MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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I'm looking for something to run 2 moving heads and 2 parcans for a disco in the lounge with the kids. This controller is obviously overkill but it is cheap and local. Am I better off putting the money towards something new? If so, what? 60 Francs is about 50 quid.
Moving heads on those boards are a PITA to control, effectively each parameter (pan, tilt, zoom, focus, colour, shape etc) can be assigned a channel. They're intended to run parcans via a DMX power bar.
If I were you I'd ditch the parcans and just link the moving heads together as master/slave and set the first one to sound to light. Otherwise you've got to sit there for hours of Let It Go and Baby Shark designing a custom light show on the fly to try and do any better.
They’re intended to run parcans via a DMX power bar.
That's key - the desk controls dimmers, the dimmers power your lanterns, so you'd be looking at more than just a small outlay for the desk.
Thanks for the answers.So it's either full on programm each step, colour, gobo etc or just let it run on auto? Is there a software solution? I am prepared to spend a few hours learning some skills and I have a small budget for equipement. At the moment I just have the 2 moving heads set up as thisisnotaspoon suggested.
There's plenty of laptop based solutions that output DMX via a USB dongle, but you'll still need to program it - that's the point after all! The big difference is that a proper moving light controller will have personality files for your fixtures and macros for effects - so say you want your fixtures to move round in a circle, you select "circle" and then size and speed, and there may well be pre-programmed colour rolls etc. To have A Show, however, you'll still need to program "that" movement, with "this colour" and the "other" gobo (repeat until bored)
Assuming the PARS are incandescent rather than LED, you'll need DMX dimmers for them too.
In true STW fashion, nothing less than this will do of course...
Yep, it's usually linked to a midi keyboard for simplicity.
On a stage show you can simply program each step so all you do is click through the sequence.
For a nightclub I just set up various functions to each key of a midi keyboard (i cant remember what the software was called). So on a 25 key keyboard it was something like:
1-7 ROYGBIV Moving heads (circling movement based on sound to light, pick a gobo at random)
8-14 ROYGBIV Scans (random movement based on sound to light, pick a gobo at random)
15- clear all
16 - projector onto glitterball
17-19 Spotlight on stage/DJ/podium
20 - Red-Blue sirens
21 - Searchlights
22 - Smoke
23-25 Strobe (rapid, Sound to light, single)
The laser was controlled from it's own software.
Then I just had to mash buttons on the night. All you had to decide on the fly was a combination of colors for the verse/chorus/drop etc (or smash the smoke and strobe buttons whenever faithless/Pendulum/Prodigy was played).
I can't really think of a halfway between that setup and setting them on the demo/sound to light mode.
That MA3 is nice but it won't fit into the lounge. I was thinking more along the lines of this
https://www.thomannmusic.ch/intl/stairville_dmx_master_mk_ii_pt_bundle.htm
or this
https://www.thomannmusic.ch/intl/stairville_dmx_joker_512_mk2_usb_dmx_box.htm