Advice on using QLC+ and TouchOSC (especially with scenes)

[BushAl]

Hi all,

Advice please, we have a community hall that runs folk / blues concerts. we want a simple setup suitable for non-experts allowing us to setup the lights as we want and then save those as scenes, so they can be reused later.
We want as much as possible to be controlled from a tablet running something like TouchOSC.

I have had trouble making this work seamlessly, and wonder if I am missing something simple. Our setup is more complex but the difficulty can be explained with a single hex par.

I have set up our lights on QLC+ with 7 sliders for each Hex Par directly controlling the relevant channel.
TouchOSC also has 7 sliders with each controlling the QLC+ slider via OSC in Universe 4. Feedback is selected so TouchOSC sliders will react to QLC+ changes.

That all works well. The problems start when I introduce scenes.

I added two buttons, both to QLC+ and to TouchOSC, and used DMX dump to create each. Ideally it would be great to do this from TouchOSC but I can see why this is a problem.

Our ideal is a button on TouchOSC which triggers the scene, after which the sliders can be used to adjust it. But each time the scene is triggered it should revert to the original scene.

Triggering a scene changes the lights, but does not affect the sliders, so triggering a blue scene when the red slider is high results in purple (because of HTP).
I could change to LTP to fix that but I am worried this will interfere with fade in / out.

I also tried selecting "monitor the selected channels and update the slider level". This does allow a scene to affect the sliders, but the changing any slider then turns on the red button which then fixes that channel until it is manually clicked (Even after reset the slider thumb stays in the manual position and so does not reset if another scene is engaged).

So I cannot see a way to achieve our ideal. A "monitor the selected channels and update the slider level" which did not care where the input came from would (I think) be perfect

Is anyone doing anything like this? Any advice very gratefully received.

Thanks to all who help with this software, especially Massimo

[GGGss]

Planning, pre-production and production need different tools to become effective.
That said, dumping DMX values into scenes is pre-production work.
These set scenes can be used during production, but adapting them while in production is not possible I'm afraid. That is to say: not with the same tools as in pre-production (the sliders controlling channels).
Changing scenes momentarily and expecting them to reset to their previous' state is difficult without cloning them and rebinding those to the controls.
If a director would want to change the look of a scene, you would call that scene, change it and store it again. It then would be the responsibility of the lightsperson to verify that a backup has been effectuated (in case the changes have to be reverted) and that this scene runs correctly inside in a follow mode chaser (sequence).
You quickly understand that automating this is not easily possible... even on big $$$ desks.

I'd stick to a preprogrammed show with tad of looks for the novice to play with. In fixed installs, I get called again after a month or so. And then they quickly know what works and whatnot. So I adopt and enjoy a beer.
In my experience, a novice user can catch up very quickly in how to change things inside QLC+.

[BushAl]

Thanks for that.

We are a very small group of non- professionals so directors etc don't exist. The lights would normally be handled by the sound engineer (me) or someone even less experienced! We have one guy who is ex theatre but not available often so we hoped he would set up various scenes for us as a starting point, so we could explore from there. Working completely from scenes or completely from sliders works fine, but as soon as you mix the two things get ugly.

[GGGss]

Working completely from scenes or completely from sliders works fine, but as soon as you mix the two things get ugly.

Exactly this is what small scale theatres are confronted with changing from traditional or LED lighting. They want to keep their old desks because they are acquainted with them. At the same time the traditional desks do not coupe (they do, but you need octopus fingers to control) with a lot of additional channels coming with the modern fixtures. They now also struggle with the fact that a look now needs real scenes...

[BushAl]

After some considerable fiddling, I think I have found a compromise which works for us (at least at the moment) I include an example in case it is useful to others (and I would value any critique).
It is for our verandah setup, with 2 bars of 12 hex lights and 4 pars also hex.
Most things happen from TouchOSC.
The idea is that the buttons at the top represent each light, and if the button is On then the sliders will adjust that light. (thanks scarffac3 for showing me about input profiles etc)
The scene buttons trigger corresponding scenes in QLC+ (currently just test versions).
Each of these scenes totally overrides any currently set channels (This was confusing our operators though we may add some additive scenes as we get fancier).
Having chosen a scene you can amend it by the top buttons and sliders
The save and load buttons at the bottom store values in TouchOSC but don't allow fade in / out etc.

Obviously the scenes need to be set up in QLC+ This is the only thing we need to go back to the control room for, the rest can be done from the floor on the same tablet we use for the sound remote control.