Newb having all sorts of trouble!

jchorba14
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue May 26, 2015 2:33 am

Newb having all sorts of trouble!

Post by jchorba14 »

Just got DMXIS yesterday along with the humble beginnings of my lighting rig...2 Chauvet DJCORE Par 40's.

I got DMXIS installed and what's been happening is as soon as I connect the DMX cable to the first light, the software keeps kicking the hardware offline intermittently. If the DMX cable is not plugged into the unit, then it says its online and stays connected. What is going on there?

Also...the Chauvet DJCORE Par 40 is not in the fixture library. What do I do there? There's 2 DMX settings on the light, 3-ch and 8-ch...what's the difference?

I'm a total neb when it comes to anything lighting related, so any help is greatly appreciated!
Dave Brown [admin]
Posts: 2123
Joined: Sat Sep 15, 2012 4:53 pm
Has thanked: 5 times
Been thanked: 17 times

Re: Newb having all sorts of trouble!

Post by Dave Brown [admin] »

jchorba14 wrote:I got DMXIS installed and what's been happening is as soon as I connect the DMX cable to the first light, the software keeps kicking the hardware offline intermittently. If the DMX cable is not plugged into the unit, then it says its online and stays connected. What is going on there?
Might be a USB power issue. Try connecting your DMXIS box to the computer via a powered USB hub.
Also...the Chauvet DJCORE Par 40 is not in the fixture library. What do I do there? There's 2 DMX settings on the light, 3-ch and 8-ch...what's the difference?
Can you point us towards a product page or a manual for that fixture?
Dave Brown - db audioware
Author of Show Buddy Setlist | Show Buddy Active | ArtNetMon
Dave Brown [admin]
Posts: 2123
Joined: Sat Sep 15, 2012 4:53 pm
Has thanked: 5 times
Been thanked: 17 times

Re: Newb having all sorts of trouble!

Post by Dave Brown [admin] »

Dave Brown [admin] wrote:Can you point us towards a product page or a manual for that fixture?
Never mind, found it :D

The 3-channel mode is standard RGB, so just grab the "Generic LED" fixture set by "simonp" from fixtures.dmxis.com.

You don't really need the 8-channel mode on your fixture, since all the extra features it gives you (macros, strobes, programs etc) can be created in DMXIS.
Dave Brown - db audioware
Author of Show Buddy Setlist | Show Buddy Active | ArtNetMon
jchorba14
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue May 26, 2015 2:33 am

Re: Newb having all sorts of trouble!

Post by jchorba14 »

Thanks for the info and replies, Dave!

The powered USB hum seems to have solved the connection issue and the Generic Par RGB file did the job perfectly, so thanks for that!

Of course as soon as one problem gets solved, a new one arises. I can run the DMXIS application just fine, but when I go to instantiate the VST plugin in Pro Tools, it crashes Pro Tools immediately. You have to use a VST to RTAS wrapper in order to get VST's to work in Pro Tools but I've never had a wrapped VST plugin crash the program. I've also tried v1.43 and the 1.56 BETA versions and got the same results.

Any pointers or help there?
Dave Brown [admin]
Posts: 2123
Joined: Sat Sep 15, 2012 4:53 pm
Has thanked: 5 times
Been thanked: 17 times

Re: Newb having all sorts of trouble!

Post by Dave Brown [admin] »

What wrapper are you using?
Dave Brown - db audioware
Author of Show Buddy Setlist | Show Buddy Active | ArtNetMon
jchorba14
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue May 26, 2015 2:33 am

Re: Newb having all sorts of trouble!

Post by jchorba14 »

VST to RTAS Adapter by www.fxpansion.com
Dave Brown [admin]
Posts: 2123
Joined: Sat Sep 15, 2012 4:53 pm
Has thanked: 5 times
Been thanked: 17 times

Re: Newb having all sorts of trouble!

Post by Dave Brown [admin] »

The DMXIS plugin is a VST 2.4 product. The FXpansion wrapper only supports VST 2.3 plugins.

A more reliable solution for you would be to control the DMXIS standalone by transmitting MIDI Notes to it from ProTools. You can send Notes on channels 15/16 to load DMXIS banks/presets, and CCs to control individual faders etc.
Dave Brown - db audioware
Author of Show Buddy Setlist | Show Buddy Active | ArtNetMon
jchorba14
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue May 26, 2015 2:33 am

Re: Newb having all sorts of trouble!

Post by jchorba14 »

Ahh that makes a little sense then why it's crashing Pro Tools. Although it does seem odd to me that the VST wrapper was able to covert the DMX plugin even though it was not supported.

Is there a tutorial out there that shows how to get Pro Tools to talk to the standalone DMXIS program via MIDI? I'm not understanding the signal flow aspect of how that would work without having the plugin version available.

Thanks again dude for the help!
Dave Brown [admin]
Posts: 2123
Joined: Sat Sep 15, 2012 4:53 pm
Has thanked: 5 times
Been thanked: 17 times

Re: Newb having all sorts of trouble!

Post by Dave Brown [admin] »

Are you using OS X or Windows? The routing is a little different for each platform.
Dave Brown - db audioware
Author of Show Buddy Setlist | Show Buddy Active | ArtNetMon
jchorba14
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue May 26, 2015 2:33 am

Re: Newb having all sorts of trouble!

Post by jchorba14 »

OSX 10.7.5
Dave Brown [admin]
Posts: 2123
Joined: Sat Sep 15, 2012 4:53 pm
Has thanked: 5 times
Been thanked: 17 times

Re: Newb having all sorts of trouble!

Post by Dave Brown [admin] »

jchorba14 wrote:OSX 10.7.5
OK, so all you need to do is enable the IAC Driver (via the "Applications > Utilities > Audio MIDI Setup" app). This is the default "MIDI loopback" mechanism built into OSX, it lets you transmit MIDI between applications.

Then, create a MIDI track in ProTools to transmit to the IAC Driver, and setup the DMXIS application to receive. Now you can send MIDI commands from ProTools directly to the DMXIS application.
Dave Brown - db audioware
Author of Show Buddy Setlist | Show Buddy Active | ArtNetMon
jchorba14
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue May 26, 2015 2:33 am

Re: Newb having all sorts of trouble!

Post by jchorba14 »

SWEET!!! That works like a charm!

Thanks so much for your help, Dave!

All I need now is more lights!! :)
Tarantula
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed May 17, 2017 12:27 am

Re: Newb having all sorts of trouble!

Post by Tarantula »

Dave Brown [admin] wrote:The DMXIS plugin is a VST 2.4 product. The FXpansion wrapper only supports VST 2.3 plugins.

A more reliable solution for you would be to control the DMXIS standalone by transmitting MIDI Notes to it from ProTools. You can send Notes on channels 15/16 to load DMXIS banks/presets, and CCs to control individual faders etc.

How does one go about doing this? I am running Pro Tools 10. I am not fully understanding what you mean by sending notes on channels 15/16.

Thanks.
User avatar
mr-es335
Posts: 30
Joined: Mon Aug 01, 2016 8:47 pm

Re: Newb having all sorts of trouble!

Post by mr-es335 »

Hello,

It would be appreciated if all who have questions regarding any form of troubleshooting issues would have a "form" of some type to abide by - as this would alleviate a number of issues such as the specific:

1) skill level
2) platform
3) hardware
4) OS and version
5) applied "tweaks"

...and so on....
Dell Krauchi
Sentinel Music Studios: http://www.sentinelmusicstudios.com
Canadian Distributor of the MiniFlex 2Mic: http://www.miniflexmic.com
Post Reply