Support Forum

I'm new to Freestyler, just looked at it briefly. I'm wondering if I have to use individual light unit profiles, or if it will work without them. I don't need profiles.

Can I just move a slider or assign a number to an individual DMX channel without the software even knowing what fixture I"m using?

I'm considering using this for film/video production work. I'm concerned there may not be profiles for the lights I use. All I need to do is create scenes and then be able to smoothly fade manually to another scene or fade to black. Can I do that with freestyler?

You will need profiles however basic they may be. Fixture Creator is installed with the software and is pretty easy to navigate

Thanks for your response to my question. Are there hi end movie and video lights in the list of profiles? We currently are using Arriflex sky panel 60c and KinoFlo select 30. The Arriflex has a number of different dmx protocols using up to about 16 dmx channels for each protocol. Seems like a lot of profile building for that light. I wonder if there is a better software for me.

I read the suggested Wiki document on DMX associated with this software website. I'm no expert, but I happen to know that despite what that document says, no hardware DMX controller needs a fixture profile to control lights. We have an old American DJ DMX operator 2. I can control lights perfectly and there is no way to even use a fixture profile that I can find in the manual. Granted, I'm not using moving lights although I could with the 2 wheels it has.

The reason we are looking at DMX software is because it's cheaper and better in some ways. Our old ADJ DMX operator 2 can control a lot of DMX channels but it has no master fader. So we got a new 24 DMX channel controller that has a master fader but we are limited to 24 DMX channels. No fixture profiles is needed for either unit. Each cost about $200. But we want both lots of DMX channels and a master fader. Unfortunately $200 plus $200 equals $1,000. That's what would have to spend to get both many channels and a master fader in a hardware DMX controller.

Freestyler looks like the best software for us, but I suspect I will have to build fixture profiles for the lights we use. Probably not a big deal. But if fixture profiles were not required freestyler would probably be a lot easier to use and more people would use it.

The software requires profiles so that the software can operate properly. This is a FREE software so I doubt Raph is gonna rewrite it to save a a little of your time. It is actually very simple to make basic profiles, do it once and be done with it. There are MANY profiles already built and included with the software, yours may already be there.

In a pinch, you can use generic fixture files, you can find them in the freestyler complete fixture files list.

viewtopic.php?f=23&t=4528

they just show up on the side of the screen and you can manually adjust the channels there, It makes programming more like using a hardware DMX controller and not perfect but totally usable especially if you don't have really complicated show.
I too came from using a dmx operator, and Partyman has help me a bunch

If you just need faders then have a look in this post.

viewtopic.php?f=23&t=777

I addition to the 1 to 7 channel fixtures there are also a Generic.zip containing more channels.


/Jan

Thanks for the posts. Using generic fixtures seems easy enough if I don't find my fixtures on the list. This looks like the right software for our purposes. And having help available on this website makes it even better.