X-Keys & Chamsys MagicQ PC

jonliles

jonliles

Well-Known Member
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Who uses it?
What Model do you use?
Do you have any tips, tricks, or other tidbits that may be worth sharing?


Sent using Tapatalk
 
jonliles said:
Who uses it?
What Model do you use?
Do you have any tips, tricks, or other tidbits that may be worth sharing?


Sent using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
X-keys are cool, but maybe consider a touch screen monitor?? I don't know Chamsys, but I wonder if you can set up multiple pages on a touch screen and use those instead of an x-key, which has a finite number of buttons.
 
X-keys are still cheaper than touch screens. Several of the local groups use chamsys, just trying to make programming a bit quicker. I am still the tactile type of person. I like the feeling of a ten-key under my finger tips.


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I know this is an oldish thread, but did you ever try an X-keys with Chamsys? I'd like to see about getting an X-keys since I've been abusing my laptops keyboard at gigs when I get excited...

If you did get an X-keys, does it compare at all to a wing? At least in the sense that both have buttons and make a more functional piece of hardware than the keyboard alone.
 
Check this out, well worth watching all the way through. Shows how far you can go with Chamsys PC and some time (oh and x-keys)
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wolfman005 said:
I know this is an oldish thread, but did you ever try an X-keys with Chamsys? I'd like to see about getting an X-keys since I've been abusing my laptops keyboard at gigs when I get excited...

If you did get an X-keys, does it compare at all to a wing? At least in the sense that both have buttons and make a more functional piece of hardware than the keyboard alone.
Click to expand...


I never acquired the X-Keys. The primary space I program in is 24 dimmers and minimal extras are used for DMX accesories.. I've done all of my programmer through the standard interface and a good mouse. Going to a facilty that has a higher channel count would certainly be too cumbersome to rely on this method.
 
Last edited:
That's a pretty sick custom build. Wonder how much that cost...

That's actually the same position I'm in. A church wants to add some movers (a story for another thread) and they already have 24 dimmers installed. I will probably be doing the programming for their shows and they will have a church member run the shows. I was thinking a X-keys that was assigned to the go buttons might be better than having the members use a mouse.

Now for my personal rig which mostly does small bands and homecomings, I might look to an X-keys and a touchscreen for a better control method than the mouse during playback. So far I've found running 4 scanners, 4 LED pars, a laser, and some cheap DJ effects to be fine with just the mouse when it comes to programming. It's playback that I want more control over.
 
I've been using the XK-60 with my PC Wing and a touch screen. I use it mostly to map the buttons that are missing from the PC Wing. The touch screen is fine, but I really like hitting physical buttons when programming.
 
It's a bit confusing. Most of the time the keyboard works fine. There are some situations when I am trying to label a cue or stack or something where the keyboard operates in programming mode and I need to enter the label on the screen. Some situations it works fine. I should track this down and see if it is a bug. I'm usually so busy programming that I just work around it. I also get better results on a PC than a Mac.

I know it is not ideal, but I could not afford more console than the PC Wing Compact, and the X-Keys add all these buttons that make it MUCH easier to use.
 
MarfaLights said:
It's a bit confusing. Most of the time the keyboard works fine. There are some situations when I am trying to label a cue or stack or something where the keyboard operates in programming mode and I need to enter the label on the screen. Some situations it works fine. I should track this down and see if it is a bug. I'm usually so busy programming that I just work around it. I also get better results on a PC than a Mac.

I know it is not ideal, but I could not afford more console than the PC Wing Compact, and the X-Keys add all these buttons that make it MUCH easier to use.
Click to expand...
So, do you have a macro on each key to switch to programming,, press the button, and switch back to normal, or something else. Also, does it have all of the programming buttons mapped?
 
Oh that's a great idea! I did not think about making a macro to switch keyboard modes and then assigning that to a key. It's only in one situation that the keyboard does not act as expected. I forget when. When it happens, I just type on the screen with cursor or touchscreen using the on-screen keypad. In most cases it works flawlessly. The numeric keypad is great to have. Hardware buttons for Patch and Programmer and Copy and Include and Update are great to have.
 
MarfaLights said:
Oh that's a great idea! I did not think about making a macro to switch keyboard modes and then assigning that to a key. It's only in one situation that the keyboard does not act as expected. I forget when. When it happens, I just type on the screen with cursor or touchscreen using the on-screen keypad. In most cases it works flawlessly. The numeric keypad is great to have. Hardware buttons for Patch and Programmer and Copy and Include and Update are great to have.
Click to expand...
if you can assign multiple keypresses per key you dont need a seperate button, it will do it automatically. For example, to record, key would ->switch to programming mode->press 'R'->switch back to normal.
 
Has anyone had any luck with this? I am holding off on buying one myself due to fears that I won't be able to use my keyboard at the same time.
 
I finally caved and opted for a cherry POS keyboard as it costed about half as much as the X-Keys. However there doesn't seem to be a way to assign all of the programming keys whilst still being able to use a normal keyboard. I have tried everything i could think of from alt codes (MagicQ only recognizes the alt key) to key combinations (MagicQ, contrary to the manual, does not accept key combination macros). I am very dissapointed as this expensive keyboard doesn't do anything more for programming than the touch screen I bought. The only thing I could get working were the window buttons, but not the layout buttons. So be warned, a good touch screen is probably a better investment than a programmable keyboard due to the limitations of MagicQ. Sadly, there does not seem to be an alternative as Chamsys doesn't even sell the maxi-wing any more.
 
MagicQ gives users the option to use Programming shortcuts keyboard mode which gives you access to the programming commands using a PC keybaord, you can switch to and from this mode at any point.
We also allow windows to be opened using the CNTRL + X key combinations.

Hardware wise our PC Wing compact hardware gives you the physical faders/encoders along with the commonly used Rec/Clear etc commands.
The MQ60/70/80 consoles have a 'net wing' mode allowing these consoles to be networked to a PC system, allowing these consoles to control the PC Software giving you all 64 universes.

One of the main reasons for limiting some functionality allowing all buttons available on custom keybaords etc is that we give away our software for free with no restriction on its output (all 64 universes fully enabled), so we make our money via hardware sales of our products which allow us to continue developing both our software and hardware.

Any other questions do let me know.

James
ChamSys Ltd
 
jamesh said:
MagicQ gives users the option to use Programming shortcuts keyboard mode which gives you access to the programming commands using a PC keybaord, you can switch to and from this mode at any point.
We also allow windows to be opened using the CNTRL + X key combinations.

Hardware wise our PC Wing compact hardware gives you the physical faders/encoders along with the commonly used Rec/Clear etc commands.
The MQ60/70/80 consoles have a 'net wing' mode allowing these consoles to be networked to a PC system, allowing these consoles to control the PC Software giving you all 64 universes.

One of the main reasons for limiting some functionality allowing all buttons available on custom keybaords etc is that we give away our software for free with no restriction on its output (all 64 universes fully enabled), so we make our money via hardware sales of our products which allow us to continue developing both our software and hardware.

Any other questions do let me know.

James
ChamSys Ltd
Click to expand...

Sorry for the somewhat harsh critique. The real place I take issue is that this limitation is not documented in the manual and in fact the opposite is stated in 21.4. However it would also be nice for this limitation to be removed when Chamsys hardware is connected and demo mode is exited.
 
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