DMX Control via MIDI Block

RamboMadCow said:
Just like I mentioned where using click tracks takes a buy in from band members, using a full IEM setup takes buy in from everyone as well, though if you can do it, it does make everyone a better player. Even if you're not using click tracks, a mono IEM setup provides so much clarity to what you're hearing the performance from all members are elevated greatly. And in my experience, my band runs our IEMs in stereo so that my guitar is in our left ear and the lead's guitar is in our right ear, and now everyone can easily and discretely hear where the rhythm guitar is in the song as well as where the lead guitarist is.
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Kudos to your band for your setup! It sounds pretty liberating! Do you have a tech running everything for you, or does one of the band members do it? I'd stress too much over the system crashing. lol.

I use IEMs in two groups. One is mono, and the other, while not really IEM, but headphones, in stereo. Both groups have two guitarists. The more country/rock group mono is no problem, but in the thrash group, I could not imagine going mono. Without stereo it was almost impossible for us to get a mix where we could hear ourselves and the other guitarist equally.
 
I use in-ears and the bass player does at times, but prefers a regular monitor. I also don't like playing to a click personally. I love them and run stereo even though the only part ofnour mix that is stereo is the effects.

I have recorded for years with drum loops and clicks, but it comes down to a preference for a live feel that moves and grooves. I know most music these days is recorded to a click, or uses quantized electronic drums, but I prefer the music to breathe and have a more human feel. On the other hand I will use whatever technology I can to enhance that live sound. I know I'm probably in the minority on this, but it just feels better to me. When we recorded we put down bass and drums in one take with no click and let Logic build the tempo map out of that, so I do have a grid to follow for editing, etc, but the slight variances make for a live band feel.
 
tobafett said:
Kudos to your band for your setup! It sounds pretty liberating! Do you have a tech running everything for you, or does one of the band members do it? I'd stress too much over the system crashing. lol.
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I am essentially the designer, engineer, and tech for the band's rack lol. Our system actually goes a good bit further but I didn't get into all of the details since this was specifically about midi and dmx lighting.

I don't worry too much about the system crashing as we use it for every rehearsal, and any time a problem comes up, that's my task for the week. My career is software and hardware testing, so in my non rehearsal time I'm pretty good at diagnosing what happened and then implementing a solution. At this point almost everything is seamless. With that said, there are times where we will not play with the click tracks or stop them in the middle of the song so that we practice if the system has a meltdown. I like the automation this tech has given us, but I don't want to lose the ability to finish the show if we lose the click tracks.

In terms of running the show, I've actually routed a Voodoo Labs Ground Control Pro up to Reaper via the Axe FX 3's midi passthrough. The GCP has been programmed to allow me to dynamically select songs at will and it will select the song in Reaper and then I have a Play/Pause button assigned as well. This allows my group the flexibility to change songs on the fly if I want. Most other click track solutions require you to go in order without the ability to select at will. We've also programmed some pauses in the middle of songs so that we can loop measures on our own or just do a dramatic pause etc, and then I can click the Play/Pause button again to start.

If you're looking to do the biggest show setup upgrade outside of the dmx lighting stuff, and if you run drums with microphones, I would recommend getting a microphone snake that has 8 xlrs to a db25 connector along with a drum rack. I've designed my drum system with a drum rack where you take the drum rack apart into 3 pieces, and the entire kit moves. The kick is mounted to the middle rack system. Once you get to a show, the hi-hat rack arm mounts to the main drum rack and 2 people pick up the kick, top toms, cymbals, and hi-hat and get it on stage. The floor toms are permanently mounted to another rack arm and 1 - 2 people can get that on stage. In a single group move, the entire drum kit goes on. Almost all of the drum mics are permanently mounted and connected, even during travel. You just need to connect 2 floor toms, and a snare. 2 overheads are permanently mounted and mic'd. With the db25 snake, there's a rack mounted db25 to 8 xlr port converter that's pre-wired to our x32.

Essentially the flow then becomes: Drum kit on stage -> connect 3 mics to the toms and snare -> connect 1 db25 snake to the back of the rack -> power on the rack. Drums are ready to perform and once the Axe FX units boot up the guitars are ready to perform. I designed our rack to be able to get on stage and going very quickly. We can get the whole thing on stage, connected, and be ready to perform within about 5 minutes, less if you have 1 or 2 friends helping to get all of the vocal mics on stage.
 
Sounds like an awesome setup. My Axe-FX III is in the rack with my mixer and is routed for both guitar and an additional send from board to add in different effects now and then on my voice. I have a friend building two breakout stage boxes similar to what you described. One will be front of stage for a few vocal mics, runs for main PA, sub and a monitor, and possibly for the DMX lines, but not sure on those. The back stage box will handle the few drum mics we will use, drum vocal, bass DI and drum monitor. He has the multi-pin connectors for each box so will only run two large cables back to the rack and not have to deal with a bunch of long mic cable runs.
 
Just posting back to let you guys know I got it working from the MIDI block. That MIDI Solutions Event Processor did the trick and was easier than I thought to set it up. Programmed CC 9 on Channel 9 to convert the value sent from Axe-FX into the corresponding MIDI note data for my ADJ board. Basically took one command to program what I needed and the software for the device made it easy.

I have only had time to get one bank of scene's programmed and I have a lot to learn about dialing things in. For now I'm not quite sure about how to incorporate chases, but can probably do some fairly simple scenes and change them with the song parts. Hoping to put together a rig rundown video in the coming weeks that shows how it all works.
 
@Admin M@, just thought I would post back and see if you have any tips on setting up that MIDI Event Processor. Was very simple to set up to translate a particular CC and translate the value to a note, and that works well for recalling scenes, but when I try to throw in a chase for part of a song it gets really cumbersome. I can do fine with having the AFX scenes call up a different DMX scene, but if I want to use a chase for something I can turn it on and turn on audio sensing and it seems to work. Coming out of that and going back to a regular DMX scene after starting the chase is not effective the way I am doing it. I have tried sending a signal to turn off the chase and auto while triggering a DMX scene to start, but that shuts off all of the lights and does not start the scene when you switch it. Seems like it is toggling the chase and auto off, but I would need to hit another switch to turn on the scene I want.

Anybody have any ideas on how to get things working with chases?
 
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