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[Yoan Geay]

Thank you Allen, you responded pretty well to all of my Interrogations.

I think you're right, I need to lower, [I mean, Re-Think], my expectations of "how many Scenes do I really need". In the End, the FCB1010 100 Presets, is probably more than enough, limited but enough for what we do.

I think I've gathered enough feedbacks, for me to go in the right direction.
Now it's a matter of taking the big decision, and go buy some stuff.
I have to say this Thread & the Community have been such an Incredible source of Help, Feedbacks, Thoughts & Advices, I can't thank you enough for your participation.

What I'll do is keep this thread as a Favourite somewhere close-by, & when everything is set & done,
I'll come back to let you know how it all ended up doing. I'll try to provide some Pictures & Stuff.

[Might take a while until I come back with some News... I still have to convince the other 4 Members of the Band now ]

Thank you all again, you've been of Great Help.
Get back to you soon with, [Hopefully], some good stuff to share.

[Jeff Lelko]

I think you're right, I need to lower, [I mean, Re-Think], my expectations of "how many Scenes do I really need". In the End, the FCB1010 100 Presets, is probably more than enough, limited but enough for what we do.

I'm glad you've found this conversation useful!  Here's one last thing to consider...

One note regarding programming.  You have to plan.  If you sit down at any controller and try to program without an end in mind you will fail.  I went so far as to create an Excel spreadsheet which spelled out the scenes in each bank, what colors would be in them, whether movers would move, what spots would be on etc.  I even went so far as to put in the value of each DMX channel on each fixture.  It was tedious but I programmed most of my scenes in less than 2 hours because of it and the outcome really hasn't changed much since my initial program. 

I echo this, and here is where you'll see the differences become very apparent when comparing the smaller hardware controllers to the software products and larger hardware consoles.  Having worked on (and currently own) an example of all three, yes, the forethought and planning required when working on a smaller desk is substantial.  Static looks aren't too bad, but when you starting dealing with more complicated sequences that need to account for concepts like Auto-Mark or complex layering, the difficulty increases ten-fold.  Adding to this, what happens when you need to modify a program on the spot?  Even simple things such as nudging the focus position of a moving head to fit a room can prove tricky and time consuming on small hardware consoles if you don't plan for this need ahead of time.  If you honestly think your programs will never change than this may not be a concern to you, but otherwise it can be a frustrating and stressful situation!  Most software and nearly all serious hardware consoles feature more capable programming tools such as palettes, masking, and much more complex layering capabilities.  Updating a few focus/beam/color palettes for your evening's job is a piece of cake that takes all of a few minutes compared to what would be needed to modify the programming of most smaller hardware desks.  Even basic editing is far more reliable and enjoyable on a console display or monitor versus the tiny lines of text display on the smaller boards, at least in my opinion.  This might all be way more involved than you'd like to go (and that's fine!), but just want to throw that out there too if your going to spend some time shopping controllers.  Good luck and hope this helps!   

[Yoan Geay]

Absolutely !

I'm definitely going to sit down & "Carefully Plan", on a Global Scale, what
I will be the trying to accomplish with all of this. I know it's going to take time, but I'm a Perfectionnist when it comes to music & I'm sure this will apply with Lights aswell.

If I screw up, eh, Failure is what we learn from !
I'm taking notes on that, & the whole Conversation. Thank you !

[Callan Browne]

Absolutely !

I'm definitely going to sit down & "Carefully Plan", on a Global Scale, what
I will be the trying to accomplish with all of this. I know it's going to take time, but I'm a Perfectionnist when it comes to music & I'm sure this will apply with Lights aswell.

If I screw up, eh, Failure is what we learn from !
I'm taking notes on that, & the whole Conversation. Thank you !

Hey Yoan, I won't go against any of the good advice here, but thought I'd share a little video of my current setup. Sadly no haze at this gig as we only had the single circuit for everything.
It might give you an idea of what halfway looks like, unless you can get everything at once.

https://youtu.be/qgqMBaIct6k
Up front, 2 * hotbox rgba mounted on foh speakers.
Rear is 3 trees of 4leds - 2 of which are Chauvet 4bar lt, the other is 4 Chauvet t12's.

I run DMXIS on 'Autorun bank', so it just cycles through about 8 presets on it's own.
I have 2 banks, one with more movement than the other, then I use bandhelper to set the bank and tempo for each song.

It works for me, I set it up all ahead of gig time. Band helper also changes my guitar patch to match the song.

No blackout at the end of songs, but we like to go straight into the next song anyway so non issue.

I use a MacBook Pro on stage for lights, break music and often multi track recording (like for the video above)

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

[Rob Gow]

I'm a DMXIS guy, here's  my journey. I started with a couple Pinspot 360's and 4 Chauvet intimidator 10. scanners to get me out of my home made lights and into the DMX game, along with a typical light I-Beeam DJ Truss setup. I bought an Obey70 and an FCB1010 and set out to make heads and tails of it all.

here's a quick video of my initail progress. Basic keyframe chases. Point A to point B to point C etc.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzQZohGAU0M

Ok, I got some movement going on, however haphazard. This gave me some direction and inspiration for what it could be. Next I needed some wash lights, So I picked up 6 Blizzard 3NX. They were pretty bright but definitely useable. This was November, and I needed evertyhing to work for NYE. The Obey70 was proving to be too frustrating so I looked into a software/hardware solution that would work on a Mac (I used one with my mixer anyway) and wouldn't break the bank.

The free stuff used with a cheap DMX to USB interface looked too complicated. Time was ticking and as a non-light guy I needed something that wojld work and work well. DMXIS was the answer to me. It arrived and I got down to programming. Kept it simple at first, and you can see the results here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8LkFILxWhg

The FCB1010 hooked up to it nicely with a USB - MIDI interface. I went with the Roland UM-One (approx $30) I programmed a bunch of scenes and the FCB1010 worked really well. It has 10 banks with pedals 1-10 which gives you a choice from 100 different scenes. More scenes could be put into a different bank on DMXIS.

Here's some of that programming. I hadn't gotten into the oscillators yet so they were just static scenes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8LkFILxWhg

this was some programming after I did figure out the oscillators

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gCeoiItfhU

I used one volume pedal to control the smoke machine, and the other to control the front on the band. 4 more Blizzard 3NX had arrived in time for NYE which gave me 8 for the back and 4 to light the band. figured out the oscillator but again, the blizzards really washed everything out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr0EzbtifCs

wouldnt you know it, the brand new smoke machine died between Soundcheck and the NYE gig so we did the gig without any smoke. That really cut down the effectiveness of the lighting but we made it through. It was obvious that the Blizzards were washing everything out so it was time to replace the Intimidator scanners with 4 Martin Minimac Profiles, which I bought off a user here. As you can see, they play really nice with the 3NX's but the combination pretty much rendered the Pinspot 360's as useless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDCRGeV1JsQ

So thats where the rig sat for awhile. I sold the Intimidators and the pinspots and contemplated what I could use to replace the pinspots.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM8177Db5x0

Still figuring out how to replace the pinspots. Blizzard came out with The Blade, a really tight beam. 2 things though: 1, they were $500 each so 8 of them would be $4000, and 2, the beam was bigger than I was hoping for so I held off and  still kept my eye out. Not long after Chauvet introduced the Intimidator Spot Duo. Perfect, a nice tight smaller beam, and $600 each (at the time) so I picked up 4 of them which gave me 8 tight full moving heads on the top of my truss.

Finally my setup was where i wanted it to be, and it's remained ever since.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBWvJ7_QbO8

Again, I control it all from the FCB1010. You can also control DMXIS with a program called TouchOSC. I've helped a few people get it going. It's not real difficult.

Another quick video, me controlling the lights via the FCB1010 (I'm the fatass)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnbvcdGOG1I






 

[Jerome Malsack]

One more thing to look at is the I truss and the weight capacity.  The I truss systems typically accept 100 lbs or 45 kg of load.  This becomes a safety problem if to heavy.  The movement can also cause the stands to move if the movers have momentum.  Add in People can walk into and push things around.  Safety cables from each light might be a help and reduce the insurance liability.   Power cords and data lines made to look good with velcro, gaff tape, or zip ties.  (There is Zip ties with a release for reuse).  Adding DMX wireless can speed the setup and tear down.  Pre-mounted and wired segments can also speed things up.  Weight is the question on pre-mounted and wired.  Spare light bulbs for the ones that break in moving.  Cool off time for the bulbs helps too. 

[Steve Garris]

Nice light scenes Rob. I even enjoyed your earlier setup with the little pin spots. Those Blizzard's quickly overcame the pinspots, and the Blizzard's are only (9) 3w tricolor led's. The truss and especially the Spot Duo's really make your show. Very cool that you can run it with a foot-board.

[Rob Gow]

Nice light scenes Rob. I even enjoyed your earlier setup with the little pin spots. Those Blizzard's quickly overcame the pinspots, and the Blizzard's are only (9) 3w tricolor led's. The truss and especially the Spot Duo's really make your show. Very cool that you can run it with a foot-board.

It's pretty handy. Not the fastest setup, but that's ok. The Pinspots and the Intimidators worked well together.

https://youtu.be/MrBCgQ5lzcU

The proper truss, safety cables etc. are all part of doing it properly. I went from the I-Beam to antenna truss to proper 2" aluminum triangle truss.

It does work nicely with the FCB1010. These days I use one volume pedal to control the hazer and the other to control a pair of Fog Fury Jetts.

https://youtu.be/DlRINL3Yz30


But yeah, that's DMXIS programmed by a non light guy.

[Steve Garris]

It's pretty handy. Not the fastest setup, but that's ok. The Pinspots and the Intimidators worked well together.

https://youtu.be/MrBCgQ5lzcU

The proper truss, safety cables etc. are all part of doing it properly. I went from the I-Beam to antenna truss to proper 2" aluminum triangle truss.

It does work nicely with the FCB1010. These days I use one volume pedal to control the hazer and the other to control a pair of Fog Fury Jetts.

https://youtu.be/DlRINL3Yz30


But yeah, that's DMXIS programmed by a non light guy.

Oh the Fury Jets! I love those things and was surprised to find out our bass player just bought 2 Fury Jet Pro's, which we will be using tonight for the first time!

Have a great New Years gig everyone.

[Allen Smith]

A friend took a few short videos at our gig last night.  You can see a few more of the scenes we use.

https://youtu.be/kDhwm8plp24

https://youtu.be/wnmoQO2c7k8

https://youtu.be/5AypSa8Rnn0

https://youtu.be/CFlXsvWbtUo

[ProSoundWeb Community]