DMX interface or DMX table?

Soundswich has confirmed to me that using the interface cable directly, the DMX spotlights would work without the need for a PC, however, the new songs should be analyzed again, therefore, you need to have an active program account every time they are added new songs to the collection, if we want them to work correctly we would have to prepare the file to use Soundswich…

I’ve read that this can be expensive, having to pay every month to use Soundswich… what do you recommend? Is it worth using the DMX interface with the prime 4 and the quota to have the tracks analyzed or to use an external DMX table and forget about quotas? I normally use a few robot type spotlights, a laser and a smoke machine…thanks for your help

You can buy SS 2.x as well. So you don’t have to have a monthly subscription.

I really enjoy using SS with my SC6ks.

It would be awesome if the player could analyze the tracks for light with a logged in SS account.

$199 for the program and 35€ interface…then I guess I’ll ditch it and buy a DMX table for €60, thanks :wink:

What is a DMX table? Can you post a link?

Of course…

Light control is like speakers, and pretty much everything else…You get what you pay for.

If all you’ve got are 4 radio shack lights which wobble around for a “welcome to my messy log cabin/dining room/bedroom” home stream to an audience of 6 then of course, letting the lights clonk around to their built-in volume peak reactive programs is perfect and cheap.

Bar work , beats’n’beer, free-to-walk-in-walk-out venues then yeah sure, one of those fiddly $60 to $300 OEM lighting controllers will help keep the lights all reacting together, but lack versatility and the less they offer in any sort of built-in display the more frustrating they’ll get, when the only feedback they can give you is flashing a red or green LED to tell you that they’ve remembered another step in your pattern.

If you’ve got a dozen or more light fixtures, and a physical paying audience of hundreds of discerning guests at an upmarket party then something with more versatility, control and finesse is needed.

Whether or not that finesse needs to be a different light show program for every individual song (for the first 30 songs you try out, after that auto-loops seem just fine really), well, that’s every persons choice.

No one said that any element of DJing would be cheap.

To make the lights controlled by Engine Lighting work, it is not necessary to analyze each track: therefore there are autoloops. Obviously the best results and also the best customization can be obtained only by analyzing the tracks and creating the scripts for each of them, but I have seen that even using only the autoloops (for example with streaming tracks such as Beatport or Beatsource) they behave very well.

Obviously, if you do not have Soundswitch you will not be able to change the configuration of your lighting system.

you’re right, each piece of equipment is what you pay for, and when I work in a club or a big event, there are people dedicated exclusively to lighting.

when I work on something more intimate I bring my own lights, which are not that spectacular. Autoloops, it’s something that has clarified my doubts, let’s say that if the song is not analyzed, they work in a predefined automatic mode, right?

something like when you select the auto function in the focus, or to the rhythm of the music… it’s interesting, thanks for your help.:wink:

If light doesn’t matter that much to you, Soundswitch is not necessary. However, if you want some easy way where a software builds your scripted light tracks, SS ist awesome.

Most djs forget that lights are a very important thing for the vibe. But if a basic colour change is enough, go for the controller.

If you want drops, build ups and BPM syncs use SS.

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You have to build a show in soundswitch, where you tell witch DMX lights are used. Than you can fine tune some parameters, analyze the track to build a specific light show for each track.

Export it on the Denon stick and you good to go.

If you did not analyzed the track in SS, it will use the autoloops, some predefined light programms, wit the BPM. Ateast the autoloops are matching the beat.

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I’ve already bought the DMX interface, when I have the library ready, I’ll start using it… does Soundswich take a long time to analyze the entire library? about 6000 songs. I guess there is no need to parse again with Engine Dj? , which has taken me a long time to fix the analyzes and now I have them all blocked and the autoanalysis disconnected, to avoid leaving it again as before, some songs are a puzzle, especially the variable Beats, thanks

I did not analyse the entire library in Soundswitch.

I analysed a handful of tracks and let the rest run on autoloops.

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It depends on your computer. If you have a quick one it will do the analysis fast. I need 2-3 seconds per song.

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perfect, then on a night on, surely it does it without problem…and another question, @mufasa :why do you analyze only some songs and the others in autoloops? Isn’t it supposed to be much better if you analyze them? Thank you

Analysis in Soundswitch is to generate specific light shows per track. That’s all it does.

It does not analyse tracks like for BpM etc.

For playback purposes, Soundswitch uses the tempo/beatgrid info of the track to create autoloops

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So, I understand that using Soundswich to create some more spectacular specific lighting shows with some songs, it is done manually one by one and for the rest of the songs with autoloops, it is enough to have a good lighting to the rhythm of the music… Right?

Yes and you can even customize all the autoloops to your liking if you want.

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i have a different approach. My friends often bring me their stick just before the party. Therefore i dont have the will or the time for autoloops. I want everything as automated as possible. Therefore i have a pre defined layout, where i say what color, how quick the changes and so on. I let soundswitch to the whole work, dont even look at the files. Export it and let it run the night. I dont have to anything afterwards and no LJ is needed for their set. Often i let SS automated my own tracks as well.

Never had a complain from anyone and i am often surprised by the outcome that SS generates. Good droops, good effects and the Moving heads act very well. So yeah you can get specific with autoloops and have some in the backup, if you wanna be really creative, but if you lack of time, create a pre set up, let it run and use the automated light show.

Only thing i do, i have on group 4 all my strobes connected. So i can activated or deactivated it manually, since SS uses sometimes strobes when its not necessary or to early of the evening.

If you want to go deep into a light show you can still create a manual one, but the automation is making it very easy to run a lightshow.

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This is a great tip. I can’t believe that I overlooked this.

The rig I use has 16 Pulsar DataFlash strobes (stupidly bright in a small room) and SoundSwitch always added them too long or bright. This is a great way to control them.

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the truth is that I’m having a hard time getting it to work half well… I mean, I have 4 heads that have 3 types of lighting, Beam, and led ring at the front and wash at the back, when I use an auto script they turn on all 3 almost all the time and it generates a lot of light. he also observed that in some moments of drop or phrase changes, they don’t act with energy. I would like to make more practical autoloops than the ones it brings, since they turn on all the lights as I say and they look too much, (or remove some of the 3 lights in the autoloop) but the truth is that it is costing me a lot, it seems, it will be my clumsiness ) Would I have to design 3 tracks for each focus in the autoloop? I hope someone can help me and if they make an explanatory video I would understand it better, with the tutorials it looks very easy, but the truth is that configuring my lights so that they look pretty is costing me my life hahaha…thanks