Like all high tech equipment and control, DMX has its unique language/protocols - which takes some getting used to. If you can figure out sound equipment, you can figure DMX out too.
The equipment you got will be fine to get started and may be able to work for you permanently (lighting control wasn't that great in the '60's). You will be able to use the lights essentially forever. You may outgrow the DMX Operator before long - especially if you add more or different kinds of light fixtures or want your light show to be very synchronized with what is going on the stage. But it is not a bad choice to get started with/learn about DMX.
Here is a very good overview:
http://www.box.net/shared/hl7oxy4bd6The manuals for lights and controllers are good at some aspects and terrible at others. People on this and the Elation forum are pretty good at answering questions - but they should be more specific than the questions you asked.
To give you a frame of reference for DMX, maybe this will help:
DMX control gives you a way to control each light in your system individually, even though they are all daisy changed on a single cable (there are exceptions to this you don't need to worry about for a long time, if ever). Here's a useful analogy for how this is accomplished: The controller "broadcasts" (think radio stations, except into the DMX cables instead of across the air) light setting instructions on multiple "frequencies." Most fixtures these days, including your 64 LED Pros, need to listen on multiple frequencies to get all the instructions they need. For example, your 64 LED Pros must "listen" on 7 channels to receive control instructions to get full control of each of it's features [See page 12 of your manual].
http://www.americandj.com/pdffiles/64bledpro.pdfIf you can live with less control of the fixture, you can choose DMX modes that listen on fewer "frequencies."
In the DMX world these frequencies are called "Channels," and the first channel for each fixture is called a "DMX Address." To get the set of instructions meant for it, each fixture must be tuned to the DMX address on which the controller starts broadcasting its instructions.
Most modern light fixtures need more than a single set of instructions on the one DMX frequency. So the controllers not only broad cast instructions for a fixture on the "frequency" that is the DMX address, for any given fixture it also broadcasts on several consecutively numbered frequencies. This will become clear with the discussion below.
Different controllers handle DMX addressing differently. The DMX operator is primarily designed to handle 8 fixtures, provided the fixture needs no more than 16 channels to be controlled. Because your 64 LEDs only need 7 channels, it will work fine.
To get started, connect your DMX controller to one of your light fixtures with a DMX cable. Set the fixture Mode to "7 Channel Mode" and DMX address "001." See page 10 of your manual.
The DMX Operator automatically sets the DMX addresses for you - one every 16 addresses, ie., Fixture 1 is set to DMX Address 1, Fixture 2 is set to 17, etc.
Since you set your connected fixture to DMX Address 001, when you select FIXTURE 1 on the DMX Operator, it will control the light you have connected. Slider 1 will control RED intensity; Slider 2 will control GREEN intensity, etc. See page 12 of your manual for what slider controls what on the fixture. Sliders 8 - 16 on the DMX Operator will do nothing.
Now connect the next light to the daisy chain of DMX cables. Set it in "7 Channel Mode" and DMX address 17. When you select FIXTURE 2 on the controller, it will now control the second light. Repeat this addition of fixture (addresses 1, 16, 17, 33, 49, 65 . . . ) until all eight fixtures are connected and controlled.
Then come back to the forum if you have additional questions.