I HAVE tried to program and integrate lighting and audio on the same computer (with Horizon) I did not find it any easier to program or such, actually the opposite.

As mentioned midi or such may work well to trigger one machine from the other if you'd like.
 
+1 for separation of programs and hardware. While immediately more economical, it's too easy for a small bug to take out your whole rig. That, and having an operator who's full attention is at each system can better troubleshoot an issue than one person at one computer trying to juggle light cues while also dealing with an audio misfire. That said, you deal with what you have and you seem to be bound to a single computer. Putting your audio into a program designed for the task and linking the two via software is going to be the better solution. I'm not familiar with QLC+, and while it seems like a very capable setup, setting audio fades and linking them to other cues is a very basic task that most audio cue playback software can do. If it can't handle that, then you shouldn't have your audio there. I'm in Mac land so my goto is Qlab, but I know there are some offerings for Win7 that will handle cues well and isn't as cost-prohibitive as SFX.
 
It would be possible using a third party control system - AMX has a DMX to AX-Link (ethernet control) interface: http://www.amx.com/products/AXB-DMX512.asp. You would also need a central control system to use the interfaces on either end. Some sound boards (like some Yamaha mixers) can be controlled directly by an AMX system. If you can't control directly you would need to use an AX-Link to MIDI module. You would still have the issue of creating a custom program, but at least you would be working with a commonly used programming language and have good support from the manufacturer.
 
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