Q Light Controller+

I'm creating a budget live show lighting rig for our rock band. I need to program our set to run unattended - I will be triggering each song (show). What's the best approach to program those songs?

- How would I set up tracks best? It's mentioned in documentation that traks are representation of scenes (?) but scenes are basic building blocks for chasers and sequences, so I'm confused...
- Should I use a basic starting scene for every fixture group and then create and manually edit series of new sequences to control this group during the entire song? Or have ~30 tracks for every scene used?
- Is there a quick and convenient way to have a library of pre-made scenes to drop at specific beats in the song, without creating dozens of tracks?
- Can I make a scene/chaser/sequence that will stay on until the next one comes along without having to time each one's duration perfectly until the next one? Can I make the next one crossfade with it?

The rig will consist of 6 back pars, 4 moving head gobos, 2 moving head washes, and 8 side pars. So I need to figure out in the beginning what is the most efficient way to program songs so programming won't take excessive amount of time. Unfortunately it's not very clear from the documentation.

Any advice appreciated. I reviewed capability of many software packages that should work with a cheap USB-DMX interface I've ordered, and QLC+ seems to be most feature-reach and build to program songs like I need, if I only can figure it out.

So I used to do this and ran into these fun issues:

- timing .. always fun live
- set list changes
- broken gear that you don't discover till the last minute

What I came up with is:

- Create sets of scenes based on colors .. I had a launchpad which is 8x8 and defined 2 basic sets of fixtures and then generated 8 color sets per fixture set .. and then mapped them all via the launchpad .. so 1,1 might be Red,Red .. etc.
- You might even take that a step further .. and map your fixture groups into individual scenes ( PAR-R, SR-SPOT-G, PAR-W.. etc ) and then you can use "Collections" to assemble your individual scenes into stage views.
- Create "Specials" on the remaining buttons ( hit, strobe, moving heads .. etc . )

If you're gonna run it from the stage:

- Get a pedal board .. I have a octave board that serves nicely, outputs midi .. which you can then use midi -> USB to ingest into QLC.
- using the grid widget on the virtual console .. setup several "pages" of stage views collections that are mapped to the pedals. (Hint: you can make the first 2 pedals the Page Switch buttons (C, C#), the D the "between shows lights" and D# spot the mic .. and i make far right (High C) BLACKOUT)
- As you're playing .. cue the lights using your feet as you move between the A, B, C of the song.

You can crossfade between scenes via config.

To do it via Timing .. your drummer would have to have a click track. You can record one and use it as the basis for QLC and put it in the drummers in-ears.

Our drummer does play with the click, coming from my synth for every song. So my idea is for me to tap a Show start when he clicks his sticks for us to cue us in. That was I could program the whole song for every song. Timing should be perfect IF QLC+ keeps timing OK. If it drifts a little bit It's not too bad. The Show should end on the between-songs-scene, then I cue next song an tap it in when drummer clicks us in (click track in his IEM)

Then you wanna check out how to use the Shows function in QLC+. I did a quick youtube search and didn't find anything in english but here's the steps i've used
1. create your scenes for a song..again might be easier to setup colors and such per fixture ( so you can copy them around ) and then assemble the fixture sets using collections for each scene. I label the scenes as {2 digit song}.{2 digit sequence} .. so "01.01-Opening Solo", "04.07-Bridge". I label the Folders as 01-YYZ 02-Barney Song, etc..
2. get a recording of each song you want to setup
3. under Shows, click the clickboard .. add the name for a song
4. Add your song to a track so you have a timing basis to work from
5. click the + and add your scenes at the timings you want that match the song. This is where playing the song is very helpful
- you can have multiple tracks of lights to make it easier to manage different sets of lights/scenes/specials etc.
6. Once you have all your songs as individual "Shows" open the Virtual Console.
- click the Red Grouping box to make a solo frame
- click inside it and then click the Matrix button to make enough buttons for your shows in what ever fashion you want.
- click each button and add the show as a function ( you may have to check it specifically in the selection box )
- add a button for testing the lights pre-show
- add a button for between songs
- I add a button for between songs-announcements
- add a button for pre-show and post-show
7. When you run .. you can then select each show independently.. and start them right from the run console.. and then

Hope this helps

Thanks. Yes, that's what I had in mind too. One problem is that from what I can see so far, as soon as I add scene to track in Show, it disappears from scene list and becomes a track. So I can't re-use that scene for later in the same song or another song. I would have to do a new scene and new track for it. Which is weird. Also, collections can't be triggered in a track.

So far it seems that I have to put scene (or multiple scenes) in a chaser, set to play once, than I can use and reuse chasers on a Show track. It doen't seem like what chasers are supposed to be for. That's the only way I can see that scenes aren't disappearing and can be reused later (or rather those chases would be reused). Not sure it's the right way though...

Just a thought, but I would recommend something more flexible that isn't necessarily tied to the exact timing and structure of each song, especially starting off. KISS applies heavily here. I would just try to make some scenes/sequences that look cool, and trigger them for the different sections of each song (foot pedal recommendation is good). Have some chill looks, some high energy looks, and some static or dark looks for in-between songs. Play with it during practice and see what you like etc. This will be much easier to get up off the ground, and you will be able to adapt in real time if anything goes differently than you had planned. It also allows get more complex over time as opposed to doing it all right from the beginning, easier to make changes to stuff you don't end up liking as well.

Just my 2 cents,
-Andrew

Does anyone know why scenes are deleted as Roman explains above? I experienced the same and it feels like a bug.