Elation Midicon

[Konken]

Anyone tried this controller with lumidesk ?

[Konken]

Is there still no one ?

[CMBDJ]

The Midi Con may be good for mediuem to large scale productions. But for DJ use, it would be over kill. If I did more LIVE production work than I currently do, I would probably use one. For now, I love using lumidesk with just a mouse.

[LDK34]

Hi Konken,

I have tested it a few month ago, it works fine
Just one point to check : the Elation Midicon Fader were not recognized as dimmer fader (like if you use DMX-in features).
I think it's now solved to be confirmed by Lumidesk Team.

[Konken]

Hi and thanks. It seems that this point is working now. My big concern is that it seems that the master fader does not dim all the channels and the blackout does not work. Also if you see my other post regarding the movement of for instance moving heads, then it does not matter if the fixture is selected or not. All lights will move, this will also affect all other functions. There is also for instance no possibilities to assign midi to live action buttons or groups of fixtures. So there is a long way to go before I can see that this is an software for serious live use. Actuallly I am considering a switch to something else with "full" midi implementation, since I feel that this program do not have that and no one can tell me if there is coming a new better version soon.

[LDK34]

Hi Konken,
I give you some informations tomorrow

[Konken]

Okai Mr, and thanks. A little update from my side. I thought mayby I could try Bome's midi translator and I did. This works fine with for instance mapping keystrokes for selecting groups. I could not get Bomes to work with X/Y parameters. other than when I routed the signal straight throug.( bomes ) My idea was to block the midi signal when the group was not selected. So I'm kinda stuck here. Any great ideas much appreciated.

[LDK34]

Hi Konken,

we're going to find issue to your needs (sorry for my english if something's not well explain, I'm from France).
The test are being done with Beta Release March the 21th (the good version for your needs)
You Have to download the Beta version on line for this
Midi functions are available with Ultimate (I saw in other topic that is what you own).

To activate rapidly a midi Control Change or Note on button : Shift + Left Click

Let's see what you can do with MIDI In (using Midicon, others MIDI Remote should work the same)

Master Dimmer will work with :
- fixtures Dimmer (If the library is correctly done with a channel really assigned as a dimmer channel)
- Conventional lighting (Dimmer channels)
- RGB color mixing : value in the color mix will decrease proportionally
Note : to be working you have to activate once the Master dimmer Fader so it blinks orange; the control is on the fader, not activation of this fader

Black Out and Release Button : Not working for the moment, Julien is working on this light Bug

Pan and Tilt Managing : you can assign Fader or Wheel to the Pan and Tilt for all the Fixture you want, the fixture responding those MIDI Informations will be only the selected ones

Assignation Live Action Button : Shift + Left Click will work to Assign. You'll see "MIDI" written on the bottom left bouton.
When activated, the button won't have a color change as if you click with the mouse (I think it's a small bug, Julien knows about it and he's working on it)
By the way, even the color of the button does'nt change, the action and Parameters change or Sequence calling will perfectly work (just miss the visual indication saying it's activated or not)

Sequence GO + dimmer increasing with fader : you can assign a Midi fader (actually a Control Change) on a sequence. at the beginning of fading up all parameters will take immediately place as you programmed them except the dimmer function of you fixtures. The dimmer will increase proportionally with the Midi Fader level (Do you understand what I mean ? Try it ... you'll love it !)
Tip for this function : On the top of fader ranger (on Midicon I mean) you have 3 Button Noted A B and C.
For example make in Lumidesk 3 sequences for a group of fixtures : 1st : Shutter Open, 2nd Shutter Closed and third Strob or random strobe. Assign A, B and C to those 3 sequences.
You now have complete control on the sequence playing for the group of fixtures programmed regarding Dimmer level (with Fader), shutter opened, closed or in strob mode with direct access via A B or C button.

Cheese on the cake (you say this way I think) : Lumidesk reconize the different MIDI Channels (between 1 to 16) selected via Up and Down arrows changing pages on the Midicon (top left and top middle of the Midicon); Please be careful not to use those button Up and Down for direct access to Lumidesk functions (they also send a MIDI Message when pressed down)
this simply does mean your Midicon can provide
- for the left side : 16 pages of 8 Faders + 3 buttons (A B C) + 1 page of 6 directs buttons (S1 to S6 on the top) having always the same message and not depending on the channel (in other words discussing on all MIDI Channels)
- for the right side : 16 pages of 32 buttons (noted 1 to 32)) + 1 page of 12 directs buttons ("Tactile" buttons, clear grey on the bottom) having always the same message and not depending on the channel (in other words discussing on all MIDI Channels) + 3 Rotating Weel (also all channels discussion) ( For Pan, Tilt, and Speed dimmer in live mode for example)

Finally, there is 2 issues : assign Black Out and Reset button (Julien just find out the problem, he is fixing it) and live action statement switching when activating the button via Midi.
Honestly I feel like the Lumidesk + Midicon package is quite well working and quite complete for a professional use (even there are some small improvement to be done).

Please tell us what do you need more regarding Midi functionality ?

Have a look at the website for future soft updating, Julien will load a new release fixing the last bugs ASAP.

PS : Can you explain "this will also affect all other functions" (2nd line of your post. I'm sorry, I did not find any trouble like this.

Hope those information are clear and helpful for you (and probably others users)

Enjoy your lightings !

Xavier (from France)

[Konken]

Hi Xavier

Sorry about the late reply, I found time for a little holiday with the family
I still found time to test some of the improvements on a show on Thursday.

The function with selecting different moving heads with the same midi assignment worked really well as far as I can tell.
This was the one big thing I really wanted and this is much appriciated. Good work to you all.
My setup for the last show was the midicon ,a laptop and a touchscreen. I use Bome's midi translator for selecting
different groups of lights, since this can't been done via midi yet.
I did not test the master dimmer function, but regarding this I wonder if I have to assign each "dimmer channel" to the master fader or is this
like a "default" function ?

