BCF and keyboard control?

[JeffHague]

Hi all! Ive been watching the forums a bit but this is my first post - I hope you can help!
Ive been a sound guy for decades and have never done much with lighting until this latest project. I am in charge of all production for a rock and roll band - currently in clubs but about to start stepping it up.
When I started I was tasked with putting together sound and lights and for lighting this is what I came up with:

10 DMX LED wide angle par64 type cans
16 DMX LED tight angle splash type cans
2 DMX Mayhem kind of rotary, multi color things
1 DMX Dekker multi color star light kind of thing
1 DMX RBY laser
8 300 watt par56s (face lights)
16 pin spots
4 multi color beam kind of light things
The non DMX fixtures are run by two 4 channel DMX dimmer packs

In order to manage that many DMX channels I went with Freestyler on a laptop and an Enttec Pro USB>DMX dongle. I was also lucky to find someone who had never really run lights but is a bass player so has good rhythm.

This setup has worked really well but there are some limitations that we have been thinking a hardware controller would solve. We have been looking at things like the Chauvet StageDesigner50 and the Elation Pro but I think the inflexibility in being able to assign specific DMX outputs to faders or buttons will really limit what we will be able to do.

Then I remembered seeing threads about using a midi controller like the BCF2000 with Freestyler and that has brought up a few questions:

Can I pretty much assign any control element on the BCF to any sequence, scene, submaster, etc. within Freestyler?
Can I use both keyboard shortcuts and the BCF? Id like to keep some of the show working the way it does currently from the keyboard but move some fixtures to the BCF.

Thanks for any help!

[JeffHague]

PS - forgot a question in my first post...
Is there a way to set the faders up as "banks"? ie - In bank A they faders control the laser, hit a button to switch to bank B and now the faders control the dimmer packs, for instance?
Thanks again!

[Spirit]

hi

Fiest of all here a list with all the Buttons / slider you can use with a Midicontroller or keyboard.
Second, yes you can use a Midi controller and keyboard at the same time.

Can I pretty much assign any control element on the BCF to any sequence, scene, submaster, etc. within Freestyler?

You can find it on the list.
But yes you can controll Play/Stop or Toggle Sequence 1~20
you can Use all the controlls for submasters, Run, Stop, back, Go , Inensitie sliders, Submaster tabs.
Sequences speed, Master speed, Master intensitie, Groups, Midi pages,

PS - forgot a question in my first post...
Is there a way to set the faders up as "banks"? ie - In bank A they faders control the laser, hit a button to switch to bank B and now the faders control the dimmer packs, for instance?
Thanks again!

Not realy how you say it but you can Controll the channels.
Like , Intensitie, Pan, tilt, shutter, gobo , color, R, G, B, And many more.

But you need to Select a Fixture before you can controll it with the controls i wrote above..

/spirit

[Spirit]

sorry here a list with all the keyboard and midi controlls you can use.
http://www.freestylersupport.com/wiki/e ... l_commands

[JeffHague]

Thanks for the quick reply! Im going to order the BCF today and see what happens.