SoundSwitch DMX for this Dummy

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DJ Forbes

DJ Forbes

Mac Daddy DJ
Jul 30, 2021
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Last summer, I switches from Chauvet ShowXPress to SoundSwitch for my lighting control. I had been using two laptops for ShowXPress and it just felt really cumbersome. I liked that I could control different sets of lights independently.

I bought the "Control 1" for Soundswich to have the one-button touch for light changes. What I don't like, is that I can't seem to control lights individually as easy as I could with ShowXpress. For example, I often use a pair of WashFX lights and uplights together. Sometimes a little kintaFX depending on the environment. With the Control1/SoundSwitch, I can't seem to find a way to play scenes on my wash lights, and do something completely different with the uplights. I may want my wash lights playing to the beat of the current track, while my uplights are doing a slow in-out fade of the wedding colors. Then maybe I want to strobe my uplights during the intro of a song, and then set them back to the fades, for example.

Do any of you use SoundSwitch? Is it capable of doing this? I know you can do a lot of pre-programmed stuff, but I like to be able to make changes on the fly. I'm considering going to something like the RockForce 384 manual dmx controller. Maybe that's better for my needs? Any thoughts or suggestions from those of you with a lot of lighting experience? If it matters, I've been using the Rockville wireless dmx dongles (like the donners, basically) and having good luck with them, so I'll likely stick with those if I can.

Any suggestions or comments greatly appreciated.
 
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Forbes
Definitely wanna follow this thread,
as I am looking for an easy, "dummy-proof" DMX solution.
As far as I can tell, you can use it WITHOUT a controller/software...correct?
(I don't use one)
If I would buy a Control-1, do I need to buy a DMX interface box as well?

If you don't know the answers, hopefully someone else does!
 
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@Ausumm - The Control One is basically an interface box in itself. It connects via usb to your laptop and has two outputs. I use my wireless donner transmitter in one of those and that's all I've ever used. The software is installed on your laptop, and has a built-in interface for Serato and several other of the popular dj programs. It pulls BPM directly from the software.

It's powerful, and you can do some really neat scenes with it, but there is some simple stuff I want to do, but just can't seem to make it do what I want. It could most definitely be a "the user is too dumb" issue, or maybe what I'm thinking should work just isn't as common as I think it is. I'm not sure. Regardless, I'll most likely have a Control 1 for sale in the near future, lol.
 
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To do what you describe your control system has to be able to apply values to a discreet GROUP of fixtures while leaving others untouched by the subsequent cues, If you have group functionality then use it to separate your fixture types so you can apply changes to specific groups rather than the full range of channels or addresses.

I suspect that some inexpensive sound-to-light BPM controllers might simply align channel functions across fixture types and then presume to apply a given change to all fixtures simultaneously. Perhaps look for a way to make a given group or fixture 'inactive' vs 'active' for certain commands or changes.
 
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I've switched from SoundSwitch to the Wolfmix/ADJ WMX1 system. It's much better suited to my average use and I'm enjoying it.

To do what you describe, you can program an override into the Uplights to keep them static, or you can lock that fixture group and run the rest of your show. Locking the fixture group is likely the better solution.

I thought the shows I could in SoundSwitch were really cool, and I enjoyed using it. But the WMX is way easier to get a competent looking light show, and I really liked that I could send the hardware with another DJ and they could use it no problem. With SoundSwitch they need the software and same song files with the shows embedded on their machines. It was just a hassle.

I don't think that helps you with your current concern. But SoundSwitch is not really built for taking over control on a couple devices in the middle of a DJ set.
 
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Just figured I'd follow-up to my original post here. I ended up buying a Rockville Rockforce W4 384 dmx controller. I got it on Friday and had some time over the weekend to try it out. There is still a learning curve, like any DMX controller, but I was able to get everything the way I wanted in about 3-4 hours. I still plan to do some tweaking and set up some different chases, but I get the gist of it and how the banks/scenes/chases/manual mode all work. It's going to take up a little more space on my booth than the SoundSwitch Control 1 did, but I feel much more comfortable and confident with it, so that's a plus for me.
 
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I feel your pain with Sound Switch. Every year for the past three years I would buy the USB-DMX dongle and attempt to learn the program only to return it after being frustrated. This year I made myself stick with it and practiced using it everyday for a month. I made much more progress than in previous years. At this point I have scanned my music library and created the auto loops. I like the smoothness of the autoloops but they seem to be very limited in movement when it comes to my moving heads. I am able to get my up lights to go to different static colors but I have not been able to fully control my moving heads. I'm just about to give up on SoundSwitch again because I don't really need it for my up lights. My Rockville Rockwedges and Best Par 50s all work just fine with the remote control. I have the Rockville wireless DMX controller as well and I may be reverting back to using it especially since I have been using DJay Pro more frequently lately. I may end up just using the Rockville controller along with the wireless DMX receivers to control my moving heads. I really wanted this to work out but I want something I can set and forget. I also still have my ADJ My DMX Buddy which I know is discontinued but I may see if that can work with my moving heads.
 
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@logisticalstyles - Yep, right there with you. Since the weekend I've been playing around with my Rockwedges, Wash FX's and even my little Kinda fx using the Rockville dongles for the wash's and kinta, and having great success with all of them doing what I want, when I want. I'm happy with that.

Soundswitch was cool, especially since you could auto-program lights differently for each track, but I have a library of 10k plus tracks. It would have taken me forever to do those, as I didn't see a way to auto program them, you had to bring up one track at a time for it to create a new show for the track.

It was just more than I was ready to learn I suppose.
 
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