MIDI to DMX

[Moon Dog]

OK Folks...this is big....at least for me.

I have dreamed of being able to control my DMX LED lights with MIDI signals. I control all my guitar patches and VoiceLive 3 patches with Midi output from Setlist makers automation track now....so why not control my lights too right!

Enter DecaBox....http://response-box.com/gear/how-it-all-started/

So now for Solo acts and Bands you can create a custom light show and send MIDI out just like you are controlling any Midi controlled device but this box will convert Midi to DMX and BOOOOOM....you got yourself a light show in perfect sync with your backing tracks.

Here is the $10,000,000 question. How to import an extensive midi track that is specifically used to control all the DMX midi messages???
I know I can manually create presets to turn on specific colors and do Fade Outs and Flashes....but if you look at some of the advanced stuff people are doing with the DecaBox you can make the light show VERY PROFESSIONAL and very advanced but it will take a lot of Midi data to do these more advanced things...more than you would want to do manually.
You could bring a laptop and a DAW and have Midi tracks that are sent to the DecaBox but why bring all that and do all that extra work when we are so close with Setlist Maker!!!

Anyone have any ideas on how to make this work or are we going to have to bribe Arlo to add a feature to import a Midi track or something else??

Look forward to seeing this Thread Explode.

Moon Dog. 

[arlo]

Sorry to squelch your enthusiasm, but it sounds like you need a sequencer app. Set List Maker has automation tracks, but that is not meant to replace a sequencer if you need to set up dense event lists, sync to audio, edit with a graphical interface or use existing MIDI files. The good news is that you can probably control any good sequencer app with start/stop and song selection messages from Set List Maker.

I'd recommend finding out what apps other people are using to control your hardware and starting there.

[Moon Dog]

Thanks for the input Arlo....I was hoping you were going to say there is a way to use Midi learn.....

I'll do my research on a light weight sequencer that will run on my iPad that I can start from setlist maker automation.

Moon Dog

[Moon Dog]

Arlo so I found what I think would be the perfect midi sequencer. It is actually a full blow DAW for the iPad so a Little bit of overkill but at this price no big deal.
MultiTrackStudio for iPad.
https://itunes.apple.com/app/multitrackstudio-for-ipad/id776998585?ls=1&mt=8

So my question is....once I have the Midi track developed for DMX conversion to control the light shows, how do I end send the start message to the sequencer for each song?.

Will I have to go back and forth between setlist maker and MTS to bring up each song? Can I start a specific midi track?

Thanks.

Moon Dog.

[arlo]

You can ask the developer of that app if it can change sequences, and start them, with incoming MIDI messages. Set List Maker can send song select messages or program change messages to select sequences, and start messages to start the sequence playing.

[Christoph]

Hi Moon Dog, I also use BandHelper to control stage lighting and video FX. If you have your light show completely in MIDI songs (SMF) and simply want to run these along Arlos app, you can use Sweet MIDI Player (https://appsto.re/de/YMmEC.i). I prefer to have the light show sequences programmed either in a standalone hardware controller or in a specific DMX app, e.g. Luminair (https://synthe-fx.com/products/luminair) and control these via MIDI from BandHelper.

[arlo]

I didn't mention Sweet MIDI Player because I wasn't sure if it could just play MIDI music, or also send MIDI control events. If that's the case, here's a tutorial for controlling it from my apps:

http://forum.arlomedia.com/index.php/topic,933.0.html

Luminair looks cool because it has a GUI specifically designed for controlling lighting, and I assume you can create and edit sequences directly in that app. That's a nice example of a specialized "partner" app that goes further in a specific area of functionality than I could go within my app.