Karaoke Forums

I know there have been a few discussions of lighting in here so I figured I'd share a recent discovery I have made.  I am one of the Computer KJ guys and I'm always looking for something else to have my computer do for me and I found a computer lighting package that will blow and DMX controller board out of the water for free.  I know what a lot of you guys are thinking, ok but the computer DMX interfaces are a fortune.  Well only if you consider a whopping $60 for a USB to DMX controller and 5 pin to 3 pin converter expensive.  OK so now your either like who cares about lighting or come and tell me where to get them, so here you go.

The software is called freestyler and it's open source and once you get the hang of it way better than using the old DMX board.  You can get it for FREE at http://users.pandora.be/freestylerdmx/

The controller is made by a company called Enttec and you can buy it online at http://www.enttec.com/opendmxusb.php

I got them both about two days ago and I already have them down so there really is very little learning time.  Gonna take them out with my intelligent lights and dimmers this weekend.  I'll let you guys know how they work outside of my garage if anyone is interrested.

Pk how many channels and fixtures are you using? And you are using your show comp as the controller right? It shouldnt even tickle the cpu usage but have you noticed any problems with mem or cycle sharing between this and your karaoke software?

I'm really not that familiar with dmx but I sure would rather do it with a comp versus a dedicated controller..

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Right now I'm using 4 Intelligent lights at 7 channels each and 1 4 channel dimmer pack so that would be 25 channels and you're right it doesn't even tickle cpu usage.  I'll let you know if it causes and problems after this weekend.

Well just in case anyone is interrested, I took the lights out for the first time this weekend and they performed flawlessly.  Everyone commented on how much cooler it was with a real light show, and I even got offered a gig performing a show for a local television program.  Don't know how serious that was but heck it was still cool to hear.  So I guess what I'm saying is go do this.  It's totally worth it if you are a lighting guy like me.