Q Light Controller+

I want to order a new macbook for using QLC+ wich will be driven by a MIDI controller and send signals to an USB-DMX box(Enttec). I would like to know what kind of pc or mac other users are using. Mostly out of a performance perspective. I would like to know the cpu and memory that is in the machine so I have an idea about what hardware is good enough to run QLC+ on for live performances.

Thanks,
Joep

If I may suggest. Use Linux !
Spend around 300€ for an Intel i3 laptop instead of around 1000€ for an Apple product. 2GB of memory are enough. USB 2.0 ports are enough too.

Regardless a lot of peoples view on Apple - a MacBook Pro is excellent ... maybe expensive but never the less excellent..

When it comes to Q Light + and DMX - the I/O is ZERO ... not really zero but the amount of processing power needed is next to nothing on ANY recent hardware...

So I would agree that if you intend to use at brand new MacBook pro for QLC+ alone - and not for anything else - it is overkill big time - but so is a €300 linux - at least when it comes to power needed compared to available processing power

Indeed a MacBook is excellent...if you have to use Photoshop or ProTools.
One of my goals (apart for delivering a free product) is to keep the processing power needed as lower as possible.
I personally have an i5 laptop and it's already too much for QLC+ itself. Sometimes it's even difficult for me to understand how much CPU QLC+ is consuming, cause it goes below 10%.

My consideration is just money-oriented. Why shooting a fly with a nuclear cannon if you can get the same result with a newspaper ?

Agreed - regardless what hardware you buy now it will be more than enough if the sole purpose i QLC+...

Personally I have a very nice 17in Macbook Pro Early 2011, 2,4ghz i7 - with 16 gb ram and 2 x 1TB hdd (one of them is SSD)... But then again I use it for everything. Office, Final Cut Pro X Video editing , Photoshop, VMware fusion, 32 tracks recording and mixing (Studio One Pro) and hundreds of other applications - and of cause QLC+... LOVE IT and above all I have never in my life spent so little time keeping things in shape. Do not dare to think how slow a similar windows machine would be by now if I had treated it the same way.

Thanks.

Actually I am very familiar with Linux and use it a lot.
But I'd like to use a Macbook because I love the hardware construction. We are going to use QLC+ on for a drive-in show so I'd like a laptop that feels solid.

I got a little concerned about performance because when I run a movement efx and look at the simple desk view, one cpu is running at 100% on my test machine. My test machine is a MacBook Air with an i7 processor. Is this normal?

No, 100% CPU usage is certainly not normal. There's something not right going on there. You can run QLC+ on a 10 year old laptop or a little netbook with no problem at all as I can testify. Personally, I'd rather take along two old laptops/netbooks to a show than one expensive new one, whatever image of toughness it claims to present (and that certainly isn't the case when it comes to cable strain relief, where Apple threw away the tried and tested design for something that looks prettier but doesn't work as well). The more expensive it is the more tempting to thieves it will be, too. But you pays your money and Massimo etc have been kind enough to enable you to take your choice.

If the Enttec box you are getting is the Open DMX I would not recommend that because I think it is just an FTDI serial port (available for about £10 in plastic without XLR sockets), which has a buffer smaller than a DMX frame so has to be fed with bytes continuously. In my (Linux) and I think Massimo's experience, this is not entirely reliable and lights will flicker occasionally. Its reliability does not seem to depend noticeably on the power of the laptop. Maybe MacOS has some magic sauce which provides better scheduling though.

Instead, I bought an [Anyma-based one](http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/400454335256) (uDMX), which contains its own microprocessor so does not rely on timely input from the laptop to keep the data flowing. These often claim to be isolated too, which they are not - there is an opto-isolator for the signal but that is rendered completely pointless by there being no isolation for the power. To their credit, the seller linked to removed the claim of isolation after I complained to them. If you're handy with a soldering iron you can add a tiny DC-DC converter to make it isolated yourself. This will help to protect you and your cheap laptop or expensive Macbook if one of the lamps has an electrical fault, but it will also make communication more reliable if your laptop is earthed and is running on a different mains phase from the lights. (You can buy or build isolated DMX repeaters to cope with different mains phases, which can definitely give you problems.)

Thanks that's very useful information.

I would recommend using an Artnet device like Enttec's ODE, you can use multiple controllers on the same device. You can have multiple instances of QLC running on multiple computers with only 1 piece of hardware. However, make sure you have it on a separate network or at least a network that is not very busy. It generates a lot of traffic.