Chuck Van Eekelen

Let me see if I can clarify things a little bit more.

The Obey6 is a (duh) 6-channel controller. The channels are labelled RGBAWU, but -as said before- this just means that there are 6 channels that run 0-255 levels based on either preset programs or (in manual RGBAWU mode) fader positions.

It also supports 6 (groups of) fixtures (fixtures 1 thru 6). Each group has a starting address that is the previous one +6, so 001 – 007 – 013 – 019 – 025 – 031. By pressing each button you decide if the control commands you are giving affect that (group of) fixtures or not. You can select any combination of fixtures. For each (group of) fixtures the control faders could do something else (depending on the fixture).

Let’s take the 2nd set of cans (another 4x … etx.) and set ALL of them to address 001. They will now all do the same thing (this is common DMX practice if you don’t need indiviual fixture control).
According to the specs this is the channel assignment (they are 6-channel mode):

Ch1 Dimmer
Ch2 RED
Ch3 GREEN
Ch4 BLUE
Ch5 Programs:
001-100 7-color jump
101-150 7-color gradient
151-200 7-color changing
201-255 7-color changing voice (assuming voice activated)
Ch6 Strobe light and ch5 velocity (guessing channel 5 not 0 then velocity, channel 5=0 then strobe speed)

The fader marked RED on the controller (ch1) will control the master dimmer of the fixtures)
The fader marked GREEN will control ch2 RED
And so on.

With just these 4 lights hooked up and only fixtures 1 lit, all set to 001 address see if you can make things work using the 6 faders in manual mode. As long as you set channel 1 up (at 0 dimmer is in blackout setting), faders 2-4 should control the RGB colors, fader 5 should cycle through the 7-color jump/gradient/changing and changing voice, each at about 1/4 of the fader distance. Finally with fader 2-5 closed and 6 up you should have strobing.

If this works, you can now return all faders to 0 (blackout) and press fixtures 1 again (light will go off).
Now hook up your beamz uv lights. Set both to 007 start address.

If I found the right manual, these fixtures are 8-channel. This means only the first 6 are available!
Ch1 Dimmer
Ch2 RED
Ch3 GREEN
Ch4 BLUE
Ch5 WHITE
Ch6 Strobe (speed)

Now press the fixtures 2 button, open fader 1 (master dimmer) halfway, check if fader 2-4 do RGB, fader 5 white and fader 6 strobe speed. If this works, set everything to black again (all faders 0) and press fixtures 2 again to deselect.

Repeat this for the 2nd set of 4 cans with starting address set to 013 to be selected by fixtures 3. Have to look for channel designation yourself, couldn’t find online manual for them. Perhaps it was in the box. Again, the first channels are available with faders 1-6 controlling them. If a fixture has less channels, then some faders will just not affect anything. (example 4-channel fixture = faders 1-4 active, faders 5-6 inoperable).

Repat for single Xmas light, set to address 19 and selectable with fixtures 4.

In DMX, fixtures will keep their current settings until new control signals are received. So you can set fixtures one, then switch to fixtures 2 (switching 1 off) and set those, then the same for 3 and 4. Each previous (group of) fixtures will keep doing what you set it to.

If you are lucky the other 5 fixtures will also have RGB on 2-4 and maybe dimmer on 1. Now you can try out things like sound activated (through controller), same as strobe and such. Some color mixes might work as well.

If the other 5 fixtures don’t have RGB on 2-4, you will get different colors on those if you use presets or select all fixtures and move a color fader. Let’s say the one fixture has RGB on 1-3. You have all fixtures selected and move up fader 1, this will be master dimmer for fixtures 1 and 2, but RED for fixture 4. Moving fader 2 up will give you RED on fixtures 1 and 2 and GREEN on fixture 4. Well, you’ll get the idea.

Try this and you should have a somewhat workable setup. Can’t tell you exactly which automatic presets will give proper results. Trial and error there.

On a side note:

I understand your frustration, although I do think you expect a bit much when buying no-budget fixtures.
What I don’t agree with is your comparison of Midi (GM) and DMX. As I explained there are only 512 DMX addresses available in a single universe (making more universes requires expensive extra gear). You won’t to use as few as necessary.

Let’s say the industry would decide on the following channel standard channel assignment:
01 RED
02 GREEN
03 BLUE
04 AMBER
05 WHITE
06 COOL WHITE
07 WARM WHITE
08 UV
09 DIMMER
10 STROBE
11 PROGRAMS
12 SOUND ACTIVE
13 TILT (moving heads and such)
14 SWIVEL
15 PAN
16 ZOOM
17 GOBO
… and many, many more features that need control.

Let’s say the above is the standard. That would mean that you would need to skip 17 addresses for every (group of) fixture, even if only 4 features (RGB and Strobe) are active. Not only that, every controller would have to be 17-channel with 17 faders. Otherwise you can’t control each feature.

I am sure that you can appreciate that 17 is really a low number (especially considering that lasers, moonflowers, fazers, hazers, smoke machine, bubble machines and a host of other devices can be DMX controlled and might need channels for certain things. And that would mean if you had only a hand full of different fixtures, you’d still need a VERY extensive controller to be sure you could run all features. Not to mention having to know what each fader does.

DMX is NOT an amateur protocol. It is very stable, very flexible and the mainstay of every single venue, festival, theater and other lightshow and FX environment. And it does all that with a relatively simple and dependable methodology.

I hope you can follow the steps I outlined and get a handle on the way DMX works in your particular case. Once you grasp the basics behind DMX, you might appreciate it a bit more. If you have the channel assignments for the 4 other pars and the one single one, you can post them here if you like and need explanation on anything.

Hope you read my earlier replies where I tried to describe the way DMX works (to some extent).

First of all, DMX addressing (or rather channel assignment!) will never be standardized. Without going into too much (technical and commercial) detail here, it just is not a feasible option as there are just too many different fixtures with too many different features. Besides, in effect, DMX IS standardized. In it’s simplest (one universe) form it consists of 512 addresses (001-512).

YOU can freely set the STARTING address for your fixture. Hence there is no need for the manufacturer to “document” the DMX address of the unit.

Then there are several channels available. Most fixtures will have several channel modes available. Like 3-channel, 5-channel, 6-channel, etx. Again, YOU can set the mode you wish to use, based on the functionality you want to be able to control over DMX.

Each channel will control a certain feature, like colors (RGBW WW A), master, pre-programmed fades, strobing, sound reactive. Let’s say for example an RGB fixture might have a 3-channel mode that lets you control R (channel 1), G (channel 2) and B (channel 3) without a master or anything else. If this were your first fixture, you’d set it to channel 1 and it would use DMX addresses 001-003, 1 for each channel.

Now let’s say you have a second fixture that is RGBW and has a 5-channel mode that you want to use. It would have 4 channels for the three colors plus white and a 5th for master. You’d set the starting address to 004 (as 001-003 are occupied by your first and the channel mode to 5CH. Now addresses 004-008 will control those 5 parameters.

DMX is designed for large and highly specialized lighting rigs. Buy using multiple universes you can have many time 512 addresses. It wasn’t made for a 4 fixture DJ or band setup. Often in the lowest channel mode the colors are on the first channels and generally in the RGB order.

A professional lighting desk is like a DJ controller in that it can be programmed to deal with whatever fixtures you have. So, you’d tell the desk what fixtures use what addresses for what parameters. Once set properly, all fixtures will receive the correct command for R G B and whatever other shared options (like blind and strobe for example) there are.

Nowadays there are plenty of PC/Mac and even iPad based solutions that allow you to have software-driven DMX solutions. Both with or without a (simple) midi-controller you can then set everything (only once if it’s your own gear) correctly and have your RGB faders, perhaps master and some others you might like at your disposal. Same goes for the DMX addresses, the fixtures will remember this, so next gig, just put everything where you want it, turn on the power, hook up DMX and off you go.

If you had bought only Chauvet lighting gear, chances are fair that each fixture would have had a mode that is compatible with THEIR DMX controller. Unfortunately for you, other manufacturers don’t care what Chauvet does (as Chauvet doesn’t care the other way around). Settings things properly (and there are some options to group devices and a few other tricks), you might be able to get RGB plus master working, but that would indeed take some reading up, trial and error.

I’d consider something like the Visual Productions Cuety. It comes with a small hardware box that wirelessly connects to your iPad and lets you plug in your DMX cable. You can now set and control all your fixtures (it has a massive database with fixture mappings so no need to figure stuff out yourself). I believe it even has an iPhone remote app so you can do the most basic changes from your phone. At 285 euro it’s not cheap, but there aren’t too many cheaper options around, especially not with this feature set.

As for the terminator, I doubt that will make a difference. Really only necessary when handling long cable runs and large numbers of fixtures on one daisy-chain.

Finally, you can find channel modes and their channel designations online for just about every fixture. Not knowing before you buy does not have to happen.

This won’t do much to alleviate your problem/situation, but I do hope it offers some insight into why things are the way they are and won’t be changing.

DMX just isn’t plug and play, it requires some knowledge and preparation.

You’ll need to cover your gear anyway, most laptop screens are unreadable in high (sun)light environments. Also DJ gear being in full sunlight can suffer from overheating.

When I do outdoor events I either bring my own (dark grey) E-Z UP tent or will be under a (darker) umbrella or something to keep visibility of my gear. Not only the laptop, but also lights on controllers become hard to see when out in the full sun.

At least that is my experience.

I have had 15″ retina screens on both my (used) MBPs thusfar and have to say that the combination of a larger screen with the very crisp, sharp image it gives means I can have enough information on screen while still be able to read it. My eyes need glasses, so a 13″ would be too small for me retina or not. 17″ is nice but just too big. So for me the 15″ retina is the best option.

Hard to advise, because you own the budget and have to figure out what features are most important to you.

That doesn’t mean you did a good job though 😛

Such a pity you have ordered the XDJ1000s already. Could have sold your 400s, added that money to your XDJ1000 budget and gone for the Prime series by Denon. That is as close as you will get to playing on a controller in the form factor of media players with a mixer. The Prime X1800 mixer is actually a lot cheaper than the DJM900NX2.

Yes, you will say, but I would only have two decks! Not quite, the SC5000 players feature (amongst a lot of other awesome features like the absolute industry-best elastic audio so you can go up/down 100% in speed without any noticable audio problems) a dual layer option. For that reason the players have dual soundcards, so you can hook two players up to the mixer and have 4 faders like you would on a controller.

Some big names have already made the jump, from Paul Oakenfold to Laid Back Luke (watch his blog to seem him demonstrate the dual layer option) and from Oliver Helden to Tiesto, just to name a few.

So for about 5.100 euro (prices here) you’d have two SC5000s and an X-1800 vs a two XDJ-1000/DJM900NX2 setup for 4.900.

Those 200 extra will get you a set that is so much sweeter …

I saw, touched and played with this stuff at the DanceFair a month ago and you have to experience it to understand what this gear is like.

Back on-topic: the Denon X-1800 mixer I HAVE heard and it sounds totally fabulous, right up there with the best things on the market.

Didn’t want to add to your pre-decision stress levels, but had to share this.

Frankly, I had the DDJ-SX and while it’s a nice controller, I don’t like the way the mics are implemented, making it less than stellar for mobile gigs, imho. My new MCX8000 is much better that way, like the MC6000 was when it came out.

Also the SX has no way of attaching your iPad (if you are using the iOS version of DJay Pro).

The Mixon is clearly made as more of a hybrid unit and definitely made to work with Djay, working with both tablets and regular laptops. It too lacks a good way of integrating the mic, although if you set the mic volume correctly and use a mic with an on/off switch, you’d probably have more fun with that than with the SX.
Also the jogs on the Mixon are typically reloop, which mean low. This is a personal choice, so be sure to try it before you buy it. Personally I like the higher jogs, but I know co-moderator Terry has used Reloop for many many years.

Another difference between the two is that the Mixon is not a standalone mixer. This can be solved by adding a small PA mixer (like the Yamaha MG06 or even the AG03), which would also take (better) care of your mic needs.

You know already I will tell you it’s a highly personal choice.

Based on price, options and full commitment to Algoriddim, the Mixon would probably be my choice, with the addition of a small PA mixer. I could drop the PA mixer doing my house stuff privately and just add it for my gigs on the road. The slot holds both regular and pro iPads if I am not mistaken, so that’s a bonus as it will let you charge your iPad while playing. If you are using a Mac-based version of DJay Pro, then that is not a concern of course. But always good to have the option of just heading out with your controller and iPad for a small party somewhere.

Sound quality is a tricky thing to comment on. There is a difference between quality (should be able to be determined somewhat scientifically) and sound (coloration of sound, which is a personal preference).

I have always enjoyed the quality of the Denon mixers I have had. The Pioneer mixers never really impressed me in that respect. Again, personal preference, no scientific basis.