MIDI Stage (Foot) Controlled Lighting.

[btravis77]

 

 

Hey everyone.I am fairly new to MIDI and DMX controllers. I've controlled but not programmed a live, stage side lighting rig that was running through Ableton Live, so I have a little experience with this and understand that a Laptop is the most diverse option here. Thing is, I want to ditch the Laptop for this current situation. My research has pointed me towards the Behringer FCB1010 and the Chauvet Obey 40. And after looking into both products it does appear as if they will do what I need, for the most part. My main question is, can I assign specific Banks in the FCB1010 to act as independent and specific Scene/Chase storage for specific songs within a set? For example, Bank 01 is all of the lighting Scenes/Chases for Song A (hopefully clicked through in order of progression), Bank 02 is all of the Scenes/Chases for Song B, Etc, Etc, Etc (until the end of the show). Another question is, would it be possible to assign over all dimming control to one if the expression pedals? This way it can be used to black out the stage at the end of songs and bring up dim light in between songs. Any help would be greatly appreciated. And I am certainly open to different equipment if it will help to achieve my desired results. Thank you.

[Mr.Grumpy]

I have only a little experience with MIDI, and that's with keyboards and drum machines.  Getting MIDI equipment to interoperate can be a challenge. But basically it requires finding out which commands (MIDI messages) your receiving device responds to, and which commands/MIDI messages your foot controller can send.  This will probably require a "deep dive" into the documentation for both devices. 

Just for grins, I looked up the manual for the Chauvet Obey 40...and from reading the MIDI section of the manual, it's pretty simple. Basically, the Chauvet only responds to MIDI note messages. All you can do via MIDI is trigger a scene and bank combo, 1 through 6 "chases", and MIDI note #127 does a "blackout", presumably all lights off. The Chauvet doesn't appear to respond to "CC message" like the type sent from continuous controllers like expression pedals. Nothing in the Chauvet's manual about configuring a MIDI receive channel, so presumably it will respond to all channels or default to channel 1.

[StratGuy22]

Little late to the party. What fixtures do you have? I tried to get the FBC1010 to work with an obey 70. It was a tough go and I never did get it to work properly. 
 

i ended up going with DMXIS and the FCB1010 works great with it. Also, the Obey is more of a key frame system, using chases. DMXIS uses oscillators which make programming a lot easier. The FCB1010 works great out of the box with DMXIS. I use a Roland UM-One as a MIDI to USB converter to connect it to a computer, which DMXIS uses.