Q Light Controller+

Hello QLC + !

My name's Tony, I'm using QLC + to light some burlesque show in the south of France since 2022.

I have a question regarding a new acquisition of mine : an Akai APC Mini.

The way i've been operating right now is programming a bunch of chasers for our show, and using midi cues send from Reaper to synchronise our light and basically simplify my life (as I'm the only tech guy).



I need to operate more lights, and to do so I've got myself and Akai APC Mini MKII (The one with 9 sliders and 64 pads buttons), but now I have problems :

- I can only have one virtual console page up at the time ? Which means it is impossible for me to have a virtual console with slider on a side and another one with the chaser ?

- Can I only set one midi Input really ? The minute I set the Akai as my Input, I lose all "next step cue" midi ref on QLC+, and my chasers cannot really operate with the Midi cue coming from Reaper.

- Maybe by launching 2 instance of QLC+ at the same time I can do stuff like that ? (one with page set on the chasers + LoopMidi in IN and another instance of the software with the sliders and button + Akai set as the MIDI ?)

Sorry if my english isn't perfect and thanks for taking time to help !

The first step is to use separate universes for:
1. your Fixtures.
2. your Loopmidi interface to Reaper.
3. your Akai APC Midi.

That way QLC can distinguish which MIDI source it receives data from (and should send feedback to).
Be aware that when you change the universe of your LoopMidi, you have to change all the External Controllers you have set up.

Next i would advise you to use Input Profiles for your 2 Midi inputs.
As long as you only use the Autodetect option you can do without, but when your workspace becomes bigger the descriptions in the profiles make it easier to understand which external Controllers you are using.

It seems to me that you only use one chaser at a time (for each act/song), so you could use a multi page frame with one cue list per page.
That way you can create yourself space on your VC (for the sliders and buttons of your APC Mini).

Thanks for your answer.
I'd like to understand, what do you mean by using multiple universe ? Does universe 1 and universe 2 can send at the send DMX adresses with 2 different inputs ? Do I need extra gear ?
I'm using a Laptop with a Entec DMX PRO and most of the time, my light are just daisy chained front & back then send to a dmx splitter.

So, I fooled around last night and found MIDI-OX which allowed me to route both my loop midi "IN" and my "Akai" to a single midi output and it kinda worked at first !

But my problem now was the channel used in the midi setting : Reaper only allow me to send from a certain range of channel (with thankfully, some of them are not taken by the Akai MPK).

It took me a long time but a figured which "notes" were left in my Reaper midi cues that I could use as trigger not already taken by the Akai channel.



This isn't as optimal as I wish because, I only have around 45 notes available (for 45 different chaser). I can always use chasers on multiple pages..

If you read the on-line manual of the Input Output manager "(https://docs.qlcplus.org/v4/input-output), you will find:
"Each QLC+ universe can map a single input, a single output and a single feedback line.

So you should set up:
- universe 1 to send DMX Output to your Enttec DMX PRO. The Fixtures that are connected to your Enttec need to be in this universe.
- universe 2 to receive MIDI from (and send Feedback to) your Loopmidi interface to Reaper.
- universe 3 to receive MIDI from (and send Feedback to) your Akai APC Mini.

To keep things simple connect your Akai APC mini directly to the USB port of the PC you run QLC on.

I've managed to set it up with the 3 universe, it's actually incredible. Thank you !

(psst: TopTip: create input profiles - this makes your debugging task a lot easier later on - it needs the extra mile of workload, but thank me later)