Footswitch control of DMX Lights?

[flyinblind50]

Any suggestions on how to control a DMX show from stage via a footswitch, including intelligent lights, color changers, LEDs and par cans?

Thanks

[B Money]

I've been looking into this and the only thing that seems workable is using a midi foot controller to send midi note on commands to a midi compatible DMX controller.

THe good news is that many DMX controllers will accept midi note on commands to activate chases.

The bad news is that there only seems to be one midi foot controller that can send midi notes: the Behringer FCB1010.

And you can only trigger chases via midi, it doesn't look possible to control DMX parameters using midi continuous controllers.

How cool would that be to drive a dimmer or scanner using a midi foot controller? LOL

So in theory it's possible. We'll probably go that route eventually.

[flyinblind50]

Forgive my ignorence but I was thinking if the midi note trigger would change scenes on the controller then by switching scenes everything would change/move from the previous scene to the newly selected scene?

[B Money]

 

Originally posted by flyinblind50 Forgive my ignorence but I was thinking if the midi note trigger would change scenes on the controller then by switching scenes everything would change/move from the previous scene to the newly selected scene?

 

 

correct.

 

My plan is to eventually setup several generic scenes that I can trigger via midi pedal for various parts of our set.

Like have several "breakdown" scenes, a couple of different creshendos, maye some special effects like strobe.

[Zeromus-X]

Behringer's LC2412 can store 99 chases with 99 steps, and has a 1/4" jack on the back for a footswitch. Use any momentary style, like a piano sustain pedal, that's what I use. I play drums and run the light show. I use one chase per song, and just use the footswitch to move through the steps of the chase. At the end of the song you'll have to reach over to go to the next chase, though, but that shouldn't be a huge issue.

 

On the plus side it's probably your absolute cheapest option, too.

[kidmag]

Zeromus-X,

 

I think your using a set-up similiar to what I am trying to put together, so I'm hoping you don't mind if I pepper you with some questions.

 

With a footswitch and the LC2412, are you simply going through scenes sequentially? Or can you go back a fourth between scenes. For example (simplified) lets say I want 3 scenes - verse, chorse and break for a song that goes verse, chorus, verse, chorus, break, chorus. would I have to set-up 6 scenes? Or could I toggle back and forth? Any way to switch into a chase? or can you set that up as a "scene"?

 

Essentially I want to do something like the above, but different scenes or sequences for each song in our set. I just got 4 colorsplash 196 for a really good price and am now looking at how I can control them from stage ( I play guitar, so footswitch is the only option). Each colorsplash uses 7 dmx channels, I'm thinking I'll control them in pairs. That would mean 14 channels are being used correct? and that I would have 11 channels left with the LC2412?

[Zeromus-X]

Keep in mind the LC2412 has two banks of 12 channels. If you can run everything on the same bank, DO IT. Seriously. There's a switch to toggle whether or not you're working with channels 1-12 or 13-24... but when you flip that switch, you're going to lose all the settings you had. It's hard to explain...

 

Let's say step 1 of your chase had the following values, and you wanted step 2 to have the same values:

Channel 1: 255

Channel 13: 0

 

You'd set channel 1 to 255, then you'd hit "Upper", then you'd set channel 13 (the same fader) to 0, then you'd hit "Save". Now you're on Step 2. Except your slider is still at 0. So now you've got to go through and set channel 1 to 255, and hit Upper, and set channel 2 to 0, and save.

 

Now, if you were using, say, channels 1 and 2 instead of 1 and 13:

Channel 1: 255

Channel 2: 0

 

You'd set those, and hit "Save". Now you're on step 2, and the sliders are still in place, so you hit "Save" again. Done.

 

It may not seem like a huge difference but when you're dealing with a ton of fixtures or channels, and many of them stay the same throughout different steps... it gets REALLY time consuming.

 

When stepping through using the footswitch, you're going forward only. If your song has Verse-Chorus-Verse, and you want the verses to look the same, you're going to need to program a scene for the first verse, a scene for the chorus, and a scene for the second verse. Not a big deal if you don't change much, but if your verse has seventeen scenes in it, that's now 34 scenes you'll be programming. You can see where this would be less fun. The FC2412 can be MIDI controlled but I have no experience with this whatsoever.

 

When I program mine, I make each chase equal to a song. We typically did about 12 songs a show, so that's 12 chases. The Behringer board allows 99 chases with 99 steps (scenes) in each chase. You can footstep through the scenes one at a time, forward. Once you get to the end it automatically wraps around to the first, so I always duplicated whatever my last scene was, in case I accidentally hit the button again, because my first scene was always "blackout". To change chases, you hold the "shift" button and turn the wheel on the board -- you can't do this with the footswitch to the best of my knowledge (unless using MIDI, but like I said, no idea there). When you turn the knob once, you'll now be on the next (or previous, depending on which way you turn!) chase, at step 0.

 

Hope something here helps!