As you mention the blackout button do not work, but I'll guess this will be fixed in near future.

You wrote :
Assignation Live Action Button : Shift + Left Click will work to Assign. You'll see "MIDI" written on the bottom left bouton.
When activated, the button won't have a color change as if you click with the mouse (I think it's a small bug, Julien knows about it and he's working on it)
By the way, even the color of the button does'nt change, the action and Parameters change or Sequence calling will perfectly work (just miss the visual indication saying it's activated or not)

This I tested , but there was no way I could get the live action button to respond to midi. Mayby I did something wrong.

I will test the Sequence Go and dimmer increase with fader as soon as possible, sounds like a cool feature.

What I meant with the comment : "this will also affect all other functions" was simple stating as long as the selction of groups still was sending values to unselected fixtures with the same midi assignment, this was a problem. As far as I can see this is now fixed.

You wrote :
Honestly I feel like the Lumidesk + Midicon package is quite well working and quite complete for a professional use (even there are some small improvement to be done).

And now I agree.

You wrote :
Please tell us what do you need more regarding Midi functionality ?

Mayby the possibility to assign midi to pages //desktop ( or shortcuts ) and this is mayby in some cases stupid ......but I actually would like to "add" pages in the live mode. I have problem fitting all of my settings in a visible area of the screen. And of course the "live buttons" on midi. Did not get this to work.

I was quite happy with the combination of lumidesk and midicon. So on my next job this is prefered instead of an Avolites console

Keep up the good work.
Best regards from me

[Konken]

Forgot one thing :
My point with the possibility to have more than one "tab" for the live mode was to use the page up/down on the midicon to switch between them.If for instance you have a lot of settings with "meaningfull" names the it would be nice to see this also on the screen.

[Konken]

Hi Xavier
This is just an update. I have tested the "Master fader" function on the midicon and this works fine. The Assignation Live Action Button that I earlier could not get to work, was of course the stupid thing of not using Shift + Left Click, I looked to the settings on the button.. My mistake there and this also works fine.
This :
Sequence GO + dimmer increasing with fader : you can assign a Midi fader (actually a Control Change) on a sequence. at the beginning of fading up all parameters will take immediately place as you programmed them except the dimmer function of you fixtures. The dimmer will increase proportionally with the Midi Fader level (Do you understand what I mean ? Try it ... you'll love it !)
Tip for this function : On the top of fader ranger (on Midicon I mean) you have 3 Button Noted A B and C.
For example make in Lumidesk 3 sequences for a group of fixtures : 1st : Shutter Open, 2nd Shutter Closed and third Strob or random strobe. Assign A, B and C to those 3 sequences.
You now have complete control on the sequence playing for the group of fixtures programmed regarding Dimmer level (with Fader), shutter opened, closed or in strob mode with direct access via A B or C button.
This I tested and it works, the only thing about this as far as I can see is that the if you have several groups of lights then the group has to be selected before the dimming on the fader will work and this has to be selected in the live desktop. Is this correctly observed or am I missing something ?

[LDK34]

Hi Konken,

I'm not sur to understand what you mean.
What I can say is that you can use the same fader for several Sequences if they are not in the same Cue.
It' mind you should program yours sequences group / by group in different cues. It's no the easiest way to program your show but it will work.
The go and dimmer increasing (Via MIDI Fader) will work with everything you did program in the Sequence.
In clear if some fixture are not programed in the sequence, you don't have the hand on them in Live mode

What you have to understand is that there are 2 way to use Midicon :

Either you use it to program your show using fader and buttons as shortcut for fixtures parameter
either you use it as Playback wing in Live mode.

You could do both, working with different Midi channel (Page select on the Midicon), but I think you should first be very aware with Midi connection and what you can do (and what you can't do) to avoid any conflictual actions.

Hope this is clear,

Good lighting,

Xavier

[Konken]

Hi Xavier
If I do like you propose. Make a sequence with the fader assign to the dimmer and functions on the A,B and C buttons. This is working just fine. But if I do the same with the next fader and buttons. ( if I for instance have two groups of different fixtures )Then this do not work unless I select the right fixture group first, what I mean with this is that apparently this function only works as long as the fixtures are active ( selected )in live desktop view. If you make three groups with different fixtures and three different sequences on different cues with these functions then one of the fader becomes like a master fader. They all work indepentently if you select the correct group first. If you select all groups, then this do not work correctly. I understand that you can use the same fader for different sequences, but you can't use different faders for sequences, unless they are selected first.
Hope you did understand what I meant It's hard to explain

[LDK34]

Hi,

I think I understand better;
i'll have to check here, but I don't have to much time for the moment.
I'll get back to you asap


Xavier

[Konken]

Hi, I have done some more "research" into this and this is what I found out. If you patch four generic channels, starting for instance at dmx 5 throug 8. And then assign those four to different faders on the midicon. Switch to live mode and active desktop, the fixture has to be selected first. Channel 6 throug 8 will work fine, but the first channel ( 5 ) will always send dmx to all four channels. To avoid this when using ordinary par cans or other traditional fixtures, I create a "dummy" channel in this case on dmx 4. What happens now is that channels 5-8 work fine on the faders. Channels 4 is putting out dmx to all channels, but has no function since nothing is of course connected or in use. This is the case on my system, regardless if the midicon is connected or not.

[Konken]

I haven't seen any updates regarding the blackout key in lumidesk and midicon. I have started to use Bome's for sending the key commands (ctrl+F8 ) and now it seems that the led indication on the screen and the midicon are in sync. This is just an info to someone who find this interesting......