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Author Topic: Suggestions for control system  (Read 2614 times)

duane massey

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Suggestions for control system
« on: October 17, 2018, 01:36:59 AM »

Hello, everyone. One of my long-time clients has a haunted house, and includes a stage with live bands. After several years of different control systems (all stand-alone controllers) I am hoping to get him into a PC-based system, BUT he has his own "unique" ideas of how he wants to operate.
The system HAS to have a physical controller with buttons for scene recall, hopefully 36-48 in 4 rows. The buttons need to have the ability (hopefully) to add or stack on top of each other. The ability to use a remote tablet would be a bonus, but not an absolute necessity.
2-3 universes should be more than enough.
Doesn't have to be road-worthy, does need to be reasonably priced.

Thanks in advance!
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Duane Massey
Technician, musician, stubborn old guy
Houston, Texas

TJ (Tom) Cornish

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Re: Suggestions for control system
« Reply #1 on: October 17, 2018, 07:07:01 AM »

Hello, everyone. One of my long-time clients has a haunted house, and includes a stage with live bands. After several years of different control systems (all stand-alone controllers) I am hoping to get him into a PC-based system, BUT he has his own "unique" ideas of how he wants to operate.
The system HAS to have a physical controller with buttons for scene recall, hopefully 36-48 in 4 rows. The buttons need to have the ability (hopefully) to add or stack on top of each other. The ability to use a remote tablet would be a bonus, but not an absolute necessity.
2-3 universes should be more than enough.
Doesn't have to be road-worthy, does need to be reasonably priced.

Thanks in advance!
Martin/Elation M-PC (being renamed Onyx) with MPCTools (MIDI interface software) plus a hardware MIDI controller will do what he is asking.  There are lots of button matrix MIDI controllers that can be mapped to cue lists. 

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Jeff Lelko

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Re: Suggestions for control system
« Reply #2 on: October 17, 2018, 12:04:50 PM »

Hi Duane,

What TJ suggests is what I'd do too.  Most of the usual suspects for PC lighting software support this sort of thing with MagicQ PC being the notable exception.  MagicQ PC requires the use of the ChamSys MIDI interface exclusively for MIDI triggering.

Just to throw a different solution on the table, theatrical cuing software such as ShowCueSystem and QLab can do this too.  While the lighting aspect is limited when compared to M-PC or MagicQ, it's great for simple triggers.  Another benefit is that either program can fire audio and video cues too.  I'm not sure to what extent your friend wants to automate his haunted house, but this type of solution can make for some neat integration.  Both accept MIDI commands, but you can also do simple keyboard triggers too.  This is particularly effective if used with a custom keyboard such as what's sold by PI Engineering.  Hope this helps!
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duane massey

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Re: Suggestions for control system
« Reply #3 on: October 17, 2018, 11:33:09 PM »

Thanks, guys, very useful suggestions.
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Duane Massey
Technician, musician, stubborn old guy
Houston, Texas

Richard Turner

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Re: Suggestions for control system
« Reply #4 on: October 18, 2018, 08:44:41 AM »

I think DASlight used with a dmxsoft dongle can be triggered by DMX, or midi. Not as neat as some higher price options but I guess it could be slaved to an old analog looking dmx desk or even a midi piano keyboard. I never looked into it too far when I was shopping for a dmx dongle a few months back. We were happy with keyboard shortcuts and mouse trigger in playback mode.
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Looking at retiring. Local PA market has shrank to 2 guys with guitars and bose l1 compacts or expecting full line array and 16 movers on stage for $300... no middle left going back to event DJ stuff, half the work for twice the pay.

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Re: Suggestions for control system
« Reply #4 on: October 18, 2018, 08:44:41 AM »


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