Show Buddy & DMXIS Forums

Hey all. I am new to DMXIS. In fact I do not even have my interface yet but it is ordered and on it's way! I am in an acoustic duo that plays covers and originals. We have been using (5) Chauvet ColorStrip Minis run on sound/auto mode. This was BORING! Ive now added some pars, derbys, moving heads, a laser and a hazer. I amn ot yet sure how I am going to control it all and this is where my question comes into play (bear with me!). I have an Obey 70 laying around and was going to use that to create scenes and control everything from stage via a Nektar Pacer midi footboard (similar to the Beheringer FCB1010). As I dove into reading about linking the Obey and the Pacer it seems daunting and challenging. Not to mention I think this will limit me. I really want to take our show to the next level and add that WOW factor with a good light show. So here is my issue - the vast majority of the time we follow a setlist and do not stray from it, but from time to time we do stray and make changes on the fly based on requests, crowd mood, etc. I understand that with DMXIS I can creates banks (songs) and presets (intro, verse, chorus, etc) for each bank which would work AWESOME if we never strayed from the setlist. Hell at that point I could use a single or dual momentary pedal and keep things pretty simple. But, sometimes we do stray! Any ideas as to what I can do as a work-around if we do stray from the setlist? I dont want to take a minute and do a pedal dance on stage nor do I want to get up, walk to the laptop and use the mouse to jump around. I have a few ideas but none seem like the perfect fix. I don't want to share those ideas yet because I don't want to plan any seeds. I would like to see what you all have done to work around this. Any help, ideas, comments, etc, would be so very appreciated as this has been driving me nuts and keeping me up at night!! Thanks so much in advance!

Welcome to DMXIS!

I play in a couple cover bands. We go by a set lists, however we do stray from it all the time. For this reason I do not have things set up on a per-song basis. At the simplest level, we have different 'looks' set up for verse/chorus/bridge/solo. There are 7 or 8 of these preset groups. I also have a few 'specials' like Blinders or Strobes. We use a Fractal Audio MFC-101 to control everything from stage. Between all of these different presets it's enough to get us through the night and keep things interesting.

I also have a 'backup' mode where if the midi controller fails I use a simple two button switch. Every other preset in that bank adds moving heads and other flashy things. The last preset is a 'talk' preset. Just some nice gentle stage lighting with the focus on the singer. The foot switch has a 'last preset while held' feature. I use this between songs.

It sounds like you're going to be building up your light show from the ground. Something to keep in mind when creating scenes- It's ok to have boring presets. Not every preset needs to go "all out". In fact, just the opposite. You want enough contrast between presets to create that 'pop'. That firework "Ooooohhh" factor. If presets are always going crazy, then there's no where to go. You've already maxed out. At that point it just becomes annoying to the audience. It's too busy. Keep the waves of excitment going by using those boring presets.