Simple DMX controller

gdgross

Experienced
Does anyone have thoughts on a simple DMX controller that can be used from a stage, preferably with footpedal controls and maybe an audio in to sync some stuff to sound? (like a kick drum mic, for example!)

My band is starting to do a fair bit more large private events, and our lighting situation is currently suuuuper simple: just four ADJ uplights. I was thinking today that it might be cool to be able sync some scene changes to audio, and maybe control a few scene changes from a footpedal.

I'm guessing there must be products out there that would do this? I've zero experience with lighting other than setting these uplights up before the gig and forgetting about them until teardown. I've never even plugged in a DMX cable to these lights. (they're just xlr tho I believe!)

Anyway, thanks in advance for any recommendations or thoughts!
 
We use DMXIS on a Windows device. It’s been superseded by ShowBuddy, but I guess that does something similar. I trigger lighting changes using the Scene Midi block. If I create relevant scenes it can give us different lighting effects for Intro, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Solo, and Outro.
 
I is DmxKing and it’s never had an issue.
 

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Looks pretty cool. My band could use something simple like that. Looking forward to seeing how it works out for you.
Was fooling around with it just now. Seems like it's gonna give me waaay more options than just set and forgetting my little PAR lights. It's like it was tailor-made for my situation: lots of easy/cool options, with no extra person to run lighting, and not much extra mental bandwidth to think about it. (Also, it's stupid cheap: $100 at GC)

There are some built-in color palettes and modes, again they seem pretty useful to me. Also a black out button, dimmer knob, strobe, etc. Most of these are duplicated on the included footswitch.

There is a built-in mic on which you can adjust the sensitivity, so that it will flash with the beat if you put it in that mode, and also an audio input. I tested it with clapping and it seems like it tries to get the bpm sort of like a tap tempo pedal, but it also stopped flashing when I stopped clapping. I also tried playing some music on my studio speakers, and it worked slightly less well. I think next weekend I will take a distinct aux just for this, probably of the drum mono OH+kick (which is all we usually mic up) or maybe just the kick and see which works better in practice.

I recorded a little demo vid on my phone, but it seems mp4 or mov are not allowed as attachment types on the forum?
 
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If you are only doing some cans and no movers FreeStyler is computer based and you can build a few chases and then use the kick through an aux or USB send (depending on your board). We had a USB to DMX512 adapter and the app and that worked really well. We use D-Pro now but it's actually a pain to work with, but we added a bunch of movers so we needed better control.
 
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