<blockquote> Hello lighting gurus...
Besides the now discontinued Martin "Fingers" unit are there other fader packs and/or controllers that can provide a tactile control surface for a LightJockey system? I can't fin anything on their website. Seems some folks are using the Behringer BCF2000. Anyone used that? </blockquote>
There are 2 methods I use.
The BCF2000 works great, but you need to use a 3rd party program called LJ_Faders (there should be a thread on it in the LJ Forums).
It gets a little complicated but the software translates the MIDI to DMX in on LJ.
In LJ Faders (which i think comes set up with a BCF2000 profile, people have started to use the Korg NanoKontrollers as well I think) you have to assign each fader/rotary encoder a DMX channel. I make the faders 1-8 and the knobs 9-16. Then in Light Jockey, you go to the DMX In section (making sure you turn it on, and assign those channels to whatever functions you want (Intensity groups, macro size/speed, HTP groups, hazer fan/level, etc)
For the buttons, you assign them directly within LJ faders. It will give you window where you can select cues, or sequences to flash, or LJ functions (light bumping INT groups)
It's really quite nice once you get it set up, but it can be a pain in the beginning. Also the software has been in perpetual BETA (I think he gave up on it) so it has its quirks and I have had to quickly close and reboot it (just the faders program, not LJ).
Something more reliable is just using a small regular console (this assumes you have a 2 universe box and can use one for DMX in). I've taken a 12 channel Leprecon console and assigned those 12 faders using the same DMX in page. A nice advantage of that is that you can still use the subgroup programming and bump button functionality of a standard console.
Another hand thing is setting up a button screen using LJ Manager (should have been included in the LJ install) and getting a touch screen monitor.
Let me know if you have any more questions. LJ is all we could afford and after having years behind it I've learned a lot of tricks to make it much more than "DJ" lighting software.
James, maybe one day I'll get to play with a Jands Vista