Midi To DMX Controller

[Ruckman65]

I have connected my iPad to a DMX lighting controller using an iRig Midi interface. I cannot determine what information would be required in each song's MSB, LSB and/or program change fields. The manual for the controller offers no information.

I have tried a few configurations, such as only using a single digit number in the program change field or the MSB field or the LSB field.

I have set up the controller and SetList Maker to connect on the same midi channel. The iRig Midi interface recognizes that a midi command is sent via SetList Maker when I press the midi icon on a particular song but it does not trigger a response from the controller. Any ideas? 

[Christoph]

I have a similar setup working perfectly. If your question is still open, can you provide at least manufacturer and model name of the DMX controller? There should be some MIDI implementation info in the controller's manual.

[Ruckman65]

Hello Christoph. Sorry about the delay in replying. The DMX controller is by BrightLite. www.djcity.com.au/dmx12-brightlite-dmx-controller

I can't locate the manual at present but I thought I had tried everything from there in attempting to set it up with SetList Maker. Perhaps you can let me know how you got yours to work and I can try to emulate that, even for something as simple as on/off for a standard par64led. Thank you for your help.

[Christoph]

You would need the MIDI implementation to see what MIDI commands your controller can work with.

We had a cheap one at first (quite similar to the Bright Light) that supposedly worked with MIDI, but the MIDI implementation was buggy and it just did not work. We are now using a slightly more expensive one by German company GLP that has a flawless MIDI implementation. It mainly receives MIDI note commands to call up preprogrammed scenes. At first, we put the MIDI note commands in SLM's raw MIDI data input fields to choose an appropriate light scene for every song.

Meanwhile, we use an additional MIDI processor to convert MIDI clock sent by SLM to beat commands for the DMX controller. With this we have the light show synchronized to the tempo of the current song. See this topic for a picture of the setup.

[Ruckman65]

Hello Christoph. Thank you for the advice. I always felt that the midi implementation might not quite be on the money given the scant information included with the manual. Perhaps, as you have done, a new, and better quality, DMX controller may be a good option. Are you able to give me a sample of what entries you included in SetList Maker for each song's MSB, LSB and/or program change fields, assuming that is how you control the lights.

[Christoph]

Can you share what information is available in the manual of your light controller? Because this really depends on the actual MIDI implementation of the specific device.

From my experience, most of the low-budget DMX controllers use MIDI note messages so that one can use a simple MIDI master keyboard to switch scenes. In this case you would have to use the raw MIDI data field in Set List Maker and apply the MIDI messages specification in hex code.

Example: Your controller receives on MIDI channel 1 and expects a Note on message for key middle C (C in the 3rd octave) with a velocity greater than 0 to display a certain light scene. The MIDI message for note events in hex code is: 9c kk vv where c is the channel, kk the key number and vv the velocity. So you would have to put into the Set List Maker MIDI preset the following string: 90 3C FF where 0 is for MIDI channel 1, 3C for note number 60 and FF for velocity 127.

Pretty geeky stuff but that's the way they invented MIDI back in the 80's. That's why I use this little MIDI processor and have it automatically convert program change messages (they are easier to use in SLM because there are special fields for them) into note messages.