What is all needed to get up and running with DMXis while playing

[oachs83]

Hey everyone, so I am wanting to update our lighting show when my band plays. I want to be able to control it from stage and the little research I have looked at the DMXis seems to be the answer. Now I am not looking for anything elaborate or over the top just want the lights to somewhat follow the songs. For example for slower songs have the lights be softer or focus on only one or two parts of the stage until the whole band kicks in. Also have the ability to blackout on a few spots. I have a spare laptop already and other than actual lights obviously what are some of the hardware and software I might also need to run a basic setup like this while playing on stage? Is "showbuddy" or "Ableton" better than one another? Do I need a midi foot controller and if so what is a recommendation? Sorry if this is a bit vague as I am still pretty new to all the lighting stuff. At this moment are running our lights on auto and hitting the fog machine with a foot controller, thanks guys.

[StratGuy22]

A midi foot controller would work. Set up all your scenes. The Behringer FCB1010 works well right out of the box. Buy that, a midi cable and a usb -> MIDI interface and you're golden.

 

 

 

You could assign one "volume pedal" to the dimmers for the lights on the band and the other one to the dimmers on the rear wash lights. The only thing is if you change to another scene, it reads the new dimmer level.

 

 

 

Best at to create a bank of scenes with the dimmers set lower.

[abzurd]

I use an Obey 70 and midi-moose. Super easy to control and the foot-pedal runs on a 9V so it's just one cable to the controller which makes it easy to relocate on stage where ever needed. The foot controller is also very small compared to any other "full function" foot control.

 

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MIDIMoose