Suggestion - DCA mode for faders in virtual console

[amitch17]

I use QLC+ with an install of 20+ stage lights - a mixture of moving heads, showbars, LED par cans and dimmers. It's brilliant. I've built several different versions of Virtual Consoles, either event specific or for general use - sometimes using pre-programmed collections to get an entire look instantly and other times using individual controls for busking.

The problem I am struggling with is a lack of flexibility between "preset" and "busking" approaches. A preset (i.e collection) will need to set intensity levels for each fixture, but when started these cannot be modified in real time by separate VC controllers.

The submasters can help with some fixtures, but they make the operation of the presets more confusing, and they force a certain arrangement of the VC buttons in order to group different things together. I would like to have a layout of buttons on the VC that matches the physical arrangement of the controller (Akai MPC).

I think a solution would be to have a different mode of the fader, which would operate like a DCA (or VCA) on a sound desk. On mixing desks, an alternative to a sub-group is a DCA group, which is like a remote control across a group of channels. For example, all drum mics are assigned to a DCA, and by pulling down the DCA fader - it reduces the output of all channels. By contrast a subgroup can only boost signal so each channel has to be routed through it and not to the main mix. The key thing is the DCA is a modifier (multiplier?) of the signal - it can be left at 0 to take no effect, or used to boost or cut the volume level.

A "DCA" in a DMX world could be assigned to multiple channels and used to multiply the output of any running function - i.e. the result of a collection or cuelist. A bit like a channel specific GM. Whilst useful for intensity it may have creative uses on other functions (e.g. max strobe rate, or assigned to specific color channels), By assigning this fader to a physical controller, I could trigger a collection, and still have realtime control over the brightness of fixtures within that collection.

Would anyone else have a use for this? Or is there a clever way of creating this behaviour already? (loopbacks?)

Thanks!

[amitch17]

Sorry to reply to my own post but I did find a possible solution for loopback and thought I'd post for anyone else interested.

The post and (sample file) here were useful to me: http://www.qlcplus.org/forum/viewtopic. ... 656#p37827

My lightbulb moment (pun intended) was that a loopback universe requires fixtures, not just controls in the VC. The DCA I was imagining can be defined as a "virtual fixture" within the second loopback universe. The existing scenes etc. need to control the virtual fixture, which is linked to a VC fader, which finally maps its value to the actual DMX output.

In essence, it's like a subgroup audio mapping. Clever!

This should work fine for fixtures with an independent dimmer channel, and I think it could work for RGB fixtures via a (hidden) frame and submaster fader although it's a lot of setup.

An assignable DCA fader mode would still be a far simpler solution for the UI?

[GGGss]

That is exactly what I do ... i have an environment for presets and busking controls
and this is completely virtual.
Coming (or preparing) in a venue I adopt my fixtures to what is present and then adopt the connectors between virtual and real world.
(I do mostly all inside the project file itself replacing dummy fixtures with the real ones ... quite some work ... 2-3h preparing for say 40 fixtures)
(colors have to be changed manually since color indexes are different one movers)
(all EFX channels & EFX collections have to be done manually (gobo's indexes differ/ prism / ...)
now we are at about 5th hour in progress and ready to roll.

But it's very complex to debug if something goes boo...