Decisions..Decisions....JINGLES!!!

Let me start off by saying welcome to the forums. And no, my dmx was never intended to have future features added to the software as an upgrade. It will still be supported. I personally will support this product till the day they tell me not too and then I can imagine answering questions about it as they come regardless if i am supposed to or am paid too or not. haha. In my eyes My DMX is not EOL by any means. Before i throw out a product recommendations Tell me how you are going to trigger your shows? or what are your plans to trigger your show? Who is going to trigger it? You? or a dedicated lighting guy?
Sincerely,

Just download MyDMX and start playing with it. If you like what you see(and you CAN do MIDI triggering without the hardware), then buy it and get the MyDMX USB interface and you're all done.

Really though, I think you should sit down and think of all the stuff you want and need your software to do. Make that list and then post it. That should determine whether or not you should go with MyDMX or go with Compu Live. Both are great products. MyDMX is a tremendous value and you get fantastic bang for the buck considering what they've put in there. I have no familiarity with Compu Live so I can't speak with authority. It may be that your requirements do require a more higher end product, which is precisely where Compu Live would fit in.

Can you run MyDMX from the stage? Sure, but I personally wouldn't. I have an issue with performers trying to run their lights and sound. Sound is sound, lights are lights and band is band. Sure, we all end up colliding on the same stage, but we all have to also work together for that mutual goal. With each team doing their job or jobs as it may be, everyone wins.

Can you make a show and reprogram it for another show? Sure, but how you go about it is entirely up to you. There are many right and wrong ways, and it really depends on what you're trying to accomplish as to what right or wrong is in regards to your situation.

Let's say if you're highly rehearsed and tight, you could make a scene have enough steps in it to be a song. Fairly easy. Let's say you do a 10-song set for an hour, that's 10 scenes. Want to change it around? DO a SAVE AS before tweaking. Save AS is your friend!

Changing MIDI triggers is a bit more challenging, but isn't difficult, and again, SAVE AS. Just seems to me this would be a bit much to remember though.

My suggestion would be to just make usable scenes, then assign the appropriate MIDI triggers(note on) and then trigger as needed. But that may not work for you guys. What is neat is you can have a scene loop X amount of times before going to the NEXT scene, which you can specify. IN my case, I've done things a bit different. In my example, my strobe scenes go from strobing in that color for X amount of seconds, then NEXT goes to the "base" wash scene of the same color, and that scene in turn holds, but I could just as easily program loops and further NEXT commands on a scene by scene basis.

It is all up to what you want to do and how you feel it's best you go about getting it accomplished for your situation.

Don't spend money yet. Download MyDMX and start playing. Ask questions. Figure out what is right for your band. If it is MyDMX, then great. If not, then you're most likely a Compu Live customer and you should go in that direction.

As expected, it took you guys less time to answer than it did for me to write the question. Thanks for that. As far as triggering, I am hoping to have a full time light/sound guy for the band. But I do not know if I will before our gig in two weeks. This place does not have any lights and we procrastinated until now to get any. My hopes and dreams here are that by automating the lights, it can free the sound guy up more to focus on the sound. I'm trying to save from spending $200 a night on a sound guy and a light guy. In some venues where it is much smaller and we may even go with a smaller setup, I would run the lights and sound from stage.

I am all about automating as much as possible but I understand that there is alot more to it than plug, program, and play. I am hoping to have a full time sound/light guy added to the band before the next gig. We already have 6 guys on stage as it is.

I did download the software and started to mess with it. Actually, I bought this product yesterday and when I got it home someone had jacked the software and dongle from the box. Guitar Center is taking care of me regarding that, but I started doing some research and saw "The Future of MyDMX" post which got me worried. I wanted to make sure this is the right product for our band for now and the future. Our band will not grow, but the light show may by a little. If Compu Live is as easy to run as MyDMX, I have no problem going down that road.

Again, I don't really care what the cost of the product is if it is the right product. But as I said, I am a total novice with lights and am learning as I go. I am highly proficient with software and programming. Browsing through this forum has given me a jump start on answers to a lot of the questions I had and some I hadn't thought of yet. I've got about $3000+ in lights waiting to be picked up today. I wasn't able to get the gobos yet or that price would have been more than doubled, or tripled. I'm just running some LED cans (64s, 83s, and 38s), a moon flower, a couple of mirror spots, and a few laser effects.

Thanks again guys. I really appreciate you amazingly fast response and hope you can help me get moving forward with the right product. I think MyDMX will do what I want but I don't have enough info or experience to be sure.

Best Regards,

Steve

well let me just say in terms of automation in my eyes compu live is better for it and has more features that ensure it. not knocking my dmx. but i use compu live over my dmx. but that is just my chosen tool for my trade.

Sincerely,

Thanks Jingles,

Is Compu Live 1024 as easy to use as MyDMX? I boast to be easy. Since you know both, are they equal in intuitiveness?

Thanks again,

Steve

Tell you what i really just depends. on compu you have pages and then edit windows with faders. on my dmx you have faders and the EFX gen window (which is the same EFX gen used in compu).
so i'll link up two videos on you tube. instruction videos. one is my dmx one is compu. you judge for your self. OR download compu live. shouldn't hinder your my dmx program at all.
Link:
MY DMX you tube: www.youtube.com/mydmxtech
Compu Live you tube: www.youtube.com/compulivetech

Compu live download link:
http://www.elationlighting.com...mpu-live_11-2008.zip

Word of caution: The Compu Live link is a DIRECT download link. you click it, it starts to download the .zip file.
ALSO same goes for compu live as my dmx. extract the .exe file to the desktop before launching the install .exe. ok? be sure to leave the my dmx dongle UNPLUGGED when installing compu live should you choose to go that route. If for some reason after you install compu your my dmx dongle is not detected by the my dmx software let me know I can help as I have BOTH on my laptop.
Sincerely,

I'm a professional live sound production company and MyDMX more than meets my needs.

Since I'm not working with bands to the extent where they are going to have a syncronized light show, that saves me from needing to use some more advanced features of myDMX, and definately not needing Compu Live. At least I don't need Compu Live at this point in time.

It's really based on what you need in the end. As I said, MyDMX, for the cost, is super feature rich. With Compu Live, you spend more and of course, you definately get a lot more. Think about MyDMX as being a great alternative to a reasonably priced entry level controller(or maybe slightly better than entry). It's intended for a low-cost console alternative and for someone like me who can't plug in lights to play with and can't visualize, it's ideal because the 3D Visualizer does exactly what I need or at least gets me to where I need to be. My "Lobo" scene had to be done on-site to get the exact placement right, but even so, MyDMX got me 90% there ahead of time.

I still have my DMX Operator console close by. Just in case my SW fails, I have immediate fail-over at the ready.

My suggestion for you now is aside from those lights you mentioned, I'd suggest going LED for your washes. Saves power, super bright, compact, light way, low current, no need to mix and match gels, just color change away!! I would recommend getting fixtures that have a dimmer channel. This lets you select your color AND intensity independently. Much important.

I gotta scoot now. I have to play with my 64 LED Pros and familiarize myself with the color macro function and see how I may be able to exploit that. I want money so I can buy some new gear.

I have more pressing issues to deal with at the moment. Anyon know a good consumer law attorney in Sacramento?