Hi to all,

I'm new to DMXControl 3 and never used former versions of the program. I'm new to light control any way...

I managed to set up a theater/music show in DMXControl to drive backlights, frontlight and venue light overall with total of around 22 fixtures in a single cuelist. Not a BIG deal, but to start with this is an interesting experience, for me.

The show does not need more than that any way. The cuelist counts now 54 cues and will be expanded to around 65-70 cues.

My problem is that I also have to manage the sound console ... and I have only 2 hands, like all of us.

I thought to connect my Behringer X32 (which supports midi in/out, cues and scenes, almost identical to what exists in DMXControl 3) and the 'GO'-button on the console via midi to DMXControl running through the cuelist.

I think I got it wright at the Behringer side (each cue can send a dedicated or identical midi command. But I still miss the connection cable between the mixer and my PC (ordered, not yet delivered) and at this point I cannot do any test. I the meantime I try to figger out how the setup in DMXControl 3 works, but I'm confused concerning that setup of midi at the DMXControl 3 side.

I don't understand how the incoming midi data will be translated to a command like 'GO'. Using IA? But I see no midi-references there.

In IA I can make it work for a keyboard, ie 'RETURN' or 'ENTER' activates the 'GO' on my cuelist and the 'BACK'-button activates the 'BACK' on the cuelist. That works fine. I also know how to activate and deactivate this behavior. Great stuff!!

But I don't see references for midi, unfortunately. I imagine it must be possible. I'm on a dead end...

Can somebody help me out, please? Making this to work properly would be a big thing and more relaxed working during the shows.

Thanks for any help.

Hi JP,

Thank you so much for this guide on midi interfacing in DMXControl3.

I did the setup partly up to the learning part and it works fine.

I expect the midi cable to be delivered today. I do an update here once I completed this setup and got it working or not.

I hopefully get it working since the gigs are coming up at 11, 12 & 13 of november 2021. I only need 1 button for 'GO', eventually a second for 'BACK'.

Thank you too for the information about the near or distance future of the midi implementation in DMXControl3. Reconfiguring mdi will not be a big problem.

Great job you're all doing with DMXControl. I love it!

I'l keep you informed about this setup.

I connected the midi device upon reception and it set itself up in Windows 10 (prodipe MIDI USB 1 IN / 1 OUT - bought at Thomann).

After the setup finished I started DMXControl3.

I completed the setup in DMXControl3 as you described but nothing happens in the CUELIST in DMXControl3.

These screenshots show you the setup:

In learn mode, I get immediately data drom X32 when I press the GO-key on the X32. I suppose the midi connection is operational at that point.

But the cue in DMXControl3 is not making progress when pressing the GO-key on the X32.

I must have done something wrong...

So I deleted everything in de midi setup and the IA and started over ... the exact same result.

Should I check the midi setup in my X32?

More information on this issue.

I made some traces from the midi messages that the PC receives from the X32.

First situation is when the midi settings for each cue change is set to 'off', this means that no additional midi message is send when changing from cue to cue.

This shows the settings as they were for all cues on the X32, but now only for the first line since I tried other settings (see lower):

This is how the midi monitor looks when running thru the cuelist. On each 'GO' hit on the X32, 2 line are send over midi:

The first midi message is generated when restarting the cue list from a random point in the list to the top of the list. Remember: these messages go by pair (2 line for 1 action)

As you can sse too. The second line of each pair contains as DATA an incremental number by 1, starting from 0. This refers to the line number in the cue list.

The first line of a pair is a unclear to me.

When I set on the X32 'off' to 'Control Change' (CC) in stead of 'Off'. The monitor shows this behaviour:

An additional midi message is send, in a static format and on a the same channel.

Is it possible to detect this?

I tried to change the learned message in DMXControl 3, but I can't make it work at all.

I need some assistance on this.

I'm sure now that the midi link works OK, and I know now too what X32 is sending out. It's only a matter of configuring DMXControl 3 to intercept the midi communication.

I'm almost there...

OK. I already tried this, but it makes no difference. The only way I could make it work ONCE was to change the 'value' field in the rule to 1. After that, it worked just 1 time. This behavior is already described in other posts about midi issues, but I could not find any solution at this behavior.

I send you another couple of screenshots that show the current midi settings per cue on the X32 (all identical for all cues) and the configuration of the rule in DMXControl 3. But I am not sure if what I'm doing in DMXControl 3 is correct or in line with the settings in X32. I can confirm that the 3rd midi message is in this case consistant channel 1:"B0 00 01" (see also the midi monitor).

Hi Stefan,

I see what you mean about the 127 value. But, the X32 is sending other messages over midi than JPK's Kontrol F1 (midi monitor screenshots). It makes no sense to put in values that are not send out bij the X32. That is why I send also a screenshot of the midi monitor that shows the hex-code of the midi messages. 'BO' = 176, ie. as message id., followed by '00' and '01' as data1 and data2.

No, I did not try note. But, I did now. This generates 2 extra midi messages, one with id "90", the next with id "80" (both hex-code) and data1=00, data2=01. But it does not work either.

There is also an issue with the learning process for rules.

This is the same action on the X32 console seen from the midi monitor and interpreted by the learning process of rules:

As you can see, the learning process confuses different messages for the 'Disablemessage' control type. It sees message 192 on channel 3. In reality it is channel 1. Or istcould be message 194 on channel 3 in stead of 192...

This is very confusing and I don't understand the mechanisme of this learning process. There should be coherence between what the midi monitor shows me and what the learning process result is. But it is not. Can someone clarify how this works?

And perhaps even more important: how DMXControl 3 intercepts and interprets midi messages?

I also read post "EIN MIDI KEYBOARD ZUM STEUERN" of BB_BOOM about similar problems. I tried to apply the solution that worked for him, but without succes. I modified the rule variables manually like he did, but it does not work. I'm wondering if DMXControl 3 is capable of detecting midi messages that are 3rd or 4th in line in a bunch of maximum 4 messages. Each hit of the GO-button on the X32 sends 2 midi messages (off) , 3 (program change & control change) or 4 (note), depending on the settings on X32.

Quote from LightningBrothers

Hmm... Okay. Usually, the origin of the values should does not matter. In the past, I always brought my MIDI device to a configuration, that is easy to handle in DMXControl 3. That includes for example the point "Note" for buttons.

While typing this message: did you change until now one time the value for the field value, which is shown in your last screenshot? Maybe this is the related value to Data 2 in DMXControl 3. What happens, when you change them to 127? The point is: DMXControl 3 rescale the incomming values from the range 0 to 127 to the range 0 to 1. So maybe DMXControl 3 works also with the current configuration but you can't see the change. The cuelist want to receive a 1, that they trigger the next cue. Otherwise you can add a Binary Switcher Node between the MIDI input and the cuelist node and set the switch threshold a bit below to 1/127 = 0,007874 - so maybe 0,005 could be a good value in the properties of the node.

Any more ideas I don't have for the moment unfortunately, especially without any direct access to the software and the sound console.

OK. I've been away for a recording session...

This explanation confuses me a bit and I'm not sure to understand 100% what you try to explain. Do you want me to put 127 in stead of 1 into the value field? Or put 127 as value in the midi message?

Well I did change the midi messages in many ways, but nothing works. I'm still missing the good understanding how DMXControl 3 interprets the midi messages and I'm still confused about the learning process and why it is mixing up multiple midi messages.

About the Binary Switcher Node: it is already there. It was added automatically when I created the link in IA. You can see this in this screenshot: Setting the switch threshold to 0.005 does not make thing work neither.

I also read post "MIDI message to press the GO button" from 2020. But also that solution does not work for my case.

OK.I re-thought the whole situation and I suddenly realized that the X32 is a pretty advanced implementation of midi, included OSC and that perhaps the settings of the midi interface needed te be reviewed.

So, I did. I switched off every specific setting, so I was left with the setting for the correct midi interface, no more, no less. All other check boxes were off. And that made the big difference.

I defined for every cue one same note, applied the learn process within DMXControl 3 and ... tada ... it works.

General midi settings on X32:

Midi settings for a cue in cuelist:

Rule settings after learn process in DMXControl 3.2.2:

I can go on now and build the complete cue-list for the show in DMXControl and in X32.

During the show I only have to hit the 'GO' button on the X32 and all mutes/unmutes will be set and the lighting will change accordingly. I can then completely focus on the sound and performance of the actors and musicians.

A big releaf ... and perhaps other people will also learn something out of this.

Thank you for everyone that helped me out.

For me: case closed.

Now I have build the entire show in DMXControl 3.2.2 in 1 cue list containing 92 cues, which works fine for the purpose.

But I still got issues when using the 'GO' button on the X32. It works for about 93% of the hits on the 'GO' button of the X32, meaning that in 7% a hit on the 'GO' button does not trigger the GO in DMXControl3. And on every test cycle through the cue list, it is always on another cue that the problem occurs. I even had it stuck for 3 hits in a row once and then went on on the 4th hit.

This is very tricky to use on a live show since a mis hit will cause a misalignment between audio and light.

I can confirm that the problem is not induced on the X32 because I also tested the midi reception on the laptop with DMXControl3 and I can see every hit of the 'GO' button with consistent data via a midi monitor. Every hit on the X32 is thus translated to midi message and is well received on the laptop. It seems as if DMXControl3 misses some midi messages for some reason.

Any idea's?

Suggestion: is it possible to integrate a midi logger (or monitor) into DMXcontrol (on/off) in order te be able to visualise what DMXControl detects (what is happening with midi in and out)? Perhaps an added value in the next midi development?

Finally, I got it all working without any flaw.

This is the setup of the control area with the X32 mixer, 2 laptops, 1 extra screen, the midi connection and the dmx controller.

All this needs to be controled by one person (me...):

Schematics control area.pdf

Remarks: I had to split the DMXControl GUI from the DMXControl Kernel to have no errors any more in the workflow. I suppose that the load on the old Dell 5500 was too much at some random moments.

With this setup I can keep an eye on the progress of DMXControl 3 although I had no problems anymore yesterday and today on deep testing.

The second Laptop (Dell Ivan) sends the DMX commands out, records 25 multitrack from the X32 and via a second display I can also keep up with the scenario.

I know, much to do, but I can manage this thanks to the effort I put into making the midi work and the split setup of DMXcontrol over a dedicated network connection (I had the router available anyway for remote control of the X32 in my flightcase).

About my suggestion for a midi logger in the previous post: I think it is still valuable, but I managed to configure the 'Midiview' app in a way that it sits between the midi interface and DMXControl without disturbing anything (only for debugging reasons). I could observe that DMXControl effectively, at some random moments, misses a midi note message. I could never determine with certainty what was the cause. As I said, I think this old laptop, running on windows 10, may be having performance issues rather then DMXControl having to blame. Running everything on 1 laptop (Dell Ivan) was no option too since I need 3 screens to get visualise everything I wanted (and eventually intervene when needed).

I hope someone finds this information usefull or not ... I think this feedback has his merits anyway.

Thank you for all the help. I'm happy all works fine.

Sad to say ... but the 3 gigs are suspended again for covid-19 reasons in the local community. The work is done, I'm ready now.