Jukinju
05-20-2013, 10:29 PM
VenueMagic AV
Definitely a worthwhile program to check out if you interested in controlling your lights
from your computer and especially if you're familiar with video editing software or use
Virtual DJ for your music.
I've recently expanded into some new territory doing the sound and light production for
a small mixed martial arts promotion. Realizing that my lighting controller was not going
to cut it I decided to take a look at some DMX software and ended up choosing Venue Magic AV.
The main selling point for me was the Virtual DJ plugin that essentially enables virtual DJ to have
a panel of programmable buttons on the same screen as the music you are playing.
The second selling point was the time line. You build light shows just like you put together a video
in a basic video editing program. Dragging a fixture onto the time line and then adjusting the DMX
levels to your needs.
The program comes with a large database of existing manufacturers and fixtures but if they are not
in there you can easily create your fixture and save it to a user fixture database.
You can create groups of lights and control the levels of those groups. ie You have 16 wash lights
you can make 2 groups called odd and even. Assign the appropriate DMX addresses to each of those
groups and have every second light do something different than the one next to it quite easily.
You can very easily put a light show to a particular song. It has a beat tapper although I haven't quite
got into that part of the program yet.
I've only just scratched the surface of what the program is capable of. Just like any professional software
there is a learning curve but once you know how things are done you can bang out new shows quickly.
There are some tutorial videos available to get you started that are OK. The customer service from Venuemagic
has been great. They have replied back to each of my questions regarding how to use some features of VM
within 24 hours.
Here is a little video of some of the light show I built for FiveStar Fight League. It took about 10 hours
to learn the program and create the following show. However, now that I know how to use the parts of the
program I need I could get this same thing done in 2 hours.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auWx2Nb-dO0
The only glitch that I've had is an occasion where one of the libraries went corrupt. If this happens you just
delete it or drag it onto the desktop and VM will created a new non corrupt library the next time you start it.
Here is a promo video where you can see the lights in the background and how the LED lights
are recorded by the videographer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clbZPlvqbVA
Thanks and have a great day !!!
Definitely a worthwhile program to check out if you interested in controlling your lights
from your computer and especially if you're familiar with video editing software or use
Virtual DJ for your music.
I've recently expanded into some new territory doing the sound and light production for
a small mixed martial arts promotion. Realizing that my lighting controller was not going
to cut it I decided to take a look at some DMX software and ended up choosing Venue Magic AV.
The main selling point for me was the Virtual DJ plugin that essentially enables virtual DJ to have
a panel of programmable buttons on the same screen as the music you are playing.
The second selling point was the time line. You build light shows just like you put together a video
in a basic video editing program. Dragging a fixture onto the time line and then adjusting the DMX
levels to your needs.
The program comes with a large database of existing manufacturers and fixtures but if they are not
in there you can easily create your fixture and save it to a user fixture database.
You can create groups of lights and control the levels of those groups. ie You have 16 wash lights
you can make 2 groups called odd and even. Assign the appropriate DMX addresses to each of those
groups and have every second light do something different than the one next to it quite easily.
You can very easily put a light show to a particular song. It has a beat tapper although I haven't quite
got into that part of the program yet.
I've only just scratched the surface of what the program is capable of. Just like any professional software
there is a learning curve but once you know how things are done you can bang out new shows quickly.
There are some tutorial videos available to get you started that are OK. The customer service from Venuemagic
has been great. They have replied back to each of my questions regarding how to use some features of VM
within 24 hours.
Here is a little video of some of the light show I built for FiveStar Fight League. It took about 10 hours
to learn the program and create the following show. However, now that I know how to use the parts of the
program I need I could get this same thing done in 2 hours.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auWx2Nb-dO0
The only glitch that I've had is an occasion where one of the libraries went corrupt. If this happens you just
delete it or drag it onto the desktop and VM will created a new non corrupt library the next time you start it.
Here is a promo video where you can see the lights in the background and how the LED lights
are recorded by the videographer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clbZPlvqbVA
Thanks and have a great day !!!