Hey all! New to this forum as well as DMX and stage lighting. My question is : I’m currently using Chauvet show express. It’s great and all, and I absolutely LOVE the timeline feature which lets me add music and sync light scenes to it almost as if I’m editing film. However it’s VERY buggy, and I’m having little problems here and there with it with makes it very frustrating. I’m wondering if any of you know a good reliable DMX software, especially one with a timeline where I can just sync up scenes to the music and then press play and enjoy my work! IF not any other way I could do this? I heard using Enttec dmx and ableton might do the trick? I have both a PC and a Mac, and have about 20 lights. 16 moving heads(intimidators) and a few scorpion lasers. Any help is greatly appreciated thank you!

You could do it with Lightkey and Ableton

Take a look at QLC+. It´s open source, no license fees, and so far has proven to be fit for the job I´m throwing at it. Being software, there ARE quirks, but no showstoppers. No limits on supported universes, plays nice with USB interfaces such as the EntTec, but also supports artnet (to which I moved by now) and can directly work with MIDI controllers including customized feedback.

I´m still in the building/developing process, so my words are not final. Basically I´m building a system that can be played like a synth, but triggers lights instead of sounds.

A MIDI sequencer (Bitwig for me, but could be Ableton or something else) at the core of things to give all the goodies most lighting programs don´t have: Sync to Traktor and Maschine, record/edit/quantize/arrange, generative plugins, pattern oriented workflow, clip/track mode, etc.

QLC+ is the MIDI to DMX translator on steroids in this picture and can be as simple or as complex as you want your setup to be. Easy things are easy, complex things are possible.