Where to go?

Just let it all out, buddy. You're among friends here.
Post Reply
AcdNrg
Hasn't felt like this about software in a long time
Posts: 74
Joined: Sun Jan 13, 2013 20:46
Location: Frankfurt, Germany

Where to go?

Post by AcdNrg »

I return to my hobby after a longer break and find two things:

1. My lighting needs got bigger. It all started with a projector+avenue, now it´s LED bars, scanners, moving heads on top of that. You know, techno club at home.

2. The functional areas of various software tools also got bigger and the lines between them start to blur. Arena does DMX, there is hacks for madrix controlling moving heads, QLC+ or DMXC keep beefing up their effect engines and then there is lightjams....

I´m getting dazed and confused. Which brings me to the question:

Would you rather go for the all-in-one package, doing pretty much everything, but maybe not as well as dedicated specialists? Or would you prefer using several programs that excel in their area and then bring them together via, say, MIDI or DMX?

In other words:
a) Avenue -> Arena+Wire
b) Avenue+(Wire)+(QLC+/DMXC)+(madrix)?

Discuss.

User avatar
He2neg
Wants to marry Resolume, and Resolume said "yes!"
Posts: 938
Joined: Fri Nov 22, 2013 21:34
Location: Berlin, Germany

Re: Where to go?

Post by He2neg »

Arena + Lightning Console (or Software) together with artnet and a controll system with osc / artnet / midi what ever you want...
Laptop: XMG P507 // Intel i7-5500 / GTX-1060 / 1tb SSD / 32gb RAM // Lemur / BirdDog Studio NDI
~self employed AV technician / Schu.VT|a|posteo.de~
~Berlin~

AcdNrg
Hasn't felt like this about software in a long time
Posts: 74
Joined: Sun Jan 13, 2013 20:46
Location: Frankfurt, Germany

Re: Where to go?

Post by AcdNrg »

Yes, I lean in that direction.

Still, I find animating the ten instances of the 10x1 "matrices" (=LED Bars) pretty limited when controlled by the typical lighting desk software, as most of them appear to stick to step-by-step cuelists with absolute times, as in SMPTE or MTC. Not many offer the option of a pattern based workflow based on relative timing as in BPM/MIDI Clock. In lightjams you need to go to formula level, QLC has other issues.... Where is my Bitwig Studio for DMX :D

Madrix? Aimed at massive pixel count. My 100 pixels aren´t probably the right playground for that.

I agree with Arena, as Avenue´s big brother. But tbh I haven´t checked with the trial version whether it makes sense to use it for the LED Bars. It´s focus seems to be in projection and most of it´s features would lay dormant.

Wire? I love the generator approach, but also haven´t looked at it from any perspective other than projector and FHD number of pixels.

Well, it´s time for more research and discussion I guess.

User avatar
He2neg
Wants to marry Resolume, and Resolume said "yes!"
Posts: 938
Joined: Fri Nov 22, 2013 21:34
Location: Berlin, Germany

Re: Where to go?

Post by He2neg »

Nah... when its just led bars arena can handle this quite well, the complex part is to merge the two system on the artnet lvl....

send the information for the bars from arena trough the light consol / system is the way i prefer.

so you sometime can just let the bars follow the video content in some kind, and in the next minute it can be part of the moving light / light chase setup.

all light fixtures without move can be handled by arena like a charm.


It all depends were you want to do the work.... some ppl also want to do all the work inside the light system and just setup arena to follow.

When you are open for a differnet light system (martin) then you can find some nice tutorials here:
https://www.visionz.fr/tutorials/
His style is not mine, but the system he uses is quite nice and compine a lot of possiblitys
Laptop: XMG P507 // Intel i7-5500 / GTX-1060 / 1tb SSD / 32gb RAM // Lemur / BirdDog Studio NDI
~self employed AV technician / Schu.VT|a|posteo.de~
~Berlin~

AcdNrg
Hasn't felt like this about software in a long time
Posts: 74
Joined: Sun Jan 13, 2013 20:46
Location: Frankfurt, Germany

Re: Where to go?

Post by AcdNrg »

Thanks for the link, food for thoughts.

In my setup, everything is centered around bitwig studio, which sometimes is synced to traktor, sometimes running standalone for just making music (grooveboxes, synths). Ideally, bitwig controls lighting gear as if that was "just another synth". So that is what I look for in lighting desk software: Define atomic elements, like a certain shutter or dimmer setting, then build makros, like "all scanners blue 80%" and finally create scenes that can be called via MIDI Notes from bitwig. Like you build a sound using OSCs, LFOs, Envelopes etc. Keeping number intensive things local to avoid the MIDI bus getting clogged: Like a synth has LFOs, some can sync to BPM, others run freely. If one were to create that within bitwig and then send tons of CC over the wire... you get the idea. So ideally, a lighting software does not think in SMPTE/MTC, but in MIDI clock, bars, quarters etc. Not many do, though.

Given this atom-macro-scene structure, it´s also possible to mix bitwig playback with live interaction: call some existing, non-overloaded scenes to create a basic mood (all bars red at 50%), then fingerdrum macro elements (all scanners white 100%) over it by hand. It´s interesting how much more intensive that gets if you, for example, follow a lead sound not just in tempo, but also flash elements as long as notes are played. It´s a similar step up as in: unsynced light to light in sync.

And now that I get more into LED territory, I´m looking for the right software package to fit into the big picture.

Post Reply