Using the FX generator on multiple groups of fixtures

Kind of, sort of.

With my experience with teh FX generator, it's best to limit your work to ONE type of fixture at a time, although I can see what you're trying to do and your description DOES make sense to me. Since I have fewer moving units, I can't really replicate the environment yet, but I do have some scanners in mind for future purchase, but not urgent.

I need to play with steps more, but let's say you go select your moving heads first, generate the steps, then DOCUMENT what is what. In my case, let's say I am doing "out of phase rotating circles" on my moving heads, so MyDMX generated those steps for me. You could the go back into the FX generator on the same scene and then choose your scanners and do what you want to do with those. Maybe interleave your steps if you can move them?

You can also manually alter steps in a scene in MyDMX, so maybe you bypass the FX Generator, or you use the FX Generator to get your values, document and then make a new "kick-butt" scene using those documented values.

So, let's say I do this more simpler in this concept:
I use my 2 moving head fixtures and they do a clockwise rotating circle on the back wall above the band.
Then I use my scanners(which I do NOT have) and do counter-clockwise circles pointing into the audience or maybe the dance floor area.

Here's how I would do it:
Make a new scene. Generate the moving heads first, generate the steps, then write them down on paper(channels, values PER STEP). Save the scene, maybe it's good to use for something else.
Make another new scene. Repeat the process with the scanners. Document on paper, same as you did with the moving head scene. Save the scene, you never know.

NOW, assuming they both have the same number of steps, you're golden. For example, I discovered that making a circle with 20 points for my movers generated 6 steps. Let's say both your scenes ended up with 6 steps. OK, simply combine these. Copy one of those two new scenes, and then going "step by step" in edit mode, add your values from the other scene step by step. There you go. Save it. Name it. Enjoy it!

It CAN be done. It may not be totally straight forward or simple, but it CAN be done and relatively easily. Just requires some "human intervention" to realize it.

Ok, I got admit... American DJ screwed us out on this one... They grab a software from another company, make some changes to it so its a just a baby version and sell it and have no plans to update it to make it more user friendly for people. If you don't know already, they have no plans with myDMX other then fixing bugs, so don't expect any upgrades. If you want the good stuff, go with something else.

You can only control 1 efx at a time. The only way of doing it is writing the steps down and doing it yourself.

The effect generator is BROKEN! Its a nice function but it doesn't allow you to assign different effects to different groups of lights. So bascily, whatever effect you do, its applied to the lights you selected and you can't do any other effects unless you create the steps on your own.

The program needs to be changed so you can do multiple effects to multiple lights and not being stuck on one effect.

The same arguments could be made for quite a few other software packages, ranging from cheap to a few million bucks, so don't single out ADJ for this sort of decision.

OK, how are you supposed to generate FX for 2 different types of lights at the same time with an interface that ideally supports properly doing one at a time?

In my case, my FX are relatively simple. I only have two movers, and they are both the same make/model. Let's say I wanted to add some scanners, well then it would be different, but I don't yet.

You're not stuck with one effect. You're just going to have to make an effort. I'm sorry that the concept of making an effort is offensive or too much hassle. Making an effort is what it takes to get ahead in this industry..

MyDMX was designed to be a quick, easy to use and inexpensive alternative to some of the basic and possibly more advanged ADJ/Elation controllers. It's NOT suppose to "do it all" and have all the bells and whistles. They have a product for that, it's called "Compu Live"

I don't see how you can say it's broken. It's not. You're asking it to do something it wasn't designed to do. This isn't like putting out modem firmware that claims it supports Bell 208.B signalling, then it turns out it doesn't support it, and the client bought the product because it supported 208.B. Then again, I suppose this is the difference between a client spending $120K vs some DJ spending less than $300 on software. But, I took a multi-billion dollar company to the wall over the 208.B issue and made them resolve this issue.

I mean, you Can layer FX if you want. Generate 1 set of FX, then go back into the scene and generate the next FX. What I can't see is maybe "interleaving" the steps, or even naming the steps to help you achieve this task. It's not to say it can't be done, because it can, but unfortunately, it's gonna take a bit of effort. And you've shown that you simply can't be bothered.

Best I can see is that if you want your fixtures to do the same thing(moving type units such as moving mirrors and moving yoke heads), then a sepparate control. I mean, why not simply go about and try it and see what it may or may not be able to do. Maybe you CAN do what you want.

In my case, I have a LOT of Par38's, 8 64 B LED Pros, a pair of Color Fusions, a pair of Q-Spot 150's, a quartet of Intimidator Colors, the rest are "high tech effects" that operate off power/relay packs. I intend to add some scanners later on and some additional movers, bt right now business doesn't dictate it. However, I'll tell you right now, I'll be talking to Jingles soon to discuss some new LED lights I should probably consider(like scanner-type fixtures) and maybe some other ADJ LED lights that involve movement. Once I have those fixtures and I add them into MyDMX, I'll start playing more.

Jingles introduced me to the 64 LED Pros and MyDMX, and I've been very happy with my purchases.

Going into the FX Generator, and just accepting the defaults of everything, I get a lot of additional tabs I'm not used to dealing with. But it does appear I can do say a "knight rider" thing with cans, some gradient changes with color mixers, and other nifty things AND do stuff with my movers. So, who knows....

Why don't you go download MyDMX and start playing with it. If you own it, try playing more seriously. If you've already downloaded it, dive deeper.

I personally find MyDMX relatively easy to use. As an alternative to my DMX Operator, I find it a vast improvement over the DMX Operator. I can let someone unfamiliar wiht lighting operate MyDMX. In my case, I have a new assistant who is light-savvy as well as audio friendly, which is great.

Why not play with it more before condemning it. Maybe I am wrong. Wouldn't be a first. I may be wrong, I've seen some new things since addressing your issue with MyDMX. Since you can download the FULL WORKING version of MyDMX for FREE off the web site, download it and install it and start playing with it. If you like what you've done and like the product, then BUY it to get the dongle. There you go